2017 in Review: The best, worst and weird­est movie moments

We’ve already revealed our top 30 films of the year and our con­trib­u­tors’ per­son­al top 10 lists, but before we look ahead to 2018 we asked our reg­u­lar con­trib­u­tors to reflect on the high and low points from 2017. Is there some­thing you think deserves a men­tion? Let us know @LWLies

Michael Stuhlbarg’s speech to Tim­o­th­ee Cha­la­met at the end of Call Me by Your Name. I wept like a small child. Han­nah Woodhead

When Ryan Gosling seduced Rooney Mara by pass­ing her an ear-but at a bor­ing LA pool par­ty in Song to Song. Or maybe the sushi-mak­ing scene in The Oth­er Side of Hope. Willem Dafoe talk­ing to flamin­gos in The Flori­da Project. The zip-line in Girls Trip. David Jenk­ins

The open­ing scene of Rat Film. Sim­ran Hans

Armie Ham­mer danc­ing in CMBYN. Ele­na Lazic

The dance sequence in CMBYN. Manuela Laz­ic

Michael Stuhlbarg’s breath­tak­ing speech in the clos­ing moments of Call Me by Your Name. James Lux­ford

The cru­ci­fix sequence in the sea in Scorsese’s Silence; Armie Hammer’s danc­ing in CMBYN; Rooney Mara’s heart­break­ing pie-eat­ing scene in A Ghost Sto­ry. Christi­na Newland

In A Qui­et Pas­sion, Ter­ence Davis ages Emi­ly Dick­in­son and her fam­i­ly in front of the view­ers eyes. It’s mas­ter­ful­ly done and one of the most pro­found reminders of how quick­ly time pass­es by I’ve ever seen. Kather­ine McLaughlin

Tom Hardy in cruise con­trol at the end of Dunkirk. Adam Wood­ward

Who­ev­er in the mar­ket­ing depart­ment at Work­ing Title came up with the ​‘Mis­ter Police’ con­cept for The Snow­man​‘s ad cam­paign. HW

Armie Ham­mer – despite appar­ent­ly not deserv­ing a career, he was great in Free Fire and Call Me by Your Name. Or Tiffany Had­dish in Girls Trip – she could be our Car­ole Lom­bard. DJ

Bud­dy Duress. SH

Per­son to Per­son. ML

Sal­ly Hawkins. Absolute­ly incred­i­ble in Maudie and The Shape of Water, and great fun in Padding­ton 2. She deserves a lot more adu­la­tion. JL

Lynn Novick and Ken Burns, for their incred­i­bly com­pre­hen­sive PBS series The Viet­nam War. CN

Jovan­ka Vokovich for her pas­sion­ate part in mak­ing the first hor­ror anthol­o­gy writ­ten and direct­ed sole­ly by women. The film is ded­i­cat­ed to Anto­nia Bird who sad­ly passed away in 2013. KM

Dafne Keen for steal­ing the show from Hugh Jack­man in Logan. AW

The entire dura­tion of A Ghost Sto­ry. HW

In the film Kuso, direct­ed by Fly­ing Lotus, there was a scene where George Clin­ton con­ducts a psy­cho­analy­sis ses­sion with a giant pro­trud­ing anal growth that can talk. That was pret­ty mind expand­ing. DJ

The sunken place in Get Out. SH

Nao­mi Watts and in The Book of Hen­ry. EL

Won­der Woman cross­ing No Man’s Land. ML

“The Sunken Place” in Get Out. JL

I don’t know about mind-expand­ing, but one of the most awe-inspir­ing has to be the air-raid sequence on the beach in Dunkirk. CN

Watch­ing Jairus McLeary and Geth­in Aldous’ intense prison group ther­a­py doc­u­men­tary, The Work. KM

Daniel Day-Lewis’ swan­song. He’s always been astound­ing­ly good, but his per­for­mance in Phan­tom Thread is some­thing else. AW

James Fran­co in The Dis­as­ter Artist. HW

Hen­ry Cav­ill in Jus­tice League. DJ

R‑Patz DIY bleach job in Good Time. SH

Oscar Isaac’s grey­ing hair dur­ing the pro­mo­tion­al tour for The Last Jedi. EL

Rebec­ca Hall in Pro­fes­sor Marston and the Won­der Women. ML

Robert Pat­tin­son in Good Time – nev­er has a hair cut more accu­rate­ly reflect­ed a character’s predica­ment. JL

It’s got­ta be Robert Pattinson’s per­ox­ide blond dye job in Good Time. CN

Every which way Tes­sa Thomp­son wears her hair in Thor: Rag­narok but espe­cial­ly her mighty top knot. KM

Lau­ra Dern’s meringue whip pur­ple rinse in The Last Jedi. AW

Every­one who agreed to be a part of Father Fig­ures, but espe­cial­ly Glenn Close. HW

Bryan Cranston as Zor­don in the new Pow­er Rangers movie. His face is digi­tised – enough so you can see it’s him, but not enough to obscure him from any poten­tial embar­rass­ment. DJ

Sofia Cop­po­la remak­ing The Beguiled but with­out the fun bits. ML

Tom Cruise start­ing and end­ing the Dark Uni­verse in The Mum­my. JL

Baf­fling but also brave and bril­liant: Alexan­der Skars­gaard play­ing a vio­lent, rep­re­hen­si­ble abuser in Big Lit­tle Lies. He’s carv­ing a niche for him­self by under­min­ing his lead­ing man qual­i­ties and play­ing bad, sleazy dudes. It’s great. CN

Col­in Trevor­row being allowed to make The Book of Hen­ry. KM

Brie Lar­son fol­low­ing up her Oscar win with Kong: Skull Island.

The cast­ing of James Cor­den in every ani­mat­ed film going. He must be stopped. HW

Block­buster films being launched as fran­chis­es rather than hav­ing to earn that priv­i­lege. (cf The Mum­my.) DJ

The think piece-ifi­ca­tion of film crit­i­cism. SH

Dis­ney buy­ing out every stu­dio in exis­tence. EL

Pasty-faced lead­ing men, as in Baby Dri­ver and the upcom­ing Ready Play­er One. ML

The declin­ing impor­tance of the direc­tor in big bud­get cin­e­ma. JL

Wide­spread sex­u­al assault in the film indus­try, I’d say. CN

Excel­lent films pur­chased direct­ly from fes­ti­vals and their pres­ence hard­ly pro­mot­ed by the stream­ing plat­forms who bought them. It would be great to see more fan­fare around their release. KM

Cred­i­ble young direc­tors mak­ing the sud­den jump from indie dar­ling to stu­dio stooge. AW

Joaquin Phoenix singing ​‘I’ve Been To Par­adise’ in You Were Nev­er Real­ly Here. HW

John Denver’s Take Me Home, Coun­try Roads in Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky. DJ

The bril­liant­ly lit­er­al use of Aretha Franklin’s ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Nat­ur­al Woman’ in A Fan­tas­tic Woman. SH

Sia’s ​‘Chan­de­lier’ in Hap­py End. EL

The Great­est Show­man. ML

The brief­ing scene in Baby Dri­ver, set to Dave Drubeck’s ​‘Unsquare Dance’. JL

I real­ly liked the use of ​‘Cel­e­bra­tion’ on the open­ing cred­its of The Flori­da Project. CN

Armie Ham­mer and Tim­o­th­ée Cha­la­met danc­ing to ​‘Love My Way’ in Call Me by Your Name. KM

See above. AW

The Killing of a Sacred Deer. HW

James Jean’s The Shape of Water poster. DJ

On the Beach at Night Alone. SH

Won­der Woman. ML

The red retro teas­er poster for The Last Jedi. There’s noth­ing like the old Drew Struzan Star Wars posters but this one comes close. JL

Daw­son City: Frozen Time. CN

A Qui­et Pas­sion. KM

Good Time. AW

Isle of Dogs! HW

Maybe Bar­ry Jenk­ins’ If Beale Street Could Talk or Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, but prob­a­bly Claire Denis’ sci-fi movie High Life. DJ

High Life. SH

Black Pan­ther. EL

Phan­tom Thread. ML

Isle of Dogs. For me Wes Ander­son has rarely put a foot wrong, and who doesn’t want to see a dog with the voice of Bill Mur­ray?? JL

Phan­tom Thread! CN

Destroy­er by Karyn Kusama. KM

Har­mo­ny Korine’s The Beach Bum. AW

Hol­ly­wood learn sev­er­al lessons from the garbage fire that was 2017. And more Michael Stuhlbarg, please. HW

VOD chan­nels work­ing out a way to put the great movies they buy on a big­ger pedestal. Will the new Scors­ese film get lost in an algo­rithm? DJ

Good movies. SH

More films direct­ed by women! ML

Films that takes risks, even if they don’t work out, and more LGBTQIA sto­ry lines that don’t feel like box tick­ing. JL

More film crit­i­cism that embraces the vast grey areas of art­work: few­er woke trend think pieces and more nuance. CN

Women who have made impres­sive debuts giv­en as many big oppor­tu­ni­ties in the film indus­try as men. KM

More great movies! AW