Awards season is about to start its big push. We still have Steven Spielberg’s historical drama, The Post, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread – which just so happens to be Daniel Day-Lewis’s last movie as well – on the horizon. But there’s been plenty to enjoy so far in 2017, a year of big movies and small movies and some tremendous movie moments in both. You may have forgotten about some of these – stuff moves pretty fast these days – so this Turkey Day, here’s 12 movie moments to be thankful for in 2017…
5. THE LOST CITY OF Z
This probably fits more in a best of 2017 movie list, and it certainly will pop up in a few over the next month, but James Gray’s old-fashioned epic also managed to sneak through the spring movie season practically undetected.
What is set up and shot like a film about adventure, with crisp, painterly images from cinematographer Darius Khondji, soon becomes a story about the fine line between obsession and family obligation. Gray manages to get a heroic performance from Charlie Hunnam as Percy Fawcett, a man who struggles to balance a family he rarely sees and the search for a lost civilization that consumes years upon years of his life. The Lost City of Z is a throwback to the studio epics of David Lean and John Ford, and should be admired for its storytelling patience in a time when deliberate narratives are an endangered species.
