But only a relatively small number will enjoy its intense, delicate visual beauty on the big screen when it gets a limited theatrical run. That’s a good thing, in that more people will see it.
It is, I acknowledge, a sign of the times that my top movie of the year, Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, will soon be viewable on Netflix, which means people don’t have to trek to a theater to watch it. Thor: Ragnarok (2017) PG-13 130 min Action, Adventure, Comedy. This year's best includes an eclectic mix, led by Edgar Wright's musical heist flick Baby Driver. The best action flicks offer more than just shootouts, explosions, and car chases, but at the end of the day, they serve to get your adrenaline pumping. So here is a list of 10 movies that didn’t impress me so much as they brought me an exquisite and sometimes formidable kind of joy. These are the best-reviewed action and adventure movies released in 2017. I go to the movies not to be impressed, but to be overwhelmed. In the movies, you have humanity right next to you (presumably not using a cell phone), and humanity in front of you, so outsized and vivid as to sometimes be overwhelming. I like being in the presence of images that are much bigger than I am, particularly faces. I don’t like being around people who look at their cell phones in the movies (you know who you are), but I love being with a group of people all sharing the same experience, even if we’re not necessarily having the same experience. But even though I have watched my share of movies on television-as so many people do while growing up-my dirty little secret is that I love leaving the house. There’s also “I like watching stuff at home, where there are no annoying people to bother me,” which, on my darkest days, I admit is a compelling argument. A third argument-“It’s so expensive to go to the movies”-is, sadly, extremely defensible, so in that instance I have made it my policy not to accept any nickels. Another popular phrase, “I’ll watch at home when it shows up on ” would further enhance my kingdom of nickels. If I had a nickel for every acquaintance who has told me, “There’s so much great writing on television! So much more than in the movies!” I would never need another nickel again. And if the filmmaking landscape has changed considerably over the past 20 years, it has changed radically in roughly the past five, as television has stolen so much of filmmaking’s glory. Naturally, there’s a broad middle ground of mediocrity. What stuns me each year isn’t how many bad movies get made, but how many good ones do. Every year, there’s someone around to say, “This seemed like a bad year for movies,” to which I invariably say, “I think it’s been a great year for movies!” This has been going on for decades now, so the problem-if you want to consider it one-is clearly with me.