NPR's Favorite Movies Of 2017
The three of us — NPR movie critic Bob Mondello, Pop Culture Happy Hour host Linda Holmes and me, a writer for the NPR Arts Desk and Pop Culture Happy Hour panelist — didn't share our lists of favorite 2017 movies with one other beforehand, so it's interesting to see us all agreeing on so many great films (The Big Sick, Call Me By Your Name, The Florida Project and Get Out).
But you'll also see films championed by just two or, in many cases, only one of us. That helps make the final list a bit more idiosyncratic than a lot of other year-end rankings out there. But it also means you might find a film or two that one of us (*cough* Linda *cough*) would never put on a list of favorites in a million years. (Three Billboards, are your ears burning?)
You might not agree that a given film belongs on this list, or we might have left your favorite off. But that's the point. Movies inspire discussion and debate, so why shouldn't end-of-year lists do the same? -- Glen
Baby Driver (Bob)
Just watch the three-minute, single-take shot where headphone-sporting heist-driver Baby (Ansel Elgort) bops down an Atlanta street, past graffiti and shop-window signs that match song lyrics he's hearing, gets coffee for his gangster buds and then heads back up the same street past different graffiti and signs that match song lyrics he's now hearing. Gorgeous, funny and verrrry Edgar (Shaun of the) Wright. It took the writer/director 28 takes to get right, and it's sublime enough to make you not care (or at least not care as much) that Kevin Spacey is in the movie.
