Get Out 2017
On Cam's top 10 and honorable mentions, but not his top five. He's seen it three times and likes it more each time.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Roundtable
The Best Movies of 2017 | The Big Picture (Ep. 42)
December 22, 2017/ 38 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · Chris Ryan · K. Austin Collins
Sean Fennessey brings on Amanda Dobbins, Chris Ryan, and K. Austin Collins to argue out their best-of-2017 lists, one overlap and one grudge at a time.
17 films across 6 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The Overlap Picksthe movies that showed up on two or three ballots
Lady Bird 2017
No. 1 on both Chris's and Amanda's lists. Chris calls it the movie that moved him most in years; both admit the pick is biased by growing up in Lady Bird's exact generational lane.
The Lost City of Z
The Lost City of Z 2017
Amanda's honorable mention, and on both Chris's and Cam's lists. Cam ranked it 13th or 14th despite reservations about Charlie Hunnam's accent, calling it a quiet, old-world adventure movie in the Merchant Ivory vein.
Phantom Thread, The Beguiled, and mother!three very different takes on a man, a woman, and control
Phantom Thread 2017
Sean's No. 1; No. 4 on both Amanda's and Cam's lists. The group digs into Paul Thomas Anderson's collaboration with Daniel Day-Lewis and the film's dark, deliberate humor.
The Beguiled 2017
Amanda pairs it with Phantom Thread: two period pieces about power dynamics between a man and a house of women, one directed by a man and one by a woman.
mother! 2017
Nobody's top ten (Cam kept it as an honorable mention), but it dominates the conversation anyway. Sean interviewed Darren Aronofsky about it and came away, in his words, checkmated.
The Popcorn Movieshonorable mentions picked purely for the fun of it
Baby Driver 2017
Sean's pick, after seeing it at SXSW: "it was a rock concert."
Atomic Blonde 2017
Chris's SXSW companion pick: James McAvoy and Charlize Theron doing two hours of damage.
Blade Runner 2049 2017
Sean's honorable mention. Flawed, he says, but he's glad a studio still handed $150 million to a swing this ambitious.
Girls Trip 2017
Amanda's pick: a $100 million-plus hit led by four Black women, and Regina Hall's closing speech got her.
John Wick: Chapter 2 2017
Cam's most-fun pick, despite what he calls his complicated relationship with movie violence right now.
Call Me by Your Name
Call Me by Your Name 2017
On Amanda's list, an honorable mention for Chris, and off the list entirely for Cam and Sean. The group gets into how much their own expectations, and each other's enthusiasm, color what they end up loving.
Logan Lucky 2017
Cam's other expectations case: his co-hosts told him not to get his hopes up, and he liked it more than any of them anyway.
Last Licks one shout-out each before they sign off
Picked by Amanda Dobbins
Wonder Woman 2017
Her No. 3 movie, and a surprise from someone who says her default stance on superhero films is indifference to active distaste.
Picked by Chris Ryan
Dunkirk 2017
Easily his top five, he says, despite a reputation as a Dunkirk skeptic. He singles out Tom Hardy's landing at the end.
Picked by K. Austin Collins
The Work 2017
His No. 2 film of the year, a documentary shot inside a four-day group-therapy program at Folsom Prison.
Picked by Sean Fennessey
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) 2017
Noah Baumbach's Netflix film, which Sean argues is a case for seeing even a Netflix movie on a big screen.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Movies nobody on the panel had seen yet All the Money in the WorldBrightDownsizingThe Post
The "Dunkirk extended universe" Darkest HourChurchillTheir Finest
In passing Raiders of the Lost Ark
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
Web series Cousin Sal's Best BetSloan NewsdayNBA DesktopNo BSTable ReadsDirector's CommentariesCaptain Morgan's Make Believe CasinoTake HunterRinger 360Clatheism