It looks like 2017 was a good year for movies, with not much consensus about the best — except that none are Hollywood blockbusters. San Francisco Examiner critics Jeff Anderson and Anita Katz’s varied top 10 lists both include “Detroit,” director Kathryn Bigelow’s account of the siege of the Algiers Motel during 1967 riots in that city; “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” writer-director Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy about maternal revenge; and “Wonderstruck,” director Todd Haynes’ film (based on a young adult novel) about parallel tales of fearless, curious 12-year-olds — in 1977 and 1927.
Other critics in our highly unscientific roundup admired “Lady Bird,” “The Shape of Water” and “The Post.”
Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco Examiner
1. Faces Places
2. The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography
3. Detroit
4. Wonderstruck
5. Last Flag Flying
6. The Shape of Water
7. Get Out
8. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
9. Logan
10. The Post
Anita Katz, San Francisco Examiner
1. Foxtrot
2. City of Ghosts
3. Detroit
4. Graduation
5. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
6. The Square
7. Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992
8. Good Time
9. Ex-Libris: The New York Public Library
10. Wonderstruck
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
1. The Shape of Water
2. I, Tonya
3. The Post
4. Lady Bird
5. Lady Macbeth
6. Get Out
7. Baby Driver
8. Dunkirk
9. Phantom Thread
10. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times
1. The Big Sick
2. Dunkirk
3. Lady Bird
4. Lady Macbeth
5. Mudbound
6. Phantom Thread
7. The Post
8. The Shape of Water
9. Step
10. Their Finest
Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
1. Call Me by Your Name
2. The Florida Project
3. Phantom Thread
4. mother!
5. Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
6. Columbus
7. A Quiet Passion
8. Brawl in Cell Block 99
9. Lady Bird
10. Graduation
Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
1. Mudbound
2. The Shape of Water
3. The Florida Project
4. Phantom Thread
5. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
6. Lady Bird
7. Okja
8. Get Out
9. The Disaster Artist
10. The Square
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
1. The Shape of Water
2. Dawson City: Frozen Time
3. Dunkirk
4. The Post
5. Call Me by Your Name
6. Lady Bird
7. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
8. The Big Sick
9. Foxtrot
10. Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Top grossing, IMDb
1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. Despicable Me 3
5. The Fate of the Furious
6. Transformers: The Last Knight
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
8. Justice League
9. Spider-Man: Homecoming
10. War for the Planet of the Apes
