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Cinema · 2017 Ranked

Best Films of 2017, Ranked by IQ Score

The year auteur cinema dominated the Oscar conversation. Ranked.

2017 is the year auteur cinema dominated the Oscar conversation. The Shape of Water (del Toro, Best Picture). Get Out (Peele directorial debut). Phantom Thread (PTA-Day-Lewis final). Lady Bird (Gerwig directorial debut). Call Me by Your Name (Guadagnino).

15 titles · ranked by IQ Score

  1. 1
    Blade Runner 2049 poster, IQ Score 169/200, Masterclass tier

    Blade Runner 2049

    Masterclass sci-fi

    Denis Villeneuve's sequel to the 1982 film, a new blade runner investigates a mystery that threatens society. Exceptional craft, Roger Deakins's cinematography won the Oscar. Cognitive engagement from the philosophical q…

    169/200
  2. 2
    Call Me by Your Name poster, IQ Score 168/200, Masterclass tier

    Call Me by Your Name

    Masterclass drama, romance

    Luca Guadagnino's sensual coming-of-age narrative unfolds across sun-drenched Italian landscapes, exploring first love and desire with remarkable restraint and sophistication. Aciman's literary adaptation yields substant…

    168/200
  3. 3
    Dunkirk poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier

    Dunkirk

    Masterclass drama, war, history

    Christopher Nolan's non-linear account of the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation from three temporal perspectives. Exceptional craft and educational about a defining WWII moment. The sound design and practical effects represent the…

    164/200
  4. 4
    The Post poster, IQ Score 161/200, Masterclass tier

    The Post

    Masterclass drama, historical, biography

    Spielberg's 2017 Pentagon Papers film anchored by Meryl Streep as Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and Tom Hanks as editor Ben Bradlee. The structural commitment to letting Graham's executive-decision agony be…

    161/200
  5. 5
    The Killing of a Sacred Deer poster, IQ Score 160/200, Masterclass tier

    The Killing of a Sacred Deer

    Masterclass thriller, drama, horror

    Yorgos Lanthimos's 2017 Euripides-coded thriller anchored by Colin Farrell as a cardiothoracic surgeon whose family is mysteriously afflicted after he forms a friendship with a teenage boy whose father died on his operat…

    160/200
  6. 6
    The Florida Project poster, IQ Score 157/200, Stimulating tier

    The Florida Project

    Stimulating drama

    A six-year-old girl and her friends spend the summer in the motels adjacent to Disney World while their mothers struggle with poverty. Sean Baker's film is formally exceptional, shot with non-professional child actors an…

    157/200
  7. 7
    Lady Bird poster, IQ Score 156/200, Stimulating tier

    Lady Bird

    Stimulating comedy, drama

    2017 Best Picture and Best Actress nominee (Saoirse Ronan). Greta Gerwig's semi-autobiographical portrait of a Sacramento teenager's senior year. Moderate cognitive demands with extraordinary emotional precision. Educati…

    156/200
  8. 8
    Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri poster, IQ Score 156/200, Stimulating tier

    Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

    Stimulating drama, crime, comedy

    Martin McDonagh's film about a mother's grief weaponized into public confrontation. High cognitive demands from the moral ambiguity, the film refuses to let any character be simply right or wrong. Tonally daring, shiftin…

    156/200
  9. 9
    The Square poster, IQ Score 152/200, Stimulating tier

    The Square

    Stimulating drama, comedy, satire

    2017 Palme d'Or winner. Ruben Östlund's satire of a contemporary art museum curator whose life spirals after a PR stunt. High cognitive demands from the nested ironies and social commentary. Educational value about the a…

    152/200
  10. 10
    Get Out poster, IQ Score 149/200, Stimulating tier

    Get Out

    Stimulating horror, thriller

    A black man visits his white girlfriend's family for the weekend, discovering a horrifying conspiracy. Educational about race, appropriation, and white supremacy. Cognitive engagement from the layering of clues and the p…

    149/200
  11. 11
    Phantom Thread poster, IQ Score 145/200, Stimulating tier

    Phantom Thread

    Stimulating drama, romance, thriller

    A London couturier has his routines disrupted by a new muse who turns his control dynamics upside down. Paul Thomas Anderson's film is formally exceptional, the Jonny Greenwood score and Daniel Day-Lewis's final performa…

    145/200
  12. 12
    The Shape of Water poster, IQ Score 140/200, Stimulating tier

    The Shape of Water

    Stimulating drama, fantasy, romance

    Del Toro's Cold War fairy tale earns its craft score outright: Desplat's Oscar-winning score, Dan Laustsen's teal-and-amber frames, and a production design that turns a 1962 lab into myth. The romance between a mute jani…

    140/200
  13. 13
    Logan poster, IQ Score 137/200, Stimulating tier

    Logan

    Stimulating action, drama, sci-fi

    James Mangold builds his Wolverine finale on Shane's structure, staging a dying gunslinger's reluctant guardianship of a child he did not choose. The elegiac register, Jackman and Stewart playing decay instead of power,…

    137/200
  14. 14
    I, Tonya poster, IQ Score 130/200, Stimulating tier

    I, Tonya

    Stimulating drama, comedy, sports

    The story of Tonya Harding told through conflicting accounts. Margot Robbie and Allison Janney are both exceptional. The formal device of conflicting testimonies is used with skill. Educational about the figure skating w…

    130/200
  15. 15
    Coco poster, TVI Score 129/200, Competent tier

    Coco

    Competent SEL 38/50 animation, family, fantasy

    Layers Mexican Day of the Dead tradition with family reconciliation, using music and memory as scaffolding for exploring intergenerational trauma and artistic legacy.

    129/200
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Questions about this ranking

What is the best film of 2017?

By IQ Score on TV Intelligentsia, Phantom Thread (PTA) and Get Out (Peele) anchor the year. The Shape of Water (Best Picture), Lady Bird, Call Me by Your Name, and Dunkirk round out the canonical Masterclass-tier entries.

Why was 2017 such a strong year for directorial debuts?

2017 saw simultaneous directorial debuts from Jordan Peele (Get Out, Best Original Screenplay Oscar), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), and the strongest Guillermo del Toro Best Picture campaign yet (The Shape of Water). Plus established auteur work from PTA (Phantom Thread), Nolan (Dunkirk), and McDonagh (Three Billboards).

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