Cinema · 2017 Ranked

Best Films of 2017, Ranked by IQ Score

The year auteur cinema dominated the Oscar conversation. Ranked.

14 titles · ranked by IQ Score

1. 1
   

   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…

   169/200
2. 2
   

   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

   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

   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

   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
   

   mother!

   Stimulating horror, drama, allegorical

   Darren Aronofsky's 2017 biblical-allegorical psychological horror anchored by Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. The structural commitment to letting religious-and-environmental allegory operate at canonical Aronofsky…

   159/200
7. 7
   

   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 a…

   157/200
8. 8
   

   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
9. 9
   

   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, shifti…

   156/200
10. 10
    

    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
11. 11
    

    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
12. 12
    

    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 perform…

    145/200
13. 13
    

    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
14. 14
    

    Coco

    Competent 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