The Best Forgotten Movies of 2017

Our continuing series of digging out some of the best forgotten movies of yesteryear… 

2017 is remembered for a great many movies. Still, the sexual abuse allegations about Harvey Weinstein and the resulting Me Too movement were the main things to come out of Hollywood in 2017. The biggest movies of the year were Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and The Beast, The Fate of the Furious and Despicable Me 3, all grossing over a billion dollars at the global box office. Other significant films of the year were Logan, Blade Runner 2049, Thor: Ragnarok, Dunkirk, Get Out, Baby driver and IT, to mention just a few. But here is our list of 15 movies that have slipped from the consciousness of most film fans…
Good Time (2017)
Are you ready for a Good Time?
Drama | Crime | Thriller

Directed by: The Safdie Brothers

Top Billed Cast:

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7.82 /10

After a botched bank robbery lands his younger brother in prison, Connie Nikas embarks on a twisted odyssey through New York City’s underworld to get his brother Nick out of jail.

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Critics response: Universal Praise 

239 Critic reviews: 219 positive (91.6%); 20 negative (8.4%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

The Death of Stalin (2017)
In the Kremlin, no one can hear you scheme
Comedy | Drama | History

Directed by: Armando Iannucci

Top Billed Cast:

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7.47 /10

The Death of Stalin delivers a brutally executed parody of Cold War Russia. When the tyrannical ruler Stalin dies, his hapless inner circle scrambles to come up with the next evolution of the revolution, but it’s clear everyone is really out for themselves. Proof that comedy, like politics, is all in the execution.

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Critics response: Universal Praise 

251 Critic reviews: 238 positive (94.8%); 13 negative (8.4%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
A film about a mother who personally challenges the local authorities

Crime | Drama

Directed by: Martin McDonagh

Top Billed Cast:

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8.25 /10

After seven months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby, the town’s revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Jason Dixon, an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing’s law enforcement is only exacerbated.

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Critics response: Universal Praise 

412 Critic reviews: 373 positive (90.5%); 39 negative (9.5%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Wind River (2017)
Nothing is harder to track than the truth.

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Directed by: Taylor Sheridan

Top Billed Cast:

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8.09 /10

Cory Lambert is a wildlife officer who finds the body of an 18-year-old woman on an American Indian reservation in snowy Wyoming. When the autopsy reveals that she was raped, FBI agent Jane Banner arrives to investigate. Teaming up with Lambert as a guide, the duo soon find that their lives are in danger while trying to solve the mystery of the teen’s death.

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Critics response: Overwhelmingly Positive

255 Critic reviews: 223 positive (87.5%); 32 negative (12.5%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Only the Brave (2017)
It’s not what stands in front of you, it’s who stands beside you
Drama | Action | History

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

Top Billed Cast:

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8.06 /10

Through hope, determination, sacrifice and the drive to protect families and communities, the Granite Mountain Hotshots become one of the most elite firefighting teams in the United States. While most people run from danger they run toward it, watching over lives, homes and everything people hold dear, while forging a unique brotherhood that comes into focus with one fateful fire in Yarnell, Arizona.

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Critics response: Overwhelmingly Positive

164 Critic reviews: 143 positive (87.2%); 21 negative (12.8%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

The Captain (2018)
Follow the leader
War | Drama | History

Directed by: Robert Schwentke

Top Billed Cast:

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7.75 /10

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

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Critics response: Overwhelmingly Positive

53 Critic reviews: 44 positive (83%); 21 negative (9%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Marshall (2017)
Justice has a name.

Drama

Directed by: Reginald Hudlin

Top Billed Cast:

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7.46 /10

Young Thurgood Marshall faces one of his greatest challenges while working as a lawyer for the NAACP. Marshall travels to conservative Connecticut when wealthy socialite Eleanor Strubing accuses Black chauffeur Joseph Spell of sexual assault and attempted murder. He soon teams up with Sam Friedman, a local Jewish lawyer who’s never handled a criminal case. Together, the two men build a defense while contending with racist and anti-Semitic views from those who deem Spell to be guilty.

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Critics response: Very Positive

149 Critic reviews: 120 positive (80.5%); 29 negative (19.5%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Shot Caller (2017)
Some criminals are made in prison
Crime | Drama | Thriller

Directed by: Ric Roman Waugh

Top Billed Cast:

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7.39 /10

A California stockbroker is arrested and charged for a fatal DUI accident, and on his lawyer’s advice, takes a plea deal which sees him sentenced to 16 months in prison. While incarcerated, he becomes involved with a violent white supremacist gang.

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Critics response: Mostly Positive

50 Critic reviews: 35 positive (70%); 15 negative (30%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
No One Leaves Cell Block 99

Crime | Action | Thriller

Directed by: S. Craig Zahler

Top Billed Cast:

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7.29 /10

A former boxer loses his job as an auto mechanic, and his troubled marriage is about to expire. At this crossroads in his life, he feels that he has no better option than to work as a drug courier. He soon finds himself in a gunfight between police officers and his own ruthless allies. When the smoke clears, Bradley is badly hurt and thrown in prison, where his enemies force him to commit acts of violence that turn the place into a savage battleground.

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Critics response: Overwhelmingly Positive

96 Critic reviews: 87 positive (90.6%); 9 negative (9.4%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

First Reformed (2017)
The kingdom come undone. Forgive us, for we have sinned
Drama

Directed by: Paul Schrader

Top Billed Cast:

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7.32 /10

A pastor of a small church in upstate New York starts to spiral out of control after a soul-shaking encounter with an unstable environmental activist and his pregnant wife.

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Critics response: Overwhelmingly Positive

248 Critic reviews: 232 positive (93.6%); 16 negative (6.4%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

The Foreigner (2017)
Never push a good man too far

Action | Thriller

Directed by: Martin Campbell

Top Billed Cast:

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6.83 /10

Quan is a humble London businessman whose long-buried past erupts in a revenge-fueled vendetta when the only person left for him to love – his teenage daughter – dies in an Irish Republican Army car bombing. His relentless search to find the terrorists leads to a cat-and-mouse conflict with a British government official whose own past may hold the clues to the identities of the elusive killers.

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Critics response: Mostly Positive

126 Critic reviews: 83 positive (65.9%); 43 negative (34.1%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Life (2017)
Be careful what you search for
Horror | Science Fiction | Thriller

Directed by: Daniel Espinosa

Top Billed Cast:

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6.01 /10

The six-member crew of the International Space Station is tasked with studying a sample from Mars that may be the first proof of extra-terrestrial life, which proves more intelligent than ever expected.

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Critics response: Mostly Positive

261 Critic reviews: 175 positive (67.1%); 86 negative (32.9%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Borg vs McEnroe (2017)
Some stars shine forever

Drama | History

Directed by: Janus Metz

Top Billed Cast:

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6.95 /10

It’s the summer of 1980, and Björn Borg is the top tennis player in the world, dominating the sport both on and off the court. A powerful and rigorously disciplined player, there is only one obstacle in his pursuit of a record-breaking fifth Wimbledon championship: the highly talented but ferociously abrasive young American John McEnroe. With three days until the tournament begins, Borg trains religiously in his lavish Monaco home, aided by his coach and mentor Lennart and girlfriend Mariana.

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Critics response: Very Positive

147 Critic reviews: 124 positive (84.3%); 23 negative (15.7%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Molly’s Game (2017)
Deal with her.

Drama | Crime

Directed by: Aaron Sorkin

Top Billed Cast:

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6.95 /10

The true story of Molly Bloom, a beautiful, young, Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans and finally, unbeknown to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led people to believe.

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Critics response: Very Positive

309 Critic reviews: 252 positive (81.6%); 57 negative (18.4%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Gerald’s Game (2017)
Some games you play. Some you survive.
Horror | Thriller

Directed by: Mike Flanagan

Top Billed Cast:

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6.63 /10

Based on a novel by Stephen King. When her husband’s sex game goes wrong, Jessie (who is handcuffed to a bed in a remote lake house) faces warped visions, dark secrets and a dire choice.

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Critics response: Overwhelmingly Positive

81 Critic reviews: 74 positive (91.4%); 7 negative (8.6%)

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)