NZ Herald Entertainment reporters Jo, Chris and Karl unpack the best music, films and television of 2017.
The TimeOut team picks the best movies to hit the big screen this year.
1. Thor: Ragnarok
This has to be the coolest movie of the year and we're not just saying that because of the Kiwi connection - although that is part of what makes it so cool. Taika Waititi mixed bright 80s comic-book visuals with blockbuster special effects, a classic hero storyline, a lot of heart and a waka-load of Kiwi humour and the world loved it. Special shout-outs to Waititi's hilarious character Korg, the easy feminism injected all through the film and that battle scene which was set to Led Zepp and looked like a Michelangelo painting. - Siena Yates
At first, choreographing a film around its soundtrack sounded like a recipe for disaster, but Baby Driver totally blew us away. The story was simple but the action sequences were raucous, the romantic scenes warm, and the humour well-paced. Best of all, every gear change, glimpse at the rear-view mirror, and squeal of tyres synced with the music and was a joy to watch. In fact, everything from a massive gunfight to our main character walking down the street to get coffee synced perfectly, making Baby Driver an absolute must-see experience. - Siena Yates
3. Get Out
"Is this a horror?" whispered my wife 20 minutes into Get Out, Jordan Peele's low-budget big screen breakthrough from February. I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled at what she was about to experience. Yes, it's a complex psychological thrill-ride with several chilling scenes that will stay with you long after you leave the theatre. But Get Out is so much more than that: mostly, a scathing critique of American race relations in Trump-era Hollywood. That's why we're still talking about it 10 months on. - Chris Schulz
Many critiqued Christopher Nolan's World War II spectacle for lacking drama and fudging historical facts. But they're missing the point, because Dunkirk was the year's biggest strap-in-and-hold-on big screen thrillride. Yes, it was loud, buzzing with waves crashing, guns firing, propellers spinning and bombs dropping. I started the screening on the edge of my seat. Just over 100 minutes later, I stumbled out of the cinema feeling overwhelmed and in need of a lie down. If you missed it, there's no way the film can translate onto a smaller screen at home. Sorry, but Dunkirk was the theatre event of the year. - Chris Schulz
5. Call Me By Your Name
Some of the greatest LGBTQ+ films of the 21st century (Brokeback Mountain, Carol) deal heavily with themes of shame and secrecy, which aren't entirely reflective of love in today's world. Enter Call Me By Your Name; a beautifully intoxicating love story that finds a teenager falling for his father's research assistant. Their romance develops with an ease that is rarely afforded to LGBTQ+ love stories – and though it's a gradual journey, once it draws you in, you're completely at its whim. Brace yourself for the last thirty minutes, which contain some of the most emotional scenes in recent cinema. - George Fenwick
6. Swagger of Thieves
This extraordinary doco is wild, raw and the most rock n' roll film you'll ever see. A decade in the making it follows local rockers Head Like a Hole from the top of the charts to the bottom of a needle in extremely graphic and eye (and vein) popping detail. A cautionary tale as much as anything it shows the seedy side of the local music industry, life outside of it and a band walking the hard road out of hell as two pals fight to reconnect and return their band to past glory. Essential viewing. - Karl Puschmann
7. T2: Trainspotting
A reunion of sorts for anyone who was there in '96 when the original crashed the pop culture landscape.The two decades of time between drinks (or drugs, if you prefer) is as much a character of the film as Renton or Sick Boy. The past is ever present, weighing heavily on each scene, and confronting you with your own nostalgia and the results of your life choices even as you watch the gang struggle with theirs. But even if you weren't around back then it's still a rollicking good film. - Karl Puschmann
8. The Big Sick
Kumail Nanjiani's wry awkwardness was already the best bit of HBO's very good sitcom Silicon Valley. But even the comic's biggest fans probably thought he'd struggle to translate onto the big screen. Translate he did though, thanks to this true story about Nanjiani and his wife's awkward first moments embarking on a relationship together. Laugh-out-loud funny, with excellent cameos from Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, and filled with poignancy that hit even harder because it all really happened, The Big Sick was the year's best rom-com in a year devoid of them. - Chris Schulz
The best action franchise in cinema today has nothing to do with magic, superpowers, lightsabers or any other spandex-based nonsense. Nope. If you're after proper action thrills and kills you need to cop this no nonsense, majestically brutal, popcorn munching, bone crunching, shoot-fest. Keanu Reeves, back in full action hero mode, stars as an aggrieved hitman on a blood soaked quest for revenge and… nope, that's it. Simple stuff, executed with a cool style, a visual flair and a savage grace. The first one was great, the sequel's even better. - Karl Puschmann
10. Blade Runner 2049
Well, it certainly looked the part. Blade Runner 2049 is unarguably one of the best looking films ever made. Lush, rich, mind blowing… as a sequel it got that part of following up Ridley Scott's original, hugely influential, film 100 per cent spot on. What it didn't quite nail was in capturing the ambiguity of the original, in generating that same unsettling vibe and capturing them dystopian feels. It's core mystery, wasn't and while it touched on similar themes of free will and life it was fairly clumsy about it. That said, it gets so much right and looks so good it's easy to get lost in its brilliantly realised world. - Karl Puschmann
Honourable Mention - Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Sadly The Last Jedi arrived too last minute to meet our consideration cut-off. Had the force been a little stronger with its timekeeping there's no doubt it would have made our list, landing somehwere near the top. But as a wide Jedi master once said, "deadline make, you shall" and thus the film's fate was sealed.
