Year-End Lists

The Alternative: Top 50 Releases of 2017

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2018]

1. The Yunahon Mixtape
   Oso Oso
2. Turn Out the Lights
   Julien Baker
3. DAMN.
   Kendrick Lamar
4. Guppy
   Charly Bliss
5. Plastic Cough
   Great Grandpa
6. Precious Art
   Rozwell Kid
7. You’re Not As _____ As You Think
   Sorority Noise
8. Daymoon
   Strange Ranger
9. First Things First
   Hodera
10. Capacity
    Big Thief
11. As You Please
    Citizen
12. Greatest Hits
    Remo Drive
13. Pleasure Suck
    The Spirit Of The Beehive
14. The Incessant
    Meat Wave
15. A Hairshirt of Purpose
    Pile
16. Rocket
    (Sandy) Alex G
17. Birdie
    Slaughter Beach, Dog
18. Ctrl
    SZA
19. Here Again
    A Will Away
20. Losing
    Bully
21. No One Loves You
    Blis
22. The Dusk In Us
    Converge
23. Soft Sounds from Another Planet
    Japanese Breakfast
24. Dixieland
    Greet Death
25. Infinite Hiatus
    Cool American
26. GN
    Ratboys
27. Wild Pink
    Wild Pink
28. Flower Boy
    Tyler, The Creator
29. Still, I Try
    Fire is Motion
30. Pretty Girls Like Trap Music
    2 Chainz
31. The Obsessives
    The Obsessives
32. Run the Jewels 3
    Run the Jewels
33. Smidley
    Smidley
34. What Not to Do
    Perspective, a Lovely Hand to Hold
35. Nothing Special
    Harmony Woods
36. Brick Body Kids Still Daydream
    Open Mike Eagle
37. All Aboard
    Washer
38. Gloom Cruise
    Walter Etc.
39. SATURATION
    BROCKHAMPTON
39. SATURATION II
    BROCKHAMPTON
39. SATURATION III
    BROCKHAMPTON
40. Exposure & Response
    Mo Troper
41. No Mountains in Manhattan
    Wiki
42. Melodrama
    Lorde
43. Swear I’m Good At This
    Diet Cig
44. Brokenlegged
    Sinai Vessel
45. Always Foreign
    The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die
46. Everybody Works
    Jay Som
47. Lvndr Twn
    Jelani Sei
48. Stranger in the Alps
    Phoebe Bridgers
49. The Manson Family
    Heart Attack Man
50. Summer Megalith
    Caracara

Willow Maclay: Top 10 Films of 2017, as published by The Film Stage

[see also 2010s]

1. Twin Peaks: The Return
   David Lynch
2. Lady Bird
   Greta Gerwig
3. Milla
   Valérie Massadian
4. Strangely Ordinary This Devotion
   Dani Leventhal and Sheilah Wilson
5. Good Time
   Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
6. Personal Shopper
   Olivier Assayas
7. In This Corner of the World
   Sunao Katabuchi
8. Your Name
   Makoto Shinkai
9. On the Beach at Night Alone
   Hong Sang-soo
10. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
    Paul W.S. Anderson

The Film Stage: Top 50 Films of 2017. See also their list of documentaries.

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2018]

1. Good Time
   Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
2. A Ghost Story
   David Lowery
3. Lady Bird
   Greta Gerwig
4. Call Me by Your Name
   Luca Guadagnino
5. Get Out
   Jordan Peele
6. Twin Peaks: The Return
   David Lynch
7. Dawson City: Frozen Time
   Bill Morrison
8. Nocturama
   Bertrand Bonello
9. The Florida Project
   Sean Baker
10. Phantom Thread
    Paul Thomas Anderson
11. The Lost City of Z
    James Gray
12. Song to Song
    Terrence Malick
13. mother!
    Darren Aronofsky
14. BPM (Beats Per Minute)
    Robin Campillo
15. On the Beach at Night Alone
    Hong Sang-soo
16. Dunkirk
    Christopher Nolan
17. Princess Cyd
    Stephen Cone
18. Marjorie Prime
    Michael Almereyda
19. Brawl in Cell Block 99
    S. Craig Zahler
20. A Quiet Passion
    Terence Davies
21. Blade Runner 2049
    Denis Villeneuve
22. Ex Libris: New York Public Library
    Frederick Wiseman
23. The Shape of Water
    Guillermo del Toro
24. You Were Never Really Here
    Lynne Ramsay
25. Columbus
    Kogonada
26. The Square
    Ruben Östlund
27. Mudbound
    Dee Rees
28. Personal Shopper
    Olivier Assayas
29. The Work
    Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous
30. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
    Martin McDonagh
31. Faces Places
    Agnès Varda and JR
32. Staying Vertical
    Alain Guiraudie
33. Wonder Woman
    Patty Jenkins
34. Foxtrot
    Samuel Maoz
35. God’s Own Country
    Francis Lee
36. Ta’ang
    Wang Bing
37. Logan
    James Mangold
38. Coco
    Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina
39. Tramps
    Adam Leon
40. World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts
    Don Hertzfeldt
41. Western
    Valeska Grisebach
42. Loveless
    Andrey Zvyagintsev
43. Milla
    Valérie Massadian
44. Raw
    Julia Ducournau
45. The Untamed
    Amat Escalante
46. Nathan for You: Finding Frances
    Nathan Fielder
47. In This Corner of the World
    Sunao Katabuchi
48. The Other Side of Hope
    Aki Kaurismäki
49. Good Luck
    Ben Russell
50. Uncertain
    Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands

Robert Koehler: Best Movies of 2017 (as posted to Twitter in a series of tweets starting here and ending here)

[see also 2019 • 2012]

1. Twin Peaks: The Return
   David Lynch
2. Dunkirk
   Christopher Nolan
3. Zama
   Lucrecia Martel
4. Western
   Valeska Grisebach
5. Good Time
   Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
6. The Wandering Soap Opera
   Raoul Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento
7. Three Quarters
   Ilian Metev
8. Good Luck
   Ben Russell
9. Brawl in Cell Block 99
   S. Craig Zahler
10. PROTOTYPE
    Blake Williams
11. Phantom Thread
    Paul Thomas Anderson
12. The Disaster Artist
    James Franco
13. Purge This Land
    Lee Anne Schmitt
14. El mar la mar
    Joshua Bonnetta and J.P. Sniadecki
15. Drift
    Helena Wittmann
16. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
    Martin McDonagh
17. On the Beach at Night Alone
    Hong Sang-soo
18. Readers
    James Benning
19. Ex Libris: New York Public Library
    Frederick Wiseman
20. The Other Side of Hope
    Aki Kaurismäki
21. Life & Nothing More
    Antonio Méndez Esparza
22. Baronesa
    Juliana Antunes
23. Milla
    Valérie Massadian
24. Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
    Bruno Dumont
25. Distant Constellation
    Shevaun Mizrahi
26. The Nothing Factory
    Pedro Pinho
27. Free and Easy
    Jun Geng
28. A Gentle Creature
    Sergei Loznitsa
29. Tonsler Park
    Kevin Jerome Everson
30. American Made
    Doug Liman
31. A Skin So Soft
    Denis Côté
32. Have a Nice Day
    Liu Jian
33. Lucky
    John Carroll Lynch

Genevieve Koski: Top 15 Films of 2017 (as posted to Twitter in Comic Sans because she felt like it)

[see also 2018 • 2014]

1. Lady Bird
   Greta Gerwig
2. Get Out
   Jordan Peele
3. The Florida Project
   Sean Baker
4. BPM (Beats Per Minute)
   Robin Campillo
5. The Breadwinner
   Nora Twomey
6. Mudbound
   Dee Rees
7. Dunkirk
   Christopher Nolan
8. A Ghost Story
   David Lowery
9. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
   Rian Johnson
10. Baby Driver
    Edgar Wright
11. Call Me by Your Name
    Luca Guadagnino
12. The Lost City of Z
    James Gray
13. I, Tonya
    Craig Gillespie
14. Contemporary Color
    Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross
15. Brigsby Bear
    Dave McCary
15. The Big Sick
    Michael Showalter

Next 5

• Lady Macbeth
  William Oldroyd
• The Post
  Steven Spielberg
• War for the Planet of the Apes
  Matt Reeves
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
  Martin McDonagh
• Casting JonBenet
  Kitty Green

Saige Walton: Best Films of 2017, as posted to Twitter

[see also 2022 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018]

1. Twin Peaks: The Return
   David Lynch
2. Faces Places
   Agnès Varda and JR
3. I Am Not a Witch
   Rungano Nyoni
4. On Body and Soul
   Ildikó Enyedi
5. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
   Yorgos Lanthimos
6. Personal Shopper
   Olivier Assayas
7. Moonlight
   Barry Jenkins
8. Sweet Country
   Warwick Thornton
9. My Life as a Zucchini
   Claude Barras
10. Life
    Daniel Espinosa

San Jose Mercury News: Best TV Shows of 2017

[see also 2018]

1. Big Little Lies
2. Better Things
3. The Leftovers
4. The Handmaid’s Tale
5. Mindhunter
6. Feud: Bette and Joan
7. Game of Thrones
8. The Good Place
9. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
10. The Deuce

The Stranger: Top 20 Books of 2017, plus a list of “besties”

• Difficult Women
  Roxane Gay
• The Mother of All Questions
  Rebecca Solnit
• This Is How It Always Is
  Laurie Frankel
• Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
  Kurt Andersen
• In the Long Run We Are All Dead

  Keynesianism, Political Economy, and Revolution
  Geoff Mann
• The Rules Do Not Apply
  Ariel Levy
• Nomadland

  Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
  Jessica Bruder
• Did It! From Yippie To Yuppie

  Jerry Rubin, An American Revolutionary
  Pat Thomas
• Love and Trouble

  A Midlife Reckoning
  Claire Dederer
• Afterglow (a dog memoir)
  Eileen Myles
• World Without Mind

  The Existential Threat of Big Tech
  Franklin Foer
• Vinyl Freak

  Love Letters to a Dying Medium
  John Corbett
• (v.)
  Anastacia Renee
• Priestdaddy
  Patricia Lockwood
• Ranger Games

  A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime
  Ben Blum
• Conflict Is Not Abuse

  Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair
  Sarah Schulman
• The Best We Could Do

  An Illustrated Memoir
  Thi Bui
• There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce
  Morgan Parker
• All Grown Up
  Jami Attenberg
• What Happened
  Hillary Rodham Clinton

Besties

• Lincoln in the Bardo
  George Saunders
• We Were Eight Years in Power

  An American Tragedy
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Future Is History

  How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
  Masha Gessen
• The Raincoats
  Jenn Pelly
• Good Booty

  Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music
  Ann Powers
• The Trouble with Reality

  A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time
  Brooke Gladstone
• Bunk

  The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News
  Kevin Young
• Ugly Time
  Sarah Galvin
• Catcall
  Holly Melgard
• Other Russias
  Victoria Lomasko
• Boyfriends
  Tara Atkinson
• Nature Poem
  Tommy Pico
• While Standing in Line for Death
  CAConrad
• Unreal City
  D.J. Bryant
• Why Poetry
  Matthew Zapruder
• My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
  Emil Ferris
• Sour Heart
  Jenny Zhang
• Dreaming the Beatles

  The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World
  Rob Sheffield
• The State of Affairs

  Rethinking Infidelity
  Esther Perel
• Why We Sleep

  Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
  Matthew Walker
• Homo Deus

  A Brief History of Tomorrow
  Yuval Harari

The Week: Best Books of 2017, divided into novels and nonfiction

Novels

1. Lincoln in the Bardo
   George Saunders
2. Sing, Unburied, Sing
   Jesmyn Ward
3. Exit West
   Mohsin Hamid
4. White Tears
   Hari Kunzru
5. Manhattan Beach
   Jennifer Egan

Nonfiction

1. Killers of the Flower Moon

   The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
   David Grann
2. The Future Is History

   How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
   Masha Gessen
3. We Were Eight Years in Power

   An American Tragedy
   Ta-Nehisi Coates
4. Grant
   Ron Chernow
5. Hunger

   A Memoir of (My) Body
   Roxane Gay

Vibe Magazine: 25 Best Albums of 2017 (“in nonsequential order”)

[see also 2019 • 2018]

• Rather You Than Me
  Rick Ross
• Gang Signs & Prayer
  Stormzy
• Big Fish Theory
  Vince Staples
• At What Cost
  GoldLink
• blkswn
  Smino
• DAMN.
  Kendrick Lamar
• Luv Is Rage 2
  Lil Uzi Vert
• 4:44
  JAY-Z
• The Never Story
  JID
• Take Me Apart
  Kelela
• Culture
  Migos
• Jungle Rules
  French Montana
• More Life
  Drake
• 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time
  Big K.R.I.T.
• Freudian
  Daniel Caesar
• Laila’s Wisdom
  Rapsody
• Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1
  Calvin Harris
• Lust for Life
  Lana Del Rey
• Flower Boy
  Tyler, The Creator
• Process
  Sampha
• Energía Lado B
  J Balvin
• Pretty Girls Like Trap Music
  2 Chainz
• Ctrl
  SZA
• Sonder Son
  Brent Faiyaz
• Still Striving
  A$AP Ferg