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The Best Movies of 2017 (So Far)

What to watch on the silver screen this year.

By Elle.com
Yellow, Fashion, Youth, Event, Fun, Fashion design, Fictional character, Style, pinterest
Warner Bros + Disney + Amazon Studios + Universal Pictures

In 2017, the rom-com is back, the remakes are ripe, and even blockbuster films have something to say about the state of the nation. Here are the best silver-screen offerings of the year so far—you have plenty of time to catch up on anything you've missed.

The Big Sick

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Lovers of the romantic comedy rejoice: The form has been rejuvenated this year, thanks to the warmhearted, true story-ish The Big Sick. Kumail Nanjiani and wife Emily V. Gordon's relationship too an unexpected turn when a mystery illness put her in a coma. In time-honored tradition, this film makes comedy out of tragedy. But the real kick in this film comes from Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, as Emily's parents, and Anupam Kher and Zenobia Shiroff as Kumail's parents; who bring this culture clash to vivid life with heart and impeccable comic timing.

See The Big Sick in theaters now.

Beauty and the Beast

Improving on the original is a tough ask for any remake, and while this live-action take on Beauty and the Beast wasn't perfect, many of its updates felt just right for our era. Moody and sophisticated renderings of the castle set the stage for Emma Watson's more active and feminist Belle, whose relationship with father Maurice (Kevin Kline) was more warmly human than the 1991 iteration. Plus, it's hard not to melt—even just a little—when you hear that theme song.

Watch Beauty and the Beast on Amazon.

Get Out

Something is rotten in the United States. In the way of the best horror films, the debut feature from Key and Peele mastermind Jordan Peele surfaced racial tensions with a terrifyingly apt premise. Daniel Kaluuya plays Chris, who's meeting his girlfriend Rose's (Allison Williams) parents for the first time. Treading in the grey waters of paranoia and caution, Chris notices strange details around the family home. Catherine Keener and Bradley Whitford are the picture of mild, woke white people—but is that really all they are? Get Out really was the right film at the right time: It made Peele the first African-American writer/director to earn $100 million in his debut, and catapulted him from savvy sketch sage to bonafide Hollywood star.

Watch Get Out on Amazon.

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Wonder Woman

Fantasizing collectively that a woman would sweep in and fix the world and its messes...who, us? Well, yeah—and also, apparently, everyone who's made this superhero film the box office champion of the summer: Watching Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) take on the God of War and win has seemingly been a welcome escape for many. This women-centric Warner Bros. production made audiences weep with its utopian visions of women living and cultivating their strength alongside each other, and its financial success has proven that, yes, we do actually want to watch female-led movies. Who'd have thought?

Pre-order Wonder Woman on Amazon.

I Am Not Your Negro

"If any white man in the world says 'Give me liberty or give me death,' the entire white world applauds. But a black man says exactly the same thing; he is judged a criminal and treated like one." James Baldwin's voice pierces the fabric of history in Raoul Peck's documentary, which uses archival footage—augmented by narration by Samuel L. Jackson—to bring the Notes of a Native Son writer's work to life. Beginning with Baldwin's return to America after nearly ten years in France, the film details his life and his utterly necessary commentary on the intersection of race, culture, and politics. I Am Not Your Negro may talk about the past, but its provocations and observations should be heeded, for the sake of the future.

Watch I Am Not Your Negro on Amazon.

Okja

If you put Charlotte's Web into a blender with, oh, I don't know, Suicide Squad? The weird chunky smoothie you end up with is Okja. Bong Joon-Ho's film flips the heartwarming animal-human friendship movie into an engaging comment on Big Food, crammed to the rafters with star power. Tilda Swinton grimaces as the CEO with a lot to prove, Jake Gyllenhaal weirds us out as a down-on-his-luck TV host, and newcomer Ahn Seo-Hyun shines as the plucky young human companion to the "superpig" Okja, who's as charming as you'd expect a CGI Fiona to be. Don't forget, this one's not really for kids.

Watch Okja on Netflix.

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The Fate of the Furious

The Fast and the Furious is its own genre of movies now. They can't be rated as "good" or "bad"—merely "very fast and furious" or "neither fast nor furious." Fate of the Furious is not the best movie in the franchise (that's a toss up between films 5 and 7), but even after the tragic death of Paul Walker, the eighth in the series is still a very fast and furious film. FF8 features cars racing against submarines and cars on fire driving backwards. It also seems that the team finally figured out that, if you're going to have Jason Statham in these movies, you should let him be funny. But most of all, this film has family. In an unpredictable world, we can always trust that the famiglia is out there saying grace over some Coronas. Fate of the Furious is exactly the movie you want and need it to be.

Watch The Fate of the Furious on Amazon.

Girls Trip

Has there ever been an emotional experience so pure as watching Girls Trip? Well, if there has, any memory of it has been erased by images of Kofi Siriboe's face, fear of peeing on a crowd from a broken zipline, and the sounds of "grapefruiting" (if you don't know what that is yet, it's too rude to even link to a description, you've been warned). This R-rated movie knows how to have a good time, but it's also rooted in the complexities and power of female friendships; plus, the cast is pure flames, with Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, and new favorite Tiffany Haddish on board.

Watch Girls Trip on Amazon.

From: ELLE US
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