More Movies Like This, Please: 2017 List

I started something in 2012. Whenever I saw a new movie I liked, I would jump onto Twitter, identify the movie, then simply tweet: “More movies like this, please.”

Then I thought, Why don’t I do an annual More Movies Like This, Please list?

What do I mean by “more movies like this, please”? Not big popcorn flicks. Hey, I love huge spectacle movies as much as the next guy, but we know Hollywood is going to make them, studios don’t need encouragement to produce prequels, sequels, remakes, tentpoles, and so forth.

Rather, I’m talking about movies Hollywood seems to have a hard time committing to nowadays for a variety of reasons, most of them related to economics and conventional wisdom about what supposedly will work / won’t work.

Here are some of elements I’m looking for in my More Movies Like This, Please list:

• More adult dramas
• More mid-budget movies [$25–50M], smaller stories that need larger budgets to be told well
• More original movies [based on an original screenplay]
• More movies targeting people who love movies and appreciate the history of movies
• More movies that represent the vision of one writer / writer-director or team of writers / writer-directors
• More movies that explore interesting, unique and unusual subcultures
• More movies written, directed, and/or starring women and people of color
• More movies that take risks
• More movies that approach narrative in different ways
• More cinematic movies
• More quirky, whimsical, oddball movies reflecting a distinctive take on the world
• More movies where the focus is on characters, not special effects
• More movies that make me think
• More movies that have no reason to exist other than the fact they have a great story to tell.

So here is my 2017 More Movies Like This, Please list:

Baby Driver
Battle of the Sexes
The Big Sick
Call Me By Your Name
The Disaster Artist
Dunkirk
The Florida Project
Get Out
A Ghost Story
Gifted
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
Mudbound
Personal Shopper
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Wind River

There are several movies I have yet to see including The Post, Molly’s Game, Faces Places, Columbus, Mosaic, Foxtrot, Okja which I’m pretty sure would end up on the list based on what I know about each project.

There are also three big budget major studio releases which make my list:

Logan: More superhero movies like this, please. It has characters we care about and 80% of the story is actual human interaction, not bombast and spectacle, so when the latter does occur, it actually MEANS something.

Wonder Woman: More superhero movies like this, please. It features a female protagonist, directed by a female filmmaker, and it’s really, really good.

Coco: More Pixar movies like this, please. After some sub-par films (story-wise), this film is prime Pixar. Plus, it does a wonderful job exploring the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead, a fascinating subculture.

I thought 2017 was a strong year for movies. I loved The Big Sick, Baby Driver, Dunkirk, and Lady Bird, but the two I’d put at the top of the list: The Florida Project and Get Out, both remarkable films with great stories well-executed and neither of which had a production budget over $5M.

I probably missed some movies, so I reserve the right to update the list.

How about you? Which movies would you put on your More Movies Like This, Please list?