Plays better in a crowd

Same with Get Out, although it sounds like that movie holds up well even on the small screen. I saw it with a local friend in a sold-out screening during a trip to New York City with a very diverse audience, and the energy in the theater was electric.

I saw Get Out in an almost empty theater.

My only problem with Get Out is now that I've seen it, I'm finding it really hard to watch again, knowing what's going on.

I was sad I missed the local theatrical run of Three Billboards, but I'm hoping the experience won't lose too much from being watched at home.

Movies I'm looking forward to include The Post, Hostiles, Black Panther, and Early Man in the next month or so. The film I'm really chomping at the bit to see is Call Me by Your Name, for obvious reasons.

I loved The Shape of Water, which hit me in almost the exact same region of feels that Amélie did. While I can see many of the narrative problems people could have had with it, I just cover my ears and sing lalalalala though negative criticism because it was the beautifully-acted and shot escapist faerie tale I was yearning to see.

Oh Plei, I watched Gifted on the plane last week and then immediately made my mother watch it. Then came home and read your stories.

I loved The Shape of Water, which hit me in almost the exact same region of feels that Amélie did. While I can see many of the narrative problems people could have had with it, I just cover my ears and sing lalalalala though negative criticism because it was the beautifully-acted and shot escapist faerie tale I was yearning to see.

Without the gratuitous body horror, that film would have been much higher on my list. I agree that otherwise it had a very Jeunet-Caro (who I love) look and feel.

The film I'm really chomping at the bit to see is Call Me by Your Name, for obvious reasons.

The roll out for that movie seems super slow. I saw it during the holidays while visiting my parents in Toronto, since I had no idea when it was coming to Pittsburgh (I still don't know). In a huge city like that, it was playing on only two screens in the entire greater Toronto area.

It's a gorgeous film and Timothee Chalamet is marvellous, but I think I had my expectations set to the Moonlight level, i.e. utter emotional devastation, and it didn't quite deliver? I mean, that's kind of an impossible expectation, I admit.

My mostly unspoiled impression is it's not trying to field anything close to the level of tragedy dealt with in the stories of Chiron and his mother, though. The stakes are much lower and the obstacles less dramatic—along the lines of The Sum of Us rather than Moonlight or Brokeback Mountain

The stakes are much lower and the obstacles less dramatic

Yep. More internal than external conflicts. And there is much to be said about a gay romance that is not about suffering and persecution. Those qualities are front and center in two other big entries into queer cinema I saw this past year -- A Fantastic Woman and BPM. I loved them both, but watching them was an emotionally draining experience. CMBYN felt much gentler, although I have heard from plenty of people who confessed to weeping through the movie.

Yup, the Math Greek and I were just fighting* the other night about whether the lack of stakes was a problem with CMBYN. For the record, he found it moving and I did not. (On the plus side, this is what the MG and I argue about?)

And I just realized I don't think I put A Fantastic Woman on my "Top Ten Unseen 2017 Films I'm Most Looking Forward To" list so thanks Vonnie for reminding me of that one.

*For all values of fighting where x = mild disagreement