Ben Reiser is a Programmer and Accounts Manager for the Cinematheque and a Programmer for the Wisconsin Film Festival

37 movies I saw for the first time in 2017 that left me happy, sad, angry, exhilarated, delirious and coming back for more:

KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017, Jordan Vogt-Roberts)

LIFE (2017, Daniel Espinosa)

WILSON (2017, Craig Johnson)

COLOSSAL (2016, Nacho Vigalondo)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 (2017, James Gunn)

ALIEN: COVENANT (2017, Ridley Scott)

THE MUMMY (2017, Alex Kurtzman)

IT COMES AT NIGHT (2017, Trey Edward Shults)

BEATRIZ AT DINNER (2017, Miguel Arteta)

OKJA (2017, Bong Joon-ho)

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (2017 Matt Reeves)

DUNKIRK (2017, Christopher Nolan)

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS (2017, Luc Besson)

WIND RIVER (2017, Taylor Sheridan)

GOOD TIME (2017, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie)

LOGAN LUCKY (2017, Steven Soderbergh)

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE (2017, Matthew Vaughn)

THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017, Sean Baker)

THE FOREIGNER (2017, Martin Campbell)

THOR: RAGNAROK (2017 Taika Waititi)
LADY BIRD (2017, Greta Gerwig)

THE MEYEROWITZ CHRONICLES (2017, Noah Baumbach)

GET OUT (2017, Jordan Peele)

PHANTOM THREAD (2017, Paul Thomas Anderson)

MARIUS (1931, Alexander Korda)

FANNY (1932, Marc Allegret)

CESAR (1936, Marcel Pagnol)

KILLER OF SHEEP (1978, Charles Burnett)

THE STUDENT NURSES (1970, Stephanie Rothman)

IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER (1955, Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen)

ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL (2016, Steve James)

THE CHALLENGE (2016, Yuri Ancarani)

THE INCIDENT (1967, Larry Peerce)

KILLING GROUND (2016, Damien Power)

OBIT (2016, Vanessa Gould)

THE SALESMAN (2016, Asghar Farhadi)

ELLE (2016, Paul Verhoeven)

And three television series that were just as essential to me:

TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN (2017, David Lynch)

GODLESS (2017, Scott Frank)

THE KEEPERS (2017, Ryan White)