Top 10 Movies You Missed Spring 2017

Made on a budget of just $250,000, this slick indie focuses on a young street magician who gets caught up in the shady Los Angeles criminal world. Despite featuring almost no big name stars and its widest release being less than 600 theaters, Sleight pulled a magic trick of its own, making just under $4 million - almost 16 times its budget. Still, the flick deserves an even wider audience for its unique blending of genres, strong writing and performances, and of course, those awesome magic tricks.

#9: “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” (2017)

Also in:

Top 10 Movies You Missed This Spring

This supernatural horror film written and directed by Oz Perkins, and starring Emma Roberts and Kiernan Shipka, originally premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2015, but was only distributed in 2017. It involves a boarding school, nuns, Satanic worship and murder. Despite only receiving a 26 theater release and making just $20,000, the movie was lauded for its slow-building atmosphere, which set it apart from other films of its nature. Even though it only played in a scant number of theaters, it also was released on demand around the same time as its theatrical run. A film this unique and scary definitely deserves more people checking it out.

Feel good dramas about topics as heavy as war are obviously hard to come by. But this movie, based on a true story about a marine and her military combat dog, aimed to make audiences feel for their relationship, and it succeeded. Kate Mara’s performance in the title role received positive remarks from critics, as did the films depiction of Leavey’s bond with her combat dog, Rex. It wasn’t a huge financial success, making a little under $4 million during its North American opening weekend, but anyone looking for an uplifting story through dark times should give it a watch.

#7: “The Hero” (2017)

Also in:

Top 10 Movies You Missed In 2017

A Sundance hit, this dramedy from director Brett Haley is a small but effective film. It stars Sam Elliott, and his mustache of course, as an aging actor forced to confront his past after receiving news that he has cancer, and who reconnects with lost parts of his life. The film was specifically written for Sam Elliott, who does great work in the title role. It also stars Nick Offerman as Elliott’s friend and weed dealer, and Krysten Ritter as his estranged daughter. With a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and even some early Oscar buzz, it’s a must-see.

#6: “Win It All” (2017)

Also in:

Top 10 Best Movies of 2017

Indie darling Joe Swanberg reteams with his frequent collaborator Jake Johnson for this Netflix exclusive comedy. In it, Johnson plays a recovering gambling addict who ends up blowing away a mysterious duffel bag full of cash he received, and only has a short amount of time to get it all back. Though Swanberg is famous for his use of improv, Win It All’s script was cowritten by him and Johnson, and critics praised the film’s writing and performances. Oh, and you guys heard us say this was a Netflix exclusive, right? Now you have no excuse not to check it out.

#5: “Life” (2017)

Also in:

Top 10 Animated Movies that Deserve a Real Life Musical

Despite the star power of Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson, and Jake Gyllenhaal, this sci-fi thriller from director Daniel Espinosa only made $30 million in North America and failed to crack $100 million worldwide. About a crew on the International Space Station after returning with what might be the first sign of extraterrestrial life, the story follows them as the situation becomes deadly after the sample takes on a mind of its own. Despite looking like a knock-off of films like Alien on the surface, it was agreed that the movie actually added quite a bit to its simple sounding premise, and was well worth a watch.

#4: “The Lost City of Z” (2016)

Also in:

Top 10 Movies you Missed this Summer 2017

In these days of skyrocketing budgets and cinematic universes, it’s good to know that good old fashioned adventure films are still alive and well. Charlie Hunnam and Robert Pattinson star in this one, based off the book about real-life British explorer Percy Fawcett. Hunnam plays Fawcett and Pattinson plays his partner Henry Costin, as they travel to the Amazon to look for what remains of the titular ancient city. Critics praised the film’s beauty and scope, as well as Hunnam’s performance, but the movie unfortunately failed to find a large audience due to an initially limited release. The fact that it came out against the mid-April juggernaut that was Fate of the Furious certainly didn’t help.

Are you one of the people mourning the lack of originality in modern Hollywood? Then you owe it to yourself to check out this one of a kind feature from writer and director Nacho Vigalondo. In it, Anne Hathaway stars as a troubled writer who moves back to her suburban hometown, where she reconnects with her childhood friend who’s played by Jason Sudeikis. But when a giant monster spontaneously appears in South Korea, they both discover that they’re more connected to this strange occurrence than they could ever imagine. It’s an incredibly unique concept and both the leads give career best performances, proving that creativity in cinema still exists if you know where to look for it.

#2: “It Comes at Night” (2017)

Also in:

Top 10 Movies You're Glad You Missed This Summer

Here’s an unfortunate example of critical and audience dissonance sinking a movie’s chances for success. This horror film starring Joel Edgerton was released to strong reviews, with critics praising its expert use of psychological horror and minimalist scares. However, this wasn’t what people were expecting when they saw the film’s marketing. Studio A24 touted the film as a more typical viral outbreak style movie, and when that wasn’t what viewers got, they weren’t exactly happy. For example, the film’s critics score on Rotten Tomatoes is 87%, while the audience score is 43% as of mid-2017. We hope that as time passes, people can look upon It Comes At Night with fresh eyes, and recognize it as the great modern horror film it is. Before we reveal our number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions: - “The Belko Experiment” (2016) - “The Wall” (2017) - “The Zookeeper’s Wife” (2017)

#1: “Free Fire” (2016)

Also in:

Solo: A Star Wars Story SPOILER FREE Review! Mojo @ The Movies

You like action? How about 90 minutes of Sharlto Copley, Brie Larson and Armie Hammer shooting at each other while looking like they just jumped out of a disco retrospective? Depicting the aftermath of an arms deal gone wrong, Free Fire provides one of the most simple, pure, and enjoyable cinematic experiences of the year, with snappy dialogue and fast-paced action from director Ben Wheatley. Despite the positive reception, the flick failed to find an audience, only making $3.5 million worldwide. Still, fans of awesomely bad 70s fashion and feature-length shootouts shouldn’t pass this badass movie up.