Best Movies of 1997
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Jackie BrownThe one where Tarantino slows down and lets two middle aged people almost fall in love.Read the review
Good Will HuntingTwo young actors wrote themselves the parts of their lives and then handed the film to Robin Williams.
Life Is BeautifulA screwball comedy that walks into a death camp and refuses, on purpose, to change its face.
TitanicThe dialogue is often terrible and the sinking is one of the great sustained sequences in film.
L.A. ConfidentialA dense Ellroy adaptation that stays legible, with three cops who are each wrong in a different way.
Children of HeavenA lost pair of pink shoes carries a whole film, and the two child leads make its simplicity feel earned rather than calculated.
Men in BlackTommy Lee Jones's deadpan and Will Smith's swagger drive a slick alien-cop comedy that runs out of story long before it runs out of creatures.
The BoxerThe boxing and the ceasefire politics are exactly observed; the love story meant to bind them is a placeholder with a great actress inside it.
MetrolandA decent small film that keeps choosing the safe answer, rescued again and again by Emily Watson.
Batman & RobinA ninety million dollar toy catalogue that killed the franchise for eight years, and deserved to.