At least partially because I spent the entire year plugging away on my documentary, 2017 definitely deserves the subtitle “The Year Rob Didn’t See Many Movies At A Theater.” I sure wish I’d been able to watch many, many more. Nevertheless, personally it was an amazingly rich year for cinema (as usual, for this list I don’t care when a particular film was actually made).

CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR [2015, Apichatpong Weerasethakul]
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO [2016, Raoul Peck]
I CALLED HIM MORGAN [2016, Kasper Collin]
LO AND BEHOLD, REVERIES OF THE CONNECTED WORLD [2016, Werner Herzog]
MOONLIGHT [2016, Barry Jenkins]
THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON [1971, Howard Alk]
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS [2016, Tom Ford]
THE SHAPE OF WATER [2017, Guillermo del Toro]
20TH CENTURY WOMEN [2016, Mike Mills]
TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN [2017, David Lynch]

Yes, TWIN PEAKS is on my list of films. As to why, I can’t think of a better explanation than to quote my friend Michael Smith: “If Twin Peaks should be considered a film, it’s not because it ‘transcends’ the medium of television (whatever that means) but rather because it was written, financed, shot and edited the way that movies are and serialized T.V. shows are not.” Even in a year of excellent cinema, TWIN PEAKS stands tall as the most awe-inspiring creation of 2017.