It’s not in the elevated realm of Spotlight, The Insider, and All the President’s Men, but it’s solidly situated in the tier just below.

Moreover, this is the rare movie about journalism that has even a remote comprehension of how journalism actually works.

Steven Spielberg keeps his Spielbergian uplift largely in check and the cast-in particular the supporting players-is terrific. The epitome (in a good way) of a big-but-conventional, awards-season Hollywood movie. After that, as always, come my more idiosyncratic awards. For a change, I stuck to a top-10 list and, by consequence, allowed myself an unusually large number of honorable mentions. And, as always, there are inevitably movies that I didn’t see, in particular some foreign films and documentaries. As for smaller films, there are two, Lady Bird and Call Me by Your Name, that I liked, but clearly not as much as many other critics. Unlike many years, when I’ve included at least one big-budget blockbuster, I didn’t this year, in part because there were several that might have been good enough- War for the Planet of the Apes, Wonder Woman, Logan, etc.-but not one that stood out clearly above the rest. 5 didn’t feel as though they were far behind. The bigger surprise, perhaps, is that No. As often seems to be the case-including last year-I wrestled for a while with two contenders for best film of the year before one ultimately emerged as my clear favorite. 2017 was an excellent year for film, probably the best since 2013.

Best movies 2017 senscritique