Translated material
What was ashamed to miss in 2017
The best films, TV shows, books, albums and games. Choosing "Medusa"
"Dunkirk"
Director Christopher Nolan
An ideal example of an author's blockbuster. Here are all the topics that Christopher Nolan is obsessed with: synchronization of man and history, a change in fate by a strong -willed act, the ratio of an individual and society. The experimental coexistence of three time flows is a separate attraction. In addition, it is stunningly beautiful: almost abstract art, albeit on historical material.
"Testamus"
Director Kantemir Balagov
The most important debut of the year, made by Kantemir Balagov-a 25-year-old graduate of the Kabardino-Balkarian film massacle Alexander Sokurov. A lot of prizes in the homeland and the award of the jury of Fipers in Cannes. The picture, it seems, about the Jewish community in Nalchik at the end of the 1990s, but in fact-about the genesis of today's Russia and forced coexistence with each other, who are only nominally considered close, but in reality-long ago, strangers.
"Dislike"
Director Andrey Zvyagintsev
The best picture of Andrei Zvyagintsev is the most deceptive. Where the director’s unloved (they could make a separate film; of course, comedy) see coldness, misanthropy and calculation for international prizes, hidden longing for love, loneliness, a dream of a better for itself. Of course, unrealistic. Something, but there is no beautifulness in this nicer history.
"Austerlitz"
Director Sergey Loznitsa
Sergey Loznitsa and his impeccable documentary about tourists in former concentration camps. Meditative art experiment on a burning timely topic: what eyes do we look at the story, which are not involved in us, but strangers, long-dead people? What does this look say about ourselves? Everyone is looking for difficult answers to uncomfortable questions.
"Twin Pix"
Director David Lynch
Not a series and not a film, but a casket with secrets. David Lynch returned in all its glory and glory, unexpectedly continuing his masterpiece-the most influential television movie of the 1990s. The new Twin Pixes is an unprecedented exercise for the mind and all five (or even six) feelings, a storehouse of absurd humor and mystical puzzles. The picture of male and female identity, about time, about irreversible and necessary, about electricity and nature. That is, about the most important.
June. Dmitry Bykov
The best novel by Dmitry Bykov and generally the best Russian novel of not only this year, but also the previous ones. Under one cover, bulls reduces three separate plots, formally fastened only by the figure of a secondary character and the fact that they all reach the climax at the same time - on the eve of June 22, 1941. Honestly, without tormented allusions and meaningful winking, bulls talks about the last pre -war years, managing at the same time to give his story a frightening modern sound. The heroes of “June” live with a painful (and so understandable to us today) feeling of their own complicity in the crimes of the era and therefore are waiting for the war with joy, seeing in it a great redeeming storm, a global catastrophe, designed to cleanse the world and their own from the filth. The most powerful reading and the obvious candidate for all the main literary awards in 2018.
Text. Dmitry Glukhovsky
Dmitry Glukhovsky is almost the only Russian writer, truly successful in the West, and in his homeland having a cult status among adolescents. For a long time there was a feeling that Glukhovsky was capable of something more than just peppy commercial prose, and now this hypothesis has received a brilliant confirmation. The new novel of the writer “Text” is energetic, relevant and, for all that, a non -banal statement about the penetration of technology into our lives. Having served seven years on false prosecution, the former student of the Philfak Ilya is released by a kind of Count Monte Cristo: he wants to rebuild his life from scratch, but the main thing is to take revenge. Having killed the villain, the hero takes possession of his phone, and with him gets access to all the dark secrets of the murdered. And these secrets suddenly gain a strange power over Ilya’s soul: they lure him into a trap, attract temptations and ultimately lead to faithful death. In principle, we all understand that our relations with gadgets have not been described for a long time by the simple word “use”. But before Glukhovsky, no one tried to talk about the mobile phone as a mobile phone as a container of the soul of its owner and the modern analogue of the Tolkinovsky Ring of the Emistribution.
Zakhkhok. Vladimir Medvedev
The first big novel by Vladimir Medvedev Zakhhok is a polyphonic, multi-figure and dynamic story about time and place, as if erased from our mental map, namely about a civil war in Tajikistan in the 90s of the twentieth century. Seven very different votes (among the storytellers - the Moscow journalist, the Sufi Sheikh, and the village fool, and many others) Medvedev laid out the story of the collapse of civilization in one individual mountain village and that ancient chaos that inevitably replaces any order - even such a dubious and ineffective, as the Soviet order. Definitely the best statement on the unpopular post -colonial theme today and at the same time exciting narrative, touching, human and tragic.
Petrov in the flu and around him. Alexey Salnikov
The “Dark Horse” of the Short List of the Big Book Award, at the end of the year the novel by Yekaterinburg, Alexei Salnikov, “Petrova in the flu and around it,” was knocked into the bestsellers - and completely deservedly. The New Year's History of the Petrov family - a gloomy boy, the father of the family - a car deleser who draws comics about giant robots in his free time, and his ex -wife, a librarian with very strange views on life - begins as a witty household novel, but gradually slides into a terrible and exciting phantasmagoria, reminiscent of a goffman, Bulgakov and Bulgakov and Bulgakov Dmitry Gorchev. The language of the novel deserves special mention - dizzying funny (prepare - in places you will laugh out loud) and not like anything. In a word, a completely new voice appeared in Russian literature - clear, clean and accurately recognizable. And this, of course, is great news - this does not happen every year.
"Big Little Lies"
Screenwriter David E. Kelly, director Jean-Mark Valle
In December, The New York Times published a collection of horror films, where Nicole Kidman appeared in the role of a housewife obsessed with demons. Almost all the projects of the 2017 actress in one way or another reminded of the genre that made her a star: a psychological thriller. This is the “murder of the sacred deer”, and the second season of the “top of the lake”, and “fatal temptation”, but the 2017th with “Big Little Lie” began-a series that can be safely called the best drama of the year. In a small California city where very rich Americans live, there is a murder. But who is killed is incomprehensible; Who killers are even more so. Casting is not only Kidman, but also Reese Witherspoon, Alexander Skarshaard, Laura Dern and Adam Scott. In the directorial chair is the Canadian master of intense dramas Jean-Marc Valle. Showranner-11-time holder of Emmy David E. Kelly. And the author of the original source, the Australian writer Liana Moriarty, found a way to turn the melodrama about the lives of beautiful people into a thriller, understandable to everyone. Producer Nicole Kidman grabbed the idea of shooting a series on the book - and thereby gave a new impulse to actress Nicole Kidman.
"The story of the maid"
Screenwriter Bruce Miller
In 2017, many films and TV shows were so fond of journalism that they forgot about their direct duties - telling history. There are not so many happy exceptions that managed to preserve the balance between the civil sense and a sense of proportion. This was best succeeded in the "Handoor's story" - the main anti -utopia of the year about alternative America, in which there are almost no children, and rare women who can give birth are doomed to be slaves in wealthy families. Despite the unthinkable plot, this series knows what we are afraid of - and knows how to talk to us about it.
"Excellence"
Director Oksana Karas
Perhaps not the strongest, but the dearest mini-series of 2017-the detective "Excellent" Oksana Karas. He, to the offensive, quietly passed in the fall on Channel One - and meanwhile, this is one of those good -natured fairy tales that are set in a lyrical way no worse than the New Year's “Street of Broken Lights” or an old “NLS agency”. This series is a time machine and a model of a fresh approach to the narrative: despite the scenery of the post -war Leningrad, all the heroes are very modern and extremely charming people. Moreover, they are played by Yana Gladkikh, Julia Aug, Nikita Efremov and Alexander Yatsenko.
Aigel - 1190
Aigel Gaysina and Ilya Barayy released the main record of the year in Russian. Aigel's debut album is completely dedicated to the prison and courts - and based on the personal story of Aigel, whose boyfriend was serving a deadline for a fight. Aigel is a musical version of the news “Mediazons”, but the poetic talent of Gaisina allows you to tell gloomy everyday stories with an incredibly plastic and fresh language. Aigel changes the rules in the language, freely treats stresses and the literary norm. Only her voice sounds on the album, but it seems that at least three different people sing; There are dance hits (“Tatar”), and the frightening songs (“scratches”), and the social drama (“judge’s aria”), and recognition of love (“correspondence”). At the end of 2017, it became known that the young man that Aigel wrote about went out on hiso: the music finally mixed with life.
Skriptonite - Uroboros: Street 36 / Uroboros: Mirrors
Skriptonite promised to make an important musical statement in 2017, but at the same time asked not to count the album “Holiday on 36 Street”, which was released in May of this year, with serious work. The new release suddenly appeared in mid-December without any advertising and announcement; This is a double album called Uroboros, and this is the best work of the Kazakh rapper. Skriptonite, obviously, came to success and turned into one of the most interesting Russian -speaking musicians, but he sings not about success, as at the "holiday on Street 36"; “Uroboros” - rather about poverty, about the family of scriptonitis (in several songs, Adil Razelov reads about his father and laments that he cannot let him try severe drugs) and about the meaninglessness of fame. Skriptonite still reads like no one in the world; And sometimes it is impossible to make out the words in his songs (as, for example, in the track of the “entrance”) - this does not make them worse.
Husky - favorite songs (imaginary) people
Husky can cause rejection: he has a specific reading, unpleasant images in texts and extremely controversial views . But one cannot disagree that it is he who now more accurately speaks of Russia and is experiencing everything that is happening to it. “I do not want to be beautiful, I do not want to be rich, I want to be an automaton shooting at the face,”-this line is not only about the desire of a particular native of Ulan-Ude Dmitry Kuznetsov, it is about what the whole country wants. His hip-hop comes from denial, and not from self-affirmation, from reflection, and not from bragging. Husky can not be loved - but you need to listen at least once. We already wrote in detail why Husky is a new star of Russian music.
St. Vincent - MasSeduction
An outstanding guitarist Annie Clark recorded the first truly massive album in co-authorship with the most influential producer of 2017 Jack Antonoffhy . At Masseducation, she honestly talks about what is happening in her life (from partings to the treatment of depression), turning experiences into dance hits (“pills”) and dramatic love about love (“New York”). Clark went to this album for ten years and from a session guitarist only thanks to her own work and talent turned into a fashion icon and a rock star, whose novels discussed, to her displeasure, the yellow press.
Four Tet - New Energy
London Kiran Habden produces albums almost every year, but for a long time he did not get to such peaks. By the influence of the modern music of the Kirana electronics, you can compare with Burial, the annex Twin and John Hopkins, especially if you take into account his merits to popularize London underground music. Habden did not make the club music that he became interested in in recent years on the album “New Energy” - and recorded an incredibly beautiful album; There you feel both his love for the bit and for a thoughtful post-rock.
Playerunknownʼs Battlegrounds
Platforms: Windows , Xbox One (we do not advise)
The game, the name of which each time has to be copied from Wikipedia, is one of the most important breakthroughs in 2017 and one of the most interesting projects in 2018 (if only because the official exit of the game came for the second half of December). Only two cards are waiting for PUBG players, very small chances of victory, constant problems with performance and servers, a disgusting version of the Xbox One-and an infinite number of scenarios, because of which you can play for tens of hours. Especially if you find partners.
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Platforms: PlayStation 4 , Xbox One ,Windows
The most anticipated and most hated game of the year is, of course, the continuation of the Battlefront II multi -user shooter. It was supposed to be perfect: the battle of 20 by 20 in all eras of Star Wars, free cards, a single -user regime. And everything almost ruined the scandal around the Paid system to win, which developers were going to add to Battlefront II. This caused the terrible anger of gamers, but they eventually won! At least while Battlefront II came out without intra -game purchases, but they may appear later. If you do not pay attention to all this, then Battlefront II turned out to be an excellent shooter in which the errors of the previous part are fixed: blasters now shoot as it should, the game is quite diverse, and a lot can be given for the opportunity to participate in the last battle from the new part of Star Wars (immediately after watching the film in the movie theater).
Uncharted: Lost Legacy
Platform: PlayStation 4
In 2016, one of the best games was Uncharted 4-the last part of the adventures of the charismatic adventurer Neutan Drake. The continuation of Lost Legacy tells about the adventures of Kologa Fraser, the same as Drake, treasure hunters, and mercenaries Nadine Ross. Uncharted turns video games into cinema; Playing a new part is much more interesting than watching the last “Indiana Jones”. Formally, Lost Legacy is a small addition, but in reality the game is much different from Uncharted 4: for example, there is an episode with the open world, and in terms of duration it pulls on a separate project. In addition, Lost Legacy is fantastically beautiful. And this is a great occasion to go through the holidays all the previous Uncharted, if you missed them.
Nintendo Switch
Several games from the lists of the best projects of the year were developed for the new Nintendo Switch console. This is the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in which the main character Link is given more freedom of action than ever, and a completely new Super Mario Odyssey, sometimes more similar to GTA. Nintendo came up with a very interesting mixture of a portable and home console, on which both the original games of the Japanese company and the ports of some doom and Skyrim come out. Nintendo WII was too strange, Wii U was too useless, and Switch turned out to be both innovative and convenient.
Guns of Boom
It is strange to mention this mobile shooter next to large -scale computer and console games, but it deserves it. Guns of Boom offers players short online first-person players; The main feature of the game is that your hero begins to shoot automatically when you bring the sight to the enemy. This is enough for the expression “mobile shooter” to cease to cause pain: in the Guns of Boom fingers, there is just enough to run, aiming and changing weapons.
Anton Dolin, Galina Yuzefovich, Yegor Moskvitin, Pavel Borisov, Sultan Suleimanov