I grew up in the era of the VHS tape. Everything was fuzzy and nothing had chapter menus and the TVs we watched them on were small and square and inexplicably heavy. But there’s a quality to what was on some of those tapes—a post-green screen, pre-internet desire for total radness and earnest sentimentality—that Brigsby Bear captures perfectly. Brigsby follows a group of friends trying to recreate a fake ’80s kids show about an animatronic space bear, and it’s my favorite film of the year because they don’t do it to change the world or get famous. That stuff comes later—maybe. First you have to make something you like, that speaks to you, even if it’s kinda dumb. Sometimes that means grabbing a camera and a couple of friends and making a totally rad, earnestly sentimental movie about an animatronic space bear. (dir. Dave McCary; available digitally and on Blu-ray)

The Portland Mercury's Super Cinema Strikeforce™ had a bunch of other favorite movies in 2017, too! Check them all out here.