Comment on The 10 best lines from movies in 2017

Sometimes a film delivers its most powerful message wordlessly – say, by the clenching of a character’s jaw. More often, movie moments are made by the words that are spoken – or shouted – such as Tommy Wiseau in “The Room,” wailing, “You’re tearing me apart!” (That gem of dialogue, by the way, was stolen from “Rebel Without a Cause,” as we learn in the new film “The Disaster Artist,” a comedy about the making of Wiseau’s so-bad-it’s-good masterpiece.) Here are 10 other memorable bits of dialogue from this year’s films – some of which are sure to be nominated for screenwriting Oscars, and others that, for reasons that are harder to explain, found their way into this critic’s heart – and notebook. “Lady Bird” Screenwriter: Greta Gerwig Actress Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut centers on Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a Sacramento high school senior who dismisses her home town as the “Midwest of California.” But the headmistress of Lady Bird’s Catholic school, Sister Sarah Joan (Lois Smith), thinks she knows better, telling our protagonist that it’s obvious, from the way she writes about Sacramento in her college admissions essays, that Lady Bird loves the city.