Year in Review: Terry's Top Ten Films of 2015

It's been a long time coming, but I have finally seen enough films to feel confident enough to write my top ten list of last year.  I try to make it a rule that I don't finalize my top ten list of the year until I have at least seen all the Best Picture nominees.  With my busy schedule, it usually takes until around now for that to happen.  As I think I say every year, it is better late than never.

To date, I have watched 28 films from 2015.  I realize probably all of my counterparts have seen that many, if not more, already in 2016 (my 2016 total right now is 3), however I have seen enough quality throughout the 2015 canon that I have no problem proclaiming my top ten of the year.  Here we go!

Honorable Mention

Southpaw

(dir. by Antoine Fuqua)

The Good Dinosaur

(dir. by Peter Sohn)

The Big Short

(dir. by Adam McKay)

10.  Beasts of No Nation

(dir. by Cary Joji Fukunaga)

Many people complained this year about racial bias in the Academy voting.  I think that is an unfair assessment and evaluation of the situation.  Yes, there were no African-Americans nominated in a major category this year.  However, the issue wasn't racial bias but a bias against streaming services.  The best chances African-Americans had at getting nominated was in Beasts of No Nation, a beautifully tragic film about the abduction, recruitment, brainwashing, and training of child soldiers in third world countries.  The film's star, Abraham Attah, deserved a nomination similar to Quvenzhane Wallis is 2012.  Idris Elba looked destined for his first nomination and an outside chance at winning.  At the very least, it would get the attention of the tech categories for the beautiful work of Fukunaga and his crew, showing that the first season of True Detective was a sign of the greatness to come from this young filmmaker.  However, it got no recognition.  Why?  It wasn't because of the all black cast.  It was because it was released on Netflix.  It received enough of a theatrical run to qualify for awards season, but everyone could see the film streaming online as soon as it was released.  Maybe this meant none of the important people saw it.  Maybe it meant all the moneymakers in Hollywood refused to vote for a film that refused to bring in a box office income.  Either way, Beasts of No Nation didn't get the credit it so much deserved.  Go find it on Netflix now if you haven't seen it.  It will break your heart.

9.  Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

(dir. by JJ Abrams)

Now to shift gears in the furthest direction possible from the last film, here's Star Wars, the biggest box office darling of 2015.  There is a reason it made so much money though.  It was that good.  It was a film that brought the franchise back down to earth ... or whatever planet they happened to be on.  George Lucas ruined the prequels with overuse of the digital.  JJ Abrams made it all look real again.  Sure, there are way too many parallels between this and A New Hope to ignore, however it doesn't change the fact that it was possibly the most entertaining theatrical experience of the year.

8.  Room

(dir. by Lenny Abrahamson)

This was the last film I required myself to watch before I made my list, and I am so glad I did.  This film is very similar to 2011's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close as it explains a horrific experience and ordeal through the eyes of a child.  However, where Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close resorted to mental illness and puzzles to connect with the audience, Room stayed much more down to earth as we see possibly the most honest and genuine performance of the year, and I am not talking about Oscar-winner Brie Larson.  Jacob Tremblay's performance in this should go down as one of the greatest child performances of all time.  His unique perspective on life and the world is shown in every moment he, or his voice, is on screen.  Somehow, this heartbreaking story of abduction and captivity is made heartfelt and inspiring through both Larson's and Tremblay's performances.

7.  The Revenant

(dir. by Alejandro G. Inarritu)

He did it again.  Who, you might ask?  There are several perfectly acceptable answers to this question.  Let's start with director Alejandro G. Inarritu.  Just one year earlier, Inarritu took home Oscars for Best Director and Picture for his groundbreaking film Birdman.  Now, he goes in a completely opposite direction and tells this story of struggle and survival in the wilderness.  His keen eye for beautiful filmmaking and setting in this might be rivaled only by Ang Lee in today's Hollywood.  Now, the other very acceptable answer to my original question is, of course, Leonardo DiCaprio.  Although he may have finally been recognized by the Academy with his first Oscar for this film, he once again proves that he might go down as one of the greatest actors of all time.  He has such a natural ability to disappear into any role he plays, and not in a campy, makeup way like Johnny Depp.  Leo just simply is whoever he needs to be.  Whether it be as the "King of the World" in Titanic, a con-artist kid in Catch Me If You Can, an eccentric entrepreneur in The Aviator, an undercover cop in The Departed, a plantation owner in Django Unchained, a crooked stock broker in The Wolf of Wall Street, or a man mauled by a bear determined to survive and live in The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio delivers the most believable performances in any film he makes.  He is simply the best of his generation, and it is about time the Academy honored him as such.

6.  Ex Machina

(dir. by Alex Garland)

This was definitely the biggest surprise of the year.  This brilliant film by Alex Garland, who had written several screenplays but was making his directorial debut here, explored the world of true artificial intelligence.  Appearing yet again on this list, Oscar Isaac (Star Wars) and Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars, The Revenant) star as the mad scientist and his guinea pig.  Alicia Vikander plays a robot that is very hard to recognize as such because she acts, thinks, reacts, and speaks just like a human.  It is an endlessly fascinating film that gets in your head and doesn't go away for awhile.  If you haven't seen it, do whatever you can to change that.

5.  The Hateful Eight

(dir. by Quentin Tarantino)

Why did I every doubt the master?  When I heard the plot and even saw the trailer for The Hateful Eight, it felt like a film that was bound to disappoint.  Quentin Tarantino makes films like no one else has ever even thought of.  However, a second consecutive film about a bounty hunter; this time stuck in a room for two hours with a bunch of other people?  Really?  I was skeptical to say the least.  Then I saw it and hated myself for ever thinking Tarantino could produce anything but a masterpiece.  This film's closest relative is definitely Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino's first film.  However, he also does things Tarantino has never done before.  He takes the time for long, landscape shots.  A filmmaker obsessed with dialogue let this film breathe almost more than any other film he has made.  I have said before that Quentin Tarantino has created his own genre.  The Hateful Eight shows that he is still the king of that genre he created.

4.  Brooklyn

(dir. by John Crowley)

Brooklyn is a beautiful story of love, loss, and self-discovery.  It is like a 20th century Jane Austen tale.  Saoirse Ronan is absolutely brilliant as a young Irish girl leaving everything she knows to find a new and better life for herself in America.  You know it is a good film when you are sad it ends because you want to live in these characters' lives a little longer.  I loved every minute of it.  On a side note, let's recognize the amazing year Domhnall Gleeson put together.  This is his fourth appearance in my top ten.  Few actors find enough work to put out four movies in a year.  Not only did Gleeson accomplish that, but all four films are among the very best of 2015.  Well done!

3.  The Martian

(dir. by Ridley Scott)

I have very high standards for movies in outer space, especially realistic ones.  Apollo 13 has scarred me for life.  With that said, The Martian is the closest thing to the greatness of Apollo 13 I have seen.  Matt Damon plays an astronaut left for dead on the Martian surface.  To everyone's surprise, including his own, he is still alive and must survive on Mars until someone can come get him.  Everyone made fun of the fact that this was categorized as a comedy at the Golden Globes.  Although I wouldn't classify it as such, it is quite funny.  Matt Damon and others are able to keep this potentially tragic survival story light and humorous throughout.  I normally am not a huge fan of Ridley Scott, but he really produced a masterpiece with this one.

2.  Spotlight

(dir. by Tom McCarthy)

The surprise winner of Best Picture deserved every accolade it received.  I have been a fan of Tom McCarthy's work for some time.  His unique way of telling stories in films like The Station Agent, The Visitor, and Win Win is always heartfelt and approachable, not matter the topic.  I even liked The Cobbler much more than I should have!  Now we find McCarthy's masterpiece.  Spotlight tells the true story of the investigation done by the Boston Globe surrounding child abuse and molestation in the Catholic church.  It is a heavy and depressing topic that could easily be preachy.  However, the film takes a very different approach.  It simply tells the story from the point of view of the reporters.  At no point do we "see" anything because the reporters didn't see anything.  Every character is a real person as the performances are some of the most understated and brilliant you will see on screen.  This is led by Liev Schreiber, an outsider new to the area that brings a fresh set of eyes to a topic many seemed to turn a blind eye to in the close-knit community of Boston.  It is a quiet, real, yet intense movie you cannot take your eyes off of.  Movies don't get much better than this.

1.  Inside Out

(dir. by Pete Docter & Ronnie Del Carmen)

Pixar is king when it comes to animated films.  They simply operate on a different level than every other animated studio.  Their secondary film this year made my honorable mention!  However, every now and then, they make a film that is truly a masterpiece regardless of whether it is animated or live action.  Inside Out is one of those films.  It is fun and entertaining for the kids, yet it has a message that is profound and genuine.  This film takes you inside the head of a young girl where her five key emotions (Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness) control her actions and attitude.  The intricate world that is built to represent her mind is a genius way to describe how our brains work.  As chaos enters the young girl's life, chaos erupts in the brain's control room as Joy must try and fix what has been broken.  Being someone who works with kids often, I had such a deeper appreciation for the immense thought and care that was put into such a story that really explores the psyche of a pre-teen better than any film I have ever seen.  When Pixar makes films like this and WALL-E, they are not only making a fun kid's film.  They are making a cinematic masterpiece that will stand the test of time.

So there's my list.  What do you think?  Check our page later this week to see what films made our site's top 5 films of 2015.

Year in Review: Adam's Top Ten Films of 2015

2015 is finally in the books.  What a year it was too, not only for the big box office movies but also for the small indie films as well.  We had 9 movies this year have opening weekends of 80 million dollars or more (American Sniper, Fifty Shades of Grey, Furious 7, Avengers 2, Jurassic World, Inside Out, Minions, Hunger Games, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens).  6 of those films had opening weekends of 100 million dollars or more (Furious 7, Avengers 2, Jurassic World, Minions, Hunger Games, and Star Wars).  Then 2 of those films broke 200 million dollars for an opening weekend (Jurassic World and Star Wars).  In the first 20 days of being released, Star Wars has already broke the all time domestic record, set by Avatar in 2006.  Star Wars has made, as of 1/9/2016, 781,141,043 dollars and still going strong!  

We saw some sequels make some huge comebacks.  Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Creed, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Jurassic World and Furious 7, have showed us that these franchises are a live and well.  They showed us that sequels can actually be better than some of the films in previous installments.  

As for indie films, we were giving some really good ones (Spotlight, '71, Mississippi Grind, Love and Mercy, Brooklyn, It Follows, Slow West, 5 Flights Up, The Revenant, Sicario), just to name a few.  Though there was some duds too (The Danish Girl, Welcome to Me, Adult Beginners, Big Game).  I feel like even though there was a lot of good ones, this year just doesn't stack up for quality to last year.  

As for performances, we witness a lot of good ones that will wreck havoc on Oscar voters.  Leonard DiCaprio (The Revenant), Alicia Vikander (Ex-Machina), Jenifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), and Johnny Deep (Black Mass) gave us some really gripping performances.  Directors can be stars as well.  Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (The Revenant), J.J. Abrams (Star Wars 7), George Miller (Mad Max:Fury Road) and F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) gave us some of the most iconic images of the year.  

Before we get to my Top 10 list, lets hand out some awards to the people who make the films of 2015!

Total 2015 films seen: 120

Thumbs up percentage: 64%

Movies I need to see, that could make my list: Carol, The Martian, Son of Saul, The Look of Silence, and Amy

Actor of the Year:

Domhnall Gleeson

(Ex-Machina, Brooklyn, The Revenant, Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Actress of the Year:

Alicia Vikander

(Testament of Youth, Ex-Machina, Seventh Son, Burnt, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Danish Girl)

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant, Johnny Deep - Black Mass, Oscar Issac - Ex-Machina, Michael B. Jordan - Creed, Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs

Best Actress: Emily Blunt - Sicario, Charlize Theron - Mad Max:Fury Road, Brie Larson - Room, Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn, Amy Schumer - Trainwreck

Best Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro - Sicario, Idris Elba - Beast of No Nation, Sylvester Stallone - Creed, Tom Hardy - The Revenant, Jason Mitchell - Straight Outta Compton

Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander - Ex-Machina, Jenifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight, Cate Blanchett - Cinderella, Rachael McAdams - Spotlight, Elizabeth Banks - Love and Mercy

Best Breakout Performance: Alicia Vikander - Ex-Machina, Daisy Ridley - Star Wars:The Force Awakens, Shameik Moore - Dope, Taron Egerton - Kingsmen, Lilly James - Cinderella

Best Director: George Miller - Mad Max:Fury Road, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - The Revenant, Ryan Coogler - Creed, Pete Doctor - Inside Out, Tom McCarthy - Spotlight

Best Original Screenplay: Inside Out, Spotlight, Sicario, Ex-Machina, Straight Outta Compton

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Revenant, Creed, Steve Jobs, The Big Short, Brooklyn

Most Underrated Films: Dope, Steve Jobs, Unfriended, McFarland USA, Mississippi Grind, The Gift

Most Overrated Films: The Big Short, Trumbo, The Good Dinosaur, Legend, Tomorrowland, Chappie, The Danish Girl

Biggest Surprise: Parallels, Creep, The Intern, Danny Collins

Biggest Disappointment: Avengers:Age of Ultron, Chappie

Best Sequel: Creed

Best Laughs: Trainwreck, Sleeping with Other People, Let's Kill Ward's Wife, Spy 

Best Scares: It Follows, Cartel Land, Insidious Chapter 3,  

Bottom Five of the Year (from bad to worse): Sinister 2, Hot Pursuit, The Gallows, Paranormal Activity:The Ghost Dimension, Mortedecai 

Check out my Top Ten Worst Films of 2015

Honorable Mentions: Kingsmen, Southpaw, McFarland USA, Jurassic World, Beast of No Nation, 

It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen)

Sleeping with Other People (Leslye Headland)

Trainwreck (Judd Apatow)

 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)

10.

The Hateful Eight 

(Quentin Tarantino)

It seems like every time Tarantino makes a film, its always on peoples Top Ten list.  This year is no different.  The Hateful Eight can easily be compared to the movie Clue.  Its a western 'who done it' movie, with a ton of character!  This movie follows a bounty hunter (Kurt Russel) and his prisoner (Jenifer Jason Leigh) as they journey through the Wyoming winter.  They come across a few crazy characters along the way (Samuel L. Jackosn and Walton Goggins) and they all must hold up in a cabin due to a blizzard.  Their they meet a few more characters (Dern, Madsen, Roth, Bichir) that make the story even more interesting.  The characters are so rich in backstory, it makes it really enjoyable to see them interact with one another.  The second half might be even better than the first.  The 'who done it' part is really well written and paced.  It might not be Tarantino's best work (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs) but its definitely deserving of a spot on this list.  You should check this out if your a fan of a good Tarantino flick, heck they are all good.

9.

Brooklyn

(John Crowley)

Brooklyn, to me, is a beautiful movie about growth and independence.  Saoirse Ronan plays Eilis, a young lady who leaves her small Irish town for Brooklyn, New York.  Now, Eilis isn't necessarily brave and adventurous, she is shy and cautious.  She is on the cusp of womanhood and she has to take those finally steps on her own.  She has to learn how to overcome her shyness by making new friends at the department store she works at as well as the boarding house she resides.  She falls in love with a local man and begins planning her life with him.  But after a tragic incident in her hometown, she must journey back, and figure out what her heart is telling her is right.  It's a beautiful movie of how we must grow into adulthood and to follow our heart.  Saoirse Ronan gives us one of the best performance of the year!

8.

Straight Outta Compton

(F. Gary Gray)

This movie was my most anticipated movie of the summer!  This film shows us the rise of N.W.A., the world's most dangerous group.  Jason Mitchell (Easy E), O'Shea Jackson Jr (Ice Cube), and Corey Hawkins (Dr. Dre) are amazing in their roles.  I enjoyed the journey that this movie took us on.  This movie came out at the right time, considering all the negative press about police brutality recently.  I enjoyed singing along with the songs in the theater (along with everyone else) and seeing how this group along with other rappers came up in the business.  This movie would make an awesome HBO series as well.

7.

Spotlight

(Tom McCarthy)

This the true story about how the Boston Globe uncovered the child molestation cover up with in the Catholic church.  Another perfect timing movie.  As I was watching this, I was blown away with the amazing performances and how well this film was put together.  Even though I enjoyed this movie a lot, I still had a hard time watching this knowing what the final outcome will be.  I have a daughter myself and I want to protect her from anything like this from ever happening to her.  It's hard believing that an organization, like the Catholic church, would do something like this to kids.  Truly breaks my heart.  I'm glad McCarthy and Singer penned this script and made this movie so the world knows about these things.  Going to be one to look out for come award season!

6.

Mad Max: Fury Road

(George Miller)

In the time of big CGI movies (Avengers:Age of Ultron, Jurassic World), its good to see a movie that uses practical effects.  It is so good to be back in this world and it feels like we never left.  Tom Hardy steps into the shoes of Max, taking them from Mel Gibson.  Even though this is a Mad Max film, his limelight is stolen from him by one of my favorite character this year.  Charlize Theron plays Imperator Furiose, a kick ass female movie character on par to the likes of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from the Alien franchise.  This was a non stop thrill ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat.  

5.

Inside Out

(Pete Doctor)

This movie is such a unique experience that is super enjoyable for the whole family.  Pixar is finally back with a fresh new idea and it pays off.  It's a movie about the emotions in our head.  It follows little girl, Riley, as she moves with her family to San Francisco.  Now as a person who moved around a lot as a kid, made this movie hit home even more.  Having a daughter made it hit even harder.  I actually teared up 3 times in this movie and I'm glad I did.  It's such a sweet movie about our feelings.  This is a good movie for the kids and adults.  

4.

Ex Machina

(Alex Garland)

The movie that made, Alicia Vikander, a star!  It follows a young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) as he is selected to particapte in an experiment in A.I. by evaluating the human qualities of a female A.I. (Vikander).  The creator (Oscar Isaac) of the A.I. Nathan, and Caleb (Gleeson) build a strange relationship as they work on their project.  What's even stranger is the relationship between Caleb and Ava (Vikander), which is some of the best parts of the movie.  What movie that makes you think, and will leave you with even more questions after it is over.  Definitely a god conversation starter.

3.

Sicario

(Denis Villeneuve)

I am sensing a trend,  A third perfect timing movie.  This movie follows FBI agent (Emily Blunt) who in enlisted by a government task force to aid against the war on drugs.  This is such a hard movie to watch.  The way it is shot, makes you want to take a hot shower right after it.  The performance of Blunt, Del Toro, and Brolin are amazing and it is such a same that they are not getting recognized for any awards.  If you watch the documentary 'Cartel Land', it will make this movie even better.  

2.

Creed

(Ryan Coogler) 

 The last time Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler made a film (Fruitvale Station) it was amazing and made my top ten too.  The amazing thing about this is that Ryan Coogler actually wrote this a pitched it to Sylvestor Stallone.  Stallone liked it and the rest is history.  It follows Adonis Creed (Jordan) as he struggles to make an name for himself in the boxing world.  He turns to his late fathers best friend, Rocky Balboa.  Stallone gives one of the best performances of his carer, Oscar worthy.  I enjoyed the chemistry between Stallone and Jordan.  Jordan has continued to show us how he is one of the best young actors out there today.  The cinematography is one of the most underrated parts of this film too.  

1.

The Revenant

(Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

The Revenant, is my favorite movie of the year and hears why! 1) Leonardo DiCaprio is amazing as Hugh Glass.  Granted, he is one of my favorite actors working today.  My favorite film he is in is 'The Departed' though I feel that this role is even better.  I totally feel like he should finally receive the Oscar he has been chasing for such a long time.  2) Inarritu has shown us the last two years, how to direct a movie.  His long, beautiful, and gripping shots are truly breathe taking.  He builds the tension, that leaves you on the edge of your seat.  3) The score played perfectly with the way the movie was paced.  I love John Williams (Star Wars) but Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto, totally put an amazing score together that shines in the film. 4) Tom Hardy, is amazing and totally being overlooked during award season.  I really like Hardy as an actor and usually enjoy ever role he is in.  But man, I hate this guy in this film.  5) Now I didn't watch a single trailer for this film, so I went end completely unaware of what I was going to witnessed.  So glad I did.  6). Last thing, is that out of every movie this year, this was the one movie that is head and shoulders above the rest.  I realy enjoyed every shot and I can't wait to see this again!  The tense moments between characters and the the tense moments between Leo and the environment make for one amazing cinematic experience.  I can't say enough good thing about this movie!  This movie is not for the faint of heart and won't be liked by everyone, but for this guys it's my favorite film of the year!

Well that's my list an awards!  What do you think about them?  What is your Top Ten?

Thank you again!

Heres to an even better 2016 at the movies!

Adam 

Year in Review: Zach's Top Ten Films of 2015

            Like the main character of my favorite film of this year, I became homesick for motion pictures in 2015.  In spite of the wealth of publications and breathless critics proclaiming the usurping of film by television (a claim that has been made on a regular basis since the 1940s), I still ardently believe, or am just too rigid to concede otherwise, that even the most pedestrian movies are still better than the best TV shows.  Yes, film may be a dying art (metaphorically as well as literally) and television may be in a “golden age” – whatever that means – but no television set, no matter how high-definition, can adequately replace the overwhelming totality of the theatergoing experience.  And for those who vigorously assert that a 13-episode season contains infinitely more complex narrative depth than even the most intricately written two-hour film, I would counter that most often in drama as in life (as well as with talkative guests at parties), less is more.

            Television remained a vast wasteland in 2015 (even in spite of a handful of watchable and engaging programs like Fargo, Better Call Saul and The Jinx), and while it is undeniable that many movies in 2015 might have been a wasteland too, at least their shorter running times enabled their experiences to be considerably less vast.  Of course, the most successful movies in 2015 were fundamentally derivative – sequels, franchises, remakes, rip-offs, or in some cases, all of the above – but let the populist audiences eat their cake.  At least films like Mad Max: Fury Road, Creed and Star Wars: The Force Awakens added much-needed diversity, youth, and an astute sense of political consciousness to their narratives rather than simply playing lazy old hat. 

            As for The Force Awakens, a film that outgrossed all six of its previous installments in the first week of its theatrical release: Say what you will about it (I personally enjoyed it more than I had ever expected to), but few can deny the powerful pull it had for young and old audiences alike, illustrating for better or for worse that commercial cinema still has that unique and inimitable ability to bring even the most disparate and dissimilar audiences together for the same cause.  Even the snarky cynical Marxist in me can take comfort in knowing that, in most cases, for a film to earn that much money (much of which derives from repeat viewings), it has to have some markers of quality.  Same with Jurassic World, Furious 7 and Spectre.  No one went to those movies because they were bad – people didn’t go to (or back to) Pan precisely because it was bad.  And the millions of Chinese audiences who saw Avengers: Age of Ultron and Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II had no other choice. It is wrong to blame movie audiences for all the bad movies released and the gradual erosion of taste and critical insight into media and storytelling.  People are usually smart, and great movies are genius.  Instead, let’s blame television.

2015 by the numbers

Total 2015 films seen: 61

“Thumbs up” percentage: 63.9 percent

Movies I haven’t seen that could still potentially make this list: The Revenant, Son of Saul, The Lobster, Anomalisa, Mustang, Eden, 45 Years, Taxi, Jauja.

Movies I’m proud to say I didn’t see: Cinderella, The Good Dinosaur, The Intern, Pixels, Fantastic Four, The Age of Adaline.

Overrated: Room, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (two of the year’s worst movies), What We Do In the Shadows, Bridge of Spies, Love and Mercy, Time Out of Mind, The Big Short, The Martian (It’s probably appropriately rated, but nowhere near deserving of Best Picture).

Underrated: The Walk, Dope, Unfriended, Boulevard, Paper Towns (not good, but so much better than Me and Earl…), Blackhat, the first 20 minutes of Fifty Shades of Grey, and yes, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (That’s for all the haters.)

Best Actor: Jason Segel, The End of the Tour

Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Supporting Actor: Liev Schreiber, Spotlight

Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina

Honorable Mention

Carol (Todd Haynes)

Inside Out (Pete Docter)

It Follows (David Robert Mitchell) 

Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) 

Sicario (Denis Villeneuve) 

The Top Ten

10. The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino) If it feels obligatory putting another Tarantino film in my top ten list for the year, it is because his films represent the best aspects of motion pictures in general.  He is a visionary auteur who self-consciously invokes his cinephilia both on-and-off the screen.  His films are uncompromising, lengthy, full of circular and quirky inimitable characters and dialogue, and full of images that are as violent as they are inherently, romantically cinematic.  The Hateful Eight is chalk full of Tarantino, from the setting (a self-reflexive western) to the actors (Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Madsen, and Tim Roth, among others) to the over-the-top levels of bloodshed in the film’s second half.  But even in spite of those recognizable components, the film still feels fresh and engaging, portraying characters we want to know more about, events that have greater significance than what we could possibly initially comprehend, and outrageous moments that no other director would have the audacity to remotely approach.  In interviews, Tarantino has discussed how, in spite of being confided to a single interior space over a single 24-hour period, the story of The Hateful Eight is really the story of reconciliation after the Civil War between the North and the South.  This reconciliation is anything but seamless and, as Tarantino’s recent activism has demonstrated, neither has it been fully resolved in 2015.  But the way it is depicted in The Hateful Eight – through a surprising degree of delicacy and thoughtfulness in the midst of vast bloodshed and dismembered body parts – is as idiosyncratic and improbable as its virtuosic filmmaker.

9. Tangerine (Sean Baker) One of those wonderful and woefully rare movies where, after the first ten minutes, it is safe to say you have no idea what you have gotten yourself into.  As I wrote in my initial full-length review, the story is something of a cross between Paul Haggis’ Crash and The Jerry Springer Show: Two transgendered hookers (Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) spend 24 hours before Christmas hanging out in a donut shop, confronting a cheating ex-boyfriend, performing music at a local bar, soliciting johns on Hollywood Boulevard, and enacting revenge on an adulteress.  The movie is simultaneously funny, vulgar, sweet, gritty, trashy, and even surprisingly touching.  It is also somewhat groundbreaking; director Baker shot the entire film on an iPhone 5s using nothing more than an anamorphic adapter blow up the images.  The result is a crisp, detailed production that looks in no way as though it was filmed using a consumer device.  The film is by no means a “message” picture, but it is difficult to believe that even the most skeptical and socially rigid audience member would not be won over by the charming and diverse cast.  Ultimately, Tangerine is not about sex as much as it is about being an outsider, and how vital it is to combat the loneliness and isolation that comes with the territory of not belonging, with other people you can put your trust in.  Of course, the film is much too fun and subversive to be caught up with anything approximating that preachy of a message, but deep down, Tangerine has its heart firmly in the right place.

8. Goodnight Mommy (Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala) After you see it, you will probably observe its narrative resemblance to certain other films and novels (which I dare not mention here), but for the most part, Goodnight Mommy is not concerned with plot – the film’s overwhelming concern is mood and atmosphere.  The story is told through the perspective of twin cherubic 10-year-old boys, Elias and Lukas (played by real-life brothers Elias and Lukas Schwarz), who inhabit an isolated house deep in the woods.  One day, a woman purporting to be their mother returns with bandages wrapped around her face after having undergone substantial facial reconstructive surgery (the first of two films on my list this year to involve a woman whose facial surgery brings her identity into question).  The boys quickly realize that the woman is not who she claims she is and they begin to craft ways of bringing their real mother back – the results of which become gradually more dark and twisted.  The film moves at a slow pace in the first half, only to move to a much more ominous, quick, and violent resolution in the second half; this strategy reveals itself as intentional at a certain point when revelations are revealed which call into question the reliability of some of the characters.  Like the best films of Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier, Goodnight Mommy contains a deep and unremittingly dark view of humanity, which in many respects is far more disturbing than any bloodshed depicted in the film.  It is the type of film that could never be made in the United States (or rather, if it was made, it would be more chopped up than Elias and Lukas’ mother’s face), and yet somehow after seeing it, your first impulse is to watch it again. 

7. The Walk (Robert Zemeckis) At this point, it is more than fair to call The Walk a box-office bomb (grossing only $10 million domestically, less money than The 33, Burnt, and The Gunman).  It has also been all but completely ignored by critics and end-of-year awards, which is rather inexplicable for a major studio film released in October to favorable reviews.  Maybe it was the PG rating, maybe it was Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s French accent (not bad at all in fact), or maybe everyone thought they already knew all about Phillippe Pettit’s incredible tightrope walk across the Twin Towers in 1974 after seeing the 2008 documentary Man on Wire.  Who knows.  In any event, Zemeckis’ film is a spectacular rendering of Pettit’s unconventional journey, first as a fearless street performer and amateur tightrope walker in Paris, then as an internationally-renown daredevil putting his life in danger for the sake of his art.  The story is a neat combination of Ocean’s Eleven and Hugo, and the supporting characters are interesting and serviceable, but the heart of The Walk is its incredible visual effects, which are truly heart-pounding and even stomach-inducing.  I must admit without hyperbole, my palms became unspeakably sweaty for most of the film’s final hour.  I suppose one must ask the same question that was asked of Avatar and Gravity, which is whether the IMAX 3D experience put a spectacular disguise on an otherwise pedestrian story.  But in this era where film and TV spectatorship has become disturbingly intertwined, The Walk serves a reminder that there is no other experience quite like an epic movie (on a movie theater screen) transporting you to a visual world few others have ever seen. 

6. The Lesson (Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov) This was an excellent under-the-radar film from Bulgaria that no one saw because it only played in a handful of festivals at U.S. cities (fortunately, it is available to stream right now on Netflix).  The story: An English teacher named Nadya (Margita Gosheva) is on the verge of bankruptcy, cohabiting with an insolvent alcoholic husband and a young daughter.  The film profiles a few days in her life, as creditors are able to track her down and threaten to foreclose on her house unless she can come up with a substantial sum of money.  Aesthetically and narratively, the film bears an unmistakable similarity to Two Days, One Night, as Nadya scrambles desperately to solicit assistance from friends and family (as well as the occasional perfect stranger), all while steadfastly struggling to maintain her dignity in the face of surrendering to defeat and humiliation.  It’s not as good as the Dardenne Brothers’ masterpiece, but I enjoyed the way the film goes to great lengths to establish an elaborate geographical and emotional universe (albeit on a small scale) that seems to throw hurdle after hurdle at the likeable and engaging heroine.  The film moves at a very quick pace, is often quite unpredictable, and even contains a few scenes of wicked and unexpected humor (such as Nadya’s confrontation with her estranged father’s new trophy wife).  And Gosheva’s performance is one of the year’s best, illustrating the stark realities of a desperate teacher trying haplessly to honor the same ethical code she so rigidly instills to her students.

5. The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt) From a purely subjective standpoint, there may have been no film more personally enjoyable to watch in 2015 than The End of the Tour, particularly in light of the considerable doubts I had walking into it.  Would the film lionize, demystify, or lampoon David Foster Wallace and his mythical literary status over the past two decades?  Would Ponsoldt dumb down Wallace’s complex and uncompromising personality, and how would his intellectual contributions be translated into a coherent narrative?  For all its audacity, the film finds its greatest success in how small it is, opting only to show a few days in Wallace’s life soon after the publication of Infinite Jest in 1996.  Not too far removed from Almost Famous, the film depicts a struggling young Rolling Stone writer named David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) given unprecedented access to Wallace (Jason Segel) at the precipice of his launch into international stardom.  The vast majority of The End of the Tour is the long, rambling, often unresolved conversations between the two protagonists, which recalls the rich and beautifully unkempt attitudes of 1970s cinema (particularly Wim Wenders and Eric Rohmer).  Set against a backdrop of the snowy Midwest, Wallace is depicted as a relentlessly self-conscious and earnest burgeoning intellectual, and the film is daring in the way it doesn’t shy away from frequent unspoken tension and hostility between him and Lipsky.  Both performances are outstanding, but Segel in particular ascends to completely new levels of acting, using a beautifully understated demeanor to hint at deep levels of despair and loneliness.  In spite of everything you may think you know about Wallace – and everything you think you know about Wallace’s acolytes and imitators – the film shows something new with dialogue that feels substantive and meaningful, which has become rare for the majority of commercial cinema.  

4. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy) The current front-runner for Best Picture is well-deserving of the praise which has been bestowed on it.  It is a story that could have easily gotten swept up in the hysteria and revelations of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, as exposed by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigative reporting team in the early 2000s, but rather than being exploitative or overly political, the film wisely limits its purview solely to the perspectives of the journalists working on behalf of Spotlight.  Subsequently, the film isn’t really as much about the church abuse scandal as it is the contours and nuances of investigative journalism in the era just before the internet made access instantaneous and near-universal (and arguably rendering much previous investigative journalism benign and reactionary).  Like All the President’s Men, the film is singular in its focus on reconstructing events that occurred years earlier by characters we’re vaguely familiar with through name and verbal description only.  Even by the end of the film, we know considerably more about the much-ballyhooed classified church documents than we do about the personal lives of the reporters (played with uniformly strength by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d’Arcy James), which is precisely the point.  It would be a fallacy to praise the film on that one aspect alone, but it deserves recognition because McCarthy’s focus (as one of the film’s characters astutely points out) is not on the relatively inconsequential individuals involved, but the larger institutional systems that enabled and promoted years of abuse and cover-up.  The film also illuminates the power of ethical, painstakingly-researched journalism in a way that isn’t quite Frank Capra, but also isn’t cynical or jaded either.  Spotlight is quietly a David-and-Goliath story where the slingshot is replaced by the much more powerful mighty pen.

3. Ex Machina (Alex Garland) You may have heard that Ex Machina contains the best dance scene in recent cinematic memory (you would be correct).  It also is the best pure sci-fi film in an era when the notion of “sci-fi” has been relegated to mean bloated budgets, high-octane action with little attention to story, and superfluous special effects replacing intellectually probing questions about the future of human ingenuity.  In yet another remarkable performance in a truly prosing career, Oscar Isaac plays a somewhat-mad scientist named Nathan who invites a young protégé named Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) to participate in a Turing test at his remote laboratory in order to prove that his artificially intelligent fembot, Ava (Alicia Vikander), could pass for human.  Structurally, the film is essentially a cat-and-mouse game between Caleb and Nathan, with each one suspicious of the other’s motives and as a result, eager to make the next move before the other catches on.  All the while, Ava proves to be more truly more intelligent than either man suspects (the film has a nice undercurrent of feminism laced throughout), and eventually the battle of wits over who truly controls Ava transforms into a larger metaphor about what core elements remain uniquely human in a future when the vast majority of intelligence has become robotic.  Sure, it doesn’t boast the spectacular visual effects of Interstellar or The Martian, but it more than compensates through a story that is rich with intelligent, captivating dialogue about the ethics of engineering artificial life, as well as dramatic events that are truly surprising and unexpected in a genre whose tropes have often become instantly recognizable and predictable.  The claustrophobic atmosphere (one remote house, four characters) gives the film a feeling of immediacy and unease, while Garland’s camera and stark color scheme invite the viewer into a universe where human emotions are simultaneously nothing as well as the only thing. 

2. Phoenix (Christian Petzold) If The End of the Tour recalled Winders, then Phoenix undoubtedly invoked Rainer Fassbinder, full of melodramatic and absurd artifice in order succinctly depict a scathing critique of society and historical memory.  Taking place shortly after the end of World War II, the film depicts a Holocaust survivor named Nelly (Nina Hoss), whose face has been severely burned and deformed to the extent that she has been rendered unrecognizable – even to her husband, who survives the war and believes that she has died on the concentration camps. So there’s the Victor/Victoria conceit – Nelly pretending to be someone pretending to be herself – but that is only the first and most basic level of plot; the film really is much more concerned with asking the question what it means to be a Jewish Holocaust survivor in a world where there are no more Jews or Holocaust survivors, but only those who consented to sacrifice their ethics and loyalties in exchange for an empty life under the Third Reich.  Nelly becomes a disembodied observer of herself and the people she used to know before her fate was sealed in the camps, and in that sense, she represents survivors of the Holocaust who attempt to return to their lives only to realize that returning to their lives before the war is impossible.  Petzold’s film is imperfect and complex, so complex in fact that it is difficult to follow at times, but the result is a film that is so overwhelming and narratively rich that it left me aghast for days after initially viewing it.  Who are these people and why are their motivations shaped in the disorienting and perplexing ways that they are?  An American film would have undoubtedly attempted to answer these questions in broad, obvious strokes, but Phoenix remains mysterious and beguiling.  The brilliant final scene shows Nelly finally saying everything she needs to say to her husband but none of it is expressed through words, instead only a fleeting and stunning accidental glance.

1. Brooklyn (John Crowley) Even in the weeks after seeing Brooklyn and, at this very moment, considering the high quality of the other films on this list, it still comes as a relative shock to me just how good Brooklyn truly is.  It lacks the complex, rich narrative of Phoenix, the witty, erudite dialogue of The End of the Tour and The Hateful Eight, and the impressive visual spectacle of The Walk.  But as Roger Ebert famously decreed in his first law of film, a movie is not what it is about, but how it is about it.  And no other film in 2015 understood its subject matter better, nor more successfully enraptured its audience, than Crowley’s adaptation of Colm Toibin's novel of the same name.  In what was by far the best performance I saw all year, Saoirse Ronan starred as Eilis, an Irish girl in 1952 who makes the brave and tumultuous journey from her small hometown in Ireland to Brooklyn.  Eilis is not exactly borne of an adventurous spirit, but rather is a shy, introverted, deeply frightened teenager on the brink of womanhood whose prospects for success as an immigrant in New York City are at first extremely poor. But after making a new family of the friends and acquaintances she meets at the boardinghouse she resides at, as well as getting a job at a department store, Eilis gradually learns to overcome the hardships of homesickness.  This doesn't exactly sound like groundbreaking material, but the way in which this story is told -- through careful and delicate observations, as well as handsome period detail throughout -- quickly makes Brooklyn's story captivating, even as we anticipate the film growing stale and sentimental with the emergence of a love interest and inevitable trip back home to Ireland.  In actuality, the film gets better and edgier as it goes along.  Eilis' return visit shows that in spite of her growth and blossoming into independence and adulthood, like the best of us she still succumbs to the nostalgic scent of home, even with the idea of home is fraught with complacency, stunted dependence, and limitations abound.  The final image of Brooklyn is that most cherished of all cinematic images -- a kiss -- except of course it signifies so much more than simply a kiss; for Eilis, it is the embrace of freedom and endless possibilities.  It's only on the surface that Brooklyn is a movie about America.  In reality, Brookyln is about the romance of finally growing up and becoming a citizen of the world.

Thoughts? Disagreements? Let me know below!