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| this is a super timely thing I put together. |
I wanted to wait to post my thoughts on 2015 films until the Oscar nominations were announced today. It didn't change my choices, but hopefully it works as a continuation of the conversation. Below are my choices for the best films of 2015, with my (somewhat long-winded) thought process on how I came to these decisions.
Oscar nominees for Best Picture are highlighted:
Top 15 Films 2015
- Spotlight
- Inside Out
- What We Do in the Shadows
- Brooklyn
- Room
- Dope
- Amy
- Anomalisa
- Kingsman: The Secret Service
- Straight Outta Compton
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Experimenter
- Ex Machina
- Creed
- The Martian
People Places Things
Sisters00
Trainwreck
What We Do in the Shadows
Jemaine Clement (the beefier half of Flight of the Conchords) had an amazing year. People Places Things and What We Do in the Shadows are definitely two of the best films on the calendar. However, while People Places Things is an interesting exploration of middle-aged sadness and angst while also being a touching look at fatherhood, What We Do in the Shadows is just a ballsy, hilarious film. Plus, it’s a mockumentary AND it’s about vampires, which are two things I strongly dislike, yet it’s still amazing. The war between the werewolves and the vampires is everything that Twilight promised but never delivered.
Spy was the best vehicle for Melissa McCarthy since Gilmore Girls and a hilarious movie to boot. It's a great comedy and a fantastic action comedy (which is an increasingly rare commodity). Trainwreck gave the world more reasons to love Amy Schumer, but the last 20 minutes became a completely different movie about "lessons" and crap that felt false and regressive, sexually-politically speaking. Sisters was a little too long and tried too hard to jam in a message, but it gave the world so many wonderful Amy Poehler and Tina Fey moments and great scenes with Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, and the always welcome John Cena (who also killed it in Trainwreck).
Best Retelling of Real Events, Old
Bridge of Spies
The Danish Girl
Trumbo
All of these movies are snooze festivals, and each have their own specific set of problems. Bridge of Spies is sluggishly paced and confusingly acted (except Tom Hanks, who is superb). The Danish Girl is a very pretty film that can't seem to figure out what it wants to say. In a year where trans acceptance and integration rightly became a part of the conversation, this film is more about reactions to trans people than it is about the trans experience. Which is a problem.
And Trumbo is just not very good and seems to be created for no one. There have been better, stronger films about McCarthyism than this, and the movie only seems to exist to let actors do their best Old-Hollywood accents.
Best Retelling of Real Events, New-ish
Joy
Spotlight
Steve Jobs
Straight Outta Compton
The Big Short
Spotlight is my favorite film of the year, so it's clearly winning this category. It's an engrossing film with an important message that delivers exposition in brilliant ways that never feel lazy. The cast is incredible, the writing is so good, and the silent epilogue will leave you struck.
Joy is a whole lot of nothing, The Big Short is so douche-bro heavy that I want to scream. It's Wolf of Wall Street without the style. But it's funny and I did learn something, so I guess that is important.
Straight Outta Compton is nuanced and engaging, with incredible performances and amazing moments. It's a portrait of genius and hardship, and the new era of racial segregation it showcases is just as important today as it was during the birth of N.W.A..
Best Documentary
Amy
Iris
Listen to Me Marlon
There were so many great documentaries this year, but these
three really stood out as being delicate and insightful portraits of very
interesting people. Iris, one of the final films of the late Albert Maysles (of Grey Gardens fame), follows Iris Apfel,
an aging New York businesswoman who did amazing things for textiles, design,
and fashion. It's a sweet film, made better by its amazing lead. Listen to Me Marlon is a documentary
film chronicling the life of Marlon Brando. Arguably one of the greatest film
actors of all time, the film takes new perspective by using audio journals that
Brando kept to narrate the film. The only downfall is that Brando’s life is too
amazing to be contained in one documentary, and it feels like the film only
skims the surface in examining this complicated figure. Amy, following the life of Amy Winehouse and using videos that she
and her friends shot throughout her life, is a haunting portrait of genius and
depression. What makes it amazing, though, is the films ability to bring out
amazing moments of joy even as the audience knows that there is nothing but
sadness at the end of the road.
Best Animated Film
Anomalisa
Honestly, Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa may be the better film of these two, playing with form
and convention and providing mindf*ck after mindf*ck as it paints a portrait of
disconnectedness. However, if it weren’t for the stop motion, this would just
be a very good entry into Kaufman’s already impressive pantheon of films
exploring this same subject. With Inside
Out, Pixar finally creates a female protagonist worth rooting for (Brave was a bit of a letdown). In fact,
the film gives us three stellar women in the form of 11-year-old Riley and the
personifications of Joy and Sadness, voiced by the delightful Amy Poehler and
Phyllis Smith. I’ve already written a bunch about the movie, so I won’t get
into too much detail here. Both films are wonderful and definitely in my top
films of the year, but Inside Out squeaks
ahead in the polls.
Best Period Piece
Brooklyn
Carol
The Hateful Eight
The Revenant
There were some amazing period films this year. The Hateful Eight and The Revenant were not two of them. Eight was indulgent, and the
nearly-three-hour runtime was completely unnecessary. Also, by hour 2, it
really feels like the film was made just so Quentin Tarantino could have a new
outlet for saying the n-word. Still, the performances are terrific,
particularly Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kurt Russell. The Revenant is a difficult film in nearly every respect. It’s
beautifully shot, but it’s a film that’s meant to make you unhappy. And it succeeds. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a serviceable performance
that literally any actor willing to undergo physical difficulty could do. Many
a stuntperson could easily accomplish what he does. And the CGI sometimes looks
horrible and it’s distracting.
Todd Haynes’ Carol,
a film following a burgeoning lesbian relationship in a time where that sort of
thing was thought amoral and untoward, is a beautiful trifle. It’s lovingly
filmed, the costumes are a feast for the eyes, and Cate Blanchett is divine.
But it’s a romantic drama without any investment in the romance – it often
feels trite and poorly handled. The audience is asked to make the leap that two
attractive women will fall in love because of a first-glance adoration and a
few stilted conversations. They use music and the overwhelmingly sexual
charisma of Blanchett to do it, but it still feels lazy.
Brooklyn, based on
the novel of the same name, follows a young Irish girl (Saoirse Ronan) as she
travels to America to make a better life for herself. It’s a quiet, lovely
film, and one that I look forward to re-watching soon. It’s sweet and
unassuming, which makes its emotional wallop all that more exceptional. It’s
also one of the few films this year that doesn’t hit you over the head with
excess dialogue or exposition. It lets you live with the characters. It’s
wonderful.
Best 'Coming of Age' Movie
The Diary of a Teenage
Girl
Dope
These two films are two of the more surprising films of
2015. Dope is a fun, raucous ride through a youth’s attempt to go to
college and make something of himself while also making a name for himself on
the underground drug market. It’s a fast-paced and dizzying film whose cast is
unendingly delightful. The Diary of a Teenage Girl is a
slightly more depressing look at childhood innocence and the ways in which it
can be corrupted. The film is remarkable in the lack of judgment it displays as
multiple instances of statutory rape are displayed on the screen. It’s
difficult to watch and hard to ignore. The fact that it’s inventively directed
and impeccably acted (by a cast that includes future king of the jungle
Alexander Skarsgard and the inimitable Kristen Wiig). Lead actress Bel Powley
is wonderful.
Best Action Movie:
Superpowers/Sci-Fi/Magic
Ant-Man
Jurassic World
Star Wars: Episode 7 –
The Force Awakens
2015 was definitely the year of the disappointing
blockbuster. It’s the year that many people collectively realized that the
Emperor had no clothes, and that maybe not every superhero movie is good. And
while it made a bajillion dollars, no film was as disappointing as Jurassic World, which made me want to
hit myself in the head with a hammer until I could forget the retro-misogyny
and lazy plotting that basically ruined a franchise. However, with the
disappointing Avengers film at its
side, it was at least in good company.
Still, it isn’t all doom and gloom. Ant-Man was dumb fun, and the latest Star Wars film was a welcome return to form that only gets
better with repeat viewings. Still, the best of this type of film was the
latest Mad Max, a franchise high
point. It didn’t sacrifice story for
spectacle, providing both in spades and creating a number of indelible
characters. Sure, the titular Max was
shunted to the side, but Charlize Theron’s Furiosa is a sight to behold.
Best Action Movie: Spies
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Mission Impossible –
Rogue Nation
This is difficult. Looking at the franchised films on this
list, Mission Impossible soars above.
Spectre was disappointing, but there
were a few moments that still worked. When all else fails, the franchise still
delivers amazing action moments, cool gadgets, and impossibly beautiful women.
Except Mission Impossible did all
that while also giving audiences great characters and moments that felt new,
fresh, and fun. And while Daniel Craig is bitching and moaning about playing
the London’s most dangerous weapon, Tom Cruise still brings a dedication and
joy to playing Ethan Hunt that should have left him long ago.
Still, the best James Bond film of the year is the campy,
smart, and stylized Kingsman: The Secret
Service. It’s such a good movie,
made better by its embrace of spy movies of yore. Colin Firth oozes charisma and old-school
charm in a way that makes him a more dapper Sean Connery and a more capable
Roger Moore. Taron Egerton (as ruffian-turned-super spy Eggsy) is great and
Samuel L. Jackson (as a villain so arch he’s practically an insole) is
phenomenal. Supporting performances from Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sofia
Boutella, and Sophie Cookson help to strengthen this fantastic film. Sure, the
last joke in the movie is a groaner, but that’s hardly reason to hate on the
whole film.
Best Movie with a PhD
Protagonist/Antagonist
Experimenter
The Martian
So, this category doesn’t really make any sense, but I
couldn’t think of how else to categorize these films. All three of them are in
my top 15 for the year, though I give the edge to Experimenter, which is engrossing and, um, experimental. Peter
Sarsgaard is fascinating and quietly unhinged as psychologist Stanley Milgram,
and Winona Ryder is sublime as his wife. It’s a little too avant garde for
its own good, and some of the artistic choices take the viewer out of the film.
But it’s still just really good.
Ex Machina is so
freaking good, even if the last thirty minutes feel rushed. The performances are next-level awesome. And The Martian was fun and so well made.
After the disappointment of Interstellar,
it was nice to see a space movie that worked. And it was nice to like a Matt Damon film even as his 2015 Campaign to Personify White Privilege was roaring along.
Best Miscellaneous
Creed
Kung Fury
Room
Okay, there weren't really any categories that worked for
these films. Creed is a great reboot
of the Rocky franchise that's deftly
directed and shot and impressively acted. Kung
Fury (released on YouTube in May) is an amazingly weird and violent and
hilarious homage of classic action films. Writer/Director/Star David Sandberg
is well on his way to being a super weird addition to the film industry.
Room is so good.
At every stage it could easily slip into Lifetime-level drama, but the smart
writing and brilliant acting take this above and beyond the melodrama that
seems inevitable. Brie Larson is a
revelation, and the direction is so tight and precise. The score is
overwhelming at times, but it’s still a great film.
Great Performances of
2015
Blythe Danner in I'll
See You in My Dreams
Emily Blunt in Sicario
Shameik Moore in Dope
Domhnall Gleason, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina
Domhnall Gleason, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina
Steve Carell in The
Big Short
Tom Hardy in The
Revenant
Colbie Smulders in Results
Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d’Arcy James in Spotlight
Melissa McCarthy in Spy
Brie Larson in Room
It was a really great year for films (I saw a bunch of them), and here's hoping the Academy makes some slightly less Caucasian choices next year.
