The Best Films of 2015

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

1. Spotlight
2. Inside Out
3. What We Do in the Shadows
4. Brooklyn
5. Room
6. Dope
7. Amy
8. Anomalisa
9. Kingsman: The Secret Service
10. Straight Outta Compton
11. Mad Max: Fury Road
12. Experimenter
13. Ex Machina
14. Creed
15. The Martian

365 Days, 365 Movies: December [Star Wars-apalooza]

With the clock striking midnight and the world heralding a new year, I officially ended my year-long adventure in daily movie watching. Having actually reached my 365 total in mid-November, December was more of a victory lap than anything else. I thought I would just watch a few movies (28 or so) to get up to 400 movies for the year, And then I ended up watching 53. 

My focus was broad, but I definitely spent my time with three big categories: Oscar contenders, Holiday movies, and Star Wars films. I'll talk Oscar contenders soon, and Holiday movies have been dissected and vivisected 100 times over. I would talk about Star Wars, but who wants that? Sure, the films taught me a lot of lessons about life and filmmaking and the prequels clued me into the fact that nothing golden can stay and that we're all going to die someday, but let's not talk about that. Let's look at a list!

Film Review: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

I'll get to Maz Kanata in a minute

To say that I was excited about the newest Star Wars film is a huge understatement. Having attended first-night, 12:00 screenings of the prequels (Episodes 1-3), I know how very real the disappointment in Star Wars can be. Still, I'm a huge fan of J.J. Abrams (Alias is still my favorite show of all time, for some reason), and all of the trailers and behind-the-scenes interviews/clips made the movie seem, if nothing else, cool. So I went into the theater with a little trepidation but a lot of joy. And since it's fun to rope other people into my nervous psychosis, I brought family along as well. Below are our ALMOST COMPLETELY SPOILER FREE reviews of the film: