Also, I find it worth mentioning that I've gone out of my way to make it clear that these are my favorites of 2015. It's why this post isn't called "top 10 best movies of 2015" like every other critic and blogger's list. The position of any movie on this list doesn't necessarily have any bearing on the actual quality or importance of the filmmaking of that movie, but rather just that movie's appeal to my personal taste. I didn't see many movies last year compared to actual critics, something I wish would change soon but I'm a student and lazy so not everything can be perfect. So, with all that aside...
I hate leaving good movies out, so let's start with some honorable mentions. These ones came in just under the wire, and I recommend you check them out fo sho.
Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mention - Turbo Kid
If you're a fan of trashy 1980s shlock films like I am, Turbo Kid is an absolute hoot. Featuring almost entirely no-name directors and actors, Turbo Kid is a parody/homage to those cheap Mad Max knockoffs of the late 80's that featured scrappy heroes, spunky love interests, comically evil antagonists, post apocalyptic landscapes, DIY weaponry and props, gleefully gory and over-the-top violence, and most hilariously, an undying sense of self-seriousness. Turbo Kid finds a great balance of taking subtle jabs at and simultaneously lovingly embracing the ridiculousness of these types of films, using all of those characteristics in full force. Its low-budget special effects add to the homemade, ridiculous charm, and at least in my mind, whether or not it's doing way too good a job poking fun at and emulating bad movies or is just genuinely a bad movie, its brilliance is in how unabashedly it embraces the insane logic of its own world and in how intelligently it pulls off its "badness". If it is in fact a bad movie, it's a flavor of bad that is completely plucked out of another time, which makes it, in my opinion, great fun to watch. Of all the movies on this list, this film has the most mixed reception from both critics and audiences, and it's definitely not going to be for everyone, but if you've found yourself a fan of other films that take their ridiculous inspirations seriously in pursuit of strange, semi-ironic comedy (a la Black Dynamite or The Brady Bunch Movie), or are a fan of creatively gory deaths underscored by Tron-esque synthopop score, you'll find a lot to enjoy in Turbo Kid. It's on Netflix; give it a shot.
Honorable Mention - Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Honorable Mention - Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
It's a general unwritten rule of top 10 lists of movies to not include documentaries, and there's a reason it's an unwritten rule - it's kind of dumb. At least in my opinion. Documentaries are feature films that play in theaters that are eligible for the same technical Oscars as features, and Rotten Tomatoes counts them in their yearly rankings, so fuck you, I include documentaries. I sort of lost my doc junkie card this year as I've only seen a few, but this was a very early contender for my list when it premiered in March (I saw it on HBO, but it did play in select theaters). I'm personally not religious, but I've always found religion to be incredibly interesting, and perhaps especially interesting to me are cults and cult-like religions. And Going Clear convinced me that Scientology is, in fact, a cult, as well as the result of an ongoing morally corrupt business venture. The attention to detail and filmmaking prowess of director Alex Gibney are mere highlights to the luxury the film has of telling an inherently intriguing story. The misunderstood and twisty story of how L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology, as well as the controversial inspiration for his book Dianetics, are all incredibly interesting, but it's when the film enumerates the modern-day actions of the Church towards high-profile individuals that Going Clear becomes actually haunting. I believe it's still on HBO Go if you're lucky enough to have a subscription, so if you have the chance, please give Going Clear a look. And while I'm at it, if you're into controversial documentaries about religion, give Deliver Us From Evil and Jesus Camp a look too.
Honorable Mention: Inside Out
Honorable Mention: Inside Out
I'm sure there'll be people who are surprised this is only an honorable mention, especially considering the very high praise this movie's gotten from critics and audiences. I'm not completely in love with Inside Out, but saying that I don't love it quite as unequivocally as most is still pretty high praise for a movie, in my view. This really is a return to form for Pixar, which in reality wasn't really "gone" for very long, and between The Good Dinosaur and Finding Dory (which I have a nagging feel won't be amazing), it doesn't look like they're completely back on the winning streak. Despite detractors' insistence that the screenplay isn't original because of Herman's Head, what makes this movie notable is what it does with the "voices in your head" concept, knocking out entertaining and clever visual representations of psychological concepts at a mile and a minute, all while imparting a delightfully unconventional message, the latter of which Pixar does extremely well. The voice acting is good, Michael Giacchino's musical score is great as always, and it's got that Pixar animation quality that we've all come to expect. Some of my favorite critics vehemently hate this film, and I accept and understand their criticisms, some of which I agree with, but this is still a respectably great effort from Pixar. Where it ranks in their filmography will depend on the test of time.
Honorable Mention: Tangerine
Honorable Mention: Tangerine
If I watch this movie again, it could very well move into the actual top 10. Tangerine is an indie comedy-drama film directed and written by Sean Baker that follows two transgender prostitutes on Christmas Eve in Los Angeles who look for the pimp that broke one of their hearts. The film was also notably filmed completely on an iPhone 5. The result is a really entertaining film with beautiful cinematography and fully realized characters that completely blind-sides the viewer with just how disturbing and poignant it can be. Tangerine explodes with crackling energy, and is one of the best cinematic depictions of L.A. that I've ever seen. I remember when The Danish Girl came out, it was selling itself as a super progressive (and transgressive) pro-LGBT film that would break stereotypes and say something really important about transgender people. I disagree - this is that film. Tangerine is tolerant, relevant, and humanistic in incredibly and admirably subtle ways, and all of its characters are treated respectfully and playfully in equal measure. This is a movie that refuses to apologize for anything in the same way that its protagonists do, while also acknowledging the problems that come with such a nature, whether at the fault of others or the protagonists themselves. This is a progressive, didactic film that doesn't pander - it kneads its values seamlessly into its face-value product, which is itself very entertaining. It really is an accomplishment, and it really did just come under the wire here. It's on Netflix; I recommend it.
All right, on to the actual top 10.
All right, on to the actual top 10.
Top 10
#10 - The Gift
This movie was a huge surprise. I didn't know how I felt about the trailer when I first saw it. It looked like one of those psychological thriller movies that seemed like it had an interesting premise but I was expecting it to fuck it up and it usually does, kind of like The Purge. But man, The Gift really took me by surprise. It's directed and written by Joel Edgerton (his debut doing both), who plays a man who keeps coming into the lives of a married couple played by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, leaving them gifts and acting just a little too friendly after meeting Bateman's character, with whom he went to school, at the store. They start seeing him everywhere and getting concerned with what he's trying to do, and Bateman's character even believes that he's trying to get his wife to cheat on him. Bateman's character then puts into motion an investigation of sorts to find out what the guy is about, and the motivations and history of Edgerton's character and his relationship with Bateman's character begin to unravel. The result is absolutely chilling. This is a thoughtful, well written, and brilliantly paced thriller that is very slow-burning and continually defies expectations, and it's also led by a great trio performances, including Jason Bateman in what I believe is his career best so far. I look forward to seeing what else Edgerton has in store as a filmmaker.
#9 - Creed
#9 - Creed
If there's one word I'd like to use to describe this year in movies, it's "throwback". A Mad Max movie, a Jurassic Park movie, a Star Wars movie, a Cinderella reboot - and now a sequel/soft reboot of the Rocky franchise via Creed, directed by Ryan Coogler, who is proving himself to be one of the most promising young filmmakers working right now (I'm excited to see how he handles Marvel's upcoming Black Panther movie). Michael B. Jordan (another promising young talent) plays Adonis Creed, the son of world-famous boxer Apollo Creed, old boxing opponent and later beach-running partner of the now retired Rocky Balboa. Adonis wants to get out in the ring professionally, both to follow in his father's footsteps while also creating a namesake for himself apart from his father. I'll admit, they kind of muddled the motivation there, but the Rocky films have never been very heady ventures in filmmaking to begin with. Besides, the real thing to phone home about here is the performance of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky, playing the ultimate comeback role. This isn't just a cameo or a redesign of Rocky as a mentor - Rocky's still the big lovable dummy he was in the 70's, with a little wisdom through aging as well as some new dimensions to his character added in this film. That, and the fight scenes are amazingly choreographed and edited, and Maryse Alberti does some great camerawork. Creed is by no means a complex picture, but it's kinetic, stylish, and loads of fun.
#8 - Brooklyn
#8 - Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the film equivalent of a perfect homemade chocolate chip cookie. There's nothing spectacularly complicated or unexpected about it, but it's exactly how it should be and it was created with visible love and care, to the point that its simplicity is charming, welcome, and makes you feel all warm inside. Brooklyn, the story of a young Irish woman's immigration to New York City in the 1950s, is a delightfully restrained romantic drama in a highly revisionist era of filmmaking. Like I said, this year was certainly "throwback", not only in the old franchises being revived this year, but also in the number of films that succeeded so much specifically because of how little they strayed from formula. I love risk-taking and playing with rules, but some stories are meant to be told the old-fashioned way, and Brooklyn pulls this off beautifully. Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, and Julie Walters provide fabulously engrossing performance and show beguiling chemistry throughout the movie, and the film's restraint in its universal themes of homesickness, young love, uncertainty, and coping with life changes is admirable. Its scope is narrowed, but it highlights and presents its themes and characters in such a smartly written, charming, and entertaining way that it's hard not to recommend. It's nothing you'll shout on the top of a mountain for people to go see, but I can't remember a movie recently that was this sweet and enjoyable. I left Brooklyn with a goofy smile (if that word wasn't italicized, I think I'd be the first person on Earth to say that). If you're ever caught hanging out with your grandmother, pop this movie in and you'll have the most adorable day together.
#7 - Spotlight
#7 - Spotlight
Tired of hearing about all these gooey, feelings-y, happy movies? I've got you covered - here's a movie that is a huge fucking bummer. Spotlight could very well have been a glorified TV movie (although don't knock TV movies - Pirates of Silicon Valley is better than the Ashton Kutcher movie about Steve Jobs), and while this movie doesn't have a whole lot filmmaking-wise going on, which is the only thing making me reconsider my A+ rating for it, sort of like Brooklyn, this movie absolutely dominates in its simplicity. I think, if anything, my top 10 list this year just shows that sometimes going simple and smart can yield way better results than going complex and ambitious (I'm looking at you, most Christopher Nolan films). Spotlight, this year's Best Picture winner, follows the team of journalists at the Boston Globe who exposed the cover-up of sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church in Boston, and subsequently all over the world. A movie that is the epitome of the phrase "slow build", I guess I can see how some people were bored of this movie, but I personally was invested from minute one, mostly due to some masterful screenwriting, brilliant editing, and most of all, an absolutely amazing cast. Really, across the board the performances are outstanding, but I think the top three go to Liev Schreiber, Rachel McAdams, and Michael Keaton. There is complexity in the simplicity here, and these characters feel real and finely wrought. The movie makes no attempts to oversell its protagonists, and does a great job at exemplifying the universality in the ability to both receive, inflict, or even ignore pain. If you can stomach the more lurid details of its subject matter, I definitely recommend giving it a watch.
#6 - Call Me Lucky
#6 - Call Me Lucky
Hey, look, another documentary - and another bummer. To be fair, this movie is way more accessible than Spotlight, at least in my mind. It's a movie about a comedian told by comedians, so it's bound to be at least a little funny, in its own dark way. I want to say very little about Call Me Lucky, because I had a great time being completely surprised by it. The film follows the life and work of stand-up comedian Barry Crimmins, who was known for his passionate, angry, ranting sense of humor, as well as for his constant criticism of the American government and the Catholic Church. Essentially, Crimmins is unbelievably depressed and pissed off, and it's mostly due to the fact that he feels the weight of the entire world's problems on his shoulders, constantly calling out abuse, corruption, greed, exploitation, racism, sexism, fraud, warmongering, oppression, you name it. It is when Crimmins details why he feels this way that the movie enters a realm of true poignance. My favorite documentaries are the ones where the real-life subjects feel like characters, where the filmmaker chose a subject so inherently fascinating and complex that it almost feels like they were written for the screen. Crimmins is definitely that character, and director Bobcat Goldthwait masterfully peels away the layers of Crimmins' past and and present, making Call Me Lucky a funny, fascinating, and heartbreaking character study. It's on Netflix, and it is a great, great watch. I sincerely love this movie. I also recommend the rest of Goldthwait's filmography, namely World's Greatest Dad, which is also on Netflix. If you like some challenging themes and close-to-home commentary with your dark comedy, his work is for you.
#5 - Ex Machina
#5 - Ex Machina
Ex Machina has been out for nearly a year now and it gets better each time I watch it. By far the most surprising Oscar winner of this year, Ex Machina tells the story of a computer programmer (played by Domnhall Gleeson) who is sent to a remote location to learn about a secret new project by a scientist named Nathan (played by my husband Oscar Isaac). It turns out Nathan is creating the first fully-functioning AI with their own human-like personalities, the most successful thus far of which is Ava (played by my wife Alicia Vikander). Nathan has Gleeson's Caleb undergo a Turing test with Ava to test whether she can pass as a legitimate consciousness instead of just a computer. The result is a mind-bending sci-fi thriller exploring the question of what makes something "alive", and more importantly "human", as well as man's use of technology and to what ends we should accept it. Instead of getting into the themes themselves here (which is a pretty fruitless effort in a paragraph), I'll just say to watch the movie a couple times and let those themes gel in your mind for a while. To this day I still read compelling analyses of this film, and each one is smart and expertly executed by director/writer Alex Garland, who I'm hoping as a fruitful career as a sci-fi director. Isaac delivers what is in my opinion the best supporting male performance of the year, Vikander is brilliant, and the film is a visual marvel on top of being tense and extremely thought-provoking. It's timely, well constructed, and genuinely intriguing. I just got done praising simplicity, but Ex Machina is where ambition and complexity, when handled by a competent and smart filmmaker, can pay off immensely. Check it out.
#4 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens
#4 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens
There are probably some people who are mad at how far up this movie is on my top 10 list, or more notably what films I've put it over. But remember, idiots, this is my personal opinion, and my personal opinion is that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is fantastic. It's not complex on a thematic level, nor is it groundbreaking filmmaking or touch on any important social issue. But The Force Awakens is, in my opinion the third-best Star Wars film, and the best fantasy film of the decade. In my mind, The Force Awakens needed to do three things: establish the old characters' place in the story while introducing new characters, revive the best of the franchise while breathing new life into it, and make me excited for the rest of the probably hundreds of Star Wars films that Disney will be giving us, or at least the main trilogy. It's done all of those things wonderfully, and J.J. Abrams has produced a film that's fast, entertaining, smartly put together, engrossing, and tons of fun. The new characters are fun and interesting (especially the villain), the lore and world of the Star Wars universe has been expanded in fine form, the visual effects are top-notch and impressive, the story is an intriguing kick-off to the sequel trilogy, and it more than atones for the sins of the prequel trilogy, and includes all the best elements of the originals while bringing some freshness in as well (giving what I think, notably, is the funniest Star Wars film). Cry unoriginality or fanservice all you want; I think this film accomplished all it needed to. I pre-ordered the deluxe Blu-Ray.
#3 - Room
#3 - Room
Its title bares a hilarious similarity to Tommy Wiseau's 2003 masterpiece (which was super funny to hear glittery non-film-savvy red carpet paparazzi accidentally name-drop), but Room is legitimately a near-perfect drama. It's an understated effort, but this movie is engrossing, heartbreaking, and superbly acted. Lenny Abrahamson's last film, Frank, was actually on my top 10 list last year, so you could say he's turning out to be a favorite director of mine if he keeps this up. Room follows a young mother and son who are trapped in a tiny room since the latter's birth, and that's all I'll tell you. The mystery of Room's existence, the characters' place in it, and everything that happens from that point on is amazingly interesting to watch unfold, to the point that I never really knew where this movie was going, which is a great quality. Most notable, for sure, though, are the performances of Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay, the latter of whom delivers possibly the best child performance I've ever seen in a movie. Themes of motherhood, loss of innocence, and adjustment permeate the brilliantly written script (adapted from the screenwriter's own novel), which Abrahamson directs masterfully. I can't recommend this movie more; it's sad in such a pure and non-manipulative way. It's the only movie on this list that made me tear up.
#2 - Anomalisa
#2 - Anomalisa
If you saw the poster, trailer, or plot synopsis for this movie and immediately thought it was hipster trash, or generally think that of the work of Charlie Kaufman, please skip to #1. Anomalisa is a stop-motion animated comedy-drama film directed and written by Charlie Kaufman (and co-directed by Duke Johnson of Community fame), It follows a middle-aged man named Michael Stone who has felt an unending detachment from other people, believing everyone to be exactly the same as everyone else. That is, until he has a chance encounter in a hotel with an exceptional woman that changes his perspective. Now, for the most part, I'm going to mostly leave it at that and let you see the movie and figure out everything else on your own, but this movie is really brilliant. Kaufman is known for his existentialism and themes of loneliness, love, and social detachment, and never has it been more strongly on display than in Anomalisa. There are a few stylistic decisions in the movie that are made concerning the voice actors and facial designs of the characters that you'll notice early on and may take some time to realize the point of, but once you do, their relevance to the film's themes really become apparent. As someone who myself deals with sometimes becoming bored with other people and slipping into a dangerous mentality that I'm somehow exceptional to them, this movie really hit home as a reminder that everyone is an individual with their own experiences and personalities, and it can be easy to think we're the only one who's as smart or experienced or has felt as much pain as we have. This is an extremely humanist film, reminding us how universal much of the human experience is, including the selfishness that comes with our inability to realize that sometimes. It's an interesting movie that's only gotten more interesting the more I think about it, and in typical Kaufman fashion deals with some profoundly personal themes that I find intriguing. If you're not into all that thinky shit, then maybe skip this one, but I think it's fantastic.
#1 - Mad Max: Fury Road
#1 - Mad Max: Fury Road
This should surprise no one that's been paying attention to me the last year. I don't really know how to sell this movie to anyone who isn't already sold on it. Mad Max: Fury Road is absolutely fantastic, and it's the best action movie of the 2010s without a doubt. Once again, just like Creed and Star Wars, we see a director truly understanding the successes of the old way of doing things, and nowhere is that more perfectly embraced than in Fury Road. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi action epic, Fury Road follows Max and Furiosa and their journey to help a group of enslaved wives escape the citadel of a violent oppressor, with his army of religious fanatics on their tail at every moment in an explosive, non-stop ride of vehicular combat that is essentially a feature-length car chase scene. This is not simple style over substance, though; there is a method to director George Miller's madness. Mad Max has fairly little dialogue and prefers more often to tell its story visually, using its brilliantly directed action sequences to move its story along and reveal things about its characters and the world in which it takes place, building a believable and intriguing post-apocalyptic world to tell a simple but extremely well-constructed humanist story of the equality and codependence among people of all creeds and kinds necessary to fight oppression and ensure the survival of the human race. All of this is enriched by an amazing blend of computer imagery and brilliant practical stunts and effects work, beautiful camerawork by John Seale, brilliant musical score of Tom Holkenborg, and all-around great performances from its cast, most notably from Charlize Theron. Mad Max: Fury Road is fast, frenetic, gorgeous, strange, enthralling, and brimming with 80's-era action-packed delirium to complement its ambitiously crafted narrative, and is truly the best documentary short film of 2015.
There you have it, my favorites of last year. Tune in every year for the rest of time for more lists like this one.
There you have it, my favorites of last year. Tune in every year for the rest of time for more lists like this one.
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