Hey there, cats and kittens.
The year 2015 was not as dismal as 2014 in terms of movies, but it was still not a phenomenal year. There were lots of good movies--movies as varied as Ant-Man, Slow West, Listen to Me Marlon, and others--and there weren't as many overrated movies. Some of the best of the year were truly phenomenal and should be seen by everyone; some of them include the following:
It's disappointing that 2015 featured the return of puppetry with Star Wars and a bear that nearly ate Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revanant, but we still have a CG protagonist in Paddington. Still, this is a great family film, and even though the title character doesn't have an iota of realism in how he looks, he's still a terrific character in a family film championing the role of family. The cast, which includes Ben Winshaw, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, and Peter Capaldi, is spot on, and Nicole Kidman does a fine job in her first role (to my knowledge) as the villain. In one particular moment, she's far too nefarious, but that scene is the only blight in this otherwise fine film.
Trainwreck
I was very much prepared to hate this movie. From the few clips I've seen of Amy Schumer's hit Comedy Central show, Inside Amy Schumer, I wasn't impressed. And Trainwreck is a fairly standard rom-com in many respects, mostly poking fun at the genre but then suddenly embracing it. But I quickly loved this hysterical comedy. Schumer plays a woman whose rule is to never spend the night post-sex with a man. She's a "modern chick who does what she wants" and sleeps with whomever she wants, even though she's seeing someone, an incredibly muscular bro who actually is kind of sweet but a little dumb. That character is played by professional wrestler John Cena in one of the film's funniest roles, particularly as he uses sports lingo to talk dirty in the bedroom. Another sports figure who appears (as himself) is the surprisingly hysterical LeBron James, who according to the film, appears to be quite the fan of Downton Abbey. "Listen," he says, "I'm watching it tonight, because I'm not going to practice and all the guys are talking about it and I'm left out." Why exactly did this lose Best Comedy to The Martian (apparently a rip-roaring laugh fest) at the Golden Globes?
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a simple movie, perhaps the simplest on the list, and yet it is one of the best of the year. It feels like a story we've seen over and over again, and yet it feels so fresh. Its supporting cast is charming, particularly Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, and Domhnall Gleeson. But the real star is of course the lead, Saoirse Ronan, who plays Eilis, a young lady who emigrates from Ireland to the United States in the 1960s. Her performance is one of the very best of the year. In the hands of a weaker writer and director, the choices her character has to make would be much easier from the audience's perspective. Not so with director John Crowley and writer Nick Hornby, adapting Colm Toibin's novel of the same name, who really make just about all the right moves.
Inside Out
Inside Out is a movie that tells children (and adults) that sadness is a necessary, even helpful, emotion. This is the most emotionally powerful Pixar film since WALL-E and Up, and while it's not as unforgettable as those films, it deserves to be in their rank. Few animated films look anywhere near this incredible, and what a cast to back it all up, including Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, and others. Many were disappointed with Pixar's follow-up later in the year, The Good Dinosaur, and many are nervous about the upcoming sequel to Finding Nemo, but let's hope Pixar still has a plethora of other fantastic tales to tell.
Room
Room is just about as perfect as a movie can be, a movie that had water in my eyes and a lump in my throat for practically its entirety. There are few films this powerful, this well written, this well acted, this well directed, this exceptional in virtually every way. The entire cast is great, but of course the best accolades should go to its two leads, Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay, who are truly exceptional. Larson (who also played Amy Schumer's sister in Trainwreck) hands-down deserves the Oscar. This might be the best movie of the decade.
Note: The trailer for Room is the reason why there should be no movie trailers at all. I was stunned to watch it (fortunately, after I had seen the film) and to see that a pivotal moment in the movie is completely revealed in the trailer. Don't watch the trailer before seeing the movie!
Honorable Mentions
Ex Machina
Ex Machina is the best science fiction film of the year, giving us a terrific directorial debut from screenwriter Alex Garland and three great performances from Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, and Oscar Isaac. All three of these stars had a phenomenal 2015, with Vikander the front-runner for an Academy Award for The Danish Girl, and Isaac and Gleeson appearing in the biggest film of the year: Star Wars--The Force Awakens. Gleeson may have overdone it in Star Wars, but he was charming in Brooklyn and vulnerable here in Ex Machina. Vikander's role, particularly during the climax, is haunting, and Isaac definitely performs the dance of the year in the film's lone offbeat comedic scene.
What We Do In the Shadows
What We Do In the Shadows has a much funnier first half than second. Upon second thought, I realize that I watched the first half in the hospital right before my tonsillectomy, and the second half right after, so that probably had something to do with my reaction. Still, this mockumentary from New Zealand about vampires is one of the funniest of the year.
I Am Big Bird: The Carol Spinney Story
This documentary about Carol Spinney, the man behind Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird, starts off the same sort of bland way that dominated much of the 2011 documentary Being Elmo. The second half, however, really elevates the story, as the viewer truly gets a sense of just how enormous a presence someone like Spinney has remained for the past several decades.
Mission Impossible--Rogue Nation
I never thought there would be a year in which a Mission: Impossible movie would be better than a Bond movie, but in 2015 that was definitely the case. This is the best in the franchise since the first in 1996, and probably justifies its continuing.
The Walk
Sure, Man on Wire won the Oscar for Best Documentary about Philippe Petit, the man who walked on a wire from both towers of the World Trade Center in 1974, but you really cannot understand that feat without having a visual effects powerhouse like what director Robert Zemeckis and his team deliver in The Walk. True, most of the film is good, not great, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's accent is, well, as a vast majority of respondents in one poll put it: "Sacreblue! He might as well wire walk with a French accordion and a croissant." Still, the final third of the film--the walk--is a tremendous work of special effects.
The Hunting Ground
This is the kind of documentary that will leave your blood boiling. If your friend tries to tell you there is no such thing as rape culture, show them this film.
Best Trailers
Forget my above criticism of trailers for just a moment to appreciate three trailers that I did watch in 2015 and enjoy. If you're going to do a trailer, these film makers show you how to do it right:
3. Creed
Actress of the Year
Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl, Burnt, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Ex Machina)
Actor of the Year
Domhnall Gleeson (The Revenant, Star Wars--The Force Awakens, Brooklyn, Ex Machina)
Comebacks of the Year
Jennifer Jason Leigh (Anomalisa, The Hateful Eight)
Kurt Russell (Furious 7, Bone Tomahawk, The Hateful Eight)
But a negative note must end this post. Movies still "aren't what they used to be," at least in terms of quantity. For every great film the critics told us to go out and see, there were twice as many piles of feces they sold us. Some of these films we have ourselves to blame; perhaps if Jurassic World didn't make nearly two billion dollars (and had over seventy percent of critics not liked it), we wouldn't have to suffer through anymore of these. Some of them (Timbuktu) were missed opportunities, others (The Duke of Burgundy) were dreadfully boring, and some were just pure garbage, like the number one pick for the most overrated movies of 2015:
Honorable Mention: White God
10. Girlhood
9. Jurassic World
8. Cinderella
7. Predestination
6. Timbuktu
5. The Duke of Burgundy
4. Testament of Youth
3. The Avengers: Age of Ultron
2. Shaun the Sheep
1. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
2015 was better than 2014, but let's hope 2016 is better than 2015.
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