My Top Ten Films of 2015

Let me throw out the usual caveats before we get down to business.  These are my personal favorite films.  There are other films that easily could have been included.  You won’t agree with all of them (but feel free to tell me that).  Enjoy!

Films I haven’t seen:  Anomalisa, The Hateful Eight, Bridge of Spies, The Assassin, Chi-Raq, Dope, The Lobster, Son of Saul, The Wolfpack

Honorable mentions:  Star Wars:  The Force Awakens, Kingsman:  The Secret Service, The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay – Part 2, It Follows, Mission:  Impossible - Rogue Nation, Very Semi-Serious, American Ultra

10.  The Gift

Joel Edgerton made one hell of a directing debut with this genre exercise, crafting a character-based thriller that keeps you guessing as to who exactly the bad guy is.  The script hits all the beats you want without feeling rote, the shot composition feeds the paranoia, and the acting trio of Edgerton, Jason Bateman, and Rebecca Hall are near-perfect.  No other movie this year left me scrambling to figure out the ending like this one did, and it still plays well on repeated viewings.

9.  The Keeping Room

Criminally underseen and divisively reviewed, The Keeping Room is a knowingly art-house genre blender that won’t appeal to everyone.  One part western, one part home invasion thriller, and one part allegory, it’s the tale of three southern women confronting the brutal end of the American Civil War.  The allegory revolves around life never turning out how we think it will be, and how whatever shatters that illusion will forever remain a monster in our past.  Moving on from these moments are difficult, and while The Keeping Room handles this and its other themes a bit roughly, a film this brimming with ideas is a rarity that I always treasure.  Plus, the cinematography and sound design are second to none.

8.  The Big Short

This is the closest you’re going to get to a comedy on my list, because while it’s about the housing crash and global economic crisis of the mid-2000s, it goes about its unappealing premise with style.  Its cocky smoothness hides a complex message, one that we all need to learn, and the broad-based appeal of its A-list cast and hilarious asides makes for some brilliant packaging.  Let’s face it, people don’t want to be lectured at for two hours.  Films that embrace the power of an entertaining idea like The Big Short are the ones that really harness what the medium can do.

7.  Testament of Youth

Testament of Youth is the Alicia Vikander-led sweeping epic that no one is talking about.  This is mystifying to me because it’s the most affecting film I saw all year.  Yes, it’s unapologetically tragic, but the story it’s based on was a real-life tragedy.  The softening of the blows that come in steady succession makes the film painful but not devastating, leaving it’s beautiful depictions of memory as the lasting reminder of what was lost.  According to both her memoir and the people who knew her, Vera Brittain was forever haunted by what happened to her during World War I, and the film captures that beautifully.

6.  Love & Mercy

Two music biopics intertwined the artist’s music in masterful ways this year, but Love and Mercy took far more risks than Straight Outta Compton, and it’s all the better for it.  In telling the story of Beach Boy Brian Wilson in two parts, audiences get to see the brilliant but deteriorating Wilson while he wrote the acclaimed album Pet Sounds and his later ascent from the pits of mental illness.  The former are lush scenes of sound and light while the latter is a more familiar tale of love, but both are expertly sold by Paul Dano, John Cusack, and Elizabeth Banks.  How the team were able to blend these two sections together so seamlessly is one of the great achievements of the year, but Love and Mercy is a satisfying film whether you take into account the risks or not.

5.  Three Days in September

This is a small film from Macedonia that played in only a few festivals around the world.  I was lucky enough to catch it at the Chicago International Film Festival, and the entire theater I was in seemed pretty blown away.  It’s the story of two women in a remote town slowly becoming friends while also trying to keep some dark secrets hidden.  The two leads, Irena Ristic and Kamka Tocinovski, navigate their character’s changing relationships and personal fears wonderfully, and writer/director Darijan Pejovski keeps the tension slowly ratcheting up.  Pejovski listed film noir and ‘70s American cinema as influences, which is an apt representation of the film’s gritty entertainment.  This is Pejovski’s first feature-length film, and with a debut this great, I’m anxious to see what he does next.

4.  Clouds of Sils Maria

Clouds of Sils Maria is aimed pretty directly at someone like me, who likes to ponder narratives, characters, marketing strategies, and thematic ideas.  The whole business of storytelling and how it reflects real life is what fascinates me about film, so watching the story of a woman prepping for a play while confronting the time that has passed since she previously performed it ticks nearly all of my boxes.  That it also addresses the real-life people involved with the production checks the remaining boxes, so despite being very on-the-nose, I find myself thinking about and re-watching Clouds of Sils Maria quite regularly.

3.  Mad Max:  Fury Road

It’s hard to remember a film so universally loved as Mad Max:  Fury Road.  I’ve had many conversations with fellow cinephiles about it, and my co-worker has had a picture of Imperator Furiosa posted at her desk since the film’s release.  At this point, everyone’s heard the song and dance about how great this film is, and it deserves every ounce of its adoration.

 
2.  Goodnight Mommy

The little horror film that could, Goodnight Mommy broke out of the festival circuit on a wave of critical praise, but it’s a tough film to sell.  It takes its time setting everything up and peppering in scary images until all hell finally breaks loose.  It’s a big, horrifically glorious ending, but like the best of the genre, all that craziness is rooted in a very real and universal fear.  I’m fine with horror going big, bloody, and violent, and Goodnight Mommy doesn’t shortchange its setup.

1.  Z for Zachariah

If you couldn’t tell, I got into a lot of thrillers this year, and Z for Zachariah is the kind of slow, smart thriller that I’ve always loved.  It takes place in a secluded bit of fertile land, possibly the only one left after an unnamed disaster, and only contains three characters.  The way these three come together and interact is where all of the tension derives from, and the film manages to mine all the fears that come with being in a society and the potential of being without one at the same time.  This is very much the kind of film that feeds off of what you bring to it, because it’s not going to give you any answers.  Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Chris Pine are at the top of their games, and director Craig Zobel delivers another unsettling, technically impressive film.  As a special note, this is one of the most complex and respectful takes on religious belief that I’ve seen out of American cinema in a long time.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Released:  May 15, 2015

Rated:  R

Distributor:  Warner Bros.

Starring:  Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton

Directed by:  George Miller

Written by:  George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris

Personal Bias Alert:  didn’t like the original Mad Max, wasn’t excited for another entry in the franchise 

8.2 of 10

            No one knew what to expect from Mad Max:  Fury Road as its production and release was the definition of mixed signals.  As the fourth entry in the Mad Max franchise, it comes a full thirty years after the last entry, with about fifteen of those spent in development hell due to war, financial troubles, prior commitments, and torrential rain (the pre-production of this film would make one hell of a documentary, am I right?).  But on the other hand, it has two accomplished leads in Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron and was screened out-of-competition at the prestigious (and snobby) Cannes Film Festival.  This is a post-apocalyptic action franchise with weird costumes and characters named Toecutter and Fifi, none of which screams Cannes.  But there it was, and now the confusion has come to a theater near you.  I’m here to clear the air and tell you, along with pretty much every other movie critic, that you should definitely go see this film.

            Now despite all the vocal adoration, understand that this is a Mad Max film, so it’s all about the action.  There’s very little meaning to this piece and that’s okay, because its goal of big, continuous action is delivered in spades.  Writer/director George Miller believes in the power of live stunts, but more importantly he has a unique vision on what stunts can be.  In the same way that Guillermo del Toro brings a uniquely inventive eye to his visuals, Miller brings the same level of artistry to the construction of his action sequences in Fury Road.  Too often the action in films feels repetitive, with the same gunfights, punches, and building smashing simply transposed onto new set pieces (I’m looking at you MCU).  Here, Miller delivers a two hour chase film that’s almost entirely action, and none of it feels like it’s copying itself.  His insane world of tricked out cars gives the characters plenty of toys to play with, and everything (including a flame-throwing guitar) gets used as a weapon.  This variety sustains the film’s long runtime, which you never come anywhere to close to noticing.

            The main beneficiary of the live stunts is actually the cinematography, as it allows for massive wide shots and dynamic camerawork that CGI-laden action can’t deliver.  Cinematographer John Seale, whose work is littered with beautiful films like The English Patient, Children of a Lesser God, and Cold Mountain, frames the car chases with panoramas of the desert wasteland that the world’s become, free to use every angle and camera move at his seasoned disposal.  This, along with an equally diverse and spot-on score, gives Fury Road it’s breathlessly operatic tone.  There’s moments you wish the film would stop so you could take it all in, but everything zips by so fast that you’re left with a feeling of unending splendor.

            The story is much more modest than the action, with Max (Hardy) joining up with a warrior named Imperator Furiosa (Theron) to smuggle a group of women being kept as breeders away from clan leader Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, the same actor who played the villain leader in the original Mad Max).  Furiosa, who’s just as capable on the road as Max, has stolen a War Rig to transport the women, and the action centers around their protection of the women and the rig.  The story is basically that of a hero, a heroine, and an ark, but instead of enduring floods the parental duo must protect their cargo from marauding psychos.  The mutual respect that forms between Furiosa and Max makes for a surprisingly strong bond that’s conveyed seamlessly by Hardy and Theron.  There’s minimal dialogue in the film, which is why their ability to do a lot with very small moments is crucial.  Lesser actors in these two roles would certainly make the audience care less.  With them, the film’s a bombastic but grounded piece.

            There’s some moments that drag in the latter half and a bit too much craziness for craziness’s sake, but there’s always Seale’s elegant cinematography and Hardy and Theron’s performances to see it through.  Mad Max:  Road Fury may be just an action film, but it’s one that takes its audience seriously.  It doles out breathless action that has serious consequences, a surprisingly rare treat in modern, big-budget cinema.

Other Notes:

Ø  Props must also go out to everyone who worked on the design of this film.  Miller wanted to avoid the grey-and-black desaturated look that’s present in every post-apocalypse nowadays, and this contributed greatly to the glorious visuals.

Ø  Keep in mind, I’m not a big action fan.  This is about as good a reaction that an action film can get from me.

Ø  Lots of people are discussing the gender politics of this film.  It’s sad that featuring females that are equal to their male counterparts is considered political.

Mad Max

Released:  May 9^th, 1980

Rated:  R

Studio:  American International Pictures

Starring:  Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward

Directed by:  George Miller

Written by:  James McCausland, George Miller

Personal Bias Alert:  don’t hate Mel Gibson, not a fan of cheesy action flicks

4 of 10

            You know what’s a disappointing piece of trivia about Mad Max?  Most of the leather was fake.  That’s right, this notoriously low-budget piece had to buy vinyl outfits just to keep costs down.  I’m guessing their heart was in the right place, though, since such drastic measures certainly freed up some precious money for car wrecks, and that’s what we all came for, right?

            Mel Gibson stars as Max, who for most of the movie is not mad but slowly succumbing to the violent allure of the road.  He has the free pass of being a cop, meaning he gets to legally dabble in the violent lifestyle of the ‘terminal crazies’ that roam the highways in this version of post-apocalyptic Australia.  Anchoring him down is his fellow officers, his wife, and his young son.  That’s just enough to keep his head on straight, at least until a series of encounters with a biker gang pushes him even further towards the edge.

            Now I watched the version that is on American Netflix, which seems to be the extended 93 minute special edition with the original Australian audio track.  Why anyone would want to watch this with American dubbing is beyond me.  I’m guessing that Max and Fifi and Bubba running around spouting American slang would make this movie even stranger, and not in the brazenly fun way it thrives on.  This film’s all car chases and manly posturing, sliding right along with a slightly off-kilter energy that never left me feeling bored, and I don’t even particularly care for car chases and posturing. 

            Gibson and the rest of the cast are game for this cheese-fest, hamming up their parts with as much glee as their bad leather (or vinyl) pants allow.  This is one of those movies where it’s hard to say if the acting is good or not, because it’s intentionally b-movie bad.  The first scene makes this film’s aspirations pretty clear.  It’s a chase scene, with the bad guy spouting insane lines like “I'm a fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker, I am the roller, I am the out-of-controller!” and practically foaming at the mouth.  Lines like that make me gag, but to the film’s credit, at least it’s up front about what it is.

            The part that I did like, that provided some good, visceral fun, was the car chases.  And the wrecks.  And the explosions.  The carnage is constant and all over the place, simultaneously graphic and ridiculously fake.  Seriously, a dummy being run over by a truck never looked more like a dummy being run over by a truck, but that’s because they had no budget for special effects.  Whatever stunts were going to take place had to be performed for real, and you can’t run over your actors for the sake of art or entertainment.  By the same token, that means that the car chases and the wrecks were all real, and they’re actually filmed quite well.  I imagine they only had one take for most of this stuff, and they managed to enthusiastically capture the thrill of the road, of tires screeching and metal rending, in a way that even I was into.

            The problem with Mad Max’s focus on the cars, even with that aspect being done well, is that there’s barely enough time left for a real plot.  Granted, that might be for the best considering how insanely nonsensical the small plot we do get is.  I swear, there’s a sequence where the leader of the biker gang threatens another member, then inexplicably starts walking them both out into the ocean.  Where does he think he’s going?  He’s clearly going to have to stop in a few steps or they and their guns will go underwater.  Then we cut to a bar scene, a seemingly nice bar where the waiters wear suits and a nice lady sings cabaret, a place where none of these characters would ever go.  Yet here is one of Max’s friends catching the eye of the singer, because this is a movie, so if the writer says that’s what happens then that’s what happens.  It seems that no one gave two cents about coherence, consistency, or pace when writing this film.  I’m guessing there were far more discussions about what cars would look coolest summersaulting through the air than what would actually happen in this movie.

            What it comes down to is that this film just isn’t for me.  I like plot and character, and I like it when they come together to explain what the hell is going on.  I like car chases and leather, too, but I need more than that to enjoy a film.

            Other Notes:

Ø  “That thing in there, that’s not Goose!”  Wow, you could be a little more accepting of people with severe burns.

Ø  “Dad used to take me on long walks.”  Dad didn’t have much money, did he?

Ø  Those villains were intentionally cartoonish, but that didn’t make me cringe any less.

Ø  Very subtle with the Anarchie Road sign.

Ø  I must say, I could definitely see the guys in Bellflower liking this movie.