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.
