2015 in Film
So far, I've seen 108 films released in 2015, and before I get to the full ranking below, I want to highlight a few superlatives.
Best – Anomalisa
I spent most of this movie literally on the edge of my seat, mouth agape, and it was purely through the power of the writing. It’s an unusually straightforward story for Kaufman, but it’s anchored by a staggeringly literalized metaphor that elucidates an emotional issue in a way I’ve never seen. There’s a scene over a breakfast that broke my heart, and it features one of the most beautiful sex scenes I’ve ever seen, and it’s enacted by dolls. This is an all-timer.
Worst – The Riot Club
An ugly, mean, pointless movie, and the less said about it the better.
Most Underrated – Kumiko the Treasure Hunter
I only say this is underrated because nobody talked about it at the end of the year, nor do I know anybody else who actually saw it. It’s a bone-dry, pitch-black comedy that’s also a painfully beautiful character study, full of absurdist scenes and moments that touch on the Coen influences while always feeling like its own thing. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and that’s a rare feeling.
Most Overrated – Magic Mike XXL
I’m continually shocked and confused that people found this a feminist sex-positive film. To me, it felt focused on male fantasies of rape and dominance, dressed up as a celebration of women, with a hefty dose of condescension in all the self-congratulation over how meaningful these men are to the women they “celebrate.” Just a gross, unpleasant film.
Biggest Disappointment – A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
This is only a disappointment in that it’s exactly the same movie as one of my favorites, Songs from the Second Floor, part one of the trilogy that A Pigeon closes out. The first part thrilled me, the second made me say, “Wait, wasn’t that just the same movie?” and the third made me say, “Oh God, it’s the same movie again.” Taken as one six-hour film, maybe it works, but six hours is a damn long film.
Other Biggest Disappointment – The End of the Tour
DFW deserved a better movie than this flattening-out defined entirely by his eventual suicide. Jason Siegel played the role as the human equivalent of a sad-faced emoji, whereas the book of transcripts the screenplay was drawn from reveals much more energy and wit to DFW in that period. A film about depression that denies any of the subtlety and shading of real depression, particularly the depression of such a brilliant mind.
Most Welcome Surprise – Sleeping With Other People
I never would have guessed that a relatively mainstream romcom would sneak into my Top 10, but this isn’t your typical romcom. It paints with every single shade on the emotional color wheel, and features one of my top scenes of the year in the birthday party sequence, a perfect synthesis of music, camerawork, acting, and storytelling that affected me in a shocking, chemical way.
Most Fun Had – Macbeth
There have been plenty of good Macbeths, and I’ve always dreamed of the big, stupid, version, so I watched this with a big, stupid grin on my face. It’s 300 written by Shakespeare, and that’s very close to my ideal version of the story.
Most Sentimentally Important – The Martian
My grandmother died this fall, and I spent a week in Maine with my family as we all went through the stages of grief together. But the first morning I woke up back home in Somerville, I realized sadness was giving way to depression, a very different, scarier beast. I spent the day on the couch, unmotivated and anhedonic, and mid-afternoon, I abruptly realized I needed to walk the fifteen minutes to the Somerville theater and see the very next showing of whatever was playing. And what was plating was The Martian. I walked in just as the credits began, into the big, grand, balconied theater, and settled in to an aisle seat in the middle.
And for over two hours, I laughed, and I gasped, and I got tears in my eyes, and at the end, we all clapped. I didn’t see one person to go the bathroom for the entire runtime. Being in that theater was healing for my soul, and I walked home rejuvenated, lighter than I'd felt in a week.
As I walked home, I thought about a Drew McWeeny piece, in which he discusses his search for religion as a young man, which culminated in going to see Brazil and suddenly feeling it all click:
"If you attend church looking for answers about the world, that's exactly why I attend movie theaters. If you look for a sense of community in your church, that's what I find in movie theaters as well. If church is a place where you go to find your center, to reset your own moral barometer, or to better understand who you are and why you are here, that is exactly what I get from my church as well."
I really did feel like something special happened to my soul that night. So, yeah, I liked The Martian a lot.
And now, the full ranking of all 108 2015 released I’ve seen so far:
1. Anomalisa
2. Inside Out
3. The Martian
4. Dope
5. Kumiko the Treasure Hunter
6. 45 Years
7. Macbeth
8. Mad Max: Fury Road
9. Sleeping With Other People
10. Love & Mercy
11. The Stanford Prison Experiment
12. Slow West
13. The Forbidden Room
14. The Hateful Eight
15. Mistress America
16. The Nightmare
17. The Duke of Burgundy
18. What We Did On Our Holiday
19. Finders Keepers
20. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
21. Reality
22. Entertainment
23. Ex Machina
24. Eden
25. Going Clear
26. Trainwreck
27. Brooklyn
28. Christmas, Again
29. Z for Zachariah
30. Manson Family Vacation
31. Gabriel
32. Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed
33. Unexpected
34. While We’re Young
35. The Seven Five
36. Spotlight
37. Amira & Sam
38. The Wolfpack
39. Spy
40. Clouds of Sils Maria
41. Lost River
42. The Keeping Room
43. Cop Car
44. The Yes Men Are Revolting
45. Balls Out
46. Man Up
47. The Salvation
48. Infinitely Polar Bear
49. Queen of Earth
50. Zero Motivation
51. True Story
52. Wild Tales
53. Spring
54. American Ultra
55. Ant-Man
56. The Falling
57. Lambert & Stamp
58. Kingsman: The Secret Service
59. Ten Thousand Saints
60. The DUFF
61. Avengers: Age of Ultron
62. Jurassic World
63. Welcome to Me
64. It Follows
65. The D Train
66. Ted 2
67. Joy
68. The Gift
69. Digging for Fire
70. Break Point
71. Dark Places
72. Bone Tomahawk
73. People, Places, Things
74. Results
75. I Believe in Unicorns
76. Patch Town
77. Maps to the Stars
78. The Rewrite
79. The Voices
80. The Last Five Years
81. Faults
82. Walter
83. Staten Island Summer
84. Aloha
85. Adult Beginners
86. We Are Still Here
87. Goodnight Mommy
88. Hits
89. Jupiter Ascending
90. Alex of Venice
91. Woman in Gold
92. The Lesson
93. Breathe
94. Kill Me Three Times
95. Bluebird
96. Buzzard
97. Accidental Love
98. The Leisure Class
99. Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
100. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
101. Growing Up and Other Lies
102. The Search for General Tso
103. Slow Learners
104. Magic Mike XXL
105. The Riot Club
Two movies I can’t rank because I can’t possibly be objective about them:
- The End of the Tour (see above)
- Star Wars VII (anyone who grew up as addicted to the original trilogy as I was and claims to be objective about this film is lying)
A movie I can’t rank because it’s barely a movie:
- Hurricane of Fun