Top 15 Favorite Films of 2015

At the end of the year it is customary for the writers of film criticism to name their top films of the year. Since I have openly stated many times on this blog that film viewing can be incredibly subjective and that one person's bomb is another's masterpiece, I am intentionally noting this as my favorites of the year and not "best". That said, it was a hard list to narrow down. I should also preface this by saying I have not seen every movie released in 2015. There were ones I inevitably missed and ones that have not gotten a chance to see yet. In the interest of getting this list done in a timely manner, I decided to do it now rather than wait for everything to come out here. So, in no particular order, we shall dig in.


The End of the Tour

I don't think I was quite prepared for how much I was going to love this movie, but I really did. It took me by surprise how much it really moved me and touched me in a way. The bulk of the movie is focused on two guys, David Foster Wallace (played by Jason Segal) and David Lipsky (played by Jesse Eisenberg). Lipsky is a reporter on assignment for Rolling Stone who is following notable author Wallace on the last leg of his book tour. Almost immediately, the two establish a great report with one another as they discuss Wallace's life, work and outlook on life, delving into his past, thoughts on life and the surprising insecurities fame can bring with it. Anchored by two stellar performances, especially by Jason Segal, bring these two characters wonderfully to life. Filled with aching heart and genuine sentiment, I really enjoyed every second of this movie.


Kingsman: The Secret Service

Oh my god, how I loved Kingsman: The Secret Service. I just can't help but adore every tongue in cheek, silly and action packed moment. Casting Colin Firth as the seasoned Kingsman agent training in new recruit Eggsy (played by Taron Egerton) was a stroke of genius and he is more than up to the challenge. Not afraid to indulge in a bit of dark humor and intense violence (the church scene is a show stopper, for sure), the entire film plays out like an edgier James Bond movie, which this film of course tips it's hat to repeatedly. Add in a scene stealing Samuel L. Jackson as the megalomaniacal villain who can't stand the sight of blood and you have yourself a winner.  There were some people who found parts of the film offensive for some reason. To them I can only say lighten up, none of it is meant to be taken seriously.


Creed

I've been a long time fan of the Rocky series but I really thought we had seen the last of the old lug when Rocky Balboa came out. Imagine my surprise when along came Creed, breathing some new life into the series. Directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan as the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed who seeks out his father's old rival turned friend to help him train to become a boxer. What develops between the two is nothing short of genuinely moving as both actors are at the top of their game, especially Stallone who gives maybe the performance of his career and I am not in the least bit surprised to see him get some awards attention because of it. It's easily the best Rocky since the first one and just perfection from beginning to end. 


Mad Max: Fury Road

I think I'm still stunned at how well Mad Max Fury Road has done. It was a $140 Million dollar fourth installment in the Post-Apocalyptic action series with the previous third film released thirty years prior. None of the signs were pointing to this being a huge hit. But then a funny thing happened and audiences turned out for what is easily the boldest, most original and highest octane action movie I think I have ever seen. George Miller, who directed the previous three films as well, returns with a new tale of Max in the wastelands of Australia. Standing toe to toe with him is Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, an absolute dynamite character that in many ways overshadows Max. Theron gives an amazing performance as a woman trying her best to stay strong as she tries to free the five "brides" of a ruthless warlord known as Immortan Joe. Filled with some of the most imaginative action sequences and dazzling practical effects with a human and deeply emotional story to ground everything, this one is an action movie masterpiece.


Spy

I knew that teaming Melissa McCarthy and Paul Feig on a spy movie comedy was going to be good. What I did not anticipate was how quietly progressive it was in the process. Melissa McCarthy gives a great performance as Susan Cooper, a CIA analyst who has to go out into the field when all the available operatives have their covers blown. With assistance from her friend and co-worker Nancy (played by Miranda Hart), Cooper finds herself up to the task at hand. However, she also has to deal with the intense and over-confident field agent Rick Ford (played by Jason Statham), who is determined to make sure the mission succeeds since he doesn't trust Cooper to get the job done. The cool thing about this movie is that at no time is it ever said that Cooper can't do the job because she is a woman or because of her body type. It is never once made an issue but rather the humor comes from her lack of field experience and the situations she finds herself in. To my surprise a lot of the humor also comes from Jason Statham, especially any time he is running down his incredible exploits as an agent. This one was such a wonderful and pleasant surprise in a year full of spy movies.  

The Martian

I knew as soon as I heard the premise for The Martian that it was going to be a great film. However, what I wasn't prepared for going into it was just how funny of a movie this was going to be. Seriously, if I am ever in as dire of a situation as Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) is in this movie, I can only hope I am capable of being even half the smart ass he is in this movie. The whole cast was top notch though, including Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Donald Glover, Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Sebastian Stan and Kristen Wiig, just to name a few. Coupled with fantastic writing and solid direction from Ridley Scott made this one of the most entertaining, inspiring and moving films I saw all year.  


The Gift

I went into the movie The Gift expecting one kind of movie and wound up getting something different and something even better. It was packaged and sold to the masses as a typical yuppies in peril psychological thriller and to an extent it was. But at the same time, writer/ director Joel Edgerton (who also plays the film's antagonist, Gordo) has some good curve balls that he throws the audience that really keeps people guessing. It's a smart and well done thriller anchored by three solid performances by Edgerton, Rebecca Hall and Jason Bateman who makes the most of his meaty role, giving one of his best performances in recent memory.

Love & Mercy

I grew up on the music of The Beach Boys, so when this biopic about Brian Wilson, the group's main composer and songwriter, came out I was immediately intrigued. The movie bounces back and forth during two periods of Wilson's life, when he was a younger man (played by Paul Dano) conceiving the legendary Pet Sounds album and later in life (played by John Cusack) when he met his future wife while trying to escape the overpowering care of Dr. Eugene Landy (played by Paul Giamatti), a man who used and abused Brian while he was battling mental illness for his own ends. With two great performances from Dano and Cusack at two different times of his life, this film is at times inspiring, engrossing and even heartbreaking. Still, hearing how some of my all time favorite Beach Boys songs slowly were pieced together in the recording studio was amazing (I got chills as I heard Good Vibrations slowly coming together). I just love how this film was put together from beginning to end, it was a fantastic film.

Mr. Holmes

Ian McKellan playing Sherlock Holmes? Sign me up, I am down with that. This film focuses on Holmes towards the end of his life. In his old age, he is haunted by one case he couldn't solve and is trying to piece it together while desperately trying to stave off his declining mental abilities. Helping him out is young Roger (played by Milo Parker), who looks upon Sherlock with a sort of hero worship and lives with him at his countryside home with his mother, Mrs. Munro (played by Laura Linney). While the film does have a mystery to solve, it is more interested in the character of Sherlock himself who in his older age is starting to re-evaluate the choices he made in his life, especially as Mrs. Munro is beginning to think of moving on to another job to hopefully give Roger a more normal childhood. Holmes does not take this well, having to admit he has grown quite fond of both of them. It is an engrossing and well acted new look at Sherlock Holmes, anchored by a reliably great Ian McKellan performance.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Brushing off the woefully uneven Prequels, the Star Wars series bursts triumphantly back to life with this latest entry in the series, directed by J.J Abrams and written by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan. Skillfully introducing such intriguing and immediately lovable new characters such as Poe Dameron (played by Oscar Issac), Finn (played by John Boyega) and Rey (played by Daisy Ridley) while bringing back the fan favorites such as Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) and Leia (played by Carrie Fisher, as badass as ever, if not more so). There is also a new baddie in town by the name of Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver) who is intent on picking up right where Vader left off. This one hit the ground running and never really slowed down. It was a fantastic thrill ride from beginning to end with surprise plot twists and one I thoroughly enjoyed. 


The Hateful Eight

There's just something about the films of Quentin Tarantino that I can't help but love and The Hateful Eight falls in right along with them. He crafts some of the most colorful and interesting characters, gives them wonderful dialogue to say all the while slowly ratcheting up the tension and this one is another perfect example of it. It's also completely unpredictable. All the possible scenarios I had in mind of how this film would play out didn't come to pass and that's what I love about Tarantino's films. I won't spoil anything but he really surprised me repeatedly with this one. Filmed in glorious Ultra Panavision 70 with a 2.76:1 aspect ratio, everything about this movie just feels epic, whether it's shots of a stagecoach racing through the snow or a bunch of people talking in a mountainside cabin during a blizzard, Tarantino uses every inch of his ultra widescreen frame to spin one hell of a tale.


The Big Short

Adam McKay takes a searing look into the Mortgage crisis of 2007-2008 and the people who not only saw it coming, but found a way to profit from it when no one would listen to them. With an all star cast that includes Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei and Christian Bale, coupled by a razor sharp script by director McKay and Charles Randolph, from the book by Michael Lewis makes for a winning film. While it's not 100% accurate and how everything went down with the Mortgage Markets is probably a bit oversimplified, it's still a good way to see what happened and will have you slapping your forehead at the stupidity of it all (I know I did, as well as thinking, "Yep, that's why I got a fixed rate mortgage"). Even then, the movie frequently breaks the fourth wall with asides explaining some of the Wall Street Jargon, recruiting the likes of Margot Robie, Selena Gomez and Anthony Bourdain to explain the concepts in every day terms.  It's a smart and at times very funny film that has a razor sharp wit fueled with righteous anger. 

Inside Out

There's something really smart and kind of brilliant about this Pixar film by Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen. It finds a really fun and imaginative way to explore the full spectrum of human emotion and how things like memories and life experiences play into that. The film focuses on the five core emotions, Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler), Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Fear (played by Bill Hader), Disgust (voiced by Mindy Kaling) and Anger (voiced by Lewis Black), the upheaval they experience when the person they occupy, a young girl named Riley (played by Kaitlyn Dias) moves from (I kid you not) Eden Prairie, Minnesota to San Francisco, California (yes, part of a Pixar movie takes place in my hometown. I'm not ashamed to say I got really excited when I found that out). The film does a great job creating a tangible world for these emotions to live in and show how they are learning right along with Riley herself as she grows up. The film even occasionally breaks away and explores the inner emotions of other characters, such as Riley's parents (voiced by Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan), to humorous effect. The cast is uniformly top notch across the board and each one gives a great performance, especially with the five principal voice actors playing the different emotions, as well as Richard Kind, who turns up as Riley's old imaginary friend, Bing Bong. All put together, Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen created a highly enjoyable and surprisingly emotional film that will resonate with audiences of all ages. I also appreciated the small touches, with each character being well drawn and relatable. I also liked that Riley played Hockey and that was a big thing in her life. I felt that was a nice touch, probably in part because I've known girls like that in my life. With some great imagination at work, an all around stellar voice cast, Inside Out proved to be one of the year's best and certainly one of my favorites.   

Straight Outta Compton 

Man, talk about the right movie coming out at the right time. This film takes a look at the Rap group N.W.A from their rise to their eventual break-up, and in process showing in no uncertain terms that maybe not as much has changed in America as we thought, racially speaking. The things we see the likes of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre or Eazy-E dealing with, especially with the Police, is still happening today. If anything it has only gotten worse. We see the inception of some of their songs including their most controversial one, born out of repeated police harrassment, "Fuck the Police." With great perfomances, including O'Shea Jackson, Jr. playing his own father, Ice Cube, makes this one of the more riveting biopics I've seen in quite awhile. 


Bridge of Spies

The latest team up between Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks is easily one of their best as it tells the true story of insurance lawyer James Donovan, who is recruited to help negotiate the trade of a captured Russian spy in exchange for an American one. It's less of a thriller and more of a well played drama focusing on one man trying to navigate some intense situations and work the situation to the benefit of everyone. With a sharp script by Matt Charman and Joel & Ethan Coen matched with great direction from Spielberg, this film was a smart and engrossing look at a period of time in the Cold War, showing how it really was. 

Honorable Mentions:

Here are a couple films I couldn't quite fit into the Top 15, but I still really, really enjoyed from 2015:

 Jurassic World

One of my all time favorite movies is the original Jurassic Park, so it was with fervent anticipation that I went into the newest installment and I must admit I really, really dug it. I knew it wasn't going to be as good as the original and my expectations were in check. I went in expecting an big, bad ass monster movie and got exactly what I expected. It had plenty of monster mayhem, action and a genuinely kick ass ending. I saw the film in the theatre three times and each time left with a big dopey grin on my face. Yes, it wasn't perfect and I do have some nitpicks, but it was so much fun on the whole that I just didn't care. Besides, it was a thrill just to see Jurassic Park as a thriving theme park that was completely open, and all the nods to the original film were a nice nostalgic touch as well.


Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

It's kind of hard to believe that we have five Mission: Impossible movies now, and they just keep getting better and better, with the latest installment being another top notch twisty turny thrill ride. Tom Cruise once again plays Ethan Hunt, this time trying to take down a shadowy terrorist organization called The Syndicate. With his usual team of agents, including Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Jeremy Renner as well as assistance from a Syndicate double Agent played by Rebecca Ferguson. With plenty of action and stunts as well as a compelling script and stylish direction to match from writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, this made for another fantastic entry in the Mission: Impossible series.