A friend of mine and I were talking recently and wondering whether tv had just gotten better or if movies had also gotten worse. When I heard a critic say that there were a bunch of second best movies this year but not a best movie I thought that sounded appropriate. I was supposed to do my best movies list last week (or the week before, or the week before that…) but I just kept trying to watch movies to see if I was missing anything. Well I’ve seen my final addition to the list so here goes, order as always is somewhat arbitrary:
- Room/The Big Short – Together I think these might make up my favorite movie, the first I caught early before I knew anything about it or what anyone had to say (which for me almost always helps) and the performances by these two actors in a story that went beyond what you normally see on a kidnapped life was so moving, but what it had in small film amazing it might have lacked in big pic spectacle which I thought Big Short had in spades, a great ensemble cast bringing a big American moment to the screen in a way that was suspenseful and quite funny as it educated us on the crappy credit/housing market and I always love weird Christian Bale.
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – I’m a sucker for a well done small coming of age story and this poignant story won me over as we look at friendship, cancer, and movies.
- Spotlight – I’m not typically a huge fan of historical based films but this look at the specific time and the way the story was uncovered as well as the set of circumstances that held it back from surfacing earlier, with a cast that brought the intensity, drew me in.
- Sicario – Emily Blunt as the idealistic FBI agent getting in way over her head on a task force in the war on drugs was tension filled from start to finish, and not that I’d thought about it before but don’t mess with Benicio Del Toro.
- Ex Machina – Programmer Domhnall Gleeson gets the opportunity of a lifetime but he has no idea what he’s getting into but can you really believe what you see or hear when you’re talking to Artificial Intelligence, or its creator for that matter, captivating.
- Ant-Man – I generally enjoy the bringings from the Marvel universe as well as an origin story, and the comedic take lead by Paul Rudd in what was basically a sci fi heist flick of fun, who knew tiny ant powers could be so powerful.
- Carol – From the moment Rooney Mara sees Cate Blanchett we fell for her and watching them fall in love in a time and situation that aren’t going to allow it makes you want to follow them on their journey.
- The Martian – I was dreading seeing another Gravity but the tension on this was mixed with not only humor (and no this was not a comedy regardless of what the Golden Globes decided) and some space MacGyvering made Matt Damon pretty entertaining to watch.
- Anomalisa – This is a movie worth watching just because Charlie Kaufman doesn’t disappoint in creating yet another super odd flick and not just because it’s stop motion,
For a look at a bit of an overview of what I’ve seen about check out the critics’ list. What were your fave movies of the year?
You’ll note that I didn’t say best books, turns out I am continuing my literary decline. I even cheated by including a couple of items started but not finished in 2015. But still a couple gems to be found, here’s what I read.
I tend to internally mock critics who say they can’t narrow it down to 10, but seriously too much out there, it’s impossible. I kept it to ten but I did cop out this year and put them in alphabetical order. My caveats as usual, these probably aren’t the best shows out but ones that I personally enjoyed, and I can’t completely rate on just an individual season. Also my usual clarification that I don’t get high end cable so those shows might be on my to do list but they won’t be here, plus shows that I’m behind on like Mad Men and Rectify (which I love).
