We ran through the Most Overlooked Movies of the Year, so now it’s time for the big kahuna. And I’m happy to report that 2015 was an excellent year in cinema, and a major rebound from an underwhelming ’14 that saw Birdman (?) win Best Picture. There was a wealth of exceptional blockbusters, from Pixar’s Inside Out to Ridley Scott’s The Martian, aka Matt Damon’s apology for that Interstellar cameo. Hell, even the studio reboots were impressive, including Ryan Coogler’s Rocky spinoff Creed, George Miller’s fast and furious Mad Max: Fury Road, and that new Star Wars movie. Old-school filmmaking made a comeback as well with Todd Haynes’s 1950s love story Carol, the globe-trotting immigrant romance Brooklyn, and the fine ode to journalism that is Spotlight. Without further ado, here are the best movies of the year.
Photo Illustration by Emil Lendof/The Daily Beast
Denis Villeneuve is an expert at ratcheting up tension and the sequence in this cartel thriller where a caravan of government spooks—accompanied by FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt, in a career-best performance)—crosses into Juarez to extract an asset will have you on the edge of your seat. Sicario offers a complicated, question-raising portrait of the War on Drugs and is complemented by excellent supporting turns from Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin, as well as an eerie score that augments the suspense.
Richard Foreman/Lionsgate
Scripted by the celebrated novelist Nick Hornby, Brooklyn is a throwback to the sweeping romances of the ’40s and ’50s. An Irish immigrant named Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) lands in the titular New York City borough where she falls for a rough Italian street kid, Tony (Emory Cohen). But after she’s forced to return home, Eilis finds herself torn between her homeland and her new world with Tony across the pond. It’s a magical film buoyed by star-making turns from Ronan and Cohen—two nimble young actors whose chemistry with one another is off the charts.
Fox Searchlight
Here, Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien transports audiences to 8th century China during the Tang Dynasty to tell the tale of a female assassin who’s ordered to kill the man she was supposed to marry. Hsaio-hsien was awarded the Best Director trophy at Cannes, and you can see why—The Assassin is one of the most lyrical, photographically stunning films of the year.
Studio Canal
Written by and starring comedy goddess Amy Schumer, the latest from the Judd Apatow comedy factory is essentially the female version of Knocked Up, following a noncommittal thirtysomething (Schumer) with a penchant for booze and one-night stands who falls for a gentle, effete sports surgeon (Bill Hader). Thanks to Schumer’s excellent timing and sharp comedic voice, as well as hilarious supporting turns from the likes of Tilda Swinton and LeBron James (really), Trainwreck seems like comedy of the moment, and is very re-watchable.
Universal Pictures
The plot to Olivier Assayas’s latest is secondary. This is, first and foremost, a cinematic tête-à-tête between two of our finest actresses—Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart. Binoche plays an actress in the twilight of her career facing the indignity of accommodating a Lohan-like starlet, while Stewart is her trusty personal assistant and confidante. Binoche’s Euro elegance coalesces beautifully with Stewart’s lived-in, nervy turn, resulting in a prickly, loving interplay between the two in this absorbing meta-satire.
IFC Films
Spike Lee’s latest is his most urgent film in decades—a searing indictment of gun violence and gun culture seething with rage. It’s a modern-day take on the play Lysistrata, as the women of Chicago band together in withholding sex until the killing stops. Lee is at his best as a filmmaker when he’s angry and inspired, and he hasn’t been this angry and inspired since defending the legacy of Malcolm X. The sharp dialogue—referencing everything from Ben Carson to the Charleston massacre—sings, the performances crackle, and the film feels like a call to action. Ladies and gentlemen, Spike Lee is back.
Roadside Attractions
Yes, Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke box office records. And yes, its plot is a remix of the first two films in the franchise. But there are few feelings more potent than fond nostalgic remembrance, and J.J. Abrams’s film will inspire Proustian flashbacks to the wonderment you felt seeing Star Wars for the first time. Plus, the cast—both young and old—is uniformly excellent, led by newcomer Daisy Ridley, who is an absolute dynamo.
Lucasfilm
This first-rate populist entertainment—which explains why Obama chose it as his favorite movie of the year—is also the finest movie director Ridley Scott’s made since Black Hawk Down, and as a marooned-man film, makes Cast Away look silly and trite by comparison. But, besides the ace special effects, game supporting cast, and non-price-gouging use of IMAX 3D, the film rests on the shoulders of its star, Matt Damon, whose turn is so charismatic and compelling it’ll leave audiences willing to kick a few bucks toward the rescue effort.
Twentieth Century Fox
There are few writers who can capture the agony and ecstasy of love—and the torment of the failed communication of love—like Charlie Kaufman. Here, he delves into the world of stop-motion animation to tell the story of Michael Stone (David Thewlis), a middle-aged author of books on the intricacies of customer service who, ironically, fails to connect with people. That all changes when he meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) on a business trip, a fetching woman who dramatically alters his worldview. This is a Kaufmanesque take on Lost in Translation, and a humanizing study of finding a rich connection in an increasingly disconnected world.
Paramount Pictures
Filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s last effort was the Adam Sandler dud The Cobbler, which makes this perhaps the greatest leap in quality from one film to the next in Hollywood history. McCarthy’s assembled an ace cast—Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery—in portraying The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team of investigative journalists as they methodically reported on the epidemic of sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic priests in Massachusetts. The abuse was systematically covered up by the Boston Archdiocese and it transpired that the trail went all the way to the Vatican. It’s a monument to the Fourth Estate and the journalists who brave shitty hours and shittier pay to bring truth to power, striving to make the world a better place. It’s also the best film about journalism since All the President’s Men.
Open Road Films
Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki is one of our finest living cinematographers, and as such, has taken home the Oscar for Best Cinematography each of the past two years (Gravity, Birdman). He may win his third in a row for The Revenant, a survival epic shot entirely in natural light that is so breathtakingly beautiful its look resembles Instagram’s “Mayfair” tint. The picturesque vistas and lively camerawork are bolstered by ferocious turns from Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. And to answer your question, yes, Leonardo DiCaprio will win his first Oscar for this, a role that requires him to be attacked by bear, eat a live fish, sleep in a horse carcass, and be buried alive. And by god he’ll deserve it.
Twentieth Century Fox
Who would’ve thought Bill Pohlad, an ex-film executive with scant directorial experience, could helm this extraordinary portrait of Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson? Told via two parallel narratives –the 1960s, as a tripped-out Wilson (Paul Dano) records Pet Sounds, and the 1980s, as a medicated Wilson (John Cusack), is rescued from the control of his overbearing manager—the film effectively captures the mania and brilliance of one of our finest songwriters. And if there’s any justice in the world, Dano will receive considerable awards attention for his layered portrayal of the younger Wilson. He’ll rock your socks off.
Roadside Attractions
Documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia proved how gifted he was with his eye-opening 2010 portrait about the life and death of racing champion Ayrton Senna, but his film chronicling the life and death of soul singer Amy Winehouse is an absolute revelation. A combination of found footage—much of it taken by the late Winehouse herself—and testimonials, it pieces together a portrait of a genius musician haunted by many demons, including an opportunistic father blinded by fame, and a voracious tabloid press that reveled in her downfall. As such, it’s a fascinating exploration of celebrity in the modern age and the toll it can take on a delicate young soul.
A24 Films
Anyone who’s seen 28 Days Later or Never Let Me Go knows how gifted of a screenwriter Alex Garland is, but here he’s offered up the best directorial debut of the year. It centers on a lowly programmer (Domnhnall Gleeson) who’s invited by his boss, an oddball billionaire-genius (Oscar Isaac) to his architectural wonder of a home to give a Turing test to a top secret creation: an android with artificial intelligence (Alicia Vikander). Spare yet novelistic in scope, Garland’s film is a disturbingly plausible—and cerebral—slice of sci-fi about the fraught future of man vs. AI, as well as an indictment of eugenics, capitalism, and social Darwinism.
Universal Studios
The German director-actress combo of Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss is the best out there, and without giving too much away, this stylish noir centers on a Holocaust survivor (Hoss) who returns to Berlin after undergoing facial reconstruction surgery. There, she falls for the man who ratted her out to the Nazis. Petzold’s film combines the seductiveness of The Night Porter with the noirish intrigue of Casablanca, and, with all due respect to Cate Blanchett, it is Hoss who turns in the best female performance of the year. Also, the ending will leave you breathless.
Trimark Pictures
Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu is the most culturally important film to be released this year. It chronicles the fleeting occupation of Timbuktu by the militant Islamic group Ansar Dine, and, through a series of mesmerizing scenes, depicts the absurdity of life under Sharia—from the banning of any music to couples being buried to their necks in sand and stoned for adultery to boys kicking around an imaginary soccer ball (sports are banned as well). That Sissako combines such strong sociopolitical commentary with breathtaking imagery is a testament to his mastery of form.
Cohen Media
Quentin Tarantino’s eighth (and allegedly third to last) film is also his funniest since Pulp Fiction—a black comedy about a group of post-Civil War drifters, bounty hunters, ex-soldiers, and lawmen trapped inside a Colorado road stop bed and breakfast during a blizzard. But everyone is not who they seem to be. Shot in 70mm, Tarantino’s film boasts a terribly entertaining script, a beautiful score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, and tremendous performances by its cast—including a John Wayne-channeling Kurt Russell, fast-talkin’ Walter Goggins, an overly genteel Tim Roth, and a feral Jennifer Jason Leigh. But it’s Samuel L. Jackson who steals it. When he delivers Tarantino’s hilarious lines, it’s like filthy poetry.
Andrew Cooper
The only film with a better final shot than Phoenix is Todd Haynes’s Carol, a timeless romance about a reticent shopgirl (Rooney Mara) who falls for a former housewife (Cate Blanchett) in 1950s New York. Dialogue is sparse, but Haynes’s gorgeously manicured film captures love’s quieter moments—furtive glances, tender caresses—as well as the engulfing shadows of an iniquitous world that threatens to swallow them whole. Carol is a celebration of unbridled passion, and the finest love story of the year.
The Weinstein Company
The name Pete Docter should be mentioned in any conversation about the best filmmakers alive. After Monsters, Inc. and Up, the Pixar helmer just made his finest film yet in Inside Out, which takes us inside the mind of Riley—an 11-year-old small-town girl from Minnesota whose family moves to San Francisco. As she struggles to adjust, she’s guided by her complex set of emotions stored in the Headquarters of her mind: Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Anger (Lewis Black). Docter’s exquisitely rendered film is a deeply philosophical exploration of childhood and memory; a movie that will provoke laughs, tears, and leave moviegoers with a greater understanding of what it means to leave the past behind and start anew. A staggering achievement.
No film this year was as thrilling as George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road—a two-hour chase through a post-apocalyptic hellscape filled with albino chrome-mouthed War Boys, high-speed pole-vaulters, and a metalhead shredding a flamethrower-guitar. It took 17 years for Fury Road to travel from the fertile mind of Miller to the screen, and it shows: This brutal world has been lovingly and obsessively crafted from top to bottom by its genius maker, and once it gets its fangs in you, you can’t turn away. It’s an unrelenting, deliciously gonzo action-extravaganza that will leave you breathless and thirsting for more; the finest action film of the century. So buckle up and enjoy the ride.
One of the most fertile director-actor combos around is Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, and their boxing flick CREED, a modern-day spin on the Rocky franchise, will have you cheering in the aisles. Another fascinating blockbuster was KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE, a zany, thrilling comic book adaptation with deliciously cartoonish performances. Another, decidedly funnier spy flick, SPY, featured outstanding hilarious turns from Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Jude Law, and the brilliant Rose Byrne. And a pair of films about geek-geniuses, STEVE JOBS and THE BIG SHORT, boast stellar casts at the top of their game and are well worth your time. Also, speaking of the past, the Hungarian Holocaust drama SON OF SAUL also is well worth your time, as is Asghar Farhadi's Iranian mystery ABOUT ELLY.
The documentary THE WOLFPACK, about a real-life family of brothers raised in captivity in a New York City apartment and forced to act out their fantasies via home movies, will have you in awe, and reinforce your love of cinema. TANGERINE is a hilarious revenge-comedy and a technical marvel, having been filmed entirely on iPhone 5s’s. Andrew Haigh’s 45 YEARS provides a raw, uncompromising portrait of an elderly couple, while Noah Baumbach’s WHILE WE’RE YOUNG explores the generational divide between fortysomething and twentysomething artists. Rick Famuyiwa’s DOPE is brimming with energy, and an exciting love letter to ’90s hip-hop, while the sexiness of THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY made Fifty Shades of Grey look downright prude by comparison. Oh, and check out THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL. Bel Powley is one to watch.
