20 Films To Savour From 2015
The past year has been generous.
Last January, I scratched my amateur film critic itch and wrote a list of the best films from 2014. A year later, much has changed. For one, I’ve grown to admire the film medium being produced from more countries than ever before. And I regularly watched an average of 3 films a week, totalling 198(!) films watched in 2015.
Amidst all this visual stimuli however, I believe it adds up to something greater than just 350+ hours of sitting in front of a screen. By virtue of these experiences, I’ve found myself grappling with themes of creativity in the face of oppression (Taxi Tehran), joy in the midst of sadness (Inside Out) and finding beauty in everyday life (A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence).
It is my goal, therefore, to pique your interest with my picks of the 20 most memorable films of the past year. I hope these selections bring you as much quiet amazement as they did for me.
20. Magic Mike XXL
Directed by Gregory Jacobs
Steven Soderbergh created the original Magic Mike as a brimming action-comedy with a thematic edge about finding your true self. Yes, even for male strippers, the quest for identity is a pressing issue. In this sequel, a lot of this thematic heaviness is stripped down (pun not intended!) along with a couple significant cast members. What we’re left with however, is a streamlined road movie, devoid of any pretensions of its predecessor and a story that erases decades of misogyny typically found in films of this nature. It’s wish fulfillment for individuals of any race, sexual orientation or background and that’s saying a lot considering these entertainers have a very specific audience.
19. Ex Machina
Directed by Alex Garland
Ex Machina boldly confronts us with the physical manifestations of the male gaze: what if our world’s most skilled engineers created the most technologically-advanced cybernetic human-being that was also the epitome of sexual attraction? And what if such a creation was so much like a human being that it could cause its very observers to question their own humanity? Garland’s film manages a lot of heavy thematic elements such as these while also being suspenseful and well-produced.
18. The Assassin
Directed by Hou Xiao-Xian 侯孝賢
Take the title of this film with a heavy grain-of-salt; this is far from the martial-arts action epic that you might expect. Instead, Hou has created a contemplative, even meditative depiction of Chinese dogmas during the Tang Dynasty. The experience is wrapped in a beautiful shell of cinematography, immaculate costumes and set designs. Often, films can appear like moving paintings and The Assassin is a testament to cinema’s ability to create immersive images that are exceptional no matter where you might linger.
17. Phoenix
Directed by Christian Petzold
Phoenix is set in a post-Nazi era, which is well-treaded territory. But the film feels fresh by focussing entirely on one concentration camp survivor in search of her husband after she was presumed dead. It’s an intense and heartbreaking dive into an individual’s desire to reclaim her identity, both physically and emotionally. Sound sad? It’s that healthy kind of heartbreak, trust me.
16. Macbeth
Directed by Justin Kurzel
You’ve never seen Shakespeare like this before. Justin Kurzel directs a heavily-stylized adaptation of the famous play about power, the lust for it and the damned pursuit to keep it. By all means, it’s imperative to read the play before seeing this — the dialogue is taken right from the page and better for it; Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard dazzle as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth respectively.
15. Shinya Shokudo (Midnight Diner)
Directed by Joji Matsuoka
The enjoyment of food, equally in flavour and in presentation is epitomized in this heartfelt drama from Joji Matsuoka. Adapted from the TV show, which itself is adapted from the popular Japanese manga of the same name, Midnight Diner is about how the Japanese way of life is chaotic and leaves its citizens in a perpetual state of emotional distress; but through it all, there’s always time to eat after midnight. It’s what the food brings out in people as they eat that rings the most true; every patron unravels their struggles, joys and triumphs in their daily lives and always over a beautifully-presented dish.
14. Inside Out
Directed by Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen
Another Pixar classic, combining stellar animation with characters that wonderfully evoke the complications of human emotion. Rendering each emotion of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust into individual characters was such a brilliant idea, as they push each other for control inside a girl’s mind. Throughout the film, they all exhibit a mixture of other emotions themselves and by the end, the script allows them to truly collaborate towards a greater, more holistic human mind.
13. A Most Violent Year
Directed by J.C. Chandor
A story about immigrant ambition and class warfare in a toxic-yellow New York City. A Most Violent Year is a crime thriller that will surprise you, narratively and in its thematic depth. Oscar Isaac has had nothing short of a spectacular year in film and here he gives his character a quiet strength that speaks volumes. As he progresses in his thirst for power, he avoids the gangster tropes of being a raging lunatic with anger management issues. It’s a great character study and coupled with his performance in HBO’s Show Me A Hero, he is 2015’s shining symbol of immigration reform.
12. The Salt of the Earth
Directed by Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
For decades, Sebastião Salgado has been capturing the extremities of human nature from across the four corners of Earth with his unparalleled black-and-white photography. His work is a testament to the power of still imagery and with The Salt of the Earth, legendary director Wim Wenders and Salgado’s son attempt to capture the raw power of a master at work, specifically how he thinks and what he sees. It’s an immersive documentary about the human condition and our interaction with our planet, likely to reaffirm even the most skeptical about the power of nature.
11. Clouds of Sils Maria
Directed by Olivier Assayas
Art is often an imitation of life itself. And in the case of acting, the roles that performers play can hit incredibly close to home. Such an experience is depicted beautifully in Clouds of Sils Maria with Juliette Binoche playing Maria, an aging actress trying to cling onto her relevance when she is asked to star opposite a younger actress (Chloë Grace Moretz) playing a younger version of herself from twenty years prior. The set-up is simple but the constant interweaving of performance and reality is startling as Maria rehearses her role with her assistant, Valentine, played by Kristen Stewart. Set amongst beautiful vistas of Switzerland, the film is an opportunity to observe multiple and simultaneous levels of performance.
10. Bridge of Spies
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Tom Hanks returns as Spielberg’s leading man in this Cold War thriller about an insurance lawyer tasked with defending a Russian spy, played by Mark Rylance. When the entire world has every reason to demonize the supposed spy, Hanks reminds everyone that upholding the values of the Constitution stands above simply declaring the death sentence. The film is an understated thriller, filled with suspicion at every turn, fitting for the time period in question. Spielberg has always been masterful in humanizing his characters to the point of maximum empathy and Bridge of Spies is no exception; Mark Rylance gives a meekness to his role as a vilified spy that it’s often him we have the most sympathy for.
9. Timbuktu
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
Timbuktu sweeps the audience up in a story about an oppressive jihadist group enforcing its legalism onto a peaceful city. It’s a political firecracker and the film shines most effectively as a piercing study of religious subjectivity within Islam, in which both jihadists and local citizens plead their utmost allegiances to Allah despite their expressions of faith being utterly at odds with one another. At its best, Timbuktu demonstrates why subject matter of this nature needs an emotional anchor in order to be fully understood. We find that here with a fictional tale of a comfortable cow-herding family unable to avoid the oppression of the outside world. It’s compelling, beautiful and heart-breaking all at once.
8. A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence
Directed by Roy Andersson
The mundaneness of everyday life is unfathomably made beautiful in this Swedish arthouse film from Roy Andersson. Platitudes like “Nice to see you!” or “It’s nice to hear you’re doing fine.” are scattered throughout the film, spoken by sickly-looking everyday citizens doing activities we would never think to show the outside world. Yet it is this very premise and art direction that gives the film such charm. What’s most surprising in A Pigeon is the staging of each scene—characters move in and out of frame as objects in a glass display case. Meanwhile, the camera remains at a consistent distance keeping us detached but always curious.
7. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Directed by J.J. Abrams
A rousing and emotionally fulfilling return for the franchise. I’ll always remember December 17th, 2015 at 7pm in Toronto’s biggest IMAX screen. It was a particularly warm and fateful evening and I’ve already gushed about this film extensively in my Letterboxd review, which you can read here.
6. Chi-Raq
Directed by Spike Lee
Racial tensions reached feverish new heights in the US in 2015 and Chi-Raq is a dignified and vital plea for peace, told through the medium of film. Set in South-side Chicago and based on the Greek comedy Lysistrata, the film places an emphatic spotlight on rivalling gang violence and the male hubris that upholds its never-ending feud. The film gives its largely-female cast an incredible power in the form of voluntary abstinence from sex and weaves together elements of live-theatre, spoken-word and rap music. Chi-Raq confronts challenging subject matter with great success by putting it through the lens of multiple art forms.
5. The Look of Silence
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Joshua Oppenheimer has created an astonishing and quieter companion film to his Oscar-nominated 2012 documentary The Act of Killing. Here, he continues his examination into the 1965 genocide in Indonesia, whereby a military dictatorship overthrew the country and ordered local gang militia to execute 1 million “communists” in the name of Islam. With The Look of Silence, Oppenheimer does without all the grandiose sensationalism of his first film and zooms in on the psychological effects of the killers and their families. Oppenheimer, who has lived in Indonesia for nearly two decades, enlists the help of a local optometrist named Adi. By setting up appointments with the murderers, Adi uses the opportunity to ask them about their state of mind while inspecting their vision. The remorseless and silent expressions he receives in return are the most sickening yet engrossing moments captured on film this year.
4. Taxi Tehran
Directed by Jafar Panahi
A taxi is perhaps the most grounded way of observing a modern city, particularly one under media censorship. Banned from making films and travelling abroad by the Iranian government, Jafar Panahi defies the powers that be and creates a sly work of art in Taxi Tehran. The structure is deceivingly simple — capture the political, cultural and religious views within Tehran through the various passengers that enter the vehicle, while Panahi himself drives the taxi. But with such incidental encounters with said passengers, the film plays its ultimate ruse: are these truly randomized passengers or actors in Panahi’s overall attempt to say something greater? As any master would do, he leaves that question up to the audience and embodies the mantra of finding creativity within limitation.
3. Mistress America
Directed by Noah Baumbach
The quiet amazement when our mentors and role models take the time to share their world with us is an intoxicating feeling and Mistress America captures the warmth of this perfectly. Lola Kirke plays Tracy, an aspiring writer equipped with college freshmen naïveté. It’s from her perspective that we meet Brooke, the wildly aspirational role model and soon to be step-sister of Tracy. With just the right amount of expository set-up, we follow these two girls through a series of excursions in Manhattan, as Brooke grapples with the pains of being an entrepreneur in an unforgiving city. It’s a chatty screenplay, full of millennial-focused issues and hilarious moments of banter. And when said role model is as gregarious and interesting as Greta Gerwig’s Brooke, it’s no wonder that I fell in love with this movie.
2. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
Directed by David Zellner
This film took my breath away — it’s a black comedy that exists as a love-letter to the Coen Brothers’ classic Fargo, while also being a sensitive portrayal of Japanese cultural values. The film follows Kumiko (played brilliantly by Rinko Kikuchi), who struggles with common themes of filial piety often found in the Asian culture while strict societal expectations for young Japanese women continue to oppress her. For these reasons, Kumiko finds potential freedom when she stumbles upon a VHS tape of Fargo and witnesses gold treasure stashed in the snowy plains of North Dakota. The film is unabashed about its references to the 1996 classic but feels fresh by introducing an additional layer of delusion, from a person with absolutely no connection to American sensibilities.
And my favourite film of 2015 was…
Mad Max: Fury Road
Directed by George Miller
Action can do more than merely drive a film’s characters. Often, action is character and in George Miller’s relentlessly artful return to the Mad Max franchise, the action is the catalyst that sets every narrative aspect into motion. The operatic nature of each scene is so immaculately constructed: from the vehicular warfare, artistic use of sand, to the mono-chromatic night scenes, and Charlize Theron wiping motor oil on her forehead…every detail is critical. No other film resonated with me more this year simply by virtue of the fact that every artistic nuance imagined by George Miller, reached our eyeballs as the final product. It achieves new milestones in spectacle while also delivering a story of redemption for vigilant women rising from the ashes of destruction in a man’s world.
And that’s it! Leave a comment below and tell me your favourite films of the past year. I’m always open to a healthy discussion. Thanks for reading.
— J
Email | Twitter | Instagram | Letterboxd
