My Year in Cinema — 2015

This was the year I stopped reading film reviews, which I usually didn’t do before seeing a film — rather, I’d watch the film first and then compare my views with those of a few critics whose views I appreciated (whether they were consistent with or challenged my own).

Over the years, most of these critics have either passed away (Roger Ebert), retired (J. Hoberman?) or their antics have become tiresome (Armond White) and I’ve been unable to find contemporary equivalents. Beyond that, film criticism as a whole seems to have devolved into a review writers trying to prove how clever they are rather than contributing anything meaningful.

What I Enjoyed Most

• Goodbye to Language d. Jean-Luc Godard — if this ends up being Godard’s final film, it will have been a fitting swan song. A visual and aural tone poem on what becomes of communication in a world mediated by screens and a love letter to his pet dog. So good, it made me want to start making movies again.
• Blackhat d. Michael Mann — unfairly ignored by just about everyone. Stark, minimalist, brutal realism the way that only Michael Mann can do it. Also, the most accurate depiction of hacking on screen to date.
• Sicario d. Denis Villeneuve — while on the topic of stark, minimalist brutality, Denis Villeneuve has made these his hallmarks and this follow-up to 2013’s harrowing Prisoners burns slow with building intensity, fueled by a striking cinematography, a haunting score and gripping, tightly edited action sequences.
• Inherent Vice d. Paul Thomas Anderson — someone, somewhere referred to this sun-bleached, neon-drenched 70s neo-noir as “Highnatown” and that about says it all.
• Youth d. Paolo Sorrentino — while it doesn’t reach the exhilarating heights of The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino has done it again.
• Clouds of Sils Maria d. Olivier Assayas — in a year filled with great roles for and compelling onscreen relationships between women, Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche’s might be the most intense and believable one. Olivier Assayas is back (if he ever left).
• Ex Machina d. Alex Garland — relationships between man and machine also dominated screens this year and this was by far the most compelling one. Alex Garland proves that he’s as capable a filmmaker as he is novelist and Oscar Isaac challenges Michael Fassbender as the cinema’s most magnetic leading man.
• Carol d. Todd Haynes — in a recent podcast Bret Easton Ellis referred to Todd Haynes’ directing style as fussy. That it might be, but what it really means is a fine attention to every detail: performances, production design, wardrobe, film stock…and the result is…kinda perfect.
• It Follows d. David Robert Mitchell — it vies with Sicario for the most intense and effective score of the year. It also taps a vein of horror that is usually only found in the best Asian horror films, which inhabit a world where the supernatural comingles so readily with reality that by becoming commonplace is even more terrifying.
• Steve Jobs d. Danny Boyle — I see why the technology industry rejected the film and why audiences ignored it. But, taken as a work of fiction that happens to be populated by people who exist(ed) in real life and as a study of the ego, megalomania and personal sacrifices inherent to the pursuit of perfection, it’s quite brilliant.
• Brooklyn d. John Crowley — the simplicity of the filmmaking (actually quite hard to accomplish) lets the fine performances at the heart of this carefully observed melodrama shine.
• The Martian d. Ridley Scott -

• Goodnight Mommy d. Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz — the trailer does a great job of feeling like it reveals way too much (like most trailers presently do) while actually giving away nothing at all. Horror used to great effect, the way it should be, distorting reality for characters and viewers alike.
• Amy d. Asif Kapadia — purely cinematic in the sense that it feels like Asif Kapadia didn’t shoot any for the film itself but rather used, in the most effective way possible, home videos to tell the Amy Winehouse’s life before she was famous and paparazzi footage post fame.
• Citizenfour d. Laura Poitras — in so many ways one of the most important stories of our era and, whatever one’s views of the politics surrounding this, the footage and interviews here are the closest to the source as one’s likely to get.
• While We’re Young d. Noah Baumbach — few filmmakers are able to deal with serious subject of our daily lives: our hopes, fears and obsessions with as light and revealing a touch as Noah Baumbach.
• Two Step d. Alex R. Johnson — this simple story of the colliding worlds of an orphan and a conman harks back to, in the best way possible, 90s American Indie cinema.
• The Overnight d. Patrick Brice — if there more films like this being made, not enough of them are getting meaningful distribution.
• Good Kill d. Andrew Niccol — the minimalist vibe, sense of claustrophobia and tight constraints of the story serve Andrew Niccol well and help curb his worst tendencies that have undermined many of his other films to deliver his best work since Gattaca.
• Honorable Mentions: Bridge of Spies, Creed, Unfriended, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Program, She’s Funny That Way, The Gift, Deep Web, Love & Mercy, Mistress America, Best of Enemies, Knock Knock.

What Disappointed Me Most

• Mad Max: Fury Road d. George Miller — there was no way it was going to live up to the hype but it was just loud, overwrought and utterly pointless. Walked out after 45 minutes. And, for those celebrating it for minimal use of CGI (no idea why this is a cause for celebration), I’ll just leave these here:

• Beasts of No Nation d. Cary Joji Fukunaga — this is certainly a story that needs to be told. Just not this way. Gave up after 30 minutes.
• Chappie d. Neill Blomkamp — it didn’t do well during its initial commercial run but gained a cult following thanks in part to sci-fi author William Gibson’s Twitter campaign championing it. So grating and ham-fisted that it, following the bland Elysium is making me start to doubt whether District 9 was actually any good, perhaps it was a fluke.
• Dark Places d. Gilles Paquer-Brenner — Gillian Flynn’s novel, with its lurid subject matter and rigidly structured narrative bouncing between present day and the events of a single day in the past lent itself quite naturally to cinematic adaption. It was undone by poor casting choices across the board and a lack of ability to by the filmmakers to generate any tension or suspense.
• The Walk d. Robert Zemeckis — really only the desire to see the walk itself on IMAX 3D compelled me to see this in the first place. Sadly, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Pepe LePew impersonation prevented me from even getting through the first 15 minutes.
• The Rover d. David Michod — I don’t actually remember why I went to see this, but I do remember why I walked out: sheer boredom.
• Point Break d. Ericson Core — as with The Walk, I’d only really gone to see the action set pieces but even these failed to even do their job.
• The Age of Adaline d. Lee Toland Krieger — *yawn*.
• Entourage d. Doug Ellin — failed to meet even the lowest of expectations.
• Fifty Shades of Grey — I commend Universal Pictures on their immense commercial acumen.

What I Still Want to Watch

• The Mend
• The Hateful Eight
• The Big Short
• Room
• Spotlight
• Irrational Man
• Straight Outta Compton
• Knight of Cups
• Veronica
• By The Sea
• Joy
• Anomalisa
• Tangerine
• The Lobster
• Phoenix
• Eden
• The Duke of Burgundy
• Codegirl
• Regression
• Life
• Kill Your Friends
• Magic Mike XXL
• Southpaw