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The 10 Best Films of 2015
Box office records were smashed all over the place in 2015 by mega-hit blockbusters and sequels, but the real standouts enraptured viewers through astounding ambition, bold storytelling and creative originality. There was no shortage of such cinematic delights in 2015, but here are the 10 best.
- ALEX LAMB
@lambcannon
1. "Mad Max: Fury Road"
At the age of 70, writer/director George Miller revamped the apocalyptic wasteland he created over 35 years ago, maxing it out on rip-roaring style and detailed, idiosyncratic world-building to deliver one of the craziest, most kinetic and blazingly awesome action movies ever. He artfully uses the whacked-out cast of characters like an orchestra, conducting a symphonic, punk-rock ballet of violence that includes a bad guy shredding a flame-throwing guitar and invigoratingly has the titular anti-hero playing second fiddle to the empowered heroine Furiosa.
ing with "Mad Max: Fury Road." Not only does he sustain it as a two-hour, breakneck-speed chase of explosive vehicular warfare, adrenaline-pumping road rage and jaw-dropping practical stunts but also keeps its heart racing with a simple yet emotionally satisfying story.
Miller pulls off a miracle of modern filmmak-
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AP PHOTO
This photo released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Tom Hardy in a scene from, "Mad Max: Fury Road."
2. "The Revenant"
The beauty and brutality of the American frontier has never been so viscerally and mesmerizingly captured as in "The Revenant." There's a constant, captivating clash between the elegance and indiscriminate force of nature, and the violence of man and his powerful drive for survival, that grabs hold in the intense opening minutes and doesn't let go until long after the film ends.
For director Alejandro González Iñárritu, "Birdman" was just a warm-up act to this exhausting, remarkably-ambitious project that transcends the regular boundaries of cinema. That's true for director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki as well, who insisted on using only natural light and pushes the envelope even further with his
These elements force the audience to watch "The Tribe" in a way totally different from a regular movie, different even than a silent film. And yet what's being communicated is always clear through the body language, making this bleak story of a newcomer at a school sucked into the violent world of a gang a truly new kind of cinematic experience.
3. "The Tribe"
4. "Youth"
This dark crime drama set in a deaf boarding school features no dialogue and no subtitles, just Ukrainian sign language. There's also no music, very minimal sound, and the camerawork is made up of un-showy, minimalist-style long takes that make the viewer feel like they're observing the characters from across the room.
AP PHOTO This photo provided by Twentieth Century Fox shows Leonardo DiCaprio in a scene from the film, "The Revenant."
AP PHOTO
signature tracking shot long takes, producing arguably the most impressive cinematography of all time.
A bittersweet Michael Caine and wry Harvey Keitel play best friends on holiday at a sublime hotel in the Alps, reflecting on old age, what they've accomplished in their lives and commenting on the unique characters around them in this profound yet shrewdly funny drama. "Youth" is a great film on those merits
alone, but the engrossing, poignant and visually wondrous style of Italian writer/director Paolo Sorrentino — reminiscent of Italian master Federico Fellini — takes this character study to a deeply engaging level.
5. "Spotlight"
Whether you know the scope of the Catholic priest abuse scandal (particularly in Boston) or not, this true, stellar ensemble piece about the team of reporters at the Boston Globe newspaper who uncovered the truth is a shocking, hugely compelling and precisely-executed mystery.
"Spotlight" is so strong in impact because it extensively explores the story from so many sides, effectively balancing and humanizing a large array of characters without falling into sentimentality or becoming too clinical. Not
to mention it's one of the best films about journalists ever, celebrating the kind of old-school investigative journalism that seems to be going extinct in the digital age.
AP PHOTO This photo provided by courtesy of Open Road Films shows Rachel McAdams, from left, as Sacha Pfeiffer, Mark Ruffalo as Michael Rezendes and Brian d'Arcy James as Matt Carroll, in a scene from the film, "Spotlight."
AP PHOTO
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