2015 "Cinema & Stadium" Film Year-in-Review
I'm pleased to present my third Film Year-in-Review blog post, celebrating the best (and a few of the worst) films released during the calendar year that I saw. This year is a particularly special one, at least for me and I hope for many others: I believe that 2015 was likely the best year in film in the modern era - at least by my tastes. My main reasons:
- My three favorite franchises - Star Wars, Jurassic Park, James Bond - each released their newest film, and each was very good.
- Pixar, the most consistently great movie studio of the century, released what is probably their best film yet, Inside Out.
- Although a number of smaller critically-acclaimed films bypassed my area (as usual), I saw a stellar group including historical dramas Selma, The Big Short, and Spotlight.
Also check out my Oscar-type awards here, including the usual acting categories, and best director, screenplay, and visual effects.
Top 10 of 2015:
10. Spectre (directed by Sam Mendes; starring Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, et. al.)
Here is the first of the Big Three movies I had been anticipating in 2015. Admittedly, my familiarity and fondness for the Bond franchise and its traditions puts it here above some other films that may otherwise be as good or better. Still, Spectre is among the stronger 007 films. It brought Bond back to the old formula, which previous Craig entries had modified significantly. But it also brought the overarching story from those three films together in a very nice conclusion. Add to that some very impressive scenes (especially the train fight), and this would be a perfectly good way for Craig to finish his days as Bond if it works out that way.
9. Sicario (directed by Denis Villeneuve; starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin)
After seeing director Villeneuve's great (but largely snubbed at the Oscars) 2013 film Prisoners, I was excited to hear about his next release, 2015's Sicario. An even more intriguing and ambitious premise of a treacherous Mexican border mission completed the feeling. While it ultimately fell a little short of Prisoners, Sicario is still a great film from a director with a unique style and tone. Both films are incredibly tense, with Sicario focusing on the fate of a female FBI agent strong and determined to make a difference, but naive to the politics of the shadows. Cinematographer Roger Deakins immerses you in the world, especially a hair-raising convoy into Juarez, as does the very atmospheric soundtrack. Excellent.
8. Mad Max: Fury Road (directed by George Miller; starring Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, et. al.)
Mad Max was not on my list of anticipated movies for 2015. I hadn't (and still haven't) seen the originals, though with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron co-starring I was intrigued. After all the phenomenal reviews, I saw it and was thankful I did. An instant action movie classic, this reboot/ remake goes full-throttle on excitement and entertainment. The story is simple but solid - largely consisting of an extended chase across a post apocalyptic desert - and you can almost feel the dirt that coats everyone and everything. It goes without saying that there are plenty of great action scenes, especially the funky (and deadly) modified vehicles. To cap it all off, Max himself plays second fiddle to Theron's tough heroine.
7. The Big Short (directed by Adam McKay; starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt)
I don't tend to buy into the hype of films that take advantage of recent notable people and events. But when you add an all-star cast including two of my favorites (Christian Bale and Steve Carell) and make it seem like it'll be funny? Count me in. Fortunately, The Big Short delivers big time on this set up. Bale and Carell, very different performers, are both fantastic as co-leads, and Pitt and Gosling lend impressive supporting roles. They help bring to dramatic life a very, very good script that somehow manages to both explain arcane financial details in an interesting way, and to make many elements of it hilarious. Part documentary, part drama, part comedy, all awesome.
6. Tomorrowland (directed by Brad Bird; starring George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie, et. al.)
Here's one I definitely didn't see coming. Frankly, I went to see it on the thin basis of liking George Clooney and what seemed a unique premise - despite very mediocre reviews. Well, the critics were way off on this one. Tomorrowland is, more than anything else, an optimistic movie, so I can see how some (especially those critics) would be skeptical. But really, that's what I think movies can do best, and this film succeeds thoroughly with it. Tomorrowland itself is seen just briefly - rather, the journey to get there is the focus, led by an odd but brilliant trio of Clooney (so dependable), teen Robertson, and the revelation Raffey Cassidy (read my acting awards for more on her). It's a good old, well-paced adventure, one with an earnest but important message. Please see this!
5. Spotlight (directed by Tom McCarthy; starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, et. al.)
I feared I might not get to see this in theaters, but at last, long since all the awards hype had built up, it came to my neck of the woods. Fortunately, Spotlight indeed deserves the Best Picture buzz that it's getting. Much like two of the year's other best films, Selma and The Big Short, it not only effectively portrays a historical event, it also offers a great human drama to further elevate it. The ensemble is fantastic, not just co-leads Keaton and Ruffalo, but also McAdams and Schreiber. The actors, along with a great script and pacing, lends surprising tension to the journalistic process. And in interviews with the victims of priest abuse, the personal, individual horrors become real in a way that does justice. This isn't great dramatic filmmaking or important filmmaking - it's both.
4. Jurassic World (directed by Colin Trevorrow; starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, et. al.)
Since Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all-time, my anticipation of this first new installment in fourteen years was huge. No, it isn't nearly as good as the original, but it's still an extremely entertaining movie, so much so that its box office explosion is not all that surprising. Chris Pratt, one of my favorite up-and-comers, is the new franchise lead and somewhat symbolizes the new tone: a little silly, yes, but also solid. Jurassic World retains a bit of Spielberg's original penchant for hiding the great beasts, but when it goes all out, it goes all out. The dinosaur melee at the end may have been ridiculous, but to 6-year-old me, it was AWESOME ridiculous as I cheered on T-rex with a pounding heart. It was all I could ask for from a follow up to my personal favorite.
3. Selma (directed by Ava DuVernay; starring David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo, et. al.)
The first 2015-released film I saw, Selma was a great omen for how the rest of the year would go in film. This is a classic, one that should go down as one of the best historical dramas of all time. Like Lincoln, writer-director DuVernay and company wisely chose to focus on a limited time period in this first major motion picture to feature Martin Luther King, Jr. It allowed David Oyelowo space to not just grasp the moments of triumph but also to exist as a regular human - and wow, did that result in one of the finest performances I've ever seen. The script is great (including custom-written speeches due to rights restrictions), and DuVernay paces the proceedings to expertly build tension and urgency. But it's Oyelowo who ultimately brings out both the drama and the historical impact.
2. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (directed by J.J. Abrams; starring Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, et. al.)
If there was one film that could match my anticipation of a new Jurassic film this year, it was a new Star Wars. If anything, my interest (and concern) over the creative choices taken for The Force Awakens were even greater here. Fortunately, in the hands of J.J. Abrams, one of today's best creative minds, and his team transitioning to a new trilogy, the Force is as strong as ever. Harrison Ford digs back thirty years in flawlessly recalling fan-favorite Han Solo. Even more importantly, the new leads are great and have plenty of promise: Ridley, a revolutionarily good female lead; Boyega, charismatic supporting player with a surprising background; and Driver, the villain who I at first didn't like but is growing on me fast. And of course there are great lightsaber duels and space dogfights (with better choreography and effects than ever), humor, galactic stakes, cute droids, a John Williams score, and fun. I've got a
1. Inside Out (directed by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen; starring Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, et. al.)
In a year with plenty of tremendous dramas and highly-anticipated, well-made action films, my favorite is... once again, an animated film. None of the other films can quite match Pixar's best film yet, not the combination of how good it was and how much I enjoyed it. Yes, Pixar is the little studio than can. Like all the studio's best films, Inside Out explores universal human ideas while providing an 1.5 hours' worth entertainment for both young and old. It knows just where to hit the emotional buttons, but also brings the laughs almost constantly. It dazzles you with ever-better animation technology while grounding it in solid storytelling. With Inside Out, the sheer creativity hits a high mark - the main characters are a little girl's emotions, living in her head. And just to blow our minds even more, the core theme behind it all is perhaps Pixar's most elemental yet: the weird, wonderful paradox of our feelings and how they help us grow up, make us human. To top it all off, for me, the voice actors include some of my favorite (and perfectly chosen) comedians including Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, and Lewis Black. Really, I could have chosen several different films on this list as the #1 movie in an amazing year. But Inside Out brings the essence of all that cumulative greatness together into one film.
Honorable Mentions: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2; Kingsman: The Secret Service; Spy
Miscellaneous Awards:
Most Overrated Film of the Year: Furious 7 (runner-up: Bridge of Spies)
As a testament to the strength of 2015 in film, it didn't really matter that Spielberg's was just decent, well below his usual standards. Yet it has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and has a Best Picture nomination. Sure, it's good, but it took the place of much more deserving films. That's nothing, though, compared to how overrated Furious 7 (the whole franchise, really) is on both a popular and critical level. 81% on Rotten Tomatoes??? Really?!? And never mind the U.S. box office receipts ($350 million, including *sigh* about $7 bucks from me); it has made more internationally than The Force Awakens. I could write an entire blog post about how mind-numbingly insane that is, but suffice it to say, wtf.
Most Underrated Film of the Year: Tomorrowland (runner-up: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2)
I get it a little bit with the last Hunger Games: many people are (understandably) tired of the YA apocalyptic stuff and the whole splitting one book into two movies. Thus the last entry has made the least money, by far, and second-lowest Rotten Tomatoes score. Ironically though, this is the best film of the series. I already mentioned in my top 10 that Tomorrowland is underrated - to the tune of a meager $93 million at the box office and a criminally-ignorant 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. Was everyone just that mesmerized by Mad Max the week before? Give it a try, you won't regret it.
Most Disappointing Film of the Year: Chappie (runner-up: Terminator Genisys)
Huge film franchises popped up everywhere you looked in 2015, but the new Terminator was almost immediately forgotten about. Basically, they just tried too hard with Genisys, with a dizzying new plot and overkill on the explosions - hopefully this won't terminate (sorry) the franchise, though. Seven years ago, it looked like District 9 director Neill Blomkamp was going to take over the sci-fi movie world. He followed it up with the decent but underwhelming Elysium and now the disappointing Chappie. Sometimes potential doesn't work out, though if he can keep the interesting ideas coming maybe he can turn it around.
Most Surprisingly Good Film of the Year: Kingsman: The Secret Service (runner-up: Ant-Man)
It worked with Guardians of the Galaxy, so Marvel tried another non-traditional superhero film with Ant-Man - and it worked again. Paul Rudd is a great choice (comedically, of course, but also the other aspects of the character, too) and it was just a lot of fun. Keep it up, Marvel. Kingsman seemed to be a sort of "lets throw lots of cool stuff at the wall and see what happens" approach - but damn if it didn't turn out really well. Colin Firth is an excellent James Bond/mentor type, and marrying that 007-spy plot with a youngster-in-training idea worked great. Add in great humor and gonzo action scenes - no surprise, coming from Matthew Vaughn, one of my favorite directors - and you have a really, really fun movie.
Worst Film of the Year: Insurgent (runner-up: Furious 7)
So I already ranted about Furious 7 and its perplexing success... but I'll do some more. Blockbusters rarely produce great acting performances, but Furious 7 has notably bad ones, led by possibly the worst actor of all time, Vin Diesel. It's cleanly produced, the effects are good, and the Paul Walker tribute is surprisingly sensitive, I'll give it that. But the plot is beyond incoherent/irrelevant, and the action shifts between stupidly implausible and boringly cliche. Moving on... the worst film I saw (or at least started to see) was Insurgent, the second film in the Divergent series. This is where YA fatigue should genuinely have kicked in. Divergent had good energy, performances and chemistry - Insurgent has none of that, and it exposes the ridiculous premise behind the series more (people are sorted into "camps" based on their strongest personality traits - bravery, intelligence, selflessness, etc.). Watching on Netflix, I turned this off a little past half way through, so maybe it got better, but the first half gave no encouraging signs of life whatsoever.
Netflix Summary:
The End of the Tour (A-): A struggling Rolling Stone writer interviews David Foster Wallace, who has just published his masterpiece Infinite Jest, and the pair grapple as they become friends. Doesn't sound like much, but the leads are excellent and the script is realistic and interesting as it examines a new relationship between two pretty normal people.
Mr. Holmes (A-): Ian McKellen plays an aging Sherlock, retired and getting to know his maid's son, while in flashbacks we learn about the case that brought him to his end. McKellen is fantastic as both active and retired Holmes, and the parallel stories expertly combine classic Sherlock mystery with real heart.
Welcome to Me (A-): A woman with borderline personality disorder wins the lottery... and uses the money to start her own talk show. Kristen Wiig shows her phenomenal acting range, not just hilarious but also movingly authentic and sensitive with the character - which describes the movie itself, too, a unique and must-see film.
Testament of Youth (B+): Based on a WWI memoir, Alicia Vikander is a young Englishwoman whose bright potential is utterly transformed by the darkness of the consuming war. It's too long and at times melodramatic, but the second half improves considerably and ends very powerfully.
While We're Young (B+): A young couple struggling with both career and family building meets another couple - one that appears to have everything that they want, but isn't what it seems. Darkly funny, this is potentially pretentious but I think rises above that to show realistic relationships and common struggles both for and against success and integrity.
American Sniper (B+): An American ready to serve his country ends up becoming one of the deadliest fighters in the Iraq war, though he struggles to come home, mentally and emotionally. Much of the film is tense and well-made, and Bradley Cooper does a good job, but I felt it leaned a bit jingoistic; the home front is also ineffective.
Ex Machina (B): An eccentric tech CEO brings one of his employees to a remote base to test the authenticity of his AI creation. It has that weird scifi vibe that I actually don't like much, but it's well made. Creative and creepy.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (B): A teen just trying to make it through high school unscathed is forced to hangout with a classmate just diagnosed with cancer, and the two become close. Despite frequently being nauseatingly quirky and feeling a little too familiar, it manages to be quite clever and moving at times as well.
Focus (B): Aspiring con Jess tries her game on the wrong guy, veteran con Nicky, but the two work together and gradually become involved in an intricate game. The twists and turns are far-fetched at times and it's a little formulaic, but it's also quite entertaining; good chemistry between the stars (Will Smith and Margot Robbie).
Vacation (B): Son Rusty, now a grown man with his own family, takes another trip to Walley World, experiencing a new set of adventures along the way. Granted, I don't remember the original at all, but this was quite well done. Ed Helms is a good choice, and the humor is generally clever and effective, avoiding and/or overcoming too much cliche.
Pixels (B-): An alien invasion strikes Earth, and only Adam Sandler and his friends from youth can take them on when they arrive as classic video games. I usually dislike Sandler as much as the next guy, but this was fun: decent humor, inventive, and Peter Dinklage. Don't listen to the critics on this one.
The Man From UNCLE (B-): All-star spies from America and the Soviet Union are forced to team up in order to prevent a nuke from falling into the wrong hands. The actors are charismatic, but the script is poor and unremarkable; you're much better off sticking with its big brother 007.
Jupiter Ascending (C): A "common" woman discovers that she's actually the heir to a powerful galactic empire, and a rogue alien arrives to save her from being removed from the line. What little that isn't poorly done in this film is available in many other scifi action films; not completely terrible, but skip it.
Son of a Gun (C): A young man jailed for a minor crime gets pulled into a major crime ring, and struggles to escape as he aids in daring heists. It has some inventiveness, but it's overlong and even dull at times, and the story overall is too familiar and cliche. Skip.
Insurgent (C-): Tris continues her mission to subvert the ruling order in post-apocalyptic Chicago, which has divided the population by their personalities (the smart ones, the brave ones, etc.). While the first Divergent movie was quite good despite my skepticism, the first sequel utterly crashed and burned. I even stopped it before the end, something I rarely do.
Full reviews of other films I saw in 2015 (not previously mentioned in this post):
Trainwreck (A-)
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron (A-)
The Hateful Eight (B+)
Steve Jobs (B+)
The Martian (B+)
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (B+)
Get Hard (B)
Sisters (B-)
Blackhat (B-)
I hope you enjoyed this year-in-review. Even more, I hope that you got to enjoy at least a portion of this amazing year in film in the theater. If not, then warm up your Netflix/iTunes/whatever, and fast! This year was a hard act to follow, but hopefully there will be more to enjoy in 2016, too.
"A Total Gem - Inside Out Movie Reviw" https://www.flickr.com/photos/bagogames/19995797742
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