10 Best Movies of 2015 (A Double Take)

Another movie year is in the books. This is my 3rd year doing this list(along with my brother, again), and out of those 3 years, 2015 has certainly been the weakest so far. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that it was a bad year overall, just that 2013 and 2014 were greater at the top, which is what we're highlighting here. Last year, for example, I struggled choosing between 10 different movies for the #10 spot. That didn't happen this year. Only 2 movies from my *11-20* tier(which I'll mention quickly) were close contenders for the Top 10. That being said, I'm extremely pleased with how my Top 10 ended up. Any one of these movies could certainly be Top 10 movies any other year. And I'll go so far as to say that at least 5 of them will be considered classics 5 or 10 years from now.

Which ones will those be? That's where my brother's second opinion comes in. Movie rankings are extremely subjective, and in this case, 3 of the movies that I believe will be classics in a few years don't even appear in his Top 10. Vice versa, 2 of his Top 5 movies don't appear in my Top 10. And speaking of supposed "classics", there are only 4 Best Picture nominees in my brother's Top 10, and 3 in mine, and only 2 of those make an appearance on both of our lists: Mad Max: Fury Road and Room. Speaking of Room, that is the only movie this year to appear in the Top 5 in both our lists(we agreed on 2 movies each of the past 2 years). One of us has it at #2 and the other at #1, so it's pretty clear who we're rooting for to win the top prize tomorrow night.

Who will you be rooting for? The answer to that question is what makes these lists so fun. We all have our personal preferences that affect how we watch movies, but the truly great ones are able to transcend those differences. In these 2 brother's humble opinions, these rankings represent the greatest movies of 2015. So let's get on with it, shall we?
Starting with my brother's 10 Best Movies of 2015 ...

Honorable Mentions
Ant-Man
Inside Out
The Lobster
The Revenant
Sicario

10) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl / Paper Towns 

I’m pairing these for being 2 of the smarter teen movies of the year. They break tradition by not being about happy endings and the boy and girl ending up together, instead they just present us 2 different groups of friends navigating through their adolescence.

9) The End of the Tour

This movie was the closest thing to what I experienced watching Boyhood last year. A movie that you can connect with and makes you reflect. We have a great (Oscar snubbed) performance from Jason Segel to thank for that.

8) Mad Max: Fury Road

Don’t think about it too much. Don’t get into analyzing a script with this one. Just sit back and enjoy the 2 hours of awesomeness!

7) The Hateful Eight

If only Tarantino would’ve cut about 30-45 minutes from the 1st half of this movie, it may have had Pulp Fiction/Inglourious Basterds potential. Still, as usual we get a great script from Tarantino, some great action, and incredible acting (here’s hoping Jennifer Jason Leigh pulls off the upset for Best Supporting Actress).

6) Beasts of No Nation

I wonder if this wasn’t a “Netflix” movie if it would be nominated for Best Picture, or if it gets Idris Elba a nomination, or ANY nomination. If you saw season 1 of True Detective you already saw director Cary Fukunaga’s brilliance, and he’s at it again here. A must watch!

5) The Big Short

It’s always great seeing comedic actors or directors make the jump to more dramatic work and succeed doing it. In this case, Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, etc…) delivers and hits close to home with his take on the financial crisis.

4) Sleeping With Other People

Such a smart rom-com, I just loved this movie. Every couple of years we get this type of movie, a few years ago it was “Friends with Benefits” or “Going the Distance” and before, it was classics like “Annie Hall” or “When Harry met Sally”. This movie has the laughs, the smarts, the reality aspect, and at the end, the heart that just pulled it all together (Alison Brie’s coming out party, a star in the making!).

3) Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Ahhh nostalgia… I understand it had it flaws (too familiar to the original Star Wars), but JJ Abrams did a great job at re-creating the Star Wars universe and introduced great new characters and stories in the process.

2) Spotlight

The ensemble cast, the directing, the editing, all delivers here. Such a great job of taking you through the entire process of investigative reporting. The beauty is in the details which are fantastic and spot on. Plus, bonus points for unmasking the darker aspects of the catholic church.

1) Room

The bond between parent and child has never been done better in a movie. It’s called Room, but this movie is more about what happens the 2nd half of the movie outside of the room. Seeing Jack experience the outside world for the 1st time is the most beautiful (and best acted) thing I saw in a movie this year. How does Jacob Tremblay not win an Oscar for his performance here, let alone get nominated?!?

And now, my 10 Best Movies of 2015 ...

Honorable Mentions

20) Tangerine

19) Straight Outta Compton

18) Sleeping With Other People

17) 45 Years

16) The Night Before

15) Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

14) The End of the Tour

13) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

12) Creed

11) Spotlight

10) Mad Max: Fury Road

"Wow!" That's the one word that best describes this one. I must've said it at least 30 times while watching it.It's nominated for Best Picture, with an outside shot at winning, and it's likely to win in a bunch of technical categories, but the one award it won't win is the one it probably deserves the most: Best Stunt Coordination. The last Special Achievement Oscar was given to Toy Story in 1996 for its revolutionary animation, but the award was discontinued after that. The stuntpeople in Mad Max: Fury Road deserved that award.

9) Clouds of Sils Maria

An intimate character study of an aging actress and her assistant(Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart in 2 of my favorite performances of the year). Olivier Assayas, the film's writer/director, does an excellent job all around here. The cinematography and editing were some of my favorites from any movie this year. But what really made me love this movie was the screenplay. All the characters are beautifully drawn out, which adds to the emotional impact of the mostly dialogue-heavy scenes. But there's also some biting humor to this script, particularly in its critiques of young Hollywood ingénues and big-budget Sci-Fi movies.

8) The Hateful Eight

I'm gonna have to totally disagree with my brother on the runtime of this movie. I believe the opening 30 minutes set the mood perfectly for the rest of the film. The musical overture, the beautiful 70mm cinematography, the sound, the horse carriage, all perfect. During those opening moments I thought to myself: "Tarantino has reached a new maturity level as a director." And then in the 2nd half, the film turned into a Tarantino movie. Of course, that isn't a bad thing. There's a great script, great action, and incredible acting, as my brother mentioned, and I loved the whodunnit plot and the stage-like feel of the second half.

7) Star Wars: The Force Awakens

"I for one cannot wait to see what JJ Abrams does with the new Star Wars trilogy. He was the perfect pick to take us back to a galaxy far, far away."
-Proof that my brother can be right sometimes, from his 10 Best Movies of 2013 description of Star Trek into Darkness
He's also right about the nostalgia factor, which was the best, and worst, thing about the movie. If they had deviated just a bit from the almost identical note-for-note plot elements of the original, this movie could've been even better. But Abrams played it safe, and it worked. Along the way, we're introduced to a couple of cool new characters: "Rey"(pictured), "Finn", "Poe", "BB-8", etc, say goodbye to old ones, get the funniest Star Wars script to date, an awesome Millennium Falcon intro, some intense lightsaber battles, and are left on a literal cliffhanger that perfectly sets up the Star Wars franchise for a new generation of fans.

6) Ex Machina

I loved this movie! So smart, so chilling, so claustrophobic. This movie is three people ... well ... two people and one A.I. robot, stuck in a remote mountain estate trying to figure out what each one is up to. We have billionaire recluse "Nathan", young programmer "Caleb", and A.I. robot "Ava", played respectively by 3 of 2015's hottest breakout stars: Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, and Alicia Vikander. I won't go into any more details of the plot, but if you research the origins of the film's title you'll find all the foreshadowing you'll need. This is a modern Sci-Fi classic!

5) Inside Out

Pixar is back! After 2010's Masterpiece, Toy Story 3, the studio had been in a bit of a slump. Inside Out changes all that. Directed by a member of Pixar's original braintrust, Pete Docter(Monster's Inc., Up), Inside Out brings back everything that makes Pixar special: the heart, the humor, the story that works for adults as well as kids, the always excellent computer animation, and a terrific voice cast, led by Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith as "Joy" and "Sadness" respectively. This one is destined to become an Animation/Family classic, and it will also stand the test of time as a tool to understand the psychology of a pre-teen's mind.

4) The Martian

An old-school crowdpleasing Hollywood blockbuster, but with a modern touch thanks to Drew Goddard's very funny adaptation of the best selling novel. It also has: one of the best ensemble casts of the year, led by Matt Damon in an Oscar nominated performance, but also featuring in-demand stars like Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Sebastian Stan, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Michael Peña, Donald Glover, and others, the best soundtrack in any movie this year, and of course, the excellent direction from Sci-Fi maestro, Ridley Scott. I saw this one with my family in the theater, and it was the most fun I had watching any movie all year. I just saw it again last night for the 3rd time with other family members who hadn't seen it, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. This is the kind of smart and entertaining movie that Hollywood is capable of making when it puts its mind to it. So Hollywood, less Transformers, and more of this please.

3) Anomalisa

I love Charlie Kaufman. I love Dan Harmon. So it's no surprise that I loved the result of Kaufman's collaboration with Harmon's Starburns Industries. Co-director Duke Johnson, who previously directed an Emmy Award-winning stop motion animated episode of Dan Harmon's Community(my favorite TV comedy of this decade), teamed up perfectly with Kaufman to give us this beautiful, existential adaptation of Kaufman's stage play, but with puppets. The voice cast, all 3 of them, are excellent: David Thewlis as main character "Michael Stone", Jennifer Jason Leigh as the title's "Lisa", and Tom Noonan as "everyone else". Only Charlie Kaufman!

2) Room

I'm gonna slightly disagree with my brother here. First, in that I have Room just one spot lower than him, and second, in the fact that there are many, many classic Father & son movie relationships: The Lion King, Kramer vs Kramer, The Godfather, The Pursuit of Happyness, etc. But mother & son relationships on film? Now that's another story. The top tier consists of The Sixth Sense, Terminator 2, and not much else. But with Room, mothers & sons finally have an All-Time classic portrayal on screen. What a connection between Brie Larson's "Ma" and Jacob Tremblay's "Jack"! And what incredible performances by both! Larson is the frontrunner to win the Best Actress Oscar tomorrow night, but unfortunately, Tremblay wasn't even nominated. But history has the final say, and I believe that 10-20 years from now Tremblay's performance will be remembered as one of the best of the year, and as one of the greatest child performances of All-Time.

1) The Lobster

Speaking of All-Time greats, I believe The Lobster has a chance to be recognized as such as more people get a chance to see it when it premieres in the U.S. next month. It is truly a one-of-a-kind film. Greek writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos "out-Kaufmans" Charlie Kaufman with this one. The Lobster has everything I love about watching movies. Starting with a complex, very funny, *original* story about a dystopian near-future that grabs my attention from the very beginning and never lets go, and also presents themes that explore the human condition, particularly our intense desire to find a partner by any means necessary, and even more broadly, societal pressures to conform to certain rules and restrictions. This is contrasted perfectly in the film by the group that prohibits people from being single, and an entirely different group that prohibits people from being in a relationship. When a movie gets me thinking about topics like these in such a profound way, that's when I know it could end up as one of my All-Time favorites. Add to that the impeccable technical aspects: great direction, editing, cinematography, production design, score, and an A-list international cast, led by Colin Farrell in his best performance to date, and featuring excellent supporting performances by Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Ben Whishaw, Olivia Colman, Léa Seydoux, Angeliki Papoulia, and others, and you get one of the best films of the decade so far. It's that good!