A. Susan’s BEST MOVIES LIST OF 2015
ONLY COMMERCIALLY RELEASED THEATRICAL FILMS CONSIDERED
Note: This is a highly subjective list. But whose film list isn’t? The elements for which I’m a sucker: narrative and cinematic (camera) ideas. I also look for a memorable scene idea, a camera shot or moment that has symbolic or metaphoric value, narrative used as metaphor in the service of either a larger or hidden subtext idea. Also, when a film can reach a deeply subjective space, using a unique voice, I’m all in.
The list below, despite being numbered, is in no particular order – with one exception - Room is my first place film of 2015 for reasons above, in a a year of remarkable filmmaking.
1. Room -
An intimate, “up-close” film that I was afraid to see because of its terrifying content. It is based closely upon the novel (same title) whose premise is that a young woman has been abducted by a psychopath when she was a teenager and is held as his sexual prisoner in a single room with the child she has had during her years of captivity. Her love for the child – and his for her is profound. The film (and book) are told in the child’s voice.
Contains remarkable, deeply achieved subjective voice in script, acting, camera-work and therefore, direction. A unified vision. My favorite shot: the boy’s first view of the sky, riding in the back of a truck, shot in point-of-view.
2. The Revenant –
Such a good single word title for this film: risen from the dead. But equally good is the word’s echoes of other words: relentless, unrelenting; which this film depicts a man’s drive to absolute revenge.
From the film’s opening shot of a camera steadily gliding over water, we know that we are in the hands of two camera masters: Director Inàrittu and cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki. If this film doesn’t convince us of the team’s absolute visual command, we need only return to their last year’s win, Birdman - and the intricate camera-actor choreography they devised for that film.
What additionally draws me to this film: its take-no-prisoners approach to the shooting in which the cast and crew suffered the brutal cold, wet, long days of extreme physical exertion that the film’s fictional characters suffered. And, Leonardio DiCaprio, really did eat a raw fish, a bloody raw liver in a new extension of method acting. The film connects fiction and fact in a continuum that blurs the differences between the two. Loved that.
I think it will win the Best film Academy Award and although its not my favorite 2015 film, I’m not complaining. If you can endure it, go see it.
3. End of the Tour –
A film about a multi-day conversation between the late novelist, essayist and short fiction writer, David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest, see Wikipedia for credits) and David Lipsky, a Rolling Stone journalist. As scripted by Daniel Margulies, it is really an in-dept examination of the writing life, its necessities and requirements - or at least about one writing life, before it led to suicide.
4. Anomalisa –
The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman tackles that most difficult of questions: “How and why love dies between two people?” And he answers it - for himself, anyway, immersing us in his own terrifying feelings of alienation by using a powerful metaphor. His metaphorical method: although the film script contains many characters, it employs only three actors. I’ll say no more in order not to provide a spoiler.
Furthermore, Kaufman tackles his question about love and relationships, using lumpy, awkward puppets with full anatomical detail. Someone suggested to me that Kaufman could not have made this film with human actors. It would have been too intimate, a violation of privacy. Possibly so, even by today’s standards in which actors have gone to extraordinary erotic lengths on screen.
Script note: One of Kaufman’s strengths as a screenwriter is his powerful use of metaphor and theme. Note how he uses the attempt to forget a lover and love, with the metaphor of having one’s brain “erased” in his script, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In that film and this, he raises often painful questions about the deepest crevices and intimacies of love.
5. The Big Short -
I love the assembly of actors who committed so deeply to the topic of the 2008 financial meltdown and to the adaptation of the Michael Lewis book. Brad Pitt, practically unrecognizable, as a Colorado(?) financial guru, is terrific. Christian Bale, whose nervous system appears to be worn externally, deserves his academy nomination for supporting actor for his truly strange depiction. But then, most of Bale’s takes on characters are strange. Remember American Psycho, not to mention his Batman?
The relevance of the topic can hardly be denied as some of us watch skittish stockmarket behavior in a stockmarket in which .06% of investors own 50% of our stocks. The other 50% is divided among everyone else.
The film’s pace is driven forward in a peculiar alternation between a “this-is-how-it-happened” dramatization of the facts and abstract sequences of images and sounds from the time. Those images & cuts might be extracted from ambitious student films I’ve seen. Self-consciously Arty?? Artistically necessary? I can argue it either way. It’s up for an editing award, undoubtedly for this approach. But the power of Michael Lewis’ investigation from which the script was adapted, and the rage it generates gave this film my vote. Also a best screenplay adaptation nomination I believe…
6. Carol –
Who can fault the flawless female team of writer, Patricia Highsmith and the great commitment of the film’s co-stars, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara?? Not me. Highsmith’s novel, the Price of Salt, upon which the film is based depicts the deeply troubled and intimate problems of 1950s’ lesbian love. Undoubtedly Highsmith’s own - if not in plot, then in issues. Great production values, sets, costumes, lighting and direction, Todd Haynes.
7. Spotlight -
On the surface there is no reason why this film should stand-out, even though it has all the ingredients for fine drama: at the heart, the compelling and evil story of the Catholic Church’s complicity in child molestation and rape; great acting work turned in by its ensemble cast, wonderful Boston locations and fine direction. Somehow, although the story is known, I walked out of the film, as others have, deeply affected. And I believe that is the result of the script choice to remain distant from the actual acts, the film’s potential “heart of darkness” and to focus on the church’s bureaucratic complicity and protection of child rape.
8. The Heart of a Dog -
Laurie Anderson’s abstract memoir and meditation upon life is told in a cluster of personal stories. Her dog died and that is the film’s narrative center, its gravitational force. She tells stories about her dog. Her husband, Lou Reed, the singer, also died within the past few years. But no stories are told about that. Yet those unspoken stories provide the film with the gravitational force of a black hole. Interwoven are other stories, particularly about Anderson’s mother, who also died. Brilliant editing. Including the magical use of a Lou Reed song & dedication at the film’s end.
9a. Diary of a Teenage Girl -
9b. Me, Earl and the Dying Girl -
Ok, so the above are two films, not one. So what?? Both are heart-tugging (read tears), warm films about a specific time and place – and the problems those times and places generated. Both simultaneously attack and love the hippie life-style (Teenage Diary) or alternative academic lifestyle (Me, Earl…). Both films employ imaginative, free-wheeling formal devices that resonated powerfully with me.
10. Dope –
I’m listing Dope, this sleeper film that received little attention, for one simple reason: its thematic statement. I have a game that I sometimes play with my screenwriting class: can you tell a film’s theme or plot by simply looking at the trailer. Usually I can. And so can my classes.
This film’s theme forces the plot in an unexpected and non-cliché-ed turn; a big gift in which most Hollywood films provide us “no-surprises-plots” and themes. I love the central character’s ultimate discovery and his final statement.
B. SO GOOD: FILM RUNNER-UPS WORTH NOTING & DISCUSSING FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER:
This film list covers my runners-up, the films I don’t want forgotten:
Ex Machina –
Script: the clever set-up of this economical script involving 3 characters is stunning!! See it for the tension & suspense generated with such simple narrative mastery. These days we’re hearing a lot about “The Turing Test”, usually carefully “explained” to viewers (see the play script, Breaking the Code). But in this script we see the Turing Test in action: show-don’t-tell breathtakingly more powerful than a simple “tell”.
The Martian -
Matt Damon, national icon. Great special effects.
Inside Out – The film is based on the brilliant premise that we each are supplied with a set of emotional “characters”, eg, joy, anger, fear, sadness, etc. and the film tracks events in the life of an ll-year-old girl and how her internal emotional voices drive her actions, and thus her story.
Trumbo –
It’s about time Hollywood tackled (once again) the outrageous machinations of the McCarthy Blacklist era, in which careers and lives were destroyed! It has been done before (Woody Allen’s, The Front and what else??) but never so head-on. The film depicts the many details of a life dedicated to left-wing political ideals as well as cranking out writing-for-a-living: including both great and schlock.
Some Indelible scenes: Trumbo (Brian Cranston) naked in his bathtub, a cigar clenched between his teeth, typing away on a board across the tub – that image is worth everything; John Goodman as a schlock producer beating a government shill with a baseball bat. The shill threatens to ruin Goodman’s business if he hires Trumbo. Goodman points out that his business caters to such a low taste market, that it can’t be ruined.
I should love this film more. My own uncle M.Y. Steinberg faced many the McCarthy-era downsides. But its narrative points sometimes feel like a hammer, driving in a moral lesson that arrives at no greater thematic meaning other than its story. But perhaps it doesn’t need to…
Amy –
The Documentary about the British singer Amy Weinhouse, who owned such a remarkable voice and who almost made it to age 28 before she died of alcohol poisoning. The filmmakers really wove archival footage and home films together in an editing approach that make an intimate film about another “high exposure” art-star whom they argue was the victim of the exploitation of those closest to her and of her own self-deprecation and various self-abuses. Happy to see it on the documentary feature film list nominations this year.
Hateful Eight -
A lot to say, but not here. Will say this: Too pointlessly brutal. Tarentino carries his “over-the-top acrobatic violence joke too far and turns the entire film’s tone into a joke that we can’t take seriously. I missed the lack of his usually brilliant dialogue riffs contained in other films.
The entire film seems based to serve a single scene: Samuel L. Jackson’s remarkable revenge fantasy or action depicted near the film’s end. And we’ll never know which it was: fantasy or fact.
Truth –
Once again, like Bridge of Spies, an anti-right wing film. This time it’s the Bush era that’s under the lens. Cate Blanchett supported by Robert Redford in a role that accurately depicts a masterful right-wing attack on the television news hero, Dan Rather (Robert Redford). Both actors nobly and automatically in control of their performances, particularly Blanchett as television producer; she has all the right moves, voice and wardrobe. I enjoyed the film, applauded its examination of a terrible right wing scam. It’s another piece of history that might have been lost. And particularly in this election year, meaningful.
Mustang -
The film finally made it to Boston near mid-February. Interesting – and deserves its nomination in “best foreign film” category.
CLASSIC FILM FRANCHISE RELEASES WORTH NOTING THIS PAST YEAR
Something that we can always count on: Los Angeles will continue cranking out sequels for those franchises that reliably bring in the bucks. And why not?
James Bond (Spectre) –
Terrific directing. The film took my breath away with its great surreal approach, practically bordering on “magical realism” – in particular, I’m thinking of the strange battle on a completely deserted train, hurtling through the night. The villain attacks Bond and the film’s love interest, Madeline (Léa Seydoux) in the dining car. They are in extremely formal dress: Madeline wearing a satin gown that appears painted on her body. The three engage in mortal combat through the empty train. It becomes truly surreal when they pass through the train’s galley kitchen. Who was present to cook the elegant meal we fantasize they are about to eat. These are not questions to be asked or answered in a Bond film. Defying the rules provide the thrills. And, of course, there is that way that Daniel Craig wears those Tom Ford suits. On screen, great tailoring matters.
Star Wars – Episode VII – The Force Awakens -
Here’s a game: match as many script elements in this Star Wars, now seventh in the series as you can with the original 1977 film. It’s a game I found myself playing as I sat the theater. It was fun. And sometime, when I have more time, whenever that is, I’ll write how many plot ideas and devices they re-cycled.
Creed (Rocky Series) -
I still regret having said “No” to a friend who wanted to see it with me. This is an apology. It looks like we’ll get a second chance – the film has done well and likely will pop up again.
Mad Max Fury Road -
Early in its run, this film received a 98% on the tomatometer. I was in the other 2%. Need I say more??
C. UNSEEN: I MISSED THESE FILMS AMONG OTHERS EITHER THE BRIEF TIME IT WAS IN BOSTON
All film cities are not equal. And this year, I noticed and felt deeply the fact that Boston is “geographically cinematically disadvantaged”. receiving films after New York and Los Angeles – OR not at all. In the commercial market, Boston is a second class city. Of course, we have a remarkable independent film market.
(And furthermore, this is a geographically located list, as are all “theatrically-distributed lists, and I’m aware of the number of films that I haven’t seen, because I missed them, or they didn’t play in Boston at all or they opened after the end of the year. This year I became acutely aware that one can be “cinematically geographically disadvantaged”.)
Listen to Me Marlon
45th Year
Beasts of No Nation
Son of Saul
Timbuktu
Chi-Raq
The Danish Girl
Youth
Experimenter
Janis Joplin film
SEEN & DISAPPOINTING FILMS FROM WHICH I HOPED FOR MORE
Joy
Hitchcock/Truffaut