The Best Films of the Year - The 2015 Version

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

Can someone explain what the problem with the joke with the Swedish princess at the end of Kingsman was? I thought it was fine, if not terribly well delivered.

[red snow]

Can someone explain what the problem with the joke with the Swedish princess at the end of Kingsman was? I thought it was fine, if not terribly well delivered.

It just seemed crass, didn't seem like something a princess would say (but more what a guy would want a princess to say). Most of the cinema groaned and appeared awkward when I say it . I thought the film was great and I can even see why they had the joke as a lampoon of all the double entendres and moore endings to Bond films. It just fell flat for me.

[Kindly Old Man]

*snip*

So here are some of my thoughts on Anomalisa. This isn't really a response to you so please excuse the tone... I still hate it, it turns out. The animation was very good though.

I couldn't even figure out where to start with this movie, so I guess I'll just start with a very basic criticism - this movie was painfully boring. There were no characters I cared about, next to no plot, and the dialogue was largely awful.  As entertainment, this was just a flat out failure.

I did a lot of poking around the internet, trying to unravel the deeper meaning of the movie, since a lot of noted critics seemed to think that there was a lot of Beautiful Sadness or Deep Understanding of Human Connection or some bullshit buried in here.  There is certainly a lot to think about w/r/t what is and isn't real within the film, but here's the thing: I don't care. If Lisa is real, it's a movie about an narcissistic psychopath using and discarding a vulnerable person as a method of coping with his problems. And when I say "problems" here, I mean the terrible situation he is in where he has a loving wife and family and a successful career, and doesn't appreciate any of them. This was once just called being an ungrateful, bitter asshole, but these days since we can call it a Fregoli Delusion I guess it's supposed to be incredibly meaningful and reveal deep universal truths. If Lisa isn't real, it's about the same bitter asshole, who is not quite as bad because he is only fantasizing about someone he can take advantage of, then giving his kid a sex toy full of his moldering semen. None of this is interesting. At best it's boring, at worst it's reprehensible. Is it hard, Charlie? Is it hard being successful and having people try to love you? Boo hoo hoo. I don't know when people started getting so fascinated with mental illness, but the mere fact that your main character has a mental illness doesn't make him interesting, or any of what happens to him profound. 

All of the stuff with the characters having the same voice and the 'clever' references hidden in names struck me as pure gimmickry, the kind of thing I saw when I'd go to some of my film major friends' end-of-year student film presentations.  A hacky attempt to obscure the film's complete lack of substance, in the hope that people will read something into it. This is especially painful to watch here, because at his best Kaufman is actually amazing at taking things that might be gimmicky in someone else's hands and making them work beautifully. This time however, it's just 90 minutes of him masturbating using his own tears as lubricant. He's just lucky his reputation is such that people think that's Truth dripping down their chin.

[AndrewJ]

It just seemed crass, didn't seem like something a princess would say (but more what a guy would want a princess to say). Most of the cinema groaned and appeared awkward when I say it . 

I'd definitely feel awkward if you said it to me. 

[AndrewJ]

And kidding aside (I couldn't resist)... I quite like the joke. It juxtaposes the rather archaic view we still kind of hold as to what a "princess" is supposed to be with the fact that a princess today is really not too different from any other modern day 21st century woman, with the same wants and desires (and access to internet porn).

[JonArryn]

Just came back from Hateful Eight, and I'd put it as third on my list, behind Sicario and Ex Machina. Good acting, and good dialogue but I just felt it was a bit thin storywise. It's definitely not one of Tarantinos best. But still, a mediocre Tarantino movie is still better then most of what Hollywood puts out. It was some interesting characters, and I liked the introduction with the stagecoach. But for 2 hours after that, the story almost goes nowhere. And some scenes are dragged out for way too long. And yeah, Tarantino is a master of dialogue, no one is arguing that, but I felt like he did this movie because he knows that and just wanted to build a movie around his written dialogue. I think with a little more story progression and if the movie didn't only take place on one location, it could have been much better. But that would have been a different movie though, and I'm quite sure this is exactly how Tarantino wanted the movie. 

This probably wouldn't make my top 5 Tarantino films, but it's still a solid movie, but it had more potential in my opinion. The actors were good though and Goggins definitely shows that he's a great actor for film, although that's no surprise considering his work on The Shield. Tarantinos narration also felt a bit unnecessary and kind of drags you out of the movie a bit. Anyway, now that he's gotten this out of the way I hope he'll go back more to his 90's roots and maybe give us a crime drama or something similar. 

I have some more movies from 2015 to see though so I don't think this will manage to stay at the top 5 when I see some of them. 

 

[Veltigar]

Can someone explain what the problem with the joke with the Swedish princess at the end of Kingsman was? I thought it was fine, if not terribly well delivered.

Apart from being overly crass and poorly delivered, this joke exemplified Kingsman's outdated and problematic view of women. As if it wasn't bad enough that they introduce a female character who's supposed to be as capable (or more so) than Eggsy and then sideline her for the entire third act with some bullshit insignificant mission, they throw this scene in as a final fuck you to people with more enlightened views on the role of women in our society. I'm not the one who usually cares for this kind of criticism, but here it was just an exceptionally obvious example of poort taste. Although, it's main source of inspiration is the Moore era of Bond, so a sleezy perspective on women shouldn't have surprised us in hindsight. 

Also, and just completely personal, I can't stand monarchies and I cringe whenever I see a film set in modern times portray one of those leeches in a sort of good light. 

So here are some of my thoughts on Anomalisa. This isn't really a response to you so please excuse the tone... I still hate it, it turns out. The animation was very good though.

I couldn't even figure out where to start with this movie, so I guess I'll just start with a very basic criticism - this movie was painfully boring. There were no characters I cared about, next to no plot, and the dialogue was largely awful.  As entertainment, this was just a flat out failure.

 

I can actually sort of follow you here  I really didn't like the first sixty minutes. I have had more fun thinking about the film than actually watching it.

I did a lot of poking around the internet, trying to unravel the deeper meaning of the movie, since a lot of noted critics seemed to think that there was a lot of Beautiful Sadness or Deep Understanding of Human Connection or some bullshit buried in here.  There is certainly a lot to think about w/r/t what is and isn't real within the film, but here's the thing: I don't care. If Lisa is real, it's a movie about an narcissistic psychopath using and discarding a vulnerable person as a method of coping with his problems. And when I say "problems" here, I mean the terrible situation he is in where he has a loving wife and family and a successful career, and doesn't appreciate any of them. This was once just called being an ungrateful, bitter asshole, but these days since we can call it a Fregoli Delusion I guess it's supposed to be incredibly meaningful and reveal deep universal truths.

If Lisa isn't real, it's about the same bitter asshole, who is not quite as bad because he is only fantasizing about someone he can take advantage of, then giving his kid a sex toy full of his moldering semen. None of this is interesting. At best it's boring, at worst it's reprehensible. Is it hard, Charlie? Is it hard being successful and having people try to love you? Boo hoo hoo. I don't know when people started getting so fascinated with mental illness, but the mere fact that your main character has a mental illness doesn't make him interesting, or any of what happens to him profound. 

All of the stuff with the characters having the same voice and the 'clever' references hidden in names struck me as pure gimmickry, the kind of thing I saw when I'd go to some of my film major friends' end-of-year student film presentations.  A hacky attempt to obscure the film's complete lack of substance, in the hope that people will read something into it. This is especially painful to watch here, because at his best Kaufman is actually amazing at taking things that might be gimmicky in someone else's hands and making them work beautifully. This time however, it's just 90 minutes of him masturbating using his own tears as lubricant. He's just lucky his reputation is such that people think that's Truth dripping down their chin.

Firstly, about this part of the review, it's pretty spoilery. I know you didn't really like it, but perhaps there are others that would like to check it out, so it might be best to edit that comment of yours

Now, to go deeper into the meat of your criticism, I think you're making a mistake in thinking that we're suppose to like this Michael fella. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I think Kauffman gives us a very human portrayal of a very horrible (and in the end utterly pathetic) old fart. You're right, we shouldn't pity him and the guy has absolutely nothing to complain about.

If you interpret this film as being totally real (so no dillusions at all), I also agree with you that it's indeed a very problematic. The thing is though, I don't think the film really makes a lot sense if you interpret it as totally real. There are just to many changes and the whole Japanese sexdoll leaking spunk at the end wouldn't be properly explained, so I think a lot of the film is supposed to be a hallucination.

Now, I certainly disagree with your take on the film as a hallucination. For the biggest part of the runtime we're trapped inside the head of a very unpleasant fellow (which feeds into the fact that there are no really likeable characters. It's a prick hallucinating a bunch of other pricks essentially). He's still a pretty reprehensible person, but he's also stuck in his isolation from everyone around him. That makes him a bit more palatable, perhaps even a bit pitiable, but I don't think that's the point per se. I see it more as Kauffman giving us a very mean joke to laugh about. Here's a guy who's so in love with his own self that he basically can't distunguish between other people and has to resort to getting his freak on with an antique Japanese sexdoll, hallucinate a dreamgirl around it and then forgets all about it and passes the doll of to his son Skipper  It's actually darkly comic in a very messed up way and I can appreciate that  

Another thing I have to take issue with is your stance on the voices and the names. I think here you're actually clearly not getting it, if you don't mind me saying so  If you look up the Fregoli delusion, this is what you get:

So clearly, the sameness of voice was anything but gimmicky, it was in fact essential to this story, since that's what the fregoli delusion is actually about. Here you also see the importance of the names, since without the mention of Fregoli in story, I don't think many of us would have known this condition is actually real. The names also show us what this pathetic prick is actually looking for. I mean, he still remains a pathetic dipshit, but he's humanized by the fact that even this douche has a desire to be loved or rather redeemed through love (that's why you get Bella Amorrosi and Ananomalisa). Plus, Anamolisa is one of the clues that cues us into the fact that everything was just a psychotic episode all along, since it's the name of a Japanese goddess just like a certain sexdoll is Japanese  

Just singling this one quote out. I think that you're basically saying here that the film's message is 'Michael Stowe  is a prick, but that's something we can excuse, because it's caused by his Fregoli dilussion.' While  in fact, what I think that the movie actually wants you to see is that Michael Stowe is a prick, who just so happens to also suffer from Fregoli dilussion  And the film tries to navigate the complexities of that while adding some really dark humour in it.

 

As an aside, I think you would love Silver Linings Playbook

[red snow]

I'd definitely feel awkward if you said it to me. 

Haha that was an unfortunate typo

And kidding aside (I couldn't resist)... I quite like the joke. It juxtaposes the rather archaic view we still kind of hold as to what a "princess" is supposed to be with the fact that a princess today is really not too different from any other modern day 21st century woman, with the same wants and desires (and access to internet porn).

I think if the film had been sinking to that level throughout it'd have been fine. It's just it wasn't really making those kind of jokes at any other point in the film. If it had been making "in betweeners" or "american pie" style jokes it wouldn't have felt so out of place. The joke would have fit in "kick-ass" for example.

[Kindly Old Man]

Apart from being overly crass and poorly delivered, this joke exemplified Kingsman's outdated and problematic view of women. As if it wasn't bad enough that they introduce a female character who's supposed to be as capable (or more so) than Eggsy and then sideline her for the entire third act with some bullshit insignificant mission, they throw this scene in as a final fuck you to people with more enlightened views on the role of women in our society. I'm not the one who usually cares for this kind of criticism, but here it was just an exceptionally obvious example of poort taste. Although, it's main source of inspiration is the Moore era of Bond, so a sleezy perspective on women shouldn't have surprised us in hindsight. 

Also, and just completely personal, I can't stand monarchies and I cringe whenever I see a film set in modern times portray one of those leeches in a sort of good light. 

I can actually sort of follow you here  I really didn't like the first sixty minutes. I have had more fun thinking about the film than actually watching it.

Firstly, about this part of the review, it's pretty spoilery. I know you didn't really like it, but perhaps there are others that would like to check it out, so it might be best to edit that comment of yours

Hidden Content

 

As an aside, I think you would love Silver Linings Playbook

Edited, thanks. I think I see why my opinion and yours (well, you and the rest of the world) differ - 

I understand that the repetition of the voice was meant to represent the Fregoli Delusion. While this is clever, to me it seemed like this was the whole film - just cleverness. As you noted, if the whole scenario is a hallucination, the film is basically 'Here is Michael Stowe, he is a prick, who suffers from Fregoli Delusion'. That doesn't sound like a description of a movie. It could be the opening sentence of a paragraph describing a movie, but here, that's basically all there is. I don't find suffering from Fregoli Delusion to be interesting enough to base a whole movie around, I guess. I'm sure there are people suffering from Fregoli delusion who are interesting, and I wish the story was about one of them, rather than a character who has nothing to recommend him to me. It's not just that he's not likeable - no one in the Hateful 8 was likeable, and I loved that movie. It's that he is so tedious. This movie is probably a really good representation of what it's like to be a boring, miserable prick - that's just not something I'd ever want to see a movie about.

Re: Silver Linings Playbook - I thought it was OK. I think David O Russell is one of the most overrated working directors.

Re: Kingsman - I only saw this once, but wasn't the main joke in that movie taking James Bond movies and playing all of its terrible tropes straight? Like a satire, in the exact opposite style of Austin Powers. So where James Bond always ends with them making some sly innuendo at the end when he gets the girl, here they just have her ask for anal sex outright, as a way of showing how awful this actually is. At least that's what I remember thinking at the time.

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

 

Re: Kingsman - I only saw this once, but wasn't the main joke in that movie taking James Bond movies and playing all of its terrible tropes straight? Like a satire, in the exact opposite style of Austin Powers. So where James Bond always ends with them making some sly innuendo at the end when he gets the girl, here they just have her ask for anal sex outright, as a way of showing how awful this actually is. At least that's what I remember thinking at the time.

 

[red snow]

 

Re: Kingsman - I only saw this once, but wasn't the main joke in that movie taking James Bond movies and playing all of its terrible tropes straight? Like a satire, in the exact opposite style of Austin Powers. So where James Bond always ends with them making some sly innuendo at the end when he gets the girl, here they just have her ask for anal sex outright, as a way of showing how awful this actually is. At least that's what I remember thinking at the time.

That's what they were going for which is why I understand why they did it. So I can credit them for delivering an intentionally bad joke that made me sigh/roll my eyes moreso than in a Bond film. I still thought it lacked finesse and the point could have been made more stylishly as in the other aspects of the film. I still loved the film though.

[Veltigar]

Re: Kingsman - I only saw this once, but wasn't the main joke in that movie taking James Bond movies and playing all of its terrible tropes straight? Like a satire, in the exact opposite style of Austin Powers. So where James Bond always ends with them making some sly innuendo at the end when he gets the girl, here they just have her ask for anal sex outright, as a way of showing how awful this actually is. At least that's what I remember thinking at the time.

Taken in isolation, perhaps I would accept this, but the whole sidelining of the female graduate with that bullshit mission plus some other minor quibbles make me think it's much more than that. There is a bunch of stuff they plundered from the old Moore Bonds that should have been left burried. Those are rubbish films anyway.

 

. I think David O Russell is one of the most overrated working directors.

Just quoting this for truth

Edited, thanks. I think I see why my opinion and yours (well, you and the rest of the world) differ - 

Hidden Content

Everyone in the Hateful Eight is likeable to me  eventhough they are all monsters and fiends  Tarantino magic  

 

[Veltigar]

So, I went to see Carol tonight. Now, between this and Anomalisa I have two films to rank and it's going to be hard.

In particular, I'm struggling with the proper position for Inside Out and Anomalisa. Anomalisa is certainly vastly superior when it comes to animation, is aimed at adults and has some really wry humour and clever ideas in there. Inside Out was more fun to watch though and a certain character hit me right in the feels (we all know who). 

1) The Hateful Eight
2) Son of Saul (aka Saul Fia)
3) Mad Max: Fury Road
4) Chi-raq
5) Ex Machina
6) Slow West
7) Le Tout Nouveau Testament
8) Inside Out
9) Carol
10) Anomalisa
11) MI: V Rogue Nation
12)  It Follows  
13)  The Assassin 
14) Star Wars: The Force Awakens
15) D'Ardennen
16) The Martian
17) An Inspector Calls
18) Avengers: Age of Ultron
19) Dheepan
20) Beast of No Nation
21) Ant-man
22) Kingsman: The Secret Service 
23) The Wedding Ringer
24) Bone Tomahawk
25) Sicario
26) Spectre

[Mladen]

So, I went to see Carol tonight

Talk, for the sake of us  .. I sold my soul to the devil to get to the copy of the movie and thought it was so beautiful... The entire movie is an ode to Blanchett, making people fall in love with her the same way Mara's character fell for her.

[GallowKnight]

So my top 10.

1. Mad Max Fury Road

2. The Hateful Eight

3. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

4. Dope

5. Me and Earl and The Dying Girl

6. The Martian

7. Creed

8. Ex Machina

9. Ant-Man

10. Slow West

Honorable Mentions: The Revenant, Final Girls

Worst Movie: Jupiter Ascending

[Veltigar]

Talk, for the sake of us  .. I sold my soul to the devil to get to the copy of the movie and thought it was so beautiful... The entire movie is an ode to Blanchett, making people fall in love with her the same way Mara's character fell for her.

I knew I should have dropped my longer discussion of Carol here instead of in the Watched thread  I'll just quote myself from there:

I went to see Carol today. I wasn't completely blown away by it, but it's definitely a very, very good motion picture. The first thing that just can't be denied is that it's an absolutely gorgeous film, I'd say the prettiest I have seen so far released in the last year if it weren't for The Assassin (although they differ but a hair in visual quality). All those losers on instagram with their filters, well Carol is what they try to do and miserably fail at. The music was dazzling as well. The best original score after The Hateful Eight. 

All the rest was great too of course. Blanchett and Mara seemlessly became a part of this absolutely lush 1950s setting. They looked like they belonged there. Normally, costume dramas like this can feel a bit ridiculous because everything is so pretty. Carol avoids that pittfall with brio, just by being so damn elegant. The dresses, the decors, the hairstyles it's all so stylish. It looks like a dream pretty much or no better, a beautiful memory. That's probably the best way to describe it.

I also really liked the story. Carol didn't need to force a villain in there. Everyone seemed perfectly human and pretty understanding. Like, you could get where a lot of the characters came from and how they were trying to be the best person they could be, given the circumstances of their class, gender and other factors. The film's also definitely in the running for best ending of the year. The film stopped at exactly the right moment. A minute less or more and it wouldn't have been as great as it is.

I think, what knocks it down from a 5/5 to a 4/5 is the level of detachment. Sometimes, particularly during the first two acts I wanted to feel just a tiny bit more emotion or just more drawn in by it. The film does creep up on you and the ending was great, because it had everything else that was good about Carol + I was drawn in by the emotion of the film. If they could have given me that for the entire runtime, this would be a bona fide classic (and then I'm speaking more along Citizen Kane levels, because it's undoubtedly a great film already).

It's definitely worth seeing in the theatre imo. 

EDIT: I can totally see why you would put this at the top of your list. It's a great film and Blanchett's best role in years imo (I'll just add that Blue Jasmine is one film with her in that I haven't seen), but certainly the best role since 2008 or 2007.

[Mladen]

 

I knew I should have dropped my longer discussion of Carol here instead of in the Watched thread  I'll just quote myself from there:

EDIT: I can totally see why you would put this at the top of your list. It's a great film and Blanchett's best role in years imo (I'll just add that Blue Jasmine is one film with her in that I haven't seen), but certainly the best role since 2008 or 2007.

And now I will go there to properly answer BTW, have you seen "Truth" and "Knight of Cups"? Blanchett got resurrected with "Jasmine", although as the movie, it wasn't as good as she was.The woman had a long break and we should be all happy it is finally over

[Veltigar]

And now I will go there to properly answer BTW, have you seen "Truth" and "Knight of Cups"? Blanchett got resurrected with "Jasmine", although as the movie, it wasn't as good as she was.The woman had a long break and we should be all happy it is finally over

I dropped Truth and Knight of Cups from my roster when reviews came back less than glowing to put it mildly. As an aside I don't know what happened to Malick, but he needs another ten year break or so. 

[Mladen]

I dropped Truth and Knight of Cups from my roster when reviews came back less than glowing to put it mildly. As an aside I don't know what happened to Malick, but he needs another ten year break or so. 

I will watch Kinght of Cups just to see for my own two eyes, and when Truth falls in my lap, will see it too. I can't believe people were seriously thinking Blanchett could win the Oscar with "Truth".

[Veltigar]

I will watch Kinght of Cups just to see for my own two eyes, and when Truth falls in my lap, will see it too. I can't believe people were seriously thinking Blanchett could win the Oscar with "Truth".

I wanted to answer because of the film's pedigree and oscarbaity subject, but then I found out that the guy who wrote and directed this also wrote the screenplay for Amazing Spiderman 2  I think that tells us everything we need to know don't you