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The Best Films of the Year - The 2015 Version


The Killer Snark

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11 hours ago, Corvinus said:

I thought the same, too. Not a bad CGI model, but nothing special, imo. And they had an actor stand it and do all that. I would think this movie should not rob Star Wars of a visual effects award. If anything, Mad Max is the only serious challenger.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to feel this way. After all the hype I expected a bit more. I'm rooting for Mad Max in that award, I want it to win as many oscars as it can and I want a reward for all the practical stuff it pulled off (that's also a visual effects award right? I usually don't pay attention to those in the race). 

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Finally bothered to watch 'Beasts of No Nation' the other day. Have to say it was excellent, if it was in the cinemas I'd suspect it would win Oscars. I'm a big fan of the director after his work on True Detective and Jane Eyre, and he managed to create a number of beautiful, memorable shots in a movie which is upsetting but uplifting in turns. 

I'm really surprised by it, was avoiding it as it was on Netflix and seemed a bit too heavy to get into, but it was done with quite a mainstream view. Reminded me a lot of 'City of God'.

I don't rate Idris Elba in it however, he didn't seem particuarly authentic in the role, maybe it was the accent. The young kid was incredible however.

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3 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

I don't rate Idris Elba in it however, he didn't seem particuarly authentic in the role, maybe it was the accent. The young kid was incredible however.

That's blasphemous and you know it :angry2:. I thought he was tremendous, but I am kind of an Elba fanboy.  Abraham Attah did blow me away though. Easily one of the best performances of last year and that alone should be a reason for everyone to see this movie.

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I watched 99 Homes yesterday. Michael Shannon totally got robbed. He deserved a best supporting actor nomination for his performance here. The film itself was pretty good. The third act was kind of pedestrian, but it was based on a true story apparently, so it's hard to argue against it. I would have gone a different route I think, but I respect people who try and stay true to the actual facts. The best scene was definitely Shannon's speech about the housing crisis. I think the film should have leaned more into that and channeled some more Big Short style anger, that would probably have been the wiser choice.

 

1) Creed
2) The Hateful Eight
3) Son of Saul (aka Saul Fia)
4) Mad Max: Fury Road
5) Chi-raq
6) Ex Machina
7) Slow West
8) Le Tout Nouveau Testament
9) Inside Out
10) Carol 
11) Macbeth
12) The Revenant
13) Anomalisa
14) MI: V Rogue Nation
15)  It Follows  
16)  The Assassin 
17) Star Wars: The Force Awakens
18) D'Ardennen

19) 99 Homes
20) The Martian
21) An Inspector Calls
22 Avengers: Age of Ultron
23) Dheepan
24) Beasts of No Nation
25) Ant-man
26) Kingsman: The Secret Service 
27) The Wedding Ringer
28) Bone Tomahawk
29) Sicario
30) Spectre

 

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On 10 January 2016 at 1:01 PM, The Killer Snark said:

I'd intended to start this thread a month ago, but was wise in holding it off until the start of the current year, which has allowed me to fit in the new Star Wars film. 2015 was not as good a year for films in general as '14 and '13 were (and there's still highly rated films from last year that I've not seen yet), but there's still been a bunch of crackers on display. Here is my list of favourites out of everything I've seen:

The Duke of Burgundy - In my opinion, the best film of the year, and by a considerable distance. A cinematographically gorgeous, sumptuously soundtracked dissection of the sado-masochistic relationship of a pair of lesbian entomologists. Recalls the arty sexploitation of both Borowcyck and the best Jess Franco films, as well as the earlier work of Peter Greenaway. Brilliantly scripted and acted. A joy. And manages to be profoundly erotic despite its absence of either nudity or sexual profanity.

Mad Max: Fury Road - An overwhelming experience in the cinema, though actually not as effective over repeated viewings, but still the best action movie of the last few years.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Rey's over-adeptness at everything without training, the too easy destruction of yet another Death Star, and a sense of deja vu prevent it from being a great movie. They don't prevent it from being a very enjoyable one. Better than all of Lucas' prequels except for the criminally underrated Revenge of the Sith, it was quite wonderful.

Avengers: Age of Ultron - Better than the first film in the franchise, but trumped on the exhilaration front only, in action-based movie terms, by the two entries above.

Mission Impossible:Rogue Nation - An identical scenario.

Still Alice - A beautifully acted family drama that was actually the first movie I saw during 2015 I liked as much as the better films to have come out at the end of the previous year.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya - A magical Studio Ghibli film actually released before 2015 in Japan, but which acted as a nice reminder of how great Ghibli are after the masturbatory and excessively boring The Wind Rises the previous year.

Inside Out - An absolute joy, and actually improves on repeated viewing. Possibly Pixar's best film to date, and the only Disney produced film from the last ten years I liked as much was the grossly underestimated Wreck It Ralph.

Song of the Sea - Another beautifully constructed, and visually gorgeous, animated film, this time from the people who previously made The Book of Kells.

The New Girlfriend - And here was the finest foreign language film I saw all year. Touching, funny, sexy, beautiful chemistry between the lead actors, and recomended to everyone.

Turbokid - A wonderfully bonkers, gore-filled and insanely imaginative film that very few beyond exploitation fans will have heard of. It near enough just went straight to BluRay and DVD. But this loving tribute to '80s sci-fi straight to video films was far better than a good deal of more publicised and thus more widely acclaimed productions of last year.

EX Machina - I'm editing in to include a film I can't believe I missed originally from the list. Beautifully written and paced, weird, erotic, and proving that Alicia Vikander is among our most talented actresses in addition to owning a beautiful face.

Sicario - Everyone I personally know I recommended this to were weirdly unimpressed by it. I myself loved it. This was a similar situation when I recommended Birdman to my friends and family last year.

Macbeth - Unusually, for a cinematic Shakespeare adaptation, everyone involved appears to have been tutored in actually getting the metre right. Too much of the time with Shakespeare, modern actors do not pause at the end of enjambed lines, for the sake of metre, ignore obvious demotions and promotions of stresses, and completely miss extra syllables in words extended to fit the metre. For that alone, I recommend it, although I'm less wild about some of the scenes cut out of the play for the sake of only maintaining its darker qualities. But it's roundly excellently acted, and as bloody as period audiences would have desired Macbeth to be performed in Shakespeare's time.

Shelter - Late edited in.

Love - Late edited in too.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - As above.

KInsgsman - Ditto.

The Martian - The same.

Crimson Peak - "      "

 

 

I'm going to add to this list as I either watch more movies I missed the first time round, or remember others which should be here. In the meantime, discuss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone has probably already mentioned, but shame on you OP for not including The Hateful Eight. Three hours of unadulterated Tarantino brilliance.

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I mentioned earlier that I may have included it, but it hasn't came out in the UK yet. From my perspective, it's not a 2015 film, because I live in the UK. Same thing with The Revenant, which I saw yesterday and loved. Wish I could add it, but it's less confusing from my own perspective if I add it to the best films list of 2017.

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On 2/1/2016 at 1:24 PM, Veltigar said:

I watched 99 Homes yesterday. Michael Shannon totally got robbed. He deserved a best supporting actor nomination for his performance here. The film itself was pretty good. The third act was kind of pedestrian, but it was based on a true story apparently, so it's hard to argue against it. I would have gone a different route I think, but I respect people who try and stay true to the actual facts. The best scene was definitely Shannon's speech about the housing crisis. I think the film should have leaned more into that and channeled some more Big Short style anger, that would probably have been the wiser choice.

 

1) Creed
2) The Hateful Eight
3) Son of Saul (aka Saul Fia)
4) Mad Max: Fury Road
5) Chi-raq
6) Ex Machina
7) Slow West
8) Le Tout Nouveau Testament
9) Inside Out
10) Carol 
11) Macbeth
12) The Revenant
13) Anomalisa
14) MI: V Rogue Nation
15)  It Follows  
16)  The Assassin 
17) Star Wars: The Force Awakens
18) D'Ardennen

19) 99 Homes
20) The Martian
21) An Inspector Calls
22 Avengers: Age of Ultron
23) Dheepan
24) Beasts of No Nation
25) Ant-man
26) Kingsman: The Secret Service 
27) The Wedding Ringer
28) Bone Tomahawk
29) Sicario
30) Spectre

 

Shannon might be up there with my top actors I enjoy watching. Just behind Sam Rockwell in enjoyablity stakes. I loved him in Broadwalk Empire and I really think he improved Man of Steel quite a bit. More of him is always a good thing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Watched Macbeth today cause it hit Amazon instant, glad I watched it at home with subtitles otherwise I wouldn't have understood a shit ton of dialogue. The performances from the actors and gorgeous visuals would have been enough though, some really powerful scenes. Solid adaptation. 

1. Hateful Eight

2. Sicario

3. Mad Max

4. The Revenant

5. Ex Machina

6. Creed

7. Macbeth

8. Star Wars Force Awakens

9. Slow West

10. Beasts of No Nation

11. Spotlight

12.  Kingsman

 

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On 2016-01-12 at 8:23 PM, polishgenius said:

Especially if you include Spy, which I feel is being overlooked- it's very funny, even for at least some of those of us who aren't normally fans of Melissa McCarthy, and it's certainly a better spy movie than Spectre.

Personally, I thought Rose Byrne's character was the highlight of that film.

Here's a top ten of the 2015 films I've seen so far:

  1. Ex Machina
  2. Carol
  3. Spotlight
  4. Mad Max: Fury Road
  5. The Big Short
  6. Beasts of No Nation
  7. Spy
  8. Ant-Man
  9. Crimson Peak
  10. The Gift
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