10 Best of 2015 (A.J.'s Picks)

by A.J.

January is a month to play movie catch up since it is the time when studios slowly expand the release of the prestige films that had a small release at the end of December. January is also the month when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences announces their nominations for Best Picture of 2015. They only nominated 8 movies, but I found 10 movies that I think were among the best released last year. A few hundred movies were released in theaters in 2015 and I managed to see about 65 of them, either in theaters or at home on DVD. Here are some of my favorites:

10. Bridge of Spies

This is the first film directed Stephen Spielberg since 2004's The Terminal that I have liked from beginning to end. (I enjoyed Lincoln, but it had few too many dull, superfluous scenes.) In Bridge, Tom Hanks plays an American lawyer that is essentially drafted into defending a captured Soviet spy, played wonderfully low-key by Mark Rylance, in the American courts and then tasked with negotiating a trade with the Soviets for captured U2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers. Hanks is sent to East Berlin with no instructions other than: make the trade. The bureaucrats and spies he encounters range from suspicious to bizarre. Bridge of Spies takes a true story to which we know the outcome, but not the details, and makes it exciting. Most of the action in this movie comes from people talking in rooms, sizing each other up trying to find out what the other person knows with revealing as little as possible of what they know, and those scenes are all interesting, well-crafted, and suspenseful. Bridge of Spies is also Spielberg and Hank's first film together since The Terminal, leading me to believe that they bring out the best in each other.

9. The Walk

Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk, based on the same book as the 2008 documentary Man on Wire, is the dramatization of the incredible-but-true story of Phillipe Petit, who, along with the help of a band of accomplices, walked on a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Joseph Gordon Levitt’s energy and enthusiasm as Phillipe Petit flow through every scene of The Walk leading up to the momentous and spectacular walk itself high above New York City. This is a very well-made, entertaining, and exciting film with great visual moments that I regret not seeing on the big screen, but is still quite impressive on a TV screen.

8. What We Do in the Shadows

The horror comedy What We Do in the Shadows is probably the most delightful comedy I’ve seen in quite some time. It is a mockumentary following a group of misfit vampires and flatmates as they prepare for the biggest social event of the underworld, The Unholy Masquerade. These vampires are easy to relate to and very funny. The gags and set pieces are clever, often putting twist on the vampire tropes we all know. One especially hilarious scene has the vampires fumbling to hypnotize a pair of police officers so that they won't notice the house is covered in blood. What We Do in the Shadows co-stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, who also co-wrote and directed. Clement and Waititi both worked on the short lived, but hilarious HBO series Flight of the Conchords, which co-stared Clement, and they bring the same sensibilities and comedic style to What We Do In the Shadows. Released early in 2015, I picked this movie for last year’s 13 Nights of Shocktober and wrote, “When I make my Best of 2015 list, I know this movie will be included” and I meant it. Rather than repeat myself here; you can read full review in my Shocktober post.

7. Spotlight

Like Bridge of Spies and The Walk, Spotlight is a dramatization of a true story to which we know the outcome, but not the details. It is written and directed in a way that builds suspense and places us with the characters who know what they feel must happen but are unsure of how, or if, they will succeed. Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d’Arcy James play the team of Boston Globe reporters who, urged by the new editor-in-chief played by Liev Schrieber, investigate allegations of abusive priests and a cover-up by the Boston archdiocese. They face resistance from the church and the community, but uncover far more than just a case or two of an unfortunate scandal. I’m not surprised that Spotlight was well-acted, though I was surprised that it was directed by Tom McCarthy, whose last film was the Adam Sandler bomb The Cobbler. I was also surprised at how interested it made me in a chase for documents in courthouse and newspaper basements. The real stars of Spotlight are the devastating facts, statistics, and testimonials that were uncovered, but it is not a book report. It does not trade its characters for exposition. Every character, major and minor, feels like a real person, which is good because they are actually real people and this story really happened.

6. Spy

I know I’m in for a treat when Melissa McCarthy and writer-director Paul Feig work together. Their two previous films were the hilarious Bridesmaids and The Heat, both of which were favorites of mine. In Spy, McCarthy plays a CIA analyst who is great at her job, but unhappy being on the sidelines, monitoring and assisting the resident super-spy, played with equal parts smugness and cluelessness by Jude Law. After a nuclear weapon goes missing and the identities of all the active CIA field agents are compromised, McCarthy is sent into the field to observe and report on the movements of an arms dealer played by Rose Byrne. However, instead of just observing, she gets right into the action. McCarthy holds her own in the action scenes which, though they are quite violent, never forget to be comedic. Action star Jason Statham does a great job lampooning the archetype of a macho action star in a minor, but very funny, role as an overconfident, obnoxious spy gone rogue. Spy really lets McCarthy shine with broad comedy and low-key comedic moments. Feig is smart enough to keep putting McCarthy in situations in which she is out of place without ever making fun of her. McCarthy has proven herself again and again adept at verbal and physical comedy, but also as someone that needs to be reined in either by a good script or director, with Feig she has both.

5. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Over the past several years Tom Cruise has shown a terrific knack for finding directors that are the right creative match his projects, especially for the Mission: Impossible movies. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was one of my favorite movies of 2011 and I’ve only grown to love it more since then. I still think Ghost Protocol is the best of the series, but Rogue Nation is a very, very close second. Rogue Nation is written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie who also directed Cruise in the underappreciated, but excellent, action film Jack Reacher. McQuarrie and Cruise are a great match and I hope they continue to make movies together. The action set pieces are amazing. In addition to Cruise hanging off the side of a plane as it takes off, there is an incredible and thrilling car chase followed immediately by a motorcycle chase, among other similar scenes which are all very well done. But Rogue Nation is not just a series of action pieces strung together. The script treats every character, new and returning, as importantly as the action and each is played by more-than-capable actors who turn those characters into believable people that are very good at what they do. As with Ghost Protocol, I like Rogue Nation more with each viewing.

4. Dope

Dope is a smart comedy about a teenager who feels out of place in his neighborhood and school in the rough Inglewood area of Los Angeles, but then finds himself even more lost among the criminal underworld when he is forced to dispose of a large stash drugs hidden in his backpack by a local drug dealer. There are also a few other criminal factions that want the stash and very funny, but dangerous, situations ensue. The main character of Dope, Malcolm, is an intelligent black nerd obsessed with 90s music and fashion with aspirations to attend Harvard. He is played with incredible comic timing by Shameik Moore. Dope works as more than just a teen comedy because it constantly makes you aware that despite the comedy Malcolm and his friends are in real and immediate danger. I can still relate to these characters because Dope builds them so incredibly well and good characters are always relatable.

3. Mad Max: Fury Road

I remember when the trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road was released on the internet and everyone I knew was bursting with excitement and anticipation. The movie itself actually lived up to, if not surpassed, the expectations of that trailer. George Miller had already done the impossible in giving us an incredible sequel (The Road Warrior) that not only improves upon the original film (Mad Max), but is arguably one of the best sequels ever made. Now, Miller may well have topped himself again with Mad Max: Fury Road. I admit that I was skeptical about a new Mad Max movie, even when I saw the trailer, but I can’t deny that is was one of the best films of 2015. Fury Road is everything an action film should be and, most impressively, it is an action film for adults. The plot is simple but the characters are solid and well-played. Tom Hardy plays Max, but the real star and main character is Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, who is smuggling a group of women away from the monstrous and tyrannical tribal leader Immortan Joe. The film is essentially a long, explosive action-packed chase as Immortan Joe and his War Boys chase down Max, Furiosa, and the women). Max may not be the center of the action, but his role as the mostly silent stranger that happens upon a group of people in need of help is in keeping with the rest of the Mad Max series. There are some CGI effects, but a large majority of the effects in Fury Road are practical and mind-blowingly impressive (that guitar that shoots flames is not CGI, it’s real). Fury Road is a fun, full-bore action thriller at its best.

2. Inside Out

I wasn’t planning on seeing this Pixar movie; the premise seemed a bit too odd and the trailer didn’t make the story clear, but I saw it any way and was profoundly affected. Five emotions (Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger) run 11-year-old Riley’s mind from a control center influencing how she interacts with situations and people around her. Riley and the emotions have to deal with their biggest challenge yet when Riley and her parents move across the country to San Francisco. Joy, who normally runs the show, and Sadness are accidently, and quite literally, thrown out of the control room along with the core memories that make up Riley's personality, leaving Riley with only Disgust, Fear, and Anger, not the best trio to be running a mind. Joy has to gather up the core memories to get them back to the control room while keeping Sadness from touching them and making them sad memories. Joy and Sadness are lost in the cleverly familiar architecture of Riley’s mind as imagined by the filmmakers and they find their way into Riley’s subconscious, her dream center, and her memory banks. The pathos overflows when Joy encounters Bing Bong, Riley’s forgotten imaginary friend voiced to perfection by Richard Kind. The problems Riley has with moving to a strange town where she doesn’t know anyone are not unique to her, but from inside her mind we see and feel how that is the biggest and most troubling thing that’s ever happened to her. Inside Out knows that Joy running things all the time is not the answer, neither is Sadness always a bad thing; you need both for a healthy mind and you also need Fear, Disgust, and Anger. I’ve only seen Inside Out once, technically. A few weeks ago, I was on a plane from New York to Austin and the person sitting in the row in front of me was watching Inside Out on her laptop computer. I stopped reading my book and started watching the movie on her computer through the space between the seats. She had headphones on and I couldn’t hear a sound, but in my memory was every line, every voice, every music cue, and sound effect, and I had to try very hard not to cry at certain scenes. Pixar, not always, but more often than not manages to deliver quality cinema, and, sometimes, (Toy Story 3, Ratatouille, Up, and now Inside Out) a truly profound and moving piece of art.

1. Love & Mercy

When I first saw Love & Mercy back in late July I knew I had just seen the best movie of 2015. I went back to the theater and saw it again the next week. The life of Beach Boys co-founder and songwriter Brian Wilson is given something better and more meaningful than the typical biopic treatment. This is not just a rise and fall story or look at a specific time in the subject’s life; it is somewhere in between. Paul Dano plays Wilson in the mid to late 1960s as he is just becoming a creative force musically while also beginning to slip slowly into mental illness. John Cusack plays Wilson in the mid 1980s when he is overmedicated and manipulated by Dr. Landy (Paul Giamatti), Wilson’s psychiatrist and self-appointed guru, dietician, producer, etc. This was the best and most effective dramatization of a true story in 2015. I didn’t know much about Brian Wilson’s life, other than that he had mental problems and allegedly spent a few years in bed in the 70s (it was more like three, Cusacks’s Wilson says). I knew that Wilson ended up alright and was able to finally complete his masterpiece Smile in 2004, but I didn’t know how or when Wilson emerged back into healthy, functional life. The person largely responsible for Wilson’s reemergence is Melinda Ledbetter, played by Elizabeth Banks, who meets Wilson at a Cadillac dealership in 1985 and eventually becomes his wife. Through Melinda's eyes, we grow suspicious of the ever-present Dr. Landy and his unconventional (and unethical) methods. My stomach turned up in knots during the scenes of Wilson being abused by Landy in the 80s and by his father in the 60s.

Love & Mercy cuts between Melinda and Wilson’s budding relationship in the 80s and Wilson in the 60s challenging himself as a musician and an artist during the creation of the album Pet Sounds, one of my absolute favorite albums ever. We see Dano dropping bobby pins on piano strings to create the rattling effect for "Caroline, No", recording barking dogs, and instructing someone on how to play the bicycle horn while the rest of the band sits around the booth and Mike Love grows listless and frustrated. I’ve never seen recording studio sessions portrayed as accurately as in Love & Mercy; it’s very exciting for the people working and incredibly boring for those that aren’t, but have to be in the booth (I have experience being one of the bored people in the booth during a musician friend’s recording session). My favorite scene in the movie, aside from the final scene, is of Wilson and Love collaborating on "Good Vibrations," from its beginning as a piano riff Wilson can’t get out of his head, to the studio where Love gets very agitated by Wilson’s obsession with a few seconds of cello strings. Paul Dano is the kind of actor who I always find sticks out in every movie, but here he really disappears into the Brian Wilson of the 60s in that amazing way that goes beyond impersonation and mimicry to really portray the person. Cusack is incredible at convincingly portraying the Wilson of the 80s as someone that really “survived" the 60s and is still in need of help. Neither actor tries to imitate the other because Love & Mercy understands that Wilson was two different people during those two different decades. In addition to being the best biopic of recent memory, Love & Mercy is also my favorite kind of movie, a love story. Melinda’s love is exactly what Wilson’s wounded, battered, and fragile soul needed to finally become a third, complete Brian Wilson.