I don’t approach this article with the same enthusiasm I’ve felt in previous years. Untreatable problems with my right eye have taken some of the enjoyment out of moviegoing, and have left me more dependent on dialogue rather than cinematography.
The list is limited to those films I’ve had a chance to see. As usual, the better ones are crowded together at year’s end, and many of them don’t open in Pittsburgh until January or February. This year, in order to meet my self-imposed deadline, I’ve had to choose without seeing 45 Years or Son of Saul. I also regret having missed Clouds of Sils Maria and In Jackson Heights (which played here for a grand total of five days).
Here are my top twelve in alphabetical order. They are American unless otherwise noted.
- The Assassin (Taiwan). My choice for best film of the year is this dramatization of a Chinese folk tale about an expertly trained swordswoman sent home to kill the man she once expected to marry. Much more than a martial arts film, it has some of the more beautiful shot compositions you’ll see for a long time. People who know about life in 9th century China were impressed with director Hou Hsaio-hsien’s attention to detail. Hou is easily my choice for Best Director.
- The Big Short. This film is a bit like an economics lecture, but I give it credit for teaching us things that we all should know in a reasonably painless way. You must see this film before you vote in the Democratic presidential primary.
- Experimenter and The Stanford Prison Experiment. 2015 has been an embarrassment of riches for social psychologists—not one but two serious attempts to portray two of our more famous (some would say “notorious”) experiments. (Please see my separate review of these two films.) Too bad not very many people had a chance to see them.
- The Gift. This one also flew under the radar. It’s a creepy little story written, directed and co-starring Australian actor Joel Edgerton as an old high school acquaintance who shows up on a couple’s doorstep bearing gifts.
- The Hateful Eight. Although this is not Quentin Tarantino’s best, it’s still a terrific way to spend three hours. Another wonderful score from Ennio Morricone; let’s hope he finally wins an Oscar. Here’s a sample from the soundtrack.
- Labyrinth of Lies and Phoenix (Germany). The Germans continue to relive World War II and its aftermath. The first film, whose title actually translates as “labyrinth of silence,” is the true story of a prosecutor’s investigation of what happened at Auschwitz. Phoenix is a fictional tale of a Jewish woman disfigured in the war who tries to locate the ex-husband who betrayed her.
- The Revenant. I don’t think this film should be sweeping all the awards, but it’s certainly worth seeing.
- The Salvation (Denmark). Mads Mikkelson stars in this western of the “revenge-for-a-slaughtered-family” sub-genre filmed in South Africa. It has the kinds of beautiful scenery and quirky plot devices that made spaghetti westerns so entertaining.
- Spotlight. This would be my choice from among the Academy Award nominees. It’s nice to see a film about not a lone individual, but a group of professionals working cooperatively toward a the common goal of exposing Catholic church hypocrisy.
- Wild Tales (Argentina). An anthology of six bizarre short stories, this film plays like an adult version of The Twilight Zone.
Here are some honorable mentions. Despite Will Smith’s fine performance, I can’t put Concussion in my top twelve, knowing that Sony censored—deleted or changed—some scenes in order to appease the NFL. (Ironically, the trailer features Smith, as Dr. Bennet Omalu, demanding that the NFL “tell the truth!”) As a long-time fan of the Mad Max series, I regret that Mad Max: Fury Road has far too many computer-generated effects and does not tell as interesting a story as George Miller’s previous three Maxes. Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies was a lot better than I expected, and I’ll be rooting for Mark Rylance to win the Best Supporting Actor award. (“Will it help?” Probably not.) Movie fans will want to catch Hitchcock/Truffaut, in which director Kent Jones illustrates Francois Truffaut’s book-length interview of Alfred Hitchcock by showing many of the scenes they deconstructed.
One of the better films I saw in 2015 is one that I missed in 2014, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Belgian film, Two Days, One Night, for which Marion Cotillard was nominated as Best Actress. Without ever mentioning politics, it vividly dramatizes one of the tragic human consequences of predatory capitalism—specifically, the ability of a ruthless management to divide and conquer nonunionized workers.
My choice for Best Actress of 2015 is Shu Qi for her subtle performance as the title character of The Assassin. No one really stands out as Best Actor, so I’ll do something I ordinarily dislike and choose Samuel Leroy Jackson of The Hateful Eight as a cumulative reward for his performances in five Tarantino films. (You only count four? Did you miss his brief appearance as the piano player in Kill Bill, Part 2?)
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