Here we are again. After a year hiatus, the Best of the Year is back on the blog. 2015 was a great year for films. I saw 155 total films (a complete list of which can be found here) and very few of them I didn't enjoy in one way or another. In this post, you will find my Top 25 films of the year and I must say it was really difficult to narrow those down, as there were so many films that deserve to be talked about. So, why don't we just take a few moments and talk some Honorable Mentions:
This year we got some really solid "blockbusters" or at least bigger films: Ant-Man, Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass, Michael Mann's misunderstood Blackhat, Steven Spielberg-directed Bridge of Spies, Concussion, Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak, Pixar's Inside Out, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Best Picture nominee and Ridley Scott-directed The Martian, Mission:Impossible Rogue Nation, the new Christmas classic The Night Before, Southpaw, Spectre, Spy, and The Walk all impressed at Megaplexes across the world.
Indie cinema was also on point all year long with films like Ramin Bahrani's 99 Homes, Spike Lee's Chi-Raq, Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria, Dope directed by Rick Famuyiwa, Thomas Vinterberg's Far From the Madding Crowd, actor Joel Edgerton's directorial debut The Gift, Paul Weitz' Grandma (which features a brilliant performance by Lilly Tomlin), Heaven Knows What, Infinitely Polar Bear, the Woody Allen-directed Irrational Man, Ryan Gosling's directorial debut Lost River (that's right, I dug it), Gaspar Noe's NC-17 rated Love, Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy directed by Bill Pohlad, Mississipi Grind, Mr. Holmes, Edward Zwick's chess biopic Pawn Sacrifice, The Stanford Prison Experiment, Oren Moverman's Richard Gere-starring Time Out of Mind, crime thriller Two-Step, Wisconsin's own Uncle John, Craig Zobel's follow-up to his fantastic Compliance, Z for Zachariah (starring Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Chris Pine), and a double dose of Noah Baumbach-directed films with Mistress America and While We're Young.
From around the world make sure you check out The Assassin, Blind, Breathe, Girlhood, Hard to Be a God, Jauja, Phoenix, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Saint Laurent, Timbuktu, Tokyo Tribe, Tom at the Farm, 138 minute, single shot Victoria, Studio Ghibli's When Marnie Was There, White God, and Wild Tales.
Finally, three types of movies really had a great year: horror, westerns, and documentaries. Creep, Spring, Unfriended, The Visit, We Are Still Here, and What We Do in the Shadows all scare up a good time. Bone Tomahawk is a great combination of horror and western. The Keeping Room, The Salvation, and Slow West all breathe new life into the once dying western genre. If docs are more your thing, you can't go wrong with Best of Enemies, Cartel Land, Going Clear, The Hunting Ground, Paul Thomas Anderson's Junun, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Listen to Me Marlon, The Look of Silence, My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, The Nightmare, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, What Happened, Miss Simone?, Winter on Fire, and The Wolfpack.
Aright, enough of that. Let's get on with it. After the jump are my 25 favorite films of 2015.
