Life on a Screen

The Best Films of 2015

What a year it was!! I’ve debated and deliberated the placement of each film on his list for weeks and I’m fairly comfortable with the “final” ranking. On to 2016!

I’ve seen this movie four times in four days.

I obviously love this franchise with a passion, but after just four viewings, it’s become apparent to me just how special Star Wars: The Force Awakens is. This, simultaneously, is the 7th entry in a Sci-Fi franchise, the best studio release of 2015, and one of the most beautiful franchise films I have ever seen.

That beauty is not just in the return of classic characters or the sound of the Millennium Falcon jumping to light speed, but in every single frame of this labor of love. Ever since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, I have been cautiously optimistic about this film, and not a day has gone by in those three years that I haven’t thought about this film. So much could and should have gone wrong in the development of this film. As any Star Wars fan knows, it doesn’t take much to make one of these films fail, but like Poe Dameron piloting his X-Wing over Starkiller base, Abrams and his team bypassed each pitfall with ease.

The cast, new and old, fit into this film seamlessly. Each actor brings their A-game and Abrams allows those performances to be the focus, rather than the larger moments. Small moments, like those shared by Oscar Isaac and Max Von Sydow or Daisy Ridley and Harrison Ford speak volumes to this world and to its grip on each generation of filmgoers that has fallen in love with this galaxy. Star Wars is at its best in these moments, likewhen Luke gazes upon Tattoine’s twin suns or falls to his (near) death on Bespin rather than turn to the dark side. Abrams, Kasdan and Kennedy understand this and so much more about this galaxy.

The magic of The Force Awakens isn’t in the planets it blows up or the mysteries it solves, but rather in the questions it poses to its audience and the imaginations it inspires.

With the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes back, George Lucas and co. created two practically perfect films that revolutionized cinema and changed the world forever. The Force Awakens couldn’t possibly be as revolutionary as those two films, but it is damn near just as perfect.

My jaw dropped immediately after this film started, and three days later, my blood pressure still hasn’t gone down.

It’s hard to imagine a film where the level of craftsmanship is much higher than it is in this tale of lawmen and outlaws in the midst of Mexico’s drug trade. The direction, the acting, the photography, score and virtually every aspect of Sicario is top notch.

This is Denis Villeneuve’s third film since Incendies was nominated for Best Foreign Language Oscar and effectively ascended to the ranks of big name directors, and he has taken full advantage of the benefits that come along with it. Chief among those perks is the seemingly endless line of talented actors waiting to work with him.

In Sicario, we see Villeneuve with his best cast yet. Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro play a one-two punch of mysterious government agents who recruit Emily Blunt, an FBI agent who is perpetually out of loop, to take down a Mexican Drug cartel. As Blunt’s character slips into the depths of this underworld, she takes us with her.

This underworld is brought to life by one man- Roger Deakins. The film never really gives us a ‘big bad’- there is no literal face of evil in this film- but presence of evil, and feeling of dread that permeates the film is provided the cinematographer. This might just be the best work Deakins has ever done. Amid the chaos and the intensity of Vileneuve’s film, Deakins finds new ways to use the camera.

If any other crew set out to make this film, it’s seemingly impossible that it would be anywhere near as good as Sicario. Villeneuve and company have created a film that is better than it has any right to be. Not only has the material been elevated, it’s been sent into the stratosphere.

In the summer of 2014 I saw Magic in the Moonlight, and I overlooked it as simply being a lesser film by an overrated director.  At the time I had seen less ten films by that director and I had convinced myself that the rest of his work wasn’t worth my time.  

One year on, and I have seen all 46 films that the great Woody Allen has directed, and I count him among my favorite filmmakers.  It’s incredible the change that a year can bring.  

Irrational Man, a film released almost forty years after Allen won the Oscar for Best Director, is just as interesting and well crafted as the greatest films of the auteur’s oeuvre.  However, the goal when viewing a new film by a lauded artist should not be to compare the new work against the high points of the man’s 50 year career.  So, the negative reaction that has met this film since its premiere at Cannes comes not from the faults of the film itself, but from an audience hoping to see another Annie Hall or Midnight in Paris.

I happen to believe that a “bad” Woody Allen film would be a scientific anomaly of catastrophic proportions;  the man doesn’t make bad films, and his latest is no exception.  Irrational Man serves as the Allen debut of Joaquin Phoenix, and his work here is absolutely incredible.  Rather than imitating Allen in his performance, Phoenix subverts the typical leading man that Woody typically writes, turning philosophy professor Abe Lucas into a masculine, sometimes brooding figure.  

Lucas is an anti-hero of the highest order, who shares as much in common with other of Allen’s leads as he does with some of Alfred Hitchcock’s most notorious villains.  While many critics have pointed to films like Match Point and Cassandra’s Dream as proof that Allen has nothing new to add with his 46th film, it is in his exploration of similar themes that the director not only finds his greatest successes, but truly flourishes as an artist and adds new dimensions to his already accomplished career.  Every facet of this film in fact, seems indicative of the ever-changing work of an artist at the height of his powers.  Even with the score, which moves away from the big band sounds of Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw to the cool jazz of Ramsey Lewis is indicative of the way that Woody continues to break new ground.

In December 2015 Woody Allen will turn 80 years old, but rather than riding off into the sunset, Allen himself claims he will “die in the saddle”, content to make films until he simply no longer can.  It would be a shame if that death came any time soon;  this man has quite a lot left to teach us.  

Irrational Man (2015)

The Best Films of 2015 (so far)

1. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)

2. Inside Out (Pete Docter)

3. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)

4. Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joss Whedon)

Christopher Lee

Since the release of Iron Man in 2008, Marvel has given eleven overstuffed, action-packed superhero spectacles, and with a few notable exceptions, every one of those films has been pretty fantastic. Avengers: Age of Ultron is no exception.  Joss Whedon delivers the most overstuffed, action-packed superhero spectacle...ever.  

It’s far from perfect, and it never reaches the heights of Guardians of the Galaxy or the Captain America films, but as the sequel to one of the biggest films of all-time, it manages to feel different and in some ways, better than its predecessor-no small feat.  

Every single film in this never-ending franchise is the extension past stories and the set-up for future films.  Of course, more than any film we’ve seen so far, this Avengers sequel is exactly that.  We see the direct effects of the first Avengers film, and of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and we are being fed clues and hints about Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther and Infinity Wars.  With all the teasers and easter eggs that he had to fit in, perhaps the fact that Age of Ultron manages to feel like an actual film is Joss Whedon’s biggest accomplishment.  

In between the doomsday mayhem, we actually get to see the characters doing things other than fighting.  Seeing Thor at a party, Iron Man in an isolated cabin and even a bit of romance between some of the principle characters is not only refreshing, but it gives the film its heart.  Theres more character development here than I would have imagined possible.  Black Widow, Bruce Banner and even Hawkeye, the series’ red headed stepchild, are given some of the best character moments of the entire series.  

Avengers: Age of Ultron is exactly what it should be.  No one is really going to be surprised by this film- what you see is what you get.  But Whedon and co. are in top form, and even though I knew exactly what I was getting into, as a fanboy and cinephile, I had more fun than I could have possibly imagined.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

A popular novel about quirky teens and the inevitable tragedy that is staring them in the face being adapted for the screen is nothing new.  In fact it’s something we get in cinemas almost every other month.  The quirk of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was the aspect that had me worried going in, but also the one that kept the film feeling so fresh.

Greg is a high school senior who would rather watch and recreate what he call ‘Classic Foreign Cinema’ than allow anyone to call themselves his friend.  He’s a passive protagonist who eventually comes of age, and probably the most boring character in the film.  The whole film is full of exceedingly interesting characters who Greg interacts with along the way.  Greg’s father, played by Nick Offerman pops up repeatedly to offer film recommendations and increasingly bizarre Asian snack foods provides the film with much needed levity amid the often heavy themes.  

The real emotional center of the film is Olivia Cooke’s Rachel, the titular dying girl.  Cooke plays the necessary roles of annoyed teen and sad cancer girl perfectly, but she really surpasses what the film requires of her so much to the point that I didn't mind when the camera held on her for five minute at a time.  Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon offers a perfect touch to elevate this film above its source material.  With a keen eye that makes suburban Pittsburgh look and feel like some sort of hipster heaven.  

Aside from the key performances and skilled direction that do service to a pretty great script, two elements really make this film special.  First, the performances of RJ Cyler as Earl.  This is the first performance by the actor, and his screen presence blows every member of this talented cast away.  He is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking and I believe this film would be a complete dud without him. 

The second, is the cinephilia and the recreated films that pop up throughout Me and Earl and the Dying Girl are handled in a way that never feels slight or cheesy.  Seeing parodies like ‘Vere’d He Go?’, ‘The Rad Shoes’, ‘2:48 p.m. Cowboy’ and ‘Sockwork Orange’ in between the drama that Greg becomes involved in, are the best part of the film.  It never feels manufactured like similar elements have in Garden State or (500) Days of Summer.  

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl will inevitably be a hit when it is released in cinemas this summer, and perhaps more than any of the films of its ilk that we’ve seen in the last few years, it will deserve its place among the classics of its genre.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)

Once Alex Garland’s directorial debut had me in its grasp, I knew I was experiencing something extraordinary. Ex Machina is that special film that sneaks up on you.  I went in almost completely blind.  All I knew was that Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson shared billing in two 2015 Sci-Fi films and this was the first.

This film doesn't impose itself upon the viewer.  Rather, Ex Machina seems to be content as exactly what it is- a subtly brilliant and exceedingly enjoyable Science Fiction film that lives more in the category of science than it does the world of fiction.  Of course ‘Blue Book’ and AVA aren’t real, but it’s not hard to believe that they exist.  This is due of course, to the existence of golf and the fact that everything that Oscar Isaac’s Nathan tells us seems like real science.  In fact, a lot of it is.

In a film with only three characters, it’s unsurprising that one of its biggest strengths is the performances of the lead actors.  As the audience’s surrogate, Gleeson is much better than he has any right to be.  In what will almost certainly be known as her breakout role, Alicia Vikander plays the robot lead with a duality that would make good material for an actual Turing test.  However, it’s the performance of Oscar Isaac as the CEO of the biggest internet empire in the world, that propels this film to the next level.  Isaac’s Nathan is like Mark Zuckerberg on steroids- he’s brilliant and twisted, but hilarious and emotional in unexpected ways.  

Ex Machina is a film that is instantly destined to become a classic.  It’s a phenomenal film that puts Garland on the map as a director to watch.  Certainly it’s a film with a few flaws, but they are few and far between.  The film manages to blend sci-fi, horror and film noir tropes to create something wholly unique.  2015 has more high-profile releases than just about any year in history, and we’re incredibly lucky to see one of the best films of the year so early on.