Best of 2015

If anyone is interested...

Top 10 movies

1. Ex Machina
2. Mad Max: Fury Road
3. Creed
4. Mission: Impossible 5
5. The End of the Tour
6. Spy
7. Dope
8. The Lobster 
9. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
10. She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry

Honorable mentions

1. Mommy
2. Siccario: This was one of the tensest films I've seen in a long time. Great performances, great direction and some terrific set pieces. 
3. Going Clear
4. Women He's Undressed/Peggy Guggenheim - Art Addict

Most overrated films of the year
Can't really think of movies I actively disliked. There were a few at the film festival, but I think it was more a case of taste than quality. Instead, here are the movies I think are getting too much praise. 

1. Me, Earl and the Dying Girl: I hated this movie. Hated, hated hated it. My review does not do my feelings justice.
2. The Revenant: Too long to maintain interest, too wrapped up in its technical brilliance to resonate on a visceral level, what could have been a pure, unpretentious survival tale turns into a beautiful but cold, lifeless film.
3. Kingman: The Secret Service

Best non-2015 release 

Here's the best of the older movies I saw for the first time last year.

1. Eyes Without A Face
2. A Prophet: This would make a great double bill with Cell 211. The epic tale of a small time offender and his rise through the ranks of the Corsican mafia, this is a truly great gangster movie. The razor blade scene is an instant classic.
3. '71 
4. Warrior: Took me years to finally watch this now classic sports flick. I wish I got to see it on the big screen. Great performances from the leads, but this is Gavin O'Connor's movie. There are so many beats and twists to this story which could have come off hackneyed, yet the co-writer director manages to underplay them to such a perfect pitch that it all feels real and believable. A genuine crowd pleaser which earns the audience's cheers.
5. Cell 211
6. Young and Beautiful