We’re a few weeks into 2016 so I decided to bite the bullet and make my top ten list for 2015. The benefit of doing this sort of thing officially uncredentialed is no one is making me do it before the end of 2015. The downside is I don’t get screeners sent to me and I have a full-time job that has nothing to do with movies. So needless to say there are some notable 2015 releases I was unable to catch up with before making my list. The ones I most regret being Carol, Mustang, Chi-Raq The Revenant, White God, Anomalisa, and Phoenix. I could probably include several more, but this wouldn’t serve any of us well. You came here for a list, and what a difficult list it was to make.

2015 was remarkable year for cinema. Not only in terms of quality, but also the diversity of themes and subjects. The two through-lines I most noticed popping up this year though were gender and procedure. So many of the best films of 2015 did a remarkable job of representing not just feminism and women, but gender and related issues as a whole. Which is never not wonderful. It was also a great year for watching professional people sitting around doing professional shit. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me because I love this kind of thing. My wheel-house is large and diverse, but well-executed procedural dramas are among my favorite kinds of movies. So yeah, 2015 was my jam movie-wise. Okay, enough dicking around. Let’s arbitrarily rank some art.

Honorable mentions: Tangerine, Inside Out, Beasts of No Nation, The Big Short, Bridge of Spies

THE TOP TEN FILMS OF 2015:

10. The Wolfpack

I don’t get around to documentaries as often as I should. That’s a failing on my part. But dammit, am I glad I made time for this one. Director Crystal Moselle follows the lives of the isolated Angulo Brothers who have primarily experienced the outside world through movies, and in turn film shot-for-shot reenactments of their favorites. It’s not without problems. The issues that most often get raised are the lack of questions the film asks of its subjects and the morally fuzziness of the access to said subjects. Those criticisms are well-founded, but that doesn’t stop this from being a powerful portrait of a troubled family that reminds us of films power to free our imaginations and shape our lives.

9. The Martian

I don’t care how hard The Hollywood Foreign Press Association lies, this is not a comedy. It is however a witty and exciting return to form for Ridley Scott whose been having a less than great couple of years. Remember earlier when I was talking about procedural dramas? Yeah this is one of them. It’s full of great characters (well archetypes is probably more accurate) throwing around jargon and trying to figure out how to save Matt Damon. Speaking of, Damon is on fire in this. Just as charming and delightful as he could possibly be. The Martian is a fun and thrilling celebration of science, human ingenuity, compassion, and cooperation. In a year full of real life human misery, this inspirational fair came at a perfect time and acts as a reminder of the good our species is capable of accomplishing.

8. Spotlight

Speaking of procedural dramas and human pain. A showcase of nuanced and understated performances, every single performer in Spotlight is operating at the very top of their game. A timely and timeless reminder of the importance of objective journalism, Tom McCarthy’s film shouts from a rooftop at the audience demanding we never forget what happens when good people stand by and do nothing.

7. Slow West

Lyrical and visually striking, John Maclean’s first feature film acts as a sort of thematic follow-up to Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven by examining the the violence and brutality of the American Old West. Featuring fantastic performances led by the always amazing Michael Fassbender, this revisionist western gives us what might be the most beautifully shot depiction of New Zealand not involving elves and orcs.

6. It Follows

Unless you’re a boring person who can’t handle some potentially inconsistent rules, It Follows is a genuine treat of a horror film. The central premise of a sexually transmitted haunting could’ve been a little on the nose, but writer/director David Robert Mitchell plays things so smart that it never feels like too much. Quite frankly, it’s remarkable that no one had thought of it before. I’ll freely admit that the score probably bumped this one from number eleven all the way to number six. No regrets.

5. Brooklyn

I’ll be honest, I had zero interest in Brooklyn when I first heard about. I have nothing against period pieces, love stories, or coming of age dramas in general (in fact I frequently like all three of those things, both separately and squished together) but this one just sounded a little too cutesy for my taste. Man am I glad I was wrong. This story of an Irish immigrant in New York doesn’t break any new ground, but every bit of it is so god damned pleasant I defy you to not be charmed and moved. If you aren’t already on the Saoirse Ronan train, then this will be the one to change your mind.

4. Creed

Listen to Dalton’s full review on Back to the Movies

Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan cannot be stopped. I’m rooting for them to be the new Scorsese and DeNiro. Creed covers so much ground and does it all with remarkable grace. Explorations of personal and familial legacy, fathers and sons, race, love. It’s all here. Not to mention great fight choreography and subtle stylistic flourishes. This was never going to be able to exist outside the shadow of the six Rocky films that preceded it, but Creed doesn’t just manage to work within that shadow, it thrives and inspires.

3. Ex Machina

Alex Garland has already given us so many great sci-fi screenplays, it was about damn time he got to direct one of his own. There aren’t many ideas here that haven’t previously been explored elsewhere, but the depth and attention paid to them here are remarkable. A different filmmaker may have focused on the macro aspects of AI, and that would’ve been fine, but Garland takes things in close to the ground for a three person chamber piece (featuring two truly stunning performances) that always feels true to human behavior. That right there is the film Turing Test. Do the human characters in your abstract sci-fi concept feel emotionally honest? No? Maybe you should’ve given it to Alex Garland.

2. Mad Max: Fury Road

Listen to Dalton’s full review and analysis on The GoodTrash Genrecast

On the podcast Filmspotting, hosts Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen coined the term “zen chaos” to describe the action of the Fast and Furious franchise. They applied it again when discussing George Miller’s magnum opus Mad Max: Fury Road. Yeah, that about covers it. Every frame of this is film is sumptuously orchestrated and photographed. I mean seriously, when was the last time you saw a no-holds-bared, balls-to-the-wall (or maybe in this case ovaries-to-the-wall) action movie that was this pretty? You can’t remember can you? I knew it! I won’t reiterate all the praise you’ve already heard about the world building, characterization, representation of women, etc. It’s all correct and part of why it’s one of the best film of 2015. What you need to know, as I do beyond a shadow of a doubt, is this is one of the best action films ever made. Witness it.

1. Sicario

So yeah. As previously stated I have a specific type of film I love. I want to see professionals stand around and talk shop. I like it even more when it’s certified bad asses doing the talking. Sicario simultaneously gives you that kind of taut, procedural action-thriller while subverting so much of what is expected from that sort of thing. Tough talk and gun-play never lead to a clean resolution, and a room full of set in their ways men will never be able to do anything but support the status quo that gives them power. Forget Hannibal, this is the follow-up that The Silence of the Lambs deserved. All that plus career bests from Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro. What more do you want? Sicario features more than one sequence that was so stressful I was in physical pain and I love that kind of thing. Is this the best movie of the year? Maybe not. Is it the one that most stuck with me? No doubt. So yeah, I made a movie I feel hasn’t been championed enough my number one. It’s my list, deal with it. Top tens are personal and in no way objective not matter what anyone tell you.