TOP 10 Hollywood movies of 2015
I've been a movie geek for a while now and in my opinion 2015 was by far the best year for Hollywood movies that I've experienced. Here's my top 10.
10. Sicario
I can't really talk about this movie without spoiling it so don't read this one if you care about that. This is an incredibly dark, haunting story which although not based on a true story is definitely based on the reality of communities fucked up by the incredibly dangerous illegal drug trades. It follows the story of Emily Blunt playing an FBI agent who laments how little headway her unit makes in trying to improve conditions in suburban U.S. communities and is recruited to an elite FBI allied group with 2 other people. She is trying to do the right thing when everyone around her is corrupt. One of the most memorable scenes is she goes to the bar and hooks up with her partner and best friend's best friend and even HE turns out to be working for one of her enemies and he tries to kill her. Seeing how these characters decide to react to the world they realize they're living in is a fascinating experience, though far from something any of them or us can feel good about.
9. Ant-Man
Marvel will probably look back at 2015 for giving us The Avengers: Age of Ultron. But lets be honest, what would The Avengers be without Robert Downey Jr. cracking a witty joke every 30 seconds and just being generally the coolest superhero Marvel has ever produced? Nothing. But he's been outdone. Paul Rudd is just funnier, wittier and cooler than he ever was. Besides, while Ant-Man was working for Baskin Robbins, he gave us a scene which more perfectly encapsulates what working for Regal is like than anything I've ever seen as linked below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugwrUXXQ8go8. Ex Machina
I think there were two movies which came out this year that I considered for this spot which were perfect examples of movies which focus on clever plot twists key to any great mystery movie. One was The Hateful Eight which was just decent and one was Ex Machina which was just brilliant. While The Hateful Eight used clever plot twists to enhance the experience of a comedic western, Ex Machina had mind blowing enough reveals as to stand on their own right. The premise is a man has created the first artificially intelligent robot and invited one man to the middle of the woods to witness his creation. What ensues is a philosophical examination on what this robot is and a psychological thriller game of cat and mouse when they have a difference of opinion on what should be done about it, both being captivating for their own reasons. While you could compare it to other movies about artificial intelligence, I think it's more comparable to movies like The Usual Suspects and Memento with its incredible unpredictability.
7. Mad Max: Fury Road
Best action movie of 2015. This movie aims to be as badass as any movie you've ever seen from the first second of Max eating a lizard to the last showing the large euphoric victory cheer of the city towards its leader. It can't be overstated how the action stunts which are mostly done without the use of CGI give the gigantic battles a much more realistic epic feeling. And it also can't be overstated how much Charlize Theron steals this movie despite its name. This movie is so fucking awesome its army has a guy standing on a tank playing guitar while flames shoot out on both sides of him.
6. Straight Outta Compton
I can't really talk about this movie without spoiling it so don't read this one if you care about that. This movie is the true story of the rap collective NWA. Is making music a courageous act? When you're a poor black kid in the slums and your mother desperately wants you to make ends meet whether that means being a janitor or anything but making music? Maybe. When the only financial support you can get has been by playing anything but rap music and that's what you play? Maybe. When you have music executives that regardless of trying one after the other show themselves to only have your worst interest at heart? maybe. When you have lyrics that are culturally necessary yet so opposed to the government's status quo that you are threatened by the FBI with being arrested if they perform? Definitely.
5. It Follows
This is one of the best horror movies of all time period. The fact it is not even higher on this list feels almost like a travesty against myself as a proclaimed lover of horror, but I think that's just how good movies were this year. Nothing against movies that rely on well timed jump scares or gore, but this completely left out that aspect. It was intelligently made, leaves you pondering the meaning of it all without at all feeling ripped off and is truly horrifically unsettling. It literally had me horrified for days after I had seen it. But I want to stress all the praise I've just given it is nothing compared to what I really want to say about it, I really think the soundtrack is the best horror soundtrack ever made surprisingly incorporating lots of 80's style synthesizer which works brilliantly. Try using high quality audio if you watch it.
4. Spotlight
By far the darkest, most depressing movie I saw this year. This movie is the true story of the Boston Globe during 2001-2002 as they investigate a conspiracy of some Pedophile clergy in the Boston Catholic Church. I don't think it is spoiling anything to say what is most depressing is how many people were affected by these horrendous acts, how many people they can't save and how many times they are absolutely forced to not even to do what little they can and write about what they know. These people treat their jobs as seriously as you can possibly imagine and really do their best to be as good of real life superheroes as any average person can aspire to be or at least do as much good through their writing for The Boston Globe as anyone could hope someone would do in a world filled with corruption. Throughout, we are given incredible acting with people having extreme emotional struggles with how to weave their way through this incredibly difficult situation facing tons of challenges I would never have thought of. The most memorable scene, aside from the final one, is Mark Ruffalo's (The Hulk) character after having his optimistic approaches rejected several times has an emotional outbreak after being unable to do what he wants to do yet again. He screams and cries like a 2 year old and you see how much he cares about what he's doing and how devastated he gets when helping people is not the right thing to do.
3. Bridge of Spies
When I was talking about this movie with one of the customers in box office, he said "Hanks and Spielberg, what else do you need to know?". Well, he's not wrong in the fact that that alone should be enough to convince anyone to watch this movie, but in my opinion they take their directing and acting abilities to higher levels than I have ever seen. That's right, this is my number 1 favorite Steven Spielberg movie of all time. If you know anything about this movie you know it takes place at the height of cold war tensions and the trailer has Tom Hanks saying "Is there any outcome here where I'm not either detained or shot?". You could be forgiven for thinking this movie is deadly serious from start to finish, but you'd be wrong. What I think may not be rated highly enough about this movie is how hilarious its witty humor in the face of extreme circumstances really is. It has jokes all throughout and near the end when Tom Hanks screams "THEN I FUCKED US" it had me laughing harder than any joke this year. That said, it is a very serious movie and it is a dramatized version of real life events that actually happened. The premise is that Tom Hanks' character goes to the Soviet Union to try to negotiate the release of an american spy while a different Soviet entity captures an american student with both Americans facing the threat of death, neither entity very open to his proposed offer of one German spy which the Americans have and the decision of which entity to offer the one piece of collateral all while Tom Hanks' character faces the threat of being detained or shot and never seeing his wife and kids again if he makes one wrong move. I don't want to spoil anything, but I absolutely have to say that this is one of the most incredibly inspiring movies I have ever seen and in the final moments it is impossible not to not think maybe there really is nothing that is impossible.
2. Inside Out
Fucking Pixar man! Since 2009, we've known just how truly emotionally deep their animated stories can get and in 2015 they do the impossible and take it up to an even higher notch. The concept is what would it be like if the emotions in your head had control over everything you do and were personified into 5 separate beings. It really is as insanely experimental as it sounds, it's such a crazy idea that I would hardly expect any low budget art house film to have thought of it but they pull it off perfectly in one of the most original movies you will ever see in your life. This movie really is so original that it's incredibly hard to do any justice to how magnificent it is without spoiling anything, but I will do my best. What makes it so great is that it is more thought provoking and challenging intellectually than anything else that came out this year. This movie is the absolute definition of a psycho-analytical piece of art. It not only challenges our ideas of the way we think, but actually comes to its own ideas which are as brilliant and thoughtful as anything I've ever seen in a piece of art. Then there's the narrative itself which is Riley's, our main character, struggle to adapt to moving to a new house far away from her old friends. It is done in such a way as to just be one of the most beautiful stories of the absolute best aspects that normal everyday people can possess. It's also hilarious, beautifully animated and easily digestible for anyone of any age.
1. Chappie
This movie is about a robot named Chappie. It is a coming of age story with an epic adventure and the heartfelt emotional detail all throughout give it a magical experience for me. Above all, It is truly one of the most human stories I have ever seen. That is an ironic, but absolutely true statement and it makes me question whether it would even be possible with humans instead of robots. How would Hollywood moviegoers react to a movie of a young boy who in his adolescence is outcast by society because of his appearance so much that the first few people he meets greet him by throwing a Molotov cocktail at his back and berated by everyone as an individual more worthless than dirt, a being to be used and tossed aside with the morning trash? How would they react to him being totally betrayed from birth by the people who were supposed to love him most, to be used and lied to by them just like everyone else? This ambition this movie had for telling that story alone is impressive enough, but the epicness that unfolds through his struggle against the immense threat of death from literally everything and everyone is something to behold. And as if that wasn't enough, seeing him mature in front of our eyes and become a man overcoming his emphasized baser self with incredibly beautiful ideals is just amazing. It perfectly juxtaposes the growth of its characters with fighting against machines firing missiles that destroy buildings. This movie is full of symbolism without being the slightest bit pretentious. You'd expect Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Jackman to do a good job as always, but the acting from Dev Patel, the shockingly amazing acting from rap-rave group Die Antwoord who have a central role in this movie and Sharlto Copley as Chappie himself is amazing, the score by the legendary Hans Zimmer (The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Interstellar and about a gajillion other movies) is amazing and Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9, Elysium and now Chappie, has solidified himself as one of my favorite directors of all time with this being his Magnum opus.
