January 2016 – Page 12 – Through the Shattered Lens (2024)

Well, the time has arrived! It’s time for the list that you’ve all been waiting for! Here are my top 30 films of 2015!

Now, as some of you may know, I am currently in the process of playing catch up as far as all of my reviews are concerned. Sadly, I haven’t posted a review for every film listed below. However, as I continue to post reviews tonight and tomorrow, I will be sure to add links to this list!

Finally, I have only considered and listed 2015 films that I have actually seen. Unfortunately, Anomalisa has not opened in my part of the world yet and neither has Son of Saul. So, I could not consider either one of them for the list below. However, I have seen every other “prestige” picture to have been released over the past few weeks. So, if you look at this list below and wonder if I actually saw Spotlight, The Hateful Eight, and The Big Short, rest assured that I did. And none of them made my list.

With all that in mind, here are my picks for the 30 best films of 2015!

1. Carol
2. Brooklyn
3. Inside Out
4. Mad Max Fury Road
5. Ex Machina
6. Room
7. Clouds of Sils Maria
8. Sicario
9. Straight Outta Compton
10. The Final Girls
11. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
12. Beasts of No Nation
13. 88
15. The Tribe
16. The End of the Tour
17. Furious Seven
18. The Walk
19. Crimson Peak
20. Unfriended
21. Trainwreck
22. The Revenant
23. Creed
24. Shaun the Sheep
25. The Gift
26. The Stanford Prison Experiment
27. A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflection On Existence
28. Spring
29. Maggie
30. The Green Inferno

You can check out my picks for previous years by clicking on 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014!

Agree? Disagree? Have a list of your own? Let us know in the comments!

Previous Entries In The Best of 2015:

1. Valerie Troutman’s 25 Best, Worst, and Gems I Saw in 2015
2. Necromoonyeti’s Top 15 Metal Albums of 2015
3. 2015 In Review: The Best of SyFy
4. 2015 in Review: The Best of Lifetime
5. 2015 In Review: Lisa’s Picks For The 16 Worst Films of 2015
6. 2015 in Review: Lisa Marie’s 10 Favorite Songs of 2015
7. 2015 in Review: 16 Good Things Lisa Saw On TV
8. 2015 in Review: Lisa’s 10 Favorite Non-Fiction Books of 2015
9. 2015 in Review: Lisa’s 20 Favorite Novels of 2015
10. TFG’s Top Ten Comic Series of 2015

Before I continue to catch up with reviewing the films of 2015 by taking a look at The Revenant, I want to ask a question and I request that you give this some serious thought. Is Jeff Wells just a troll or is he seriously a moron? Or maybe he’s both, that’s another possibility. For those of you who stay out of the darker parts of the internet, Jeff Wells is a film blogger who thinks that, because he voted for Obama, he’s earned the right to regularly use his column to disparage women. (Wells is the one who publicly complained that the lead of Diary of a Teenage Girl wasn’t, in his eyes, fuckable enough to be a compelling 15 year-old protagonist.) Jeff Wells tweeted the following about The Revenant:

And Jeff Wells hasn’t been alone in claiming that only men can truly appreciate The Revenant. On Overland,Alexandra Heller-Nicholas has an excellent post about this line of male critical thought. Now, speaking for myself, I liked The Revenant a lot more than Heller-Nicholas apparently did. But, at the same time, she hits the nail on the head when it comes to this idea that The Revenant is a film so intense and so full of agony that only men could possibly enjoy it. Much like her, I felt as if “critics” like Jeff Wells and Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers were personally challenging me, as a woman, to actually sit through The Revenant without running from the theater in disgust or hiding my eyes in terror.

And, quite frankly, that’s bullshit. Yes, The Revenant is intense and yes, I did have a bit of a hard time watching that bear maul Leonardo DiCaprio but, at the same time, how would Jeff Wells or Peter Travers handle being mauled by a bear? For that matter, how would either one of them handle being in a high-speed chase or being shot at? Would either one of them be able to outrun an explosion or do any of the other stuff that regularly happens in films that supposedly only appeal to men?

(For that matter, how would Jeff Wells or Peter Travers handle monthly menstrual cramps or giving birth or anything else that women have to deal with in the real world? I imagine they’d probably end up begging the bear to finish them off.)

And really, the whole point of The Revenant is that most human beings (regardless of gender) would not have survived being mauled by a bear or being buried alive or spending months exposed to the harsh wilderness or having pieces of their body start to decay. These are all things that happen to hunter Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) over the course of The Revenantand the film suggests that the only reason he survives is because he’s driven by a desire for revenge. When Glass’s fellow hunter, the gruff Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), decided to abandon Glass, he also murdered Glass’s son, Hawk. Still immobilized by his wounds, Glass could only watch as Hawk was brutally killed.

(Interestingly enough, Fitzgerald is like Glass in that he has also survived a terrible injury. Fitzgerald regularly wears a skullcap to hide the fact that he was scalped in the past. In many ways, Fitzgerald is almost a shadow of Glass. Glass has his son to remind him of what it means to be human but Fitzgerald has no one. And after Hawk is murdered, neither does Glass.)

Though the film focused on Glass’s struggle to survive until he could again track down the men who abandoned him, I have to admit that my main concern was with the character of Jim Bridger (Will Poulter). Bridger, after all, agreed to stay behind with Glass and Fitzgerald and to make sure that Glass received a proper burial after succumbing to his wounds. Bridger was not present when Fitzgeralnd killed Hawk and buried Glass alive and expressed remorse after being falsely told that Glass was dead. Still, The Revenant is a revenge flick and, as I watched, I found myself wondering if Glass would forgive Bridger or if he would take vengeance even on someone who was merely misguided. (If you’ve ever seen a 70s revenge flick, you know that even sincere remorse is usually not enough to avoid being punished.) Since the film continually asks whether or not Glass can survive without sacrificing his humanity, how he handles Bridger is one of the most important scenes in the film.

The Revenantopens with an absolutely terrifying sequence in which a group of hunters is slaughtered by a Native American tribe and it maintains that intensity through the entire film. DiCaprio, Hardy, and Poulter all give excellent performances and special mention should also be made of Domhnall Gleeson, who plays the upright but ineffectual leader of the hunting party and for whom 2015 was a helluva year. (Along with appearing in The Revenant, Gleeson also appeared in Brooklyn, Ex Machina, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.) It’s not always an easy film to watch (though, for me, the close-up of a wound oozing puss was a lot more unsettling than that bear mauling Glass) and there’s a few scenes where director Alejandro Inarritu gives in to his more pretentious tendencies but, for the most part, The Revenant is never less than watchable.

The Revenant is currently an Oscar front-runner. Last night, it beat the highly hyped Spotlight at the Golden Globes. Personally, as good as the film is, I think there are a lot of films that deserve a best picture nomination more than The Revenant. It’s been a great year for film, after all. That said, I do think The Revenant is definitely an improvement on Inarritu’s previous Oscar winner, Birdman.

The Revenant is an intense and harrowing film that can be seen and appreciated (or, for that matter, disliked) by anyone. Don’t let anyone tell you differently!

The daughter of a rabbi and the sister of a film director, Ruth Harriet Louise was only 22 years old when MGM hired her to run their portrait studio. She was the first and, at the time, only woman to work as a portrait photographer for a Hollywood studio. Louise took over 100,000 pictures over the course of her five-year career. Before retiring to get married, Louise took pictures of every major star and contract player to work at MGM.

Last night, when I heard that David Bowie had died, I immediately flashed back to the summer of 2003. I spent that summer hanging out with my friend Jay. I was an aspiring writer and he was the musician who got all the girls. Jay was also a David Bowie fanatic whose cover of The Man Who Sold The World was at least as good as Nirvana’s. When I think about that summer, I remember the all-night bull sessions, smoking in Jay’s backyard, watching reruns of Hawaii 5-0 and agreeing that McGarrett was one cool dude, and the weekly poker games where I always seemed to lose. But mostly, I remember David Bowie providing the greatest soundtrack anyone could want.

Over his 50 year career, David Bowie reinvented himself many times. When he released his first single in 1964, he did so under his real name. He was 17 years old when Davie Jones and the Queen Bees released Liza Jane.

By the time he released Space Oddity in 1969, Davie Jones had become David Bowie. Space Oddity would introduce the world to Major Tom, a character to whom Bowie would return in the future.

1970’s The Man Who Sold The World is often erroneously believed to be a retelling of Robert Heinlein’s novella, The Man Who Sold The Moon. In 1997, Bowie himself said that the song was about being young and feeling incomplete.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Bd3iJSFyE

Life on Mars? was once described by BBC Radio 2 as being “a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dali painting.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v–IqqusnNQ

1975’s Golden Years, with its chorus of “run for the shadows,”is one of my personal favorites.

In 1977, David Bowie appeared on the final Bing Crosby Christmas Special. He and Bing performedPeace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy. At the time, Bing was quoted as saying about Bowie: “clean-cut kid and a real fine asset to the show. He sings well, has a great voice and reads lines well.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADbJLo4x-tk

In 1980, Major Tom returned in Ashes to Ashes.

Rather than grow stagnant as an artist, David Bowie was always reinventing himself. In 1997, he proved he was still a force to be reckoned with when he released I’m Afraid of Americans.

In November, David Bowie released Blackstar. In the song’s video, Major Tom made his final appearance.

Lazarus was the last single that David Bowie released during his lifetime. The video was released three days before he died and feels like it was his way of saying goodbye.

Rest in peace, good sir. And thank you for the music and the memories.

Coming to Hulu on February 15th, 2016!

David Bowie has passed away and the world is much less brighter with his passing.

While I’ve been a fan of most of David Bowie’s music, I consider myself more of a fan of his rare appearances playing other characters in other people’s films. Whether it was as the alien Thomas Jerome Newton in The Man Who Fell to Earth, to John in The Hunger and right up to his role as Jareth, King of the Goblins in the fantasy film Labyrinth, Bowie has always made himself such a presence whenever he was on the screen.

One of my favorite roles he played recently was in the 2006 film The Prestige by Christopher Nolan. In it he played the role of the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla who gains as a patron Hugh Jackman’s magician, Robert Angier. Not as showy a role as some of the others mentioned above, but Bowie easily conveys not just tired and beaten down Tesla who by this point has been hounded by Edison for years, but also understanding that his own genius has led him to obsessing over what his intellect has come up with.

Even as he battled cancer these past 18 months before losing his fight, David Bowie continued to do what he loved. Releasing a new album this month and now he lives on in his music and up on the silver screen.

“Commencing countdown, engines on…Check ignition and may God’s love be with you.”

RIP, DAVID BOWIE

Earlier today, I finally got to see Spotlight, the film that is currently the front-runner to win the Oscar for best picture. Spotlight tells the story of how the Spotlight team, a group of journalists working for the Boston Globe, investigated the shameful history of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Boston. Starting with charges against one priest, the Spotlight team eventually uncovered sexual abuse by at least 70 priests and also revealed that the revered Cardinal Law was involved in covering up the crimes.

Having now seen Spotlight, I can say it’s a good film. It’s well-made. It’s well-acted. The script contains some memorable lines. I’ve talked to a few friends of mine who have actually worked as journalists and they have all assured me that Spotlight gets the details of their profession correct and that it’s pretty much an authentic look at what it’s like to be a reporter at a major newspaper. There’s a lot of good things that can be said about Spotlight.

And yet, I’m not particularly enthusiastic about it. I think my main issue with the film is that it’s just such an old-fashioned and rather conventional film. It’s a throw back of sorts, an earnest exploration of a real-life outrage. (Even the fact that the heroes are journalists makes the film feel as if it was made a decade or two in the past.) On the one hand, you have to respect that director Tom McCarthy had the guts to tell his story in the least flashy way possible. But, occasionally, his by-the-book approach is not as compelling as you want or need it to be. Spotlight is a good film but it’s not a particularly challenging film and it’s the films that challenge us that truly stay with us after the final credits conclude.

Yes, it’s a good film but some are declaring that Spotlight is the best film of the year and I’m afraid that I just don’t see it. There are a lot of 2015 films that will probably still be fondly remembered 5 years from now: Ex Machina, Mad Max: Fury Road, Inside Out,Sicario, and others. When compared to those films, Spotlight feels more like an admirable made-for-TV movie. It feels more like something that should sweep the Emmys than the Oscars.

That said, Spotlight does feature some excellent performances. In fact, the entire cast does such a good job that it’s difficult to really single anyone out. They come together as a nearly perfect ensemble. (That said, I’m a bit torn on whether Mark Ruffalo came across as being passionate or merely mannered.) Michael Keaton, especially, does a good job, embodying everyone’s ideal image of a journalist with integrity.

Spotlight‘s a good film but my favorite Tom McCarthy movie remains Win Win.

It’s a little bit disheartening, to be honest, to see the lack of attention that has been given to Clouds of Sils Maria. Kristen Stewart has picked up a lot of awards for her supporting performance and she might even get an Oscar nomination on Thursday but otherwise, the film has been ignored and that’s a shame. Last year, it was one of the best films to be released here in the States.

Of course, it’s difficult to talk about Clouds of Sils Maria without also talking about Maps To The Stars. After all, both films premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and both of them deal with an aging actress struggling to remain relevant in an industry that prizes youth above all else. The main difference between the two is that Clouds of Sils Maria is a great movie while Maps To The Stars is a pretentious mess. And yet, when initially released, Maps To The Stars was the more critically acclaimed of the two films.

Why was that?

I imagine it has something to do with the fact that Clouds of Sils Maria demands a certain amount of intelligence on the part of the audience. Whereas there’s neither a subtle moment nor an unexpected detail to be found in Maps To The Stars, Clouds of Sils Maria rewards repeat viewing. Clouds of Sils Maria invites the audience to ponder its mysteries and it does so without spelling anything out. Clouds of Sils Maria is all about nuance and, as such, it’s not exactly the ideal film for critics who make their living off of clickbait.

As for what the film is about, it tells the story of Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche), a world-famous stage and screen actress. 20 years ago, Maria became a star when she appeared in both the theatrical and the film versions of Maloja Snake. Maria played the role of Sigrid, a callous young woman who seduces a middle-aged, bourgeois woman named Helena. When Sigrid eventually abandons Helena, the older woman is driven to suicide. Though she is now closer in age to Helena, Maria continues to think of herself as being Sigrid.

When the writer of Maloja Snake dies, Maria is offered a chance to appear in a new stage production. However, this time, she will be playing Helena and a young American actress named J0-Ann Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz) will play Sigrid. (Jo-Ann is better known for her scandalous private life than her acting. Moretz appears to have a lot of fun playing the Lindsay Lohanesque Jo-Ann.) At first, Maria does not want to play Helena. She dismisses the role as being boring and says that she cannot see herself playing such a “normal” character. (As well, Maria is haunted by the memory of the death of the actress who originally played Helena opposite Mara’s Sigrid.) Even after Maria is finally convinced to take on the role, she continues to insist that she’s not right for it. As quickly becomes apparent, it’s not so much the role that upsets Maria but what the role represents. By playing Helena, Maria will be admitting that she is no longer the invulnerable Sigrid.

In order to rehearse, Maria retreats to a remote cabin in the Alps. Accompanying her is Valentine (Kristen Stewart), her assistant. At first, it seems that Val and Maria have an almost sisterly relationship but it quickly becomes obvious thatthe out-of-touch Maria is largely dependent on Val for any information about the outside world. (Maria has to be constantly reminded that she can google any information she needs.) Despite needing her, Maria occasionally talks down to Val (especially after learning that Val thinks Jo-Ann is a good actress and that Val likes a sci-fi film that Jo-Ann has appeared in) and Val occasionally seems to be annoyed with Maria’s neediness.

In the Alps, Maria continues to try to learn Helena’s role and, as the weeks pass, her line readings go from awkward to natural. Reading opposite her, in the role of Sigrid, is Val and, often times, it’s difficult to distinguish between the play and reality. How much of Val and Maria’s relationship is real and how much of it is just a rehearsal?

Clouds of Sils Maria is a visually stunning film, one of that is fully mystery and beautiful images. Even more importantly, it’s a film that features three strong roles for three talented actresses, all of whom do some of their best work. Clouds of Sils Maria did not get the attention that it deserved when it was first released but it’s never too late to discover a good movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L-9rcEhGm4