Hey there. I'm Andrej, author of Lost, but Homeward. Although I haven't been here often and frequently enough to consider myself known around these parts and all, I hope a handful of you recognize me this time around -- case you don't know, this is the third time I put one of these movie-loving posts, so it's become a personal tradition of mine to cap off a year by sharing with you my movie superlatives so we may have a conversation going. If this is your first time reading me here, that's great as well! Hope you also like my previous entries here and here.
I've been rather busy this month to the point I feel it's rather pointless to make a Top 10 of a certain year three months deep into the following, but since the MTV Movie Awards are incoming, I might as well join their celebrations and do this regardless. But how was 2015, in any case? Not great. I'll be very blunt about it: 2015 was the worst year in cinema for me, at least in the few years I've taken film-watching as a serious hobby. Great movies were rarer than ever, and the mediocre and the outright lousy were as abundant as smog in Beijing. I was never as desperate to catch a breath of fresh air as I was this time around.
But, you know. This is a best-of list, so where was greatness found? Like they said in The Big Short, we just have to look and things will show up very evidently, but this task required a little more specific digging. Greatness could be found in the horror genre, with stellar films like Ex Machina, Spring and, believe it or not, M. Night Shyamalan's The Visit. Dude's got his groove back. LGBT-themed films were also quite rich in of themselves: whether it was Carol or Tangerine or The Danish Girl or Dope or Legend or, as we'll see later in this list, two other films, a different species of love had a lot more going on this time around. A film I really liked that combined both genres very well was Xavier Dolan's super belated Tom at the Farm, which was quite close of being mentioned here.
All in all, I'd say this is one of the finest lists I've built despite everything else the year had to offer. But enough prologue. Let's get right in with our honorary mention.
11. The Club, directed by Pablo Larraín.
Spotlight might have stolen the, well, spotlight with its cool-headed, work-driven investigation on the crimes hidden away by the Catholic Church, but Larraín proved to me he could always be chillier and more precise than McCarthy's more humane routes. In the end, he produced a more interesting product with a diverse ensemble who's got a lot to hide, and every reveal they share is done with the painful exactitude of a syringe and the crushing power of a sledgehammer. Larraín's brand of cinema has pretty much been one of men being unashamedly themselves even if they're monsters with too many skeletons in their closet like in Tony Manero and Post-Mortem, or being themselves even if the reality they live conspires against it, as in No. In The Club, Larraín finds a haunting middle ground, with legitimate criminals and monsters taking advantage of a reality that'll forgive them because it's part of what it is. Won't spare a thought nor it won't mind any boundaries: everything here is as id-driven as possible can be -- no room for super-egos here. Not even considering the forgiveness of God. After all, what is the Church but an organization made by man, a flawed individual in of itself? Why wouldn't it carry all the natural faults it has?
10. In the Grayscale, directed by Claudio Marcone.
Another genre (or rather, kind of film) that had an amazing 2015 was the one we chileans make. Hey, it finally happened! We nabbed an Oscar! But I'm not here to talk about PunkRobot's accomplishment, but instead I'll discuss this other film that went under the radar around these parts. Although LGBT-themed movies were quite in vogue this time around, what happens with the undefinable, the one that's stuck in between? A gay, maybe bi-sexual, romance between two gents that perhaps is best served without having to add that "gay, maybe bi-sexual" bit there, since it's a universally tender, personality-driven affair that really gives the old cliché of "opposites attract" a sweet name, while also never venturing with the tired desire of a forbidden fruit. It simply allows friendship to bloom into romance and then into the who-knows. That said, confusion and introspection are in the air, yet the penning here deals with the murky issue with a warm firmness. Understanding, yet realistic with the consecuences. Francisco Celhay and Emilio Edwards star here with a sparky chemistry, but props must be given to the city of Santiago here: never our capital has looked this vibrant and alive as it was here. Infinite kudos must go to Marcone for making our Mapocho poop-river look this nostalgic and melancholic.
9. Spy, directed by Paul Feig.
Just cut the shit with the Ghostbusters hate, alright? Can't you just wait until it's out? Haven't you heard "don't judge anything by its cover"? Melissa McCarthy and Paul Feig are very much becoming a vital working duo in Hollywood like Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, and as we'll see later on, Sam L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino. They've always been great in the short time we've seen them together, and this time around they just managed to make their best film together. The best, most explosive laugh I've had at the theaters in quite some time -- and for that matter, the best secret ops film the year had to offer as well. Yes, in a year featuring James Bond, Ethan Hunt, the Kingsmen and Villeneuve at his finest with Sicario, a clumsy but earnest and wily Susan Cooper stood above them all. Friendly, sentimental, loud, raunchy and ever incremental, it's the type of films I'd just like to see a spin-off made out of every little aspect of it: McCarthy, Law, fucking Jason Statham, Miranda Hart, Allison Janney, Rose Byrne, Peter Serafinowicz, every one here is simply a golden riot. Wait and see, I tell you. Ghostbusters might be good.
8. Mad Max: Fury Road, directed by George Miller.
Oh, what a film, WHAT A LOVELY FILM!! 6 Oscars later, what else is there to say? What else can I add to this masterpiece of action cinema? To which god should we praise for the rest of our lives for allowing us this miracle? V8? The same one that allowed us to have Boyhood? I mean... yeah, this movie is another miracle just like that one. 30 years after the previous entry, same director, batshit intensity, no question asked. This sort of thing doesn't happen. Shouldn't happen. Yet we're allowed to have it, and it's glorious. Like Gravity back in 2013, should you have spent good money to go see a single movie at the theaters in 2015, moreso than Star Wars or Avengers, it was gonna be this one, this rusty, tetanus-laden, heavy-metal accompanied rollercoaster that swerves and accelarates like a black mamba in the desert. It fires away 30 bullets per second, has someone eating shit face-first every 20 seconds, and speaks infinitely quotable lines in all caps -- fun couldn't be more distilled even if you liquified it and drank it with a good slice of pizza while playing videogames. And yet, it's not all fun and games -- it's also quite socially-minded too. By having women in the driver's seat and in the smart end of guns against a barrage of Donald Trump-reminding villains, this one was a ride as adrenalinic as it was important. Again, a miracle we didn't deserve.
7. The Hateful Eight, directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Let's keep the fun violence going, shall we? I feel like this movie is sort of the twin sister to Mad Max. Similar, yet opposite. One goes a thousand miles per hour, this other one's more patient and conversational, more eager to make you wait in sweet agony until someone's gotta give. Give a bullet to someone else's head, that is. And if a shootout's gonna happen, it won't just happen, it'll happen after a thousand truths lead to another truth that's been brewing and gaining power ever since it's happened. And then the blood won't stop flowing. The most Tarantino thing to ever exist, hands down. He's always been great pitting theatrical, bold personalities, and this time around it's nothing but that. A furious maze of dialogues for you to get lost in trying to figure out what's really going on and how things came to be like this, that always allows you to figure out new paths, dead ends and hidden detours along the way. It easily features this year's best ensemble, mixing The Club's harshness and no-fucks-given honesty with Spy's awesome individual flavors, all in all to make this movie something as entertaining to see as it is to pretend you're actually playing: I got some major role-playing goosebumps watching this. I'd love to see this movie in a tabletop form, is what I'm saying. But as it is, it's the QTest.
6. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.
A film that went terribly under the radar given the acclaim it received all the way back in January of 2015. Hopefully I won't be alone trying to bring this movie back from the dead, especially given how this one just goes and makes the ever beloved The Fault in Our Stars obsolete with mere honesty regarding the tragedy that is an untimely teen death. I mean, if you're not gonna be coy about it, why fixate on it so much? Gomez-Rejon was smarter in this other adaptation, focusing on a blossoming, but terminally doomed frienship and the legacy it'll leave behind -- at least for this one kid who's been rather alone by choice and who's not looking forward to anything in his future. The contrast between him and "the Dying Girl" is so aching and bittersweet I'm sincerely choking up as I'm writing these words, for as corny as that sounds. But that's what so wonderful about this movie: it doesn't shy away from being overwritten, but instead it focuses on how it loses that overwritten-ness in time. How you lose a defense mechanism in favor of becoming more friendly, but also more vulnerable in the process. Even after suffering a loss you'll still gain something from it. Fun, lively, heartfelt, and to make more than a handful of cinephiles giggle, this one's bound to be rediscovered by teens everywhere for sure.
5. 45 Years, directed by Andrew Haigh.
Another movie about getting to know each other, but this one goes a few more steps closer to the extreme despite how subtle and gradual everything is here. A slowburner, it'll leave tears in your heart little by little so doubts and concerns slip in through the cracks. Charlotte Rampling gives this year's best performance as Kate, a woman about to celebrate her 45th wedding anniversary with her husband Geoff (Tom Courtenay) when news arrive from the past. Someone Geoff met before knowing Kate was finally found after she went missing in the Swiss Alps. She's dead, of course, but she's finally there. She's finally here, more like it, as her non-presence still manages to permeate their home and mood like a haunting ghost with unfinished business. Movies like this are great conversation-starters, very much delving into the what-if's of a relationship, but Andrew Haigh capitalizes as ever in the freedom of loneliness and intimacy, letting things grow and develop by themselves, so they gain their own texture and corners until the compatible shapes won't fit in each other again. Painful, poetic, and always sincere, this one just makes the idea of entertaining thoughts all the more frightening as any relationship grows older.
4. The Clan, directed by Pablo Trapero.
Speaking of frights, FUCK. What the hell, Argentina? What the fuck is wrong with people? I mentioned horror movies were pretty great this year, but honestly the genre rarely works on me, but if it ever does it's with things grounded in reality. The possible. This shit happened, this haunting ransom-and-execution home operation happened under everyone's noses, as it all was swept under the rug of the perfect family. Success, sympathy and love. You just wouldn't imagine it from these people, after all. Yet between the house's walls there's the Hannibal Lecter from Buenos Aires, Arquímides Puccio (Guillermo Francella) with his perforating glare and his no-nonsense demeanor, acting as the mastermind to everything in everyone's lives. And yet there's also his son Alex (Peter Lanzani), confused and cornered, getting by, hoping things will fade away as the day are too good to let go, but also too asphixiating to live in. Lead by awesome performances filled with fright and fear; a shocking cinematography that goes on and on, torturing your heartbeat; and a mismatched, intentionally jarring soundtrack that heightens the worst of man with the top of the pops, it's exciting as it is nightmare-inducing. And it's all too tragically real.
3. El Bosque de Karadima, directed by Matías Lira.
Another one that's too tragically real, and going back to Spotlight, if there was a reason for me not being that impressed with it it's because I happened to see Lira's effort months ahead and very much caused me a gag reaction with its explicitness. Whereas McCarthy was respectful and reaching, this one was upfront and confrontational, displaying in full how a mentor-student relationship is warped and bent out of place with a sick dose of charisma and authority. Parts The Master, Martha Marcy May Marlene and Foxcatcher, nothing is sacred here but the word of the master himself. He's spiritually higher of course, what do you know? Luis Gnecco gives a performance that chilean cinema should treasure for years to come, going from the awkwardly loving and touchy to the mafioso and magister dixit with unnerving ease, well aware that everyone will turn a blind eye to an institution society needs. Between this and The Club, what the hell did the Catholic Church did to chilean cinema, really? I can't imagine, but in the process I was given a knock-out, I was left dazed and confused, about to throw up, and ask the heavens why. Nothing short of stellar filmmaking here.
2. Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen.
Pixar's back, and how! Without a doubt their best film by miles. Not just that, but it's also one of the most elegant, narratively complex films I've ever seen in my life, taking ideas and concepts a thousand and one psychologists and sociologists have studied for centuries into a finely tuned universe filled with processes, mechanisms, hierarchies and props, all to explain the importance and methods of sadness and homesickness, and more importantly, the way we view the world in regards to our emotion. Which is your leading emotion? Is it Joy, like Riley? Or is it Fear, Disgust, Sadness or Anger? Which ones would you say are your core memories that define you? All in all, I'd say that this year only saw two head-to-toes masterpieces: this one and Mad Max, but I'd say this one has fully deserved an adjective reserved to serious, socially-minded dramas: Relevant. It's important kids see this movie to learn the meaning of feelings, and parents should do so as well so they can learn about their personal development. Concept artists should see it to see how everything in this universe falls into place so precisely, and writers should take note of how two rather independent stories serve each other through sheer editing and intertextuality. And if you're a psychologist or a sociologist... what else can I say. It's relevant simply because it's brilliant.
1. It Follows, directed by David Robert Mitchell.
I sort of lied back then. Horror movies work on me when they're based on reality, but my favorite film of the year isn't just about a supernatural entity, but it's about a truly, truly bonkers one. An invisible spectre that gets transmitted sexually and that'll follow you by simply walking towards you. If it reaches you, you're dead. If you have sex with someone else, then it'll follow that other person as if this was some sort of Ponzi scheme. Things like this aren't meant to float on water, but David Robert Mitchell was coolheaded enough to find seriousness and authorship in this material, fully embracing its rules and inner workings so he can get the best imagery and metaphors out of it. Any day of the week this movie should've won the Best Cinematography Oscar with its tidy but busy lensing, always making you look everywhere, making you think twice in regards to elements in the background and details on the foreground. The score by Disasterpeace should put him on the spot just like Daft Punk and Trent Reznor got there with their electronic infused themes, and the performances from actors Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist and Daniel Zovatto were great enough that if their phones haven't exploded yet from agents begging them to star in whatever's gonna be the new Hunger Games or Harry Potter series, then this one is truly a cruel, unjust world. And you know, for as chilling and haunting as this movie gets, it's also tremendously inspirational. Mad Max and Inside Out, for as masterpieces as they were, they still costed around 325 million US dollars between them. This one just costed 2. Robert Mitchell took everyday coal and polished it into the most gorgeous, grandest diamond 2015 had to offer. This movie was within everyone's reach. You, me, any filmmaker right out of high school. These are not big names nor this a terribly complicated execution. It's just talent. That's all it takes to make a good movie -- and that's all it takes to make a weird, bizarre, barely explainable concept like this the best thing the year had to offer at the theaters. Can't wait to see what other genres I've been missing out on. Hopefully Robert Mitchell will lead me towards them with just as much mastery.
And there we have it! 2015 wasn't terribly great, but so far things are looking good. First movie I saw once the Oscars were done was Zootopia, and spoilers: we'll be talking about it this time next year. Yep. It's just that great. But I think I'll leave my comments til then. Onwards to 2016, and as always, thanks for reading.
