My Favourite Films of 2015

In 2015, I smashed my 2014 record to smithereens, seeing no fewer than 107 films at the cinema. I know what you’re thinking: “That’s a lot of films!”

Yes, it is. Well done me. It was tough going at times, but I had to do it so that you would know which films were the best films (in my opinion). I have picked out only seven to highlight, which means that precisely 100 films will go completely ignored on this list, and you’ll have no idea if they were any good, or even what they were. Across Hollywood, directors are impatiently cracking their fingers and hitting refresh, waiting to see if their work was or was not a total waste of time.

Anyway, never mind all that now. My favourite films from the year* are listed below.

7. The Martian
“Mark Watney: Space Pirate.”

If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Matt Damon had to survive on Mars for a year, then you can finally find out, because that’s the premise of this film. Matt Damon is left behind on Mars when his crew think he’s been killed by that old bugaboo, space debris, and he has to eat some potatoes that he grew in some shit. After holding a big public funeral, NASA then discovers that Matt Damon is still alive, and they have to decide whether to go up there and get him, or leave him to die like they thought he already did. Meanwhile, Matt Damon remains extraordinarily upbeat despite almost certain death looming. According to scientists, the science in the film is pretty scientific, although the winds on Mars are not as strong as depicted. This is a good sign, and bodes well for astronauts planning to go to Mars, who will be comforted by the fact that even if their crewmates are careless enough to leave them behind like some space version of the dreadful parents from Home Alone, they can always grow some shit potatoes. And Joe Pesci almost definitely won’t turn up on Mars, which is good, because space booby traps are probably less predictable and more likely to backfire than earth booby traps.

6. The Lobster
“We dance alone. That’s why we only play electronic music.”

This dark comedy had a very small release, which was great because I didn’t have to sit next to anybody. For me, Colin Farrell is very hit and miss, but he was definitely a hit in this film, in which we see a new side of him. The Lobster is set in a world much like our own, except that single people are put into a hotel where they must find a partner or they will be turned into an animal. If that sounds too silly for you, then I’d probably give this one a miss, because it gets sillier still. Other themes include fake nosebleeds, slaughtered dogs/former humans, a persecuted group of woodland-dwelling loners, intentionally malfunctioning laser eye surgery, and Michael Smiley. See The Lobster if you enjoyed Sightseers, see Sightseers if you enjoyed The Lobster, and see both if you haven’t seen either, unless you hate laughter and weirdness.

5. Project Almanac
“If I was smart enough to build a time machine, I would’ve gone back in time to meet you sooner.”

I haven’t rewatched this film, so I’m not sure if it was very good or just much better than I was expecting it to be, but it was about time travel, so of course I went to see it. Either way, I enjoyed it very much at the time (pun not intended), so it makes the list. The plot follows a group of teenagers who build a time machine based on plans left behind by the lead character’s late father. Since time travel is not an exact science, the process is not clean, but once they have established some ground rules, everything seems to be fine, until it isn’t. It’s not an especially original story, but the time travel is more consistent and logical than in many films, and it features some strong performances from a cast comprised of largely unknown actors. Unlikely to feature on many critics’ lists, Project Almanac is definitely a film worth seeing if, like me, you enjoy time travel stories and other such improbable scenarios.

4. Mad Max: Fury Road
“It was hard to know who was more crazy: me, or everyone else.”

I went to a double bill screening of the first two Mad Max films to prepare for this new offering, but I had to find time to squeeze in a home viewing of Beyond Thunderdome, and this came smack bang in the middle of Project Bond, so by the time I saw Fury Road, there was plenty of buzz around it. I was a little unsure of what to expect, but what I saw was a film that was nothing like any previous Mad Max film, and yet was such a Mad Max idea, it felt perfectly in sync with its predecessors.
This film is not brilliant simply because there are women in it, as some have suggested the popular opinion about it to be. You can’t just throw women into something and make it automatically good, but as I learned this year, you also can’t throw an old white man in a beige suit into something and make it automatically good. This is a brilliant film because it tells a story that has been told before, but from a perspective that is hugely underrepresented, even now. And if you think there’s now too much ‘women’s stuff’ being forced down your throat, then congratulations, you now know what women have felt like for hundreds of years.**

3. Still Alice
“No one asks for my opinion or advice anymore. I miss that.”

Julianne Moore and Alec Baldwin together again was always likely to produce a film that would end up on this list, although even my enormous expectations were exceeded by Still Alice. Baldwin is his usual excellent self, and while his streak of playing the husband of the Oscar-winning actress in a leading role (currently at two consecutive years) is nothing at which to sniff, Moore makes this film what it is. Her titular character is a linguistics professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s shortly after turning 50. She receives a lot of love and support from her family, but her condition begins to decline rapidly, and she begins to forget the things that make her who she is. Moore portrays perfectly the anguish and frustration felt by an intelligent woman who finds herself unable to remember basic words or where she is. There are certainly unpleasant and upsetting aspects to the film, but it is an important story held up by a career-best performance (and that’s saying something).

2. Ex Machina
“Impulse. Response. Fluid. Imperfect. Patterned. Chaotic.”

This was another film from which I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but since it was either this or Chappie, Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac edged it. Gleeson plays a ginger nerd who wins a nerd contest to go somewhere far away and meet Isaac, a bigger nerd who has built a robot woman (it was almost a year ago that I saw it, in case you couldn’t tell). Isaac is cast completely against type (for instance, he’s bald), while Gleeson is in the kind of role you’d expect, and both are terrific, but it is Alicia Vikander as Ava (the robot woman from before) who puts in the best performance. It then turns out that Isaac has built a bunch of other robots, and the test he asks Gleeson to carry out is not the main part of his experiment, but rather how the robots react to him and he to them. The film poses some serious questions about how artificial and intelligent artificial intelligence is, or can be, and how we define life; a bit like Her, but less creepy and weird (although still quite creepy and weird).

1. Whiplash
“Oopsy daisy. Forgot my jacket.”

Oh man, did you guys see this? You should have. There were drums and blood and tight black t-shirts on bald men, and if that’s not enough for you, then maybe give it a miss, because that’s pretty much all there was. But the ratios of all three were spot on.
Seemingly unperturbed by the lack of offers to play J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man reboot, J. K. Simmons decided to win an Oscar for playing noted conductor and sociopath Terence Fletcher in this rather remarkable film. Fletcher is emotionally and physically abusive towards the students who play in his band, including Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), but most are willing to put up with it because he’s the best and they want their ‘shot at the big time’ (phrase reproduced by kind permission of Lucius Sweet). Teller is great, but Simmons really steals the show. I was surprised that his Oscar was in the supporting category, before remembering that the film follows Neiman when he and Fletcher are not together; the force of Simmons’s presence makes his role seem bigger.
I’ve been a big J. K. Simmons fan since he first appeared as Jameson in 2002, so it’s great to see him get some recognition from the Academy, and he was an absolute treat to watch in this film. Get it watched.

*The best film I saw at the cinema this year was actually Gone Girl, but since I also saw it three times last year, I have declared it ineligible. It wouldn’t really be fair to the other films, anyway.

**You actually don’t. You have no idea. Nor do I. Unless you are a woman, in which case, congratulations on your film finally being made. Sorry it took so long, we were really busy pointing guns at sports cars.