So what if it's February and I'm only now writing this post, amirite??
After all, I *just* wrote a post about trying to prioritize writing more while also being less rigid and perfectionistic about getting stuff just right by somewhat arbitrary standards. So I will try to contain my anxious twitching about it ever-so-technically being the second month of the year as I dive into
THE BEST
POST
EVER*.
* = Of this year**.
** = But still!!
No but really. As you know, I love this Year In Movies Round-Up time of year.
Let's get to it!
Behold:
The PsychoCinematic Year In Movies
(2015 Edition)
1. In a World... (4)
2. Selma (5)
3. Rebecca (3)
4. The Interview (4)
5. Birdman (5)
6. Into the Wild (2)
7. The Magnificent Seven (4)
8. Nightcrawler (3.5)
9. American Sniper (3)
10. Stardust Memories (3)
11. Whiplash (3)
12. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (4)
13. The Avengers: Age of Ultron (3)
14. The Imitation Game (5)
15. The Waiting Room (5)
16. Lost for Life (4)
17. Fed Up (4)
18. Anita Hill: Speaking Truth to Power (4.5)
19. Mad Max: Fury Road (4)
20. Crazy Love (3)
21. Hot Girls Wanted: A Documentary (3)
22. Gideon's Army (5)
23. The Dark Matter of Love (4)
24. 12 (5)
25. Jurassic World (1)
26. Jupiter Ascending (1)
27. Monsters University (3)
28. The Babadook (5)
29. Side Effects (2)
30. Inside Out (3)
31. Trainwreck (4)
32. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (3)
33. The Omen (3.5)
34. Let the Fire Burn (5)
35. Phoenix (4)
36. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (4)
37. Best of Enemies (4.5)
38. Do The Right Thing (5)
39. Rocky (2)
40. Black Mass (3)
41. The Blob (3)
42. The Martian (4)
43. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (4)
44. Defending Your Life (3.5)
45. Citizenfour (4)
46. Tales of the Grim Sleeper (4)
47. White Christmas (3)
48. Short Term 12 (4.5)
49. Citizen X (4)
50. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (5)
51. Hoop Dreams (5)
52. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (3)
While in last year's post I noted that there was one particular month that was spectacular in terms of movie viewership (not to mention a few other things), I would like to thank the two very special months of May and December 2015 for making attainment of my 52-movies-per-year goal possible.
Apparently sometimes all it takes to achieve one's goals is a spring cold that won't die and desperation.
Anyway. Let's kick things off, as usual, with this year's worst movies.
Happily there were actually relatively few terrible movies seen this year. Sadly, I think this might be in part because there is some score inflation happening as the years go on. Extra sadly, this means I only get to make up snarky subheadings for a paltry five films.
For being based on a perfectly compelling true story but nevertheless sucking
due to bizarrely poor execution:
Into the Wild (2007)
For desecrating a classic, not-very-tacit misogyny, making Bryce Dallas Howard run in stilettos,
and trying to de-sexify the sexy sexy Chris Pratt:
Jurassic World (2015)
For being insufferably but not interestingly weird, poor pacing, too much Mila Kunis shrieking,
and trying to de-sexify the sexy sexy Channing Tatum with weird makeup:
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
For Soderbergh seriously you can't just remake "Traffic" (2000) this time vilifying medications that actually help people but (spoiler?) add a hot evil lesbian backstory
and think we'll all just be cool with it:
Side Effects (2013)
For HOW IS THIS A "CLASSIC" MOVIE WHEN IT IS SO TERRIBLE:
Rocky (1976)
In selecting my least favorite movie from 2015, I'm pulled in a couple of directions. I'm tempted to choose "Rocky" because WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT SERIOUSLY GUYS. I'm tempted to choose "Jupiter Rising" because it was so weirdly bad it still kind of makes me feel a little bit nauseated just contemplating it. I'm tempted to choose "Jurassic World" because I am filled with rageful indignation over its existence.
However, I choose:
Because I get what we're trying to do here and I hate big pharma as much as the next bleeding heart, but it is profoundly irresponsible how this movie portrays psychiatry and psychiatric medication. Of course there are bad practitioners, medications have side effects, and not everyone with mental illness needs medication to get better, but there are LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of people whose lives are made actually livable or at least substantially better because of psychiatric medication. So thanks a lot for furthering that mission, Soderbergh.
Blech.
And now, to greener pastures and happier topics! I saw SO MANY good movies in 2015!
In fact, I saw almost three times as many great movies last year as bad movies. So although I do love writing snarky subheadings, it's also possible I just got a bit better in making my movie-viewing choices this year.
The BEST movies I saw in 2015 were:
Selma (2014)
Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
The Imitation Game (2014)
The Waiting Room (2012)
Let the Fire Burn (2013)
Best of Enemies (2015)
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Short Term 12 (2013)
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
There really were so many wonderful movies this year. As always, I like to take a moment to reflect on some of the particularly special films before I choose my very favorite.
Clearly this year I've been preoccupied with justice and the fight for equal rights in American society. These areas are well-represented in the movies I sought out and loved this year. "Gideon's Army", for example, has really stayed with me. The film documents the lives and work of three Public Defenders in the South. It's crushing in so many ways, but also instills a deep sense of gratitude for the people who dedicate their lives to preserving some semblance of justice and right to a defense for the accused. "Selma" was beautiful and heartrending. "Let the Fire Burn" gave voice to a terrifying moment in remarkably recent American history that many of us have probably forgotten but most not forget.
As I noted in my post about the movie, I truly think "12" is so special as a peak into another culture through the lens of an important American narrative. And based on my comments just a moment earlier, we know I don't take readily to remakes.
"Short Term 12", for its slight imperfections, is a film that, in some moments, so closely captured the weird blasé chaos emotional gut punch multi-layered mess of some of the facilities I've worked in that I had to pause it a few times to take a breath. It was at once so deeply validating and breathtakingly too soon. I'm still telling myself I'll write a post about "The Babadook," because I am so excited for horror if that's what the genre is going to look and be like--terrifying in its surreality and all-too-real-ity.
"Birdman" is a gorgeous stream-of-consciousness wonder. Iñárritu is an innovative treasure. Emma Stone explodes and Edward Norton sparkles. God that movie!
But of all those films, if there's one I want people to see, especially now, it's:
I'm so lucky, because I saw "Do the Right Thing" in a theater (at one of my favorite museums ever, of course), and I saw it blind. Meaning: I had no idea what I was in for. If you somehow haven't had the movie spoiled for you, please just figure out a way to see it before it is. It is so stunningly beautiful, unfolding like a rich and intricate play, drawing you into a sweet sea of little intimacies and discords before you realize that even gentle oceans can drown you with a quick, vicious, hauntingly prescient riptide.
See it!
{Heart}
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