BEST FILMS OF 2015

‘Spotlight,’ ‘Big Short’ among the Top 15 films for 2015

– By Cate Marquis –

This year turned out to be a good one for cinema. Some years it is a struggle to find ten worthy films for a list of the year’s best. Not so this year. In fact, 2015 offered so many good films, both of the commercial big blockbuster type and the Oscar-bait variety and the smaller and international type, that expanding the list to 15 films seemed like a good idea. Additionally, “honorable mentions” and good films in special categories are listed.

These are my favorites – yours many be different. The Top 15 are ranked but all other films are listed alphabetically.

Top 15 for 2015

Spotlight

The Big Short

The Revenant

Brooklyn

Ex Machina

45 Years

The Martian

Son of Saul

Straight Outta Compton

Amy

Bridge of Spies

Mad Max: Fury Road

Timbuktu

Wild Tales

Youth

 

Honorable Mentions

Carol

Chi-Raq

Coming Home

Danish Girl

Diary of a Teenaged Girl

Dope

Grandma

Infinitely Polar Bear

Love and Mercy

Mr. Holmes

Pawn Sacrifice

Room

Sicario

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Suffragette

Truth

The Walk

 

Best Documentaries

Amy

Deli Man

Going Clear

Iris

Lambert and Stamp

Listen to Me Marlon

Merchants of Doubt

Seymour: An Introduction

 

Best Animated

Anomalisa

Good Dinosaur

Inside Out

Shaun the Sheep

 

Best Comedies (excludes animated)

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared

Trainwreck

Wild Tales

What We Do In the Shadows

 

Best Foreign-language (some of these only played film festivals or film series)

The Assassin

Embrace of the Serpent

The Fool

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

Timbuktu

Wild Tales