The Top 11 Movies of 2015 (And Yes, One Of Those Is "Star Wars")

There is no such thing as a bad year at the movies.

Every year, without exception, many amazing features are crafted and released into the world for audiences to discover. Finding even one great movie makes sifting through a year of ‘meh’ seem totally worthwhile.

So, no, 2015 wasn’t a bad year for the movies… It just wasn’t a particularly good one. The distended hunks of content that grossed the most money—like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spectre and Jurassic World—were okay, I guess. They were distracting for as long as their running time and not a second longer.

The trumped-up Oscar contenders—like The Revenant, The Danish Girl and Suffragette (all released over the coming weeks)—underwhelmed, and in some instances—cough Black Mass cough—were unintentionally hilarious. In January, the quaint indie flick Me and Earl and the Dying Girl swept the Sundance Film Festival and looked to become the sensitive, small-time sleeper hit of the year. Not only did it tank at the box office, its cutesy nonsense had me wondering if it was worse than Entourage or Fantastic Four. Inconceivable!

At seemingly all ends of the cinematic spectrum, movies were blowing, and hard. We don’t need a ‘Worst Of’ list in 2015, because we lived that list and added to it every weekend in theatres. What we need is a ‘Best Of’ list; an opportunity to compile all the good into a tidy bundle and conclude, “Hey, we didn’t have it so bad.”

There is no feeling quite like the discovery of a new favourite movie. If you felt the pain of disappointment too often in 2015, add these 31 movies to your ‘To Do’ list and be reinvigorated.

‘Fine For A Friday Night’ Runners Up: Ant-Man, Bridge of Spies, Furious 7, The Martian, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, The Night Before, Spy, Trainwreck.

‘Maybe These Slipped Under Your Radar’ Runners Up: 99 Homes, Best of Enemies, Clouds of Sils Maria, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Ex Machina, The Gift, Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison of Belief, Tig.

‘Could Have Easily Taken 11th Place’ Runners Up: Carol, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, Youth.

‘This Movie Has Joe Manganiello Dance-Stripping In A Service Station’ Special Mention: Magic Mike XXL

11. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

While James Bond stumbled, Ethan Hunt flew. No, literally: Tom Cruise strapped himself to the side of a freaking plane for his latest Mission: Impossible. And somehow, that wasn’t the showstopper in the impossibly entertaining latest instalment of a constantly improving franchise. That honour goes to Rebecca Ferguson, the femme fatale who outshone the eternally incandescent Cruise at every turn. It’s no surprise director Christopher McQuarrie and Ferguson have been asked back for M:I 6. They’ve got a good thing going.

10. Straight Outta Compton

This one felt like a jolt of electricity; extra impressive because it comes from the most hackneyed, box-ticking genre in cinema: the music biopic. Though director F. Gary Gray depicts the rise of rap legends N.W.A. with chronological fastidiousness, Straight Outta Compton was still a propulsive, powerful viewing experience. A number of prickly subjects – like Dr. Dre’s violence against women – are skipped over entirely, but its depiction of the battle between police and young black men (as relevant, sadly, today as it was in 1988) and the souring father-son relationship between Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) and manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) elevated this one beyond all reasonable expectations.

9. It Follows

As zombies got faster, It Follows director David Robert Mitchell found a novel new way to scare audiences (well, an old new way): having his villain slowly stalk its inevitable victims at a glacial, unrelenting pace. Here, the curse of being ‘followed’ gets passed around a group of small-town American teenagers through sex. The spectre always trundles towards the most recent ‘carrier’, often changing its form to resemble a family member. That’s when things become really chilling: when the supernaturally sinister imagery morphs with the imagery of at-home abuse. This screw-tightening horror film has almost too many layers of terror to bear.

8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

John Boyega’s Finn - the reformed Stormtrooper with a heart of gold - whoops in delight throughout J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Who could blame him? He gets to ride a spaceship as it conducts death-defying acrobatics and battle the Dark Side with spunky scavenger orphan Rey (Daisy Ridley); he even gets to fire blasters alongside Han Solo (Harrison Ford) – yes, that Han Solo. Episode VII is a good-natured and ebullient ode to the joys of blockbusterdom (not to mention a relieving reprise for a once-again great franchise). Shaggy plotting aside, you can’t help but join Finn in the exaltations. This really is the sequel we were looking for.

7. Love & Mercy

Two beautiful biopics for the price of one. Director Bill Pohlad visits Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson at two times in his life: as a wunderkind battling mental anguish while magicking up the masterpiece Pet Sounds; and as a middle-aged hermit, under the thumb of a domineering, misdiagnosing Svengali doctor (played by Paul Giamatti, who is really relishing these roles lately). Paul Dano and John Cusack play the two Brians, and though both are excellent, it’s Dano who astounds – and not simply because he’s a dead ringer for Wilson. His acoustic rendition of “God Only Knows” and the deconstructed composition of “Good Vibrations” are two of 2015’s best moments.

6. Mad Max: Fury Road

Fury Road took forever to make and seemingly no time at all to watch. George Miller disappeared two hours in a cacophonous flurry of vehicular carnage and feminist theory. Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa is such a commanding presence, you probably even forgot Tom Hardy played Max in this thing. Give it an Oscar, all shiny and chrome.

5. Sicario

A cracking procedural in the mould of Zodiac and Zero Dark Thirty, Sicario sees Emily Blunt’s DEA agent sent on a futile mission in the cartel-ruled streets of Juárez, Mexico. Spoiler alert: the war on drugs is not any easier to defeat when you’re smack dab in the middle of it. Roger Deakins’ cinematography is superb, matched by Blunt’s performance. (Quietly and steadily, she’s becoming our best working actress.) The film’s secret weapon, however, is Benicio Del Toro, back from the Hollywood wilderness to give one of his most compelling, enigmatic turns ever.

4. Creed

Let me be as plainspoken as Rocky Balboa: pound for pound, this was the year’s best piece of pure cinematic entertainment. Michael B. Jordon solidifies his arrival to the big-time as Adonis Creed, the awesomely named son of Rocky’s old boxing frenemy Apollo. Creed is thrilling, stirring, inspiring and involving, yet maybe most exciting because it seems to promise long, rich careers for its star and young director Ryan Coogler. It also gave Sylvester Stallone, returning as Rocky, a fitting and fine role to make his curtain call. (Who are we kidding? Sly’s not going anywhere.)

3. The Tribe

It’s not often you can say a movie contains footage (and evokes feelings) unlike literally any other movie out there, but you can say that of Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s The Tribe. Told entirely through sign language (without subtitles), it follows a young Ukrainian outcast as he seeks acceptance at a boarding school for deaf children. He finds it by working for the organised crime syndicate operating barely beneath the school’s surface… before becoming totally corrupted by it. This is for viewers with strong constitutions; The Tribe has some of the most violent, disturbing imagery ever committed to celluloid. (It didn’t earn that R18+ rating for nothing, so, seriously, steer clear if you’re underage.) However, The Tribe provides one of the most uniquely stunning viewing experiences of a lifetime (if you can stomach it).

2. Inside Out

Pixar’s uncanny ability to weave dreams (and wring tears) with their pictures is a cliché at this point. Nonetheless, after a few years of mildly disappointing efforts, they reached the heights of their Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up and Toy Story 3 streak with Inside Out, set inside the ‘feelings factory’ of a melancholy young girl. Of course it looks beautiful. And obviously those providing the voices - Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith, especially - are all hilarious. Mostly though, Inside Out is important: it tells us our sadness is valid, and isn’t to be hidden away like some defect; that all our joy, as it recedes with the past, will become a little bit sad, and that's fine too. I personally walked out knowing myself more. Some therapists have achieved less.

1. The Lobster

In The Lobster, singledom has been outlawed. All those unattached romantically must report to a hotel where they have 45 days to partner up; otherwise, they’ll be turned into an animal and let loose into the wild. The good news? You get to choose the animal. Greece’s pre-eminent social satirist – and oddball - Yorgos Lanthimos made his English-language debut with this nutty flick, starring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly and a host of wonderful character actors all playing the seriously unlucky-in-love residents of the world’s saddest hotel. The Lobster is a brilliant black comedy that skewers militant monogamists and the unromantic alike (while throwing a few elbows in the direction of Greece and their increasingly draconian lifestyle regulations). Above all, it’s a hugely enjoyable watch, in a twisted kind of way. Any year that results in The Lobster has to be appreciated.

Over to you! What was your #1 movie of 2015?