The year is half over and I’m already pretty satisfied with this top 10 list. Some really special films on here. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds.
10. Love And Mercy
I just saw this film this week and I was very impressed. What could have been a very typical mediocre musician biopic is elevated by the film’s extremely unique style. The editing and sound design really lets you get inside his head. Furthermore, it doesn’t follow the typical rise and fall and band break up structure of a musical biopic. It does something a lot more interesting. John Cusack and Paul Dano are fantastic in a dual performance as Brian Smith, but Elizabeth Banks was my favorite. I already knew she was awesome, thanks to her hilarious and occasionally surprisingly emotional, turn as Effie Trinket, but she really surprised me in this movie.
9. It Follows
I didn’t find this as scary as the reviews out of the Cannes Film Festival suggested. Nope. “The Babadook” is still the best scariest horror film of recent years. But, I still really liked this film. The wide framing is used perfectly, opening up a vast canvas of emptiness behind the characters out of which, really, anything could come. You’re constantly scanning the background in fear. Also, Maika Monroe really deserves a huge role now. She was great in last year’s underrated and underseen “The Guest” and she is even better here.
8. Me And Earl And The Dying Girl
I got to see this Sundance darling back in April. I think that occasionally the director gets a bit too carried away with style, drawing a bit too much attention to himself and the camera, much in the same way as “Birdman” unfortunately did last year. However, most of the time, the direction is spot on. This is such a clever warm joyful movie. You know where it’s going, but the style and the sly ways the movie upends convention and trope constantly delight. A beautiful ode to friendship and growing up, as well as an examination of the narcissism and self centeredness of adolescence. You’ll cry from laughing the first half and just plain out sob the second half.
7. Paddington
This isn’t cheating, is it? It came out in America this year. And what a delight! It’s a Wes Anderson children’s film, but warmer and more heartfelt than Fantastic Mr. Fox. (A great WA film, but a bit too cold and distant for me.) Everyone in the movie is having such a good time and it’s absolutely infectious. There’s so much great humor, based on clever wordplay (BEAR LEFT) and visual sight gags. Plus, it’s wonderful to have so many great British actors in a film hamming it up together. If only they found a way to fit in Dame Maggie Smith.
6. Ex Machina
There have been a lot of artificial intelligence movies lately. This joins “Her” as a great one. The movie has a rather small scale. It’s just three actors, (Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander, Domnhall Gleeson. ALL GREAT.) together in a house testing out a robot prototype, but the scale of its ideas is huge. Very thought provoking. Very intense. An incredible shocker of an ending. Highly recommended. Don’t read anything else about it. Just see it.
5. Mommy
This is such a beautiful heartbreaking film. I don’t really know what to say about it, except that every time I hear Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die,” I tear up again.
4. Mad Max: Fury Road
I’m still at a loss to how this movie got made. It’s insane. It’s absolutely bonkers. It has a budget of 150 million. It has incredible and incredibly dangerous stunts. Who in Hollywood Ok’d this?
I have no clue. But I am so thankful for it, because it is one of the most brilliant action films I’ve seen in a while. It really is not much more than a 2 hour chase scene, but it is executed so beautifully and shot so well. The action is fluid, intense and gripping. It is a rare action film that develops character, setting and plot through action, through the interplay of the characters. The characters are sketched briefly, but not shallowly. And Charlize Theron is wonderful as Furiosa. Heartbreaking, badass.
This film will leave you breathless.
3. The Last Five Years
Admittedly, I have a huge bias towards this movie. I’m absolutely in love with the stage musical. And caution, it is a movie made specifically for fans of musical theatre. Everyone else, stay away. The lyrics are more complex every time I hear them. The central relationship becomes harder and harder to define. Who is at blame? The movie has no easy answers. But, it does have Anna Kendrick gloriously and perfectly belting out every note and nailing every emotional beat.
2. Inside Out
I’m still settling myself on this one. It’s certainly the most ambitious thing Pixar has ever done. It’s fast. It’s frenetic. It’s heartfelt. It’s beautiful.
It will make you sob.
And it’s a hard movie to write about, especially after only one viewing. I’m seeing it again ASAP. It’s about memory. It’s about childhood. It’s about loss. It’s about sadness. It’s about who we are. It’s about life.
1. Clouds of Sils Maria
And finally, my favorite film of the year. I really did not see this one coming. We had a screener at work for a month before it finally played and I was tempted to watch it. One of my coworkers watched it and said it was really boring and really slow. I had heard great things, but I figured watching it in the theatre would be the best way for me to enjoy it without distractions.
I shouldn’t have worried. This had me transfixed for the entire movie. This is the movie that Birdman should have been. It engages in a serious discussion of art in way more mature and interesting ways than the other film. While Birdman scoffs at modern cinema, primarily blockbusters, this movie argues for art in all forms of cinema, regardless of genre. In one scene, Kristen Stewart’s character analyzes all of the personality traits and tics of a superhero character and what can be brought to that role with a great actor. It’s a fascinating discussion, one of many in the movie, that blends ideas on art, acting, cinema, and perception.
This movie has fascination ideas about the actor and the process of creating a role in general. Indeed, a good half of the movie is just scenes of Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche practicing scenes with each other, bouncing snappy lines and continuously blurring the lines between fiction and reality.
The film grows in your mind after it finishes. What may seem small and meandering when you’re watching it becomes textured and brilliant afterwards. It’s stuck with me since I saw it in April.
Julliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart deliver award worthy performances. Chloe Moretz steals scenes over and over again. There is a lot I can say about this movie and I still am gathering my thoughts. But it is completely worth your time.
onethreeandfive 