2015 – The Year in Review – The Year in Film

2015 was a year of traveling everywhere and watching movies on a laptop or hotel TV, patched with an HDMI cable and bypassing the terrible in-room content delivery service.  I did see a *few* films in theaters. But by and large I wound up viewing most entertainment on a small screen, crammed into a seat on an airplane, or late at night in a hotel bed.

First up, let’s talk about the movies I saw in theaters… which were pitifully few. I did see Star Wars twice, though! What a great film. But, ultimately, it fell second to Mad Max: Fury Road, the most incredible cinematic feat, in my humble opinion, in the past decade or so.

What Fury Road and Force Awakens share in spirit is a return to practical special effects. They look spectacular. So much is being done in-camera. With Fury Road, almost every single insane stunt is happening for real.

They also both share a keen awareness for how to use action set pieces to drive narrative storytelling. And Mad Max‘s story is quite possibly the simplest one imaginable: a sustained chase sequence. Characters must travel from A to B. Here’s how we unfold that story: characters run, they get chased. Lather, rinse, and continue for roughly 2 hours.

Behold, my epic list of the top 5 films I saw in an actual theater!

Favorite Theatrical Viewings

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
3. Inside Out
4. Bridge of Spies
5. Inherent Vice

Next up: my favorite films seen for the first time in 2015.

I watched, in all, 102 films (although one qualifies as a miniseries) in 2015. Out of all of these, I have chosen 20 that I really, really liked. And at the top of that heap, is Marty.

Paddy Chayefsky’s excellent 1953 teleplay Marty, originally written for The Philco Goodyear Television Playhouse, and starring Rod Steiger in the titular role, was expanded into a feature length film in 1955. Ernest Borgnine played the lonely butcher with a heart of gold, Marty Pilletti. Burt Lancaster produced. Delbert Mann directed.

I’ve long known that Marty was a classic film, winner of 4 Oscars: Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture at the 1956 Academy Awards. But I never watched the film until 2015, 60 years after its original theatrical debut.

Marty is a love story with all of the classic tropes, and none of the lazy storytelling that plagues 99.9% of all similar films today. It’s the kind of film that will push every button you have, and leave you with a smile in the end. Nothing else I watched on the small screen last year punched more holes in my emotional defenses and left me more filled with joy.

Favorite Films Seen For the First Time in 2015

1. Marty
2. Steamboat Bill, Jr.
3. It’s Such a Beautiful Day
4. The French Connection
5. Whiplash
6. Panique au Village (A Town Called Panic)
7. The Guest
8. What We Do in the Shadows
9. Ex Machina
10. C’era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West)
11. The Running Man
12. The Immigrant
13. Philomena
14. Ida
15. The Wolf of Wall Street
16. In Bruges
17. The World’s End
18. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
19. It Follows
20. V/H/S

Behold: every movie I watched in 2015… alphabetized… 102 in all.

1. A.I.
2. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
3. The Avengers: Age of Ultron*
4. Barbarella
5. Behind the Candelabra
6. Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
7. Blades of Glory
8. Blue Velvet
9. The Book of Life
10. Brave
11. Boogie Nights
12. Bridge of Spies*
13. Burke & Hare
14. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
15. Cosmopolis
16. Crimson Peak*
17. The Devil’s Advocate
18. Dirty Pretty Things
19. The Double
20. Double Indemnity
21. The Empire Strikes Back
22. Encounters at the End of the World
23. Ex Machina
24. The Fifth Element
25. Fantasia 2000
26. Fletch
27. The French Connection
28. Gambit (2012)
29. Godzilla (2014)
30. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
31. Grabbers
32. Gravity
33. The Guest
34. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
    
35. Hitch
36. Home Alone
37. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
38. Housebound
39. Howard the Duck
40. Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (Howl’s Moving Castle)
41. Ida
42. Idiocracy
43. The Immigrant
44. In Bruges
45. Inherent Vice*
46. Inside Out*
47. Insidious: Chapter 3*
48. It Follows
49. It’s Such a Beautiful Day
50. Johnny Dangerously
51. The Last Unicorn
52. La Legge (The Law)
53. Lilo & Stitch
54. Listen Up Philip
55. Longford
56. Mad Max: Fury Road*
57. The Master
58. Marty
59. Men in Black
60. Mystery Men
61. Never Let Me Go
62. A Night in Casablanca
63. Night Train to Munich
64. Noah
65. Oleanna
66. Olive Kittredge**
67. C’era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West)
68. Pacific Rim (x 3)
69. Philomena
70. Pitch Perfect
71. Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo)
72. Return of the Jedi
73. Revenge of the Pink Panther
74. The Ridiculous 6
75. Robin Hood
76. Rocky Horror Picture Show
77. The Room
78. The Running Man
79. Rush Hour
80. Scanners
81. Shallow Hal
82. Sleepless in Seattle
83. Star Wars
84. Star Wars: The Force Awakens* (x 2)
85. Steamboat Bill, Jr.
86. Stonehearst Asylum
87. Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
88. Kaguyahime no Monogatari (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya)
89. Taxi Driver
90. The Terminator
91. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
92. Panique au Village (A Town Called Panic)
93. Transformers: Age of Extinction
94. V/H/S
95. V/H/S 2
96. Watership Down
97. What We Do In The Shadows
98. Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger
99. Whiplash
100. The Wind Rises
101. The Wolf of Wall Street
102. The World’s End

* = denotes theatrical viewing
** = denotes a “mini series” or “television movie”