{"id":17245,"date":"2015-12-21T13:30:30","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T17:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=17245"},"modified":"2015-12-22T13:58:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T17:58:43","slug":"lees-favorite-films-of-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2015\/12\/21\/lees-favorite-films-of-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee’s Favorite Films of 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A10. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong>d. Roy Andersson
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Not as bizarre as you might expect, if you\u2019ve read any reviews of Roy Andersson\u2019s film. It\u2019s a poker-faced, mordantly funny sequence of elegantly strung vignettes about man\u2019s impassive, recyclic cruelty to man and beast, featuring a cast of reanimated corpses and moribund onlookers. And it may contain the strangest, most depressing abstract comment on colonization you\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Song9. Song of the Sea<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong>d. Tomm Moore
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Inside Out<\/em> is rightly well-regarded, but it doesn\u2019t get near the luminous melancholy of Tom Moore\u2019s moving paean to Ireland, childhood, and loss. And you can\u2019t have a respectable “end of year best” list without Brendan Gleeson\u2019s involvement somewhere.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mommy\"8. Mommy<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong>d. Xavier Dolan
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Exceptional performances elevate this Sofia-Coppola-meets-Alan-Clarke examination of a car crash scenario involving the hardened disappointments of a widowed woman, her ADHD-afflicted son and a damaged neighbor. Unflinching and empathetic and unlike anything else I saw in 2015. Ignore the occasional soundtrack faux-pas.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mistress7. <\/span>Mistress America<\/span><\/em>
\n<\/strong>d. Noah Baumbach
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke deliver the year\u2019s best acting double-act in, for me, Noah Baumbach\u2019s best film. Other films in 2015, notably the likeable Appropriate Behaviour<\/em>, covered very similar territory (literally), but there are few directors now who can make a handful of locations and people talking in rooms as much interesting fun as this.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Hard6. Hard to be a God<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong>d. Aleksey German
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re all looking for immersive cinematic experiences but this is almost painfully so\u00a0— and is often like being dunked headfirst in bloody grime. Utterly bizarre and relentlessly dingy and violent, Hard to be a God<\/em>, set in an absurdly chaotic Medieval landscape, isn\u2019t something to be made much sense of. It\u2019s consciously into Tarkovsky territory and, like Peter Strickland\u2019s The Duke of Burgundy<\/em>, is best simply experienced.<\/p>\n

\n

\"The5. The Look of Silence<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong>d. Joshua Oppenheimer
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t seen this or Joshua Oppenheimer\u2019s landmark The Act of Killing<\/em>, watch them both. This is the contemplative yet confrontational companion piece to that extraordinary documentary and, whilst less hard-hitting than its precursor, still asks some horrifying, unanswerable questions\u00a0— such as “How do you live impassively alongside the killers of a loved one?”\u00a0–and is no less essential.<\/p>\n

\n

\"The4. The Wolfpack<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong>d. Crystal Mosella
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A group of brothers locked inside an apartment during their childhood construct their identities and ideas of the outside world via movies, which they re-enact in their Manhattan apartment. Fascinating, funny and weirdly moving, and the kind of thing E.L. Doctorow might\u2019ve written about.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Whiplash3. Whiplash<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong>d. Damien Chazelle
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Budding drummer Miles Teller is tormented into shape by J.K. Simmons\u2019 urbane drill sergeant in one long clattering, unrelenting drumroll that quickly reaches a crescendo and stays there. Ends brilliantly, on a baffling note of grueling euphoria.<\/p>\n

\n

\"It2. It Follows<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong>d. David Robert Mitchell<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

A curse is passed on from one person to the next during sex, resulting in death for the recipient unless they can quickly transfer the affliction. Sounds ridiculous; result is one of the best horror films in years. Could\u2019ve been even better but to make such a premise work at all is impressive.<\/p>\n

\n

\"The1. The Salt of the Earth<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong>d. Wim Wenders<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best film of 2015 by a million miles, a distance you feel the subject\u00a0— photographer Sebasti\u00e3o Salgado\u00a0— would easily cover in pursuit of his goal: to capture human life close up in all its forms. Salgado\u2019s admirable resilience and good-humored relentlessness, and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders\u2019 documentary tribute, are pretty spectacular.<\/p>\n

\n

Notable mentions: Carol<\/em>, Amy<\/em>, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night<\/em>, The Gift<\/em>, The Duke of Burgundy<\/em>, Precinct Seven Five<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lee gives us his top ten films of 2015. Read the full post<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":17248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[799],"tags":[],"coauthors":[516],"class_list":["post-17245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/The-Salt-of-the-Earth-Poster.jpg?fit=461%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-4u9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17245"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17259,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17245\/revisions\/17259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17245"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}