Joseph Anthony's Favorites of 2015

2015 was a very, very good year in film, and though I haven’t seen everything (CAROL, THE REVENANT come to mind), the list of good films can go on and on (BROOKLYN, SPOTLIGHT, THE HATEFUL EIGHT, SICARIO, 45 YEARS, CALL ME LUCKY, STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, THE END OF THE TOUR, THE GIFT, BRIDGE OF SPIES, THE MARTIAN, SHAUN THE SHEEP, AMY). That's a hell of a list of films, and yet they're not part of my top 10. It is a year where I could have just as easily made a top 20. Even more surprising is that many of the worthy titles this year weren't just little indie gems that the Oscars bring to light, but star-studded, big budget Hollywood events.

2015 is not a year with a surplus of classics, but one of the most competent years in recent memory. The scope of films is also refreshing. Horror, sci-fi, westerns, comedies, biopics, documentaries, sports, animation, low and big budget all stand side by side with a range of movies to offer.  

Here’s to hoping 2016 can follow it up.

Bob Ignizio looks back at 2015: The Year in Film

Although there are LOTS of differences in our respective looks back at the year in cinema, there’s one big thing fellow Cleveland Movie Blog critic Milan Paurich and I do agree on: 2015 was a good year for movies. One of the best in a while, actually. Not only that, but a lot of the good movies were mainstream fare that played at the local multiplex. 

And being a fan of the kind of movies Cleveland ex-pat Michael Weldon coined the term "psychotronic" to describe, it was a really good year. There were a lot of good horror, science fiction, action, and erotic films released during the year, several of which made my top ten over more respectable fare. And I'm not alone in praising these films. IT FOLLOWS, EX MACHINA, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, and MAD MAX: FURY ROAD have all shown up on multiple lists of more reputable critics than me.

Charles Cassady's Top Ten Films of 2015

Here is my list of the ten best feature films I saw in the cinemas in 2015...

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...Okay, you figured me out. I didn't really go to the movies in 2015. I am afraid I was not keen on the possibility of getting caught in a mass shooting. Perhaps I'll feel different for 2016.

Or perhaps not.

One more thing: you know that epic display of gingerbread houses every year at the Cleveland Botanical Garden? This year it got raided by the police. It seems that in one of the Cleveland gingerbread houses there were three gingerbread women being kept hostage in the basement as sex slaves. Yes, I know I post that joke every year at this time. I am rather hoping it becomes a "meme."

Goodbye.

Milan Paurich looks back at 2015: The Year in Film

I guess it was only fitting in The Year of Trump that the films topping my best ("The Big Short") and worst ("San Andreas") lists were both disaster movies. But disasters of wholly different stripes. "Short" brought us up close and personal to the criminal malfeasance and chicanery that resulted in the economic crash of 2008. "Andreas" just destroyed a good chunk of (mostly northern) California. 

2015 was a surprisingly strong year for movies overall, arguably the best since 2007. While Hollywood still came up short with too many damn comic book non-events ("Age of Ultron;" "Ant-Man"), uninspired reboots ("Jurassic World;" "Terminator Genisys;" "Point Break") and dreary sequels ("Furious 7;" "Minions;" "Ted 2"), there were still enough quality films to make compiling my top ten more difficult than any year in recent memory. And, for maybe the first time ever, there isn't a single foreign language title on my list.

Who said that America (and American movies) weren't already great?