LeftLion's Best Films of 2015

Whiplash

Ashley Carter

Whiplash: Damien Chazelle’s fascinating study of the relentless and fruitless pursuit of brilliance deservedly won veteran JK Simmons a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. His on-screen relationship with Miles Teller, who played the drummer to Simmons’ music teacher, was absolutely electric. 

The Dark Horse: An unconventionally stunning performance from lead Cliff Curtis carries what, on paper, is a tired and overplayed plot. But in the hands of James Napier Robinson, the two combine to create a sublime, uplifting story that explores the dark crevices of Maori gang culture. Curtis, known for his performances in Once Were Warriors and Whale Rider, provides the most complete, perfect and breathtaking performance of any actor in 2015. 

The Look of Silence: The greatest compliment I can pay The Look of Silence is to say that it is a worthy successor to Joshua Oppenheimer’s previous film, The Act of Killing. Simply remarkable filmmaking that displays the medium’s potential goes far beyond simply entertaining and educating.  

Magician: The Astonising Life and Work of Orson Welles: A heartbreaking and honest study of the life and work of the greatest filmmaker that ever lived. Chuck Workman’s documentary was nicely measured in knowing exactly what it was, choosing substance over style in his examination of Welles’ uniquely fascinating life and career. 

The Salt of the Earth: Another stunning documentary from 2015, Wim Wenders’ The Salt of the Earth showcases the work of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado. Having spent almost his entire career documenting the abject misery of the human condition, a great many of Salgado’s images – which Wenders masterfully lets speak for themselves – make for powerful viewing. Subtle music cues and an abundance of these magnificent photographs help turn a fairly conventional documentary into a masterwork.  

Orion

Jauja: As his fifth feature film, Jauja represented Lisandro Alonso’s first foray into using professional actors. Reminiscent of Herzog’s Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff, it featured Viggo Mortensen as Gunnar Dinesen, an engineer in the Argentinian army on a quest to retrieve his eloped daughter from incredibly hostile, unforgiving enemy territory.  Alonso recreates the late nineteenth century to stunning effect, with his take on the Western evoking the classics, whilst offering his own refreshingly distinctive touch. 

Hard to be a God: Although the phrase is lazily over-used, Hard to Be a God is one of those films you really have to see to believe. At nearly three hours in length, it’s far from a comfortable watch, but is utterly unique in its insanity. Aleksei German started production on his adaptation of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s 1964 Russian sci-fi novel early in 2000, and continued sporadically until 2006. German’s death in 2013 meant the film was completed by his son, Aleksei German Jr. and released this year. It has the aesthetic brilliance of Tarkovsky and Vlácil, with a tone more closely resembling Monty Python or Mel Brooks. It’s ostensibly a historical satire, as inhabitants on a medieval-style alien planet bemoan the lack of technical and artistic advancement. Entirely unique and totally brilliant.  

Orion: The Man Who Would Be King: I’ve seen Orion four times since it was released, and enjoyed it more on each viewing. The mesmerising story of Jimmy Ellis, the Elvis sound-alike that Sun Records marketed as masked-singer ‘Orion’, with the implicit implication that it was The King back from the dead.  Sublime documentary filmmaking by Nottingham based Jeanie Finlay.

The Witch: My personal highlight of a stellar Mayhem Film Festival, Roger Egger’s The Witch was a tense, visually compelling and atmospheric film that offered as much as a historical study as it did a horror. The story of the ominous forces terrorizing an ostracized Puritan family in seventeenth century New England, featuring brilliant performances from Ralph Ineson (bloody good Christian) and Anya Taylor-Joy.

Beasts of No Nation: The biggest strength of Cary Fukunaga’s Netflix original film about an African child soldier is its lack of moral posturing. Content in letting the utter misery and horror of civil war speak for itself, it’s an incredibly powerful film with several genuinely shocking scenes that linger long after the closing credits, and brilliant turns from Idris Elba and Abraham Attah. 

The Duke of Burgundy

Harry Wilding

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance): I am a sucker for one shot scenes, and – like Rope and Irreversible before it – this pretended, very well, to be a one shot film. More than a gimmick, it played on its theatrical storyline and trapped us in the unravelling mental state of Michael Keaton’s Riggan. Hilarious, sad, original, technically astounding, and brilliantly acted, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman was a great start to 2015.

The Duke of Burgundy: After the Romanian language Katalin Varga, and then Berberian Sound Studio, a homage to Italian giallo and art of sound editing, English writer/director Peter Strickland turned his attention to...well, here’s IMDb’s plot key words for his third feature: lesbian, submission, all female cast, fetish, entomology. But it is, essentially, a film about growing old and the demands lovers put on each other in a relationship; plus, for a film with S&M as a central theme it is not at all explicit, with no nudity and the sex is off screen or, at least, obscured. It feels very European art house in execution, but is interlaced with a very British (and sometimes very random) humour. If you see one film about lesbians this year, see this; not the strangely overrated Carol.

Whiplash: Damien Chazelle’s intense story of a promising young jazz drummer and his really mean mentor could easily have been quite average, but the great performance from Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons, and chemistry between them, made this a great watch.       

The Tribe: The unique nature of the film, in which a teenager starts at a new boarding school and immediately gets involved with the criminal activities of the fellow students, lies in the fact that there was no spoken dialogue. All the actors are deaf and communicate in sign language; there are also no subtitles. Every take is one shot, too, which, as previously mentioned, I’m a sucker for. True, there are no redeeming or likable characters, the whole thing borders on being gimmicky, and at least fifteen minutes of the 130 minute running time must be just the actors putting clothes on or taking them off – however, The Tribe is a bold, great looking film which is utterly engrossing and utterly unforgettable.

The Lobster: The film is set in a dystopian future in which it is illegal to be single and you are turned into an animal, of your choice, if you do not find a partner within forty-five days of your stay at The Hotel. The execution of this bizarrely fantastic concept was actually barmier than you might imagine. But, honestly and truly, in the best possible way. An excellent cast, in which Colin Farrell is the lead, play much of it is such a beautifully deadpan fashion (including Rachel Weisz with her wonderful narration). In many ways, it is an intensely sad film, if not for the fact that it is also hilarious; really really dark humour, but laugh out loud funny, nonetheless. Bloody good posters too.

A Pigeon Sat On a Branch Reflecting on Existence: The conclusion to Roy Andersson’s insanely, and beautifully, bonkers trilogy (following on from You, The Living and Songs From the Second Floor) vaguely follows a pair of hapless novelty salesman in a series of wonderfully crafted episodes full of philosophy and ridiculousness, all examining the absurd nature of ordinary life.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: This story, adapted from Jesse Andrews' young adult novel could easily have been another The Fault in Our Stars but it is saved by likeable and intriguingly flawed characters, genuine humour and sentiment, and some brilliant movie references – mainly coming from Greg (Me) and Earl’s budget remakes of familiar films (A Sockwork Orange, Pooping Tom, Rosemary Baby Carrots etc) which are nicely interlaced throughout. The dying girl, played excellently by Olivia Cooke, comes into the equation when Greg’s mum makes him befriend her, to his dismay and, ultimately, his obvious hooray. It is all handled with a delicacy, humour, and unpredictability that makes it the feel-good film of the year.

It Follows: My God, what a fucking concept. A supernatural force that changes appearance and just walks slowly towards its victim...okay, that kind of sounds a bit lame written down, but it is executed perfectly. Not only is it a very clever allegory for death but it is creepy as hell - creepy, in the sense that it was a genuinely nervous walk home from the cinema after seeing this horror from writer/director David Robert Mitchell; whose own reoccurring nightmares gave him the film’s idea. The film is heavily influenced by seventies and eighties slasher flicks (even in the sense that it is set in a kind of non-time – there is modern technology but a strangely retro feel for much of it), but it’s concept certainly makes it a homage rather than a rip off.

Nina Forever: True, the lead characters fell in love quicker than the protagonists of the average nineteenth century novel, but this was a brilliantly original film about a new relationship and the baggage and jealously that comes with it, full of some nice black comedy. Great performances all round too, especially Fiona O’Shaughnessy’s blood drenched, ghostly turn as Nina. A shout out for the sound design too – the crunching of bones and squelches of blood are wonderfully audible, adding that extra dimension to already quality scenes.  

Steve Jobs: The third film based on Steve Jobs' life (after Pirates of Silicon Valley in 1999 and Jobs in 2013) was going to struggle to be bad with Boyle, Sorkin, Fassbender and Winslet at the helm. It does feel like a companion piece to The Social Network, in which Sorkin also wrote, which is no bad thing. Steve Jobs is a slightly inferior film, but the competition was tough. The film is split into three new product launches: the Macintosh in 1984, NeXT in 1988, and the iMac in 1998 (shot in 16mm, 35mm, and digital respectively) and played out in real time. Funny, exciting, clever, and lots of other positive adjectives.