BEST OF 2015

Beasts of no Nation - (Joji Fukunaga).  The making of a child soldier in Africa.
Brooklyn- (John Crowley).  An Irish Immigrant experience in Brooklyn.

Cinderella – (Kenneth Branagh).  Updated, modernized version of the fairy tale.

Coming Home – China (Yimou Zhang).  Couple separated for years by trauma reunite.

Dope – (Rick Famuyiwa).  Inner city blacks going against stereotype face challenges.

The End of the Tour – (James Ponsoldt).  Docudrama about writer David Foster Wallace.

Ex Machina – (Alex Garland).  Computer coder deals with a robot in his boss’s remote bungalow.

Finders Keepers – (Bryan Carberry, J. Clay Tweed).  A leg is “found” in a patio grill.

The Gift – Australia (Joel Edgerton).  Psychological thriller; mysterious gifts from a past acquaintance.

Inside Out – (Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen).  Animated film about expressing feelings.

Lambert and Stamp – (James D. Cooper).  Documentary about The Who.

Last Days in the Desert – (Rodrigo Garcia).  Jesus in the desert as imagined by Garcia.

Love and Mercy – (Bill Pohlad).  Docu-drama, turbulent life of Beach Boy Brian Wilson.

Mad Max:  Fury Road – (George Miller).  Clever action-film.

The Martian – (Ridley Scott).  Astronaut left for dead on Mars uses his ingenuity to survive.

Room – (Lenny Abrahamsson).  Mother and child existing solely in one room.  

The Salt of the Earth – France (Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Wim Wenders).  Sebastiao Salgado.  Documentary of a world-class photographer.

Seymour:  An Introduction – (Ethan Hawke).  Documentary of a gifted pianist.

Sicario – (Denis Villeneuve).  An FBI agent works to take down a drug cartel.

Spotlight – (Tom McCarthy).  Docu-drama of the Boston cover-up of priest abuses.

Timbuktu – France (Abderrahmane Sissako).  How everyday life changes when Sharia law is initiated.
Youth – Italy (Paolo Sorrentino).  Artistic drama with themes of aging, fatherhood, and films.