The Best Movies of 2015

The 2016 Oscars are just around the corner, and so that means that it's time again for me to announce my own favorite films of 2015! As always, this blog reveals my personal selections for each major category, as well as a few extra categories for films that I had to have on my list but had nowhere to fit them in the categories. This also doubles as a ranked list, so feel free to scroll to the bottom and read my TL;DR if you're not feeling particularly patient, but I promise you that you won't regret reading through my miniature reviews in each category!

But first, a DISCLAIMER: I haven't yet found a way to grow money from the tree in my backyard, nor did I discover time travel, and so I did not see every movie that came out this year, or is up for award nominations, and even the ones that I did see, I did not necessarily enjoy. Therefore, these awards are limited to what I have both seen and enjoyed, but I will present both films that I didn't like and the ones that I may or may not ever see. Foreign films and documentaries will be present again this year, but no animated films even touched my favorites of the year, so that category will sadly be lacking (sorry, Inside Out fans!). And since I did SO WELL last year at predicting the Oscars (I went 16 out of 20!), I decided to do that again as well. Now that all that's out of the way, let's begin!


Movies That Were Seen But Not Heard From Again (or Remembered)

Amy (tried very hard to portray her tragically, but all I saw was a spoiled brat who blamed everyone)
Ant-Man
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Black Sea
Brooklyn (Ronan did do a fantastic job, but otherwise a very plain and boring film)
Cinderella
Everest
The Hateful Eight (Tarantino disappointed me so very, very much...)
In the Heart of the Sea
Inside Out (yeah, I didn't love it, call it the Frozen effect)
Insidious: Chapter 3
Jurassic World
Minions
Slow West
Southpaw
Spy (the insults-only humor is funny the first 20 minutes, then bottoms out quickly)
Ted 2
Trainwreck
The Water Diviner


Movies That Were SO CLOSE But No Cigar

Black Mass (Johnny Depp was terrific but the rest was just okay)
Clouds of Sils Maria
Creed
Dope
Furious Seven
The Gift
Infinitely Polar Bear (my favorite family dramedy since Chef)
It Follows
The Martian
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Mr. Holmes
Paddington
The Peanuts Movie (relies a bit too heavily on nostalgia)
Shaun the Sheep Movie
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (fun but A LITERAL COPY/PASTE OF EPISODES IV & V!!!)
Straight Outta Compton (which had surprisingly good acting!)
The Visit
The Walk


Movies That I Forgot To See, or Could Not See, or Whatever

99 Homes
Anomalisa
Beasts of No Nation
Carol
Concussion
The Danish Girl
Danny Collins
Fifty Shades of Grey (just...no)
The Good Dinosaur
Grandma
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
The Hunting Grounds
Joy
The Lady in the Van
Love & Mercy
Pitch Perfect 2
Spectre (was looking so forward to this until I saw the reviews...)
Trumbo
Youth


And finally, here are the Best Movies of 2015 according to Robert, along with Oscar predictions.




Oscar Categories That I Didn't Include But Decided to Predict Anyways

Best Animated Feature Film - Inside Out
Costume Design - Mad Max: Fury Road
Short Subject Documentary - Didn't see any soooo....
Film Editing - The Big Short
Makeup and Hairstyling - Mad Max: Fury Road
Production Design - Mad Max: Fury Road
Animated Short Film - Also didn't see any....
Live Action Short Film - You guessed it: none seen.






Best Cinematic Song: Free Bird (Kingsman: The Secret Service)

Sometimes, this world can be filled with hate, typically perpetrated by hateful people. So to see a group of these people (with a very obvious nod towards a real hate group / church) get their “overly” just desserts, while having Lynyrd Skynyrd play in the background, satisfies the viewer completely. On top of that, the action choreography is excellent, Colin Firth becomes a genuine badass, and the scene ends with one of the biggest plot twists of 2015. Most people associate this song with Forrest Gump, but I, for one, will forever associate it with my favorite scene from this spy-spoof action-comedy, which surprised in that it became one of my favorite films with its wit and incredible amounts of fun. Did I mention that it was directed by Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class head men Matthew Vaughn, who's already teased at a sequel? YES!

Feels Like Summer from Shaun the Sheep Movie was a heartwarming song, and See You Again in Furious Seven absolutely made that ending (I teared up!), but the epic action and fun of Free Bird could not be beaten. Side note: I never saw The Hunting Grounds but I really want to now after listenning to Lady Gaga's song about the documentary's subject, college campus rape.

OSCAR PREDICTION: Til It Happens To You (The Hunting Grounds)



Best Historical Reenactment: Bridge of Spies

What is one of the most reliable director-actor combinations of the last twenty years? Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal) have done it again in this incredibly interesting reenactment of a Cold War standoff where both sides had one of the others' spies and so had to bring in American lawyer James Donovan to negotiate an exchange. On top of being historically appealing, this movie features many instances of wit and humorous or intelligent dialogue, which can be credited to the Coen brothers writing the script (it makes sense!). Not only does Tom Hanks do a tremendous job, but there is a scene-stealing performance by Mark Rylance (rightly nominated for Best Supporting Actor this year) as the old Soviet spy who has been caught. Spielberg also cleverly uses this scenario to show how little our society has changed with its racism and bigoted patriotism, although the subject of which has changed. Not as serious or groundbreaking as previous Spielberg films, but still a fine gem nonetheless.

The Big Short, The Revenant, Steve Jobs and The Walk were all great films that were historical reenactments of some sort, but Bridge of Spies was the most factual as well as being supremely well done all around, including a beautiful score by Thomas Newman.



Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Winslet did such an amazing job becoming her character in this film that I didn't even realize that it was her until about halfway through. Her looks, her accent, and her body language are all far different than anything I've previously seen from her. and she really carries a lot of scenes in a very dialogue-heavy movie. Portraying Joanna Hoffman, a Polish marketing executive who was like a business wife to Steve Jobs (acted perfectly by Michael Fassbender), she nails the personality of her character and, as I said before, never really seems like she's acting. With a fast-paced Aaron Sorkin script (The Social Network, Moneyball) that follows a traditional play format of three nonstop acts, we get to see not only relationships within Apple change, but Hoffman's constant coaching of Jobs to take care of his estranged daughter, which ends up being one of the most poignant parts of this film. Hats off to Danny Boyle for directing such a great film, but also to Winslet to joining a cast of great actors and still shining brightly.

Kristen Stewart was actually excellent in Clouds of Sils Maria and was penned into this category for most of the year before I saw Steve Jobs, and I enjoyed Rachel McAdams in Spotlight and Nina Kunzendorf in Phoenix, but none did as astounding as Winslet here.

OSCAR PREDICTION: Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)



Best Foreign Film: Phoenix

One of the most beloved movies of all time is Alfred Hitchcock's mystery thriller Vertigo, which deals heavily with manipulation of women into what men want. I personally don't care for that movie, but Phoenix does an extremely similiar thing with its story, but in a far more heartbreaking and beautiful way. Directed gorgeously by Christian Petzold and acted masterfully by Nina Hoss, it follows a German Jew who has returned to her hometown of Berlin after a stay in Auschwitz, which she only survived because they shot her in the face while shutting the camp down. This is not shown, but the damage to her face left her alive but disfigured, forcing her to have reconstructive surgery done and rendering her almost unrecognizeable to her family and friends. The chemistry between her and Ronald Zehrfeld (playing a man wishing her to pretend to be his dead wife so they can get her inheritance) takes center stage for most of the film, and it is equal parts tragic and romantic. To see post-WWII Germany through the eyes of a wayward Jew brings a very interesting perspective as well, as we hardly think of what the country was like after a devastating time period in which friends and family turned each other in if they were Jews. This was a masterpiece and I'm sad that it didn't end up much higher on my list, but it still deserves special recognition.

Room was technically a Canadian film, but still took place in America so I couldn't include it, then Paddington was a charming British family film, but Phoenix blew all competition out of the water.

OSCAR PREDICTION: I haven't seen any of the nominees, so I can't make a prediction.



Best Music: Sicario

If you ever see Sicario, one of the first things that you will notice is the atmospheric and tense music that drives the film through its many intense sequences. From the falling bass of the drive into El Paso to the dead silence of a house raid, Jóhann Jóhannsson has proven again to be a rising star in cinematic scores, following up his celebrated work in The Theory of Everything. He combines again with director Denis Villeneuve (having worked together in the excellent thriller Prisoners) to produce a haunting tone that fits the film's serious depictions of a violent and immoral border war, on both sides of the fence. The collective sigh of release at the end of this film can be attributed as much to Jóhannsson's music as it can to the edge-of-your-seat plot of one of the best films this decade.

I absolutely adore Ennio Morricone and his work in both Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns and John Carpenter's The Thing, and so I loved the music in The Hateful Eight. However, I was far too disappointed in the movie overall to include it in my best movies of 2015, but I fully expect the Academy to do their "let's award the old person who doesn't have an Oscar" thing and give it to Morricone anyways. Room, The Revenant, and Ex Machina also had great atmospheric scores, and Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck and The Big Short had awesome jukebox playlists, but none could top Jóhannsson's mastercraft.

OSCAR PREDICTION: The Hateful Eight



Best Ensemble Cast: Spotlight

Apparently, Michael Keaton has become the king of leading ensemble cast films. After last year's fantastically well acted cast in Birdman: or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, Keaton returns to lead the cast of Spotlight in another dialogue-based film with an excellent story. It's safe to say that at this point, he has revitalized his career, and as a dramatic actor at that. His determined and witty portrayal of Walter "Robby" Robinson, the editor of the Spotlight section of the Boston Globe, perfectly corrals the many other characters and helps them to focus. Liev Schreiber also deserves credit for his reserved role as the new editor of the Globe who puts the team on the case of a very corrupt Catholic church. Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d'Arcy James round out the Spotlight team of investigative journalists, and all three have great moments in the film, from Ruffalo's hounding of lawyer Mitchell Garabedian (played wonderfully by Stanley Tucci) to James' realization of how real their story is when he recognizes an address from down the street from his own house. John Slattery, of Mad Men fame, plays his typical character role (of the show mentioned) but he excels at it and it fits in with everyone else, so you enjoy it. This was the best acted film this year in my opinion, but it was hardly a sure thing.

The Revenant had great turns from Leonardo DiCaprio, Domnhall Gleeson and Tom Hardy, who was the best villain of 2015. Steve Jobs was another dialogue-heavy film with a great cast, featuring Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet (who I already mentioned), as was The Big Short, with Steve Carrell, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling. Room and Sicario also had an ensemble of great actors, but none could quite top Spotlight this time.



Best Cinematography: The Revenant

After last year’s Birdman and now The Revenant, I think that we can officially label Alejandro González Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki as the best filmmaker pairing currently operating. Lubezki may just get himself a third Oscar in a row (Birdman, Gravity) for his work here, as it is as beautiful as you could ask for while remaining extremely visceral and realistic. The choice to only use natural lighting in this film made the shooting of it excruciatingly difficult (they went months over schedule), but it really adds to the film’s grittiness and natural beauty. On show here is also Lubezki's mastery of the long shot, making for an incredibly immersive film filled with harrowing scenes, including a raid with brutal violence and a bear attack that goes from walking through the woods all the way to the final gunshot without breaking once. To say that I cannot wait to see more Lubezki films is a vast understatement, as he has shown himself to be the greatest cinematographer of the last two decades, and perhaps of all time.

Roger Deakins did excellent work in Sicario with the framing of several scenes (including the night raid), Masanobu Takayanagi emulated Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu with the static cameras or slow zooms in Spotlight, and Danny Cohen produced paranoia and enclosure in Room, but Lubezki is THE master.

OSCAR PREDICTION: The Revenant



Best Leading Actress: Brie Larson (Room)

To say that I loved Larson's role in Room would be understating her case. If Patricia Arquette was a shoo-in last year for Best Supporting Actress as a single mother, Larson is an absolute etched-in-stone kind of shoo-in this year for a similar role as the leading actress. Although this film has several very well done minor roles, the focus is squarely on Larson, playing 24-year old Joy, and her 5-year old son Jack, played tremendously by Jacob Tremblay. The beginning of this film is pretty rough, showing Joy as a victim of serial rape, Jack being a product of that, and somehow managing to raise her son as best as she can under terrible circumstances within a confined room that is all he has ever known. We see her struggle with accepting their fate, finally taking matters into her own hands and having to risk the life of her son in order to earn their freedom, and the harrowing events thereafter tear you apart as you understand the complex emotions behind Joy's face: maternal instinct and survival instincts fighting each other. Then we see the misery of PTSD and the effect of rape on her psyche, as well as very serious social disorders that she must fight through with her son, who helps her in ways that are so very real that it's hard to describe the emotional power of the actions without having seen it yourself. Larson has shown incredible range in this film, and I hope she has many, many roles sent her way after this.

Nina Hoss was excellent in Phoenix, as I previously mentioned, and Emily Blunt (Sicario) and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) deserve mentioning as well, but none were even close to Larson's powerful role.

OSCAR PREDICTION: Brie Larson (Room)



Best Screenplay: The Big Short

Wanna know one of the most controversial yet rarely understood events of our time? The economic collapse in 2008. Some films have been made on the subject (such as the well-done Margin Call), but they often are so thick with jargon that most of us simply don't understand it. It'd be like me trying to describe the details of a propane refrigeration cycle to someone who hasn't taken thermodynamics, while using industry jargon. Enter Adam McKay, best known for his comedies, such as Anchorman or Talledega Nights, who decides to make another comedy but in a much more serious manner, akin to The Wolf of Wall Street or Birdman. The movie is very funny, quirky, and often breaks the fourth wall, including a scene where characters explain that the circumstances that they just acted out weren't exactly how it actually happened. It explains the crash in such an accessible and fun way (a la Geico commercials where a celebrity helps to explain something) that you find yourself just able to keep up while still being incredibly interested. The cast was perfect, especially Christian Bale as an eccentric hedge fund manager and Steve Carrell as another manager with deep personal issues, which are expressed onscreen in an incredibly dramatic way, moving this film into more of a dramedy genre. Do yourself a favor both educationally and funwise and go see this gem, which was also easily my favorite comedy of the year (suck on that, vastly overrated The Martian!).

Spotlight, Room, Bridge of Spies and Steve Jobs all had great scripts as well, but I didn't feel that any were as clever or well executed as McKay and Charles Randolph's work.

OSCAR PREDICTION: Adapted Screenplay - The Big Short
OSCAR PREDICTION: Original Screenplay - Spotlight



Best Documentary: Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

When people hear the name Kurt Cobain, two things immediately pop into their head: him blowing his own off, or his music-altering band Nirvana. Forged from the many collections of video recordings kept by Courtney Love, Cobain's longtime girlfriend then wife, this documentary seeks to show Kurt Cobain the person, as well as the many life events that influenced his music. We follow him from broken home, to rising rock star, to heroin addict, and to husband and father. This is an incredibly personal documentary that really shows him as he was, as well as showing us Love's influence on the final days of his life. The music is also incredible, of course, but they typically juxtapose it with an explanation of the meaning behind it, making it that much more poignant. There are also several animated scenes where the style is based on his own doodlings that would be tremendous in any film, and so this EASILY should have been nominated, but regardless, I name it the winner in my book this year.

I honestly didn't see many other documentaries this year, but I did see Amy and thought that it was garbage because it spends the entire runtime showing a spoiled brat then trying to explain that it was everyone else's fault but her own. But hey, the critics loved it, so I'm sure it will win the award. But here, it doesn't even remotely come close to Montage of Heck.

OSCAR PREDICTION: Amy



Best Leading Actor: Jacob Tremblay (Room)

That's two, count 'em, two Oscar snubs in a row that I decided to rectify in my own awards. The Academy has a longstanding history of almost never nominating children for any kind of acting award, but this easily should have been done away with this year for the heartwrenching performance by Tremblay. As I described in my piece about Brie Larson, Tremblay's role as Jack becomes the anchor around which the film becomes based, especially since we get to follow his childish wonder at the outside world once they leave the room that he's only ever known. There are so many interactions that he has with other people that left me in tears, including when he's waiting in a police car for his mother to return to him, and you understand that he feels trapped again like when he was in the room. When he finally is reunited with his mother and they embrace, their love is so real that you instantly forget that you're watching two actors. All that you see is a mother and her son. In addition to his emotional appeal, Tremblay never missteps or ever acts like anything other than naturally, and shows tremendous talent as an actor, which SHOULD have been recognized but wasn't. Alas, I am here to tell you that his performance was hands-down the best of any actor in 2015.

Michael Fassbender did excellently in both Steve Jobs and Macbeth, playing the titular character of both films, and I expect him to take home the Oscar, since having two excellent performances usually strengthens the one nomination (see Matthew McConaughey in 2013, nominated for Dallas Buyers Club but also doing great in Mud). Shameik Moore burst onto the scene in Dope, and I expect to see more of him, while Leonardo DiCaprio decided to take a chance and go mute, relying on visual acting and body language for his excellent performance in The Revenant. But none were as impacting or skilled as Tremblay was.

OSCAR PREDICTION: Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)



Best Sound Effects: The Revenant

One of the best things about this film is its immersion, not only with its camerawork and visual effects, but with the sounds and aural omnipresence. From the babbling brooks to the roaring grizzly bears, everything sounds like being right in the middle of nature, and it can be downright terrifying at times. During a raid sequence, the whistling of arrows by your ears or the fleshy thud of them into the bodies of men bring the scene to life, and this mixing of the visual and audio works perfectly together. Bravo to the men who worked so hard on this soundtrack of the wilderness.

Room, Sicario and Mad Max: Fury Road also had many instances of great sound effects, but none struck me as better than The Revenant's. For the sake of my predictions, I feel like Mad Max will take home Sound Editing because of its ability to maximize car engines and other loud noises without ever being overwhelming, but The Revenant will definitely take Sound Mixing for my aforementioned reasons.

OSCAR PREDICTION: Sound Editing - Mad Max: Fury Road
OSCAR PREDICTION: Sound Mixing - The Revenant



Best Paranoid Closed-Room Thriller: Ex Machina

I bet that most of you would figure that I'd have my fanboy director Quentin Tarantino in this category with his newest film, The Hateful Eight, but his dialogue and story pale in comparison to this tense and taut tale. This was the first movie that I ever saw Domnhall Gleeson or Alicia Vikander in, and they both deliver great performances that are sure to get Vikander some nominations and Gleeson some more roles. Oh, look at that, they both got what they deserved! This sci fi thriller focuses on only three characters: a software employee (Gleeson) who wins a trip to meet an eccentric billionaire programmer (Oscar Isaac with a great performance that deserves praise) who wants him to test his newly created AI (Vikander), which leads to a simple plot on the surface that quickly becomes complex and full of tension. Can any of them trust each other while in complete isolation? These kinds of movies are why I love giving directorial debuts a shot (with Alex Garland's steady hand here), despite lesser known actors and a story shrouded in secrecy. Tarantino, take notes; maybe you can SUCCESSFULLY recreate the tension of Reservoir Dogs that you failed to do in H8.

The Gift, with its Hitchcockian stalker vibes (also from a first-time director, Joel Edgerton) and Clouds of Sils Maria, with its sexual tension and isolated scenery, deserve praise for their paranoia-inducing scenarios, but neither can match the two hour slow-burn thrills of Ex Machina.



Best Director: Denis Villeneuve (Sicario)

And for my third and final snub, I want to bring up the incredibly talented yet perpetually overlooked director that is Denis Villeneuve. Perhaps it's because he's Canadian? Regardless, Villeneuve has proven to be one of the top five directors of the past ten years. Polytechnique was a shorter yet incredibly tense and socially accurate commentary about the shootings during the Montreal Massacre, and gave us many of his directing tropes: amoral characters, complex stories with no clear good and bad, and a mastery of atmosphere through both camerawork and music. He also knows how to build suspense perfectly, as well as keep you guessing throughout his films, and this was on full display in his Oscar-nominated film Incendies, which has one of the best commentaries on the Middle Eastern region that I've ever seen. Then he teamed up with Jake Gyllenhaal to create the mindbending thriller Enemy as well as the dark and twisting Prisoners, both of which have made my previous Best Movies lists. Then, to top all of it off, he blew away my expectation with Sicario and made the best movie of his career, which would have been my favorite of the year if not for one other transcendent film.

Sicario follows an FBI agent named Kate, played wonderfully by Emily Blunt (mainly known for Edge of Tomorrow), who wants to do more to end the drug war on the Mexican border, and so joins up with some sketchy CIA personnel in order to do so. Their actions are grey, their characters are grey, and although Kate tries to stick to the book or keep everything black and white, she just cannot do it without sacrificing the victory. Villeneuve plays on this greyness perfectly, creating a narrative that makes it difficult for even us to make decisions, and setting up several powerful finales that leave you both on the edge of your seat and totally unknowing of what will happen next. In addition to this, the paranoia dominates in this film, from a tense highway traffic scene to a nighttime raid with limited visibility. Villeneuve gets the most out of his actors, including a phenomenal turn from Benicio del Toro, and out of his scenery, putting us into the action when necessary, but also bringing his environments to life. I've never seen a film pull off this border war narrative so well before, and, of course, it took a non-American to do it, and Villeneuve did it with aplomb in creating his best film yet.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu once again showed incredible talent in his work in The Revenant, as I mentioned in Best Cinematography, and then I have to give shoutouts to Thomas McCarthy (Spotlight), Danny Boyle (Steve Jobs), and Lenny Abrahamson (Room) for their excellent work on their films, but none could match the perfection of Villeneuve's directing in Sicario. As for my Oscar prediction, this will, once again, be another "old guy gets the award" situation where George Miller will be recognized for his many contributions.

OSCAR PREDICTION: George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)



Best Visual Effects: Mad Max: Fury Road

Sometimes, the most astounding things that we see on the screen have nothing to do with a computer. Just look at Jurassic Park, Mary Poppins, or Alien for examples of films with practical effects that made their onscreen glory last throughout the years and feel more realistic for that. That’s exactly what director George Miller brings with this epic post-apocalyptic film that features the greatest action sequences of 2015, not to mention the best (and longest) car chases in years. The fact that everything was so well done with painstaking and time-consuming effort, with attention to detail throughout in the costume and set designs, makes this film go to a whole new level of eye candy that was never matched, resulting in a very one-sided victory. Plus: that flaming guitar guy!

The Revenant deserves special recognition here for its recreation of wildlife in the film, since real animals cannot be used in violent scenes, and especially for the bear attack scene. Other than that, no movie even came close to Mad Max's dazzling effects.

OSCAR PREDICTION: Mad Max: Fury Road



Best Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)

It takes a determined person to get people to tell the truth when they are hiding it, and Ruffalo played a man like that perfectly in Spotlight. Here we see a lapsed Catholic who seems to be only out to tear the church down, but during a moment of anguish over the findings of the Boston Globe’s investigation, we hear his cry of, “I always thought that I would eventually go back, but now I can’t!” and see a very real person who never wishes for evil, and finds despair in the brutal reality that he has discovered. Ruffalo covers all the quirks and twitches that real life reporter Michael Rezendes has, making him eccentric but yet very human and likable. His own determination often drives the film, and the lack of a true leading actor does not matter between all of the great work done by the cast, especially Ruffalo. On a side note, he was also a tremendous lead actor as a bipolar father in Infinitely Polar Bear.

Tom Hardy in The Revenant was phenomenal as the villain, while Benicio del Toro also was showstopping in Sicario, but neither could quite match Ruffalo's excellence. However, I once again think that the "older person without an award" will win yet again here....

OSCAR PREDICTION: Sylvester Stallone (Creed)



Best Picture: Room

What begins as a claustrophobic scene within a small room that a woman and her 5-year old son live in becomes a psychological and emotional film that had me crying almost nonstop for long stretches of time. Jacob Tremblay is easily the best child actor that I’ve gotten to see, and Brie Larson plays his young mother perfectly as they deal with a very disturbing situation. Tremblay shows us the wonder of a child discovering the outside world for the first time, and charms you every step of the way while remaining completely believable. Larson has a much more complex role that involves the loving tenderness of a mother, the hysterical paranoia of a mother, and the psychological trauma of a rape victim. One of the most touching moments (one of many) in the film comes when Tremblay asks his grandmother to cut off his hair and send it to his mother in the hospital, believing that it has strength (like Samson) and says that "She needs the strong more than I do."

This movie moved me more than any film since 12 Years a Slave, and really elevated itself far above the most celebrated films in this year’s awards; Spotlight, Sicario, Mad Max: Fury Road, Phoenix, Steve Jobs and The Revenant don’t even hold a candle to the perfection of this film. I will have to let it soak in and age a bit before I can fully declare it, but I'm almost 100% certain that this film will appear in the top ten of my next best movies of all time. Lenny Abrahamson has directed a masterpiece worthy of recognition, and well deserving of a viewing from everybody who did not see it. Do yourself a HUGE favor and watch this film as soon as you possibly can!

Like I said, no film even came remotely close for me, but Sicario, Spotlight, The Revenant and Phoenix all deserve recognition for being great films this year as well. I feel like Mad Max and The Revenant aren't serious contenders for Best Picture, leaving me to agonize between Room and Spotlight for the Academy to award, and in the end I decided to go with my heart and pick my own favorite, since I DIDN'T do that last year and missed the mark.

OSCAR PREDICTION: Room



TL;DR

1. Room (Best Picture, Best Leading Actress, Best Leading Actor)
2. Sicario (Best Director, Best Music)
3. Spotlight (Best Supporting Actor, Best Ensemble Cast)
4. The Revenant (Best Cinematography, Best Sound Effects)
5. Phoenix (Best Foreign Film)
6. Mad Max: Fury Road (Best Visual Effects)
7. Steve Jobs (Best Supporting Actress)
8. Bridge of Spies (Best Historical Reenactment)
9. Kingsman: The Secret Service (Best Cinematic Song)
10. Ex Machina (Best Paranoid Closed-Room Thriller)
11. The Big Short (Best Screenplay)
12. Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (Best Documentary)

Thank you so much for reading through this list and reviews, and good luck to all contestants in the Oscars this year. As for myself, I always enjoy doing these and I'm glad to have had such a fantastic year for movies last year. Until next winter!