New Blog Plus The Absolutely, Positively, No Doubt About it Best Films of 2015

Hello movie fans, well looks like I've been away from my blogging post for a long time now. Things have changed, life of course gets in the way, other writings, but my love of film has not wavered in anyway and I hope to continue this blog in my part time so I can share by general musings. Now for some of you used to this blog, you might have noticed there has been a change in title. I guess I felt Jeremy and the Movies wasn't interesting enough, and since the cinephile in me wanted to represent my movie tastes more in the title. Pillow Cinema refers to the enigmatic pillow shots used by my all time favorite director Yasujiro Ozu. Ozu would use these small shots in his films as transitions from one scene to the next. The shots themselves don't evoke much narrative in the central story of Ozu's film, I like to think of them as serene moments of pauses before the next piece of action commences. Perhaps I'll write more of Ozu's pillow shots later but I wanted the title of this blog to be a bit of an homage to this great director who's films affected me in my life more than any other and also reignited my love of film and talking about it as well so there you have it.

As I write this, the Oscars are about two hours away, and even though the actual telecast holds little interest with me any longer, it does cause me time to reflect on the films I've seen this past year. Most movie critics have already released their top ten films of 2015, but since I'm not a professional and live no where near Los Angeles or New York, it takes time for many films to reach me where I must pay for my ticket or Netflix subscription just like anyone else. So to kick off Pillow Cinema's maiden blog voyage here are without a doubt the best films I've seen this year.

1. Mad Max: Fury Road: I feel like I'm joining the band wagon with my unabashed love for this film, but really it deserves the praise. Call it a sequel, call it a reboot, call it a remake, call it whatever you like, I feel like director George Miller wouldn't care what you would call it. This was his passion project that goes back 15 years ago when he originally tried to get it made with the original Max, Mel Gibson. Despite the setbacks, "Fury Road" was worth the wait. Virtually working as a silent film, Mad Max sets up its own believable world with compelling characters with a story as straight as they come. Yet with this story, comes many deeper meanings. Behind the surface level stunningly choreographed chase sequences lies a political allegory,an apocalyptic adventure yarn, a feminist call to arms,and a buddy movie, and I'm pretty sure if it wasn't an original idea it would be one of the best comic book movies ever made. Other blockbusters came and went this year, but really this is one everyone will remember in years to come.

2. Phoenix: This wonderful film made in Germany stars Nina Hoss in the performance of the year as a woman left for dead during World War 2 a concentration camp. After a bullet wound leaves her face disfigured, she has reconstructive surgery making her unrecognizable to her husband who may have been the one who sold her out to the Nazis. The film is a wonderfully atmospheric period piece, but is also a wonderful examination on identity and rebirth, anchored by Hoss' great performance.

3. Room: Another story of survival, I don't think I was filled with so much emotion by any other film than in "Room". Another great lead female performance by Brie Larson as a woman who spent seven years of her young life as a prisoner to a sexual predator. This could have been a grim story were it not in the way it was told by the point of view of the young son who was raised by Larson in the room. Played by Jacob Tremblay it's one of the great child performances I've ever seen, as we see his character enter a new world he never knew, and his bond between his mother is probably the most touching relationship I've seen this year.

4. Brooklyn: A sincere love story that if you saw it, you would swear it was made in the 1950s because surely they don't make movies like this anymore. Yet they do. Saoirse Ronan gives a wonderful subtle performance as Ellis an Irish girl who comes to America for the first time, and we see her as she comes into her own. A very sweet film with old fashioned moments and not a touch of cynicism. A movie that reminds us why movies are so special to begin with.

5. Creed : Who would've thought the "Rocky" universe still had legs. I guess you can't ever count the big galoot out, ever! Only this time it's a little different. "Creed" plays on the same beats we get with a "Rocky" movie, but by focusing on the son of Rocky's greatest adversary/best friend Apollo Creed, it turns it into something unique and original. Not to mention this may be the best directed film in the whole franchise, which is saying a lot given this could be seen as the seventh film.

6. The Best of Enemies: I did not see a lot of documentaries this year, but the one that stuck with me was this one about the famed debates between intellectual giants William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal, two men with two different political ideologies. This film is a well made document of what went down between these two men during the 1968 Republican National Convention. Their animosity towards each other is fascinating, funny, but also disturbing. The film goes to great lengths to show debates like this could have caused a trickle down effect to the dumbing down of American politics in the media. Perhaps the most timely film made this year.

7. Blackhat: Michael Mann's flawed film about a computer hacker investigating a cyber terrorist had many detractors when it was first released,, yet there is something very beautiful about how Mann constructs every one of his films. The lead character played by Chris Hemsworth would probably not be a computer hacker in real life, but he is a character Mann has been fascinated with since his first film "Thief". This is auteur filmmaking at its finest, and yes honestly it gets a bit clunky and hokey, but the feel and energy of this film can't be denied.

8. Girlhood: Not to be confused with last year's "Boyhood", this is a french film about a young African American girl who joins a gang. At the very beginning she is set up for her to fail, and she is with no options so of course she joins a gang, yet what these group of girls do isn't all that bad to tell you the truth. It's more of a fraternity for her to be herself, an escape, a liberation. The scene in where the girls sing "Diamond" by Rhianna is probably the most joyous scene I've seen all year.

9. What We Do in the Shadows: The funniest film I've seen all year is thanks to the comic minds of co-directors/writers Jemaine Clement and Taika Waiti. A mockumentary about vampires living as roommates is drole, deadpan, absurd, and just hilarious. This film can stand with the best films by Christopher Guest in my opinion, and is worthy of rewatching. A clever movie with wonderful comic performances.

10. It Follows: Wonderfully directed horror movie that does play with your expectations quite a bit. A horror movie is only as great as its premise, and this one is a doozy. It maintains an eery and atmospheric tone throughout and doesn't really stop for much a breather, the suspense is almost unbearable, that's what good film making is supposed to do I guess.

Honorable mentions: "Carol" is a lovely movie with an exquisite score by Carter Burwell and costumes to match the lead actresses aren't too shabby either. I really got a kick out of Ardman animations "Shaun the Sheep" which is just as purely cinematic as "Mad Max". Also Robert Zemeckis' "The Walk" was the great cinematic movie everyone forgot to go see. Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies" gives us a rollicking cold war story with a great central performance by Tom Hanks and support by Mark Rylance. "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" shows us how Tom Cruise will go beyond the call of duty to entertain the hell out of us. Al Pacino gave us a great character "Danny Collins" that no one saw. Blythe Danner deserved a nomination for her role in "I'll See you in my Dreams". "Ant Man" was probably my favorite Marvel movie, and I found "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" to be more flawed but trying for something a little more deeper than the original, who knows what Joss Whedon could've done if the Producers left him alone. "Spotlight" had a great ensemble and central story, it just fell short of being "All the President's Men" great. And finally "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." was the Bond movie we all hoped "Spectre" was going to be.

Overrated

As someone who has appreciated every Quentin Tarantino movie to some degree up to this point, I found "The Hateful Eight" to be just too ugly a movie to fully enjoy. Tarantino is a gifted filmmaker, and this film had some astounding moments and bits of suspense, but the change of tone to blood and gore felt like a needle scratch on a record player. It wasn't shocking, it just felt irritating and out of place.

Also....

"The Revenant" which is an endurance test for Leonardo DiCaprio as well as the audience. Thank God Tom Hardy was there to give us an actual character who had nuance. DiCaprio is a fine actor and for proof, I would site his last three performances in "Django Unchained", "The Great Gatsby", and "Wolf of Wall Street" to be three of his finest hours as an actor. I didn't buy this film's sense of importance. I'll give it points for cinematography, staging of its action, and Hardy's performance but I couldn't endure it all the way through. The ending itself tries for ambiguity, but really it just added up to this film didn't have much to say.

Worst Film of the Year

Spectre: I usually try to avoid bad movies whenever possible, why waste money on something I know is going to be bad. There were a couple bottom of the barrel films I did not enjoy whatsoever. The first being "Unfriended" which was a horror movie based on a gimmick that wore out its welcome very quickly, and then "The Kingsmen" which a lot of people would try to defend to me, however despite Colin Firth's performance, I thought it had too much of a nasty streak. But really the film I thought dropped the ball was the latest James Bond outing. "Spectre" started off with a well constructed pre-credits sequence that's one of the best. Then the film falls into a plot too convoluted even for a Bond film. Daniel Craig looked as bored and humorless as ever in his fourth and possibly last outing, while the main threat in the film the Spectre agency and the villain played by Cristoff Waltz is lazily thrown together that doesn't really make sense. I don't find this to be the final nail in the coffin for James Bond, he's an enduring character that will live on forever in film, but the any joy I find with this franchise was not found in this mess of a movie, not to mention the absolute worst ending ever I think in a James Bond movie. Many people complained when Bond's gadgets got too big with invisible cars and such, I would take an invisible car any day to this joyless, depressing outing.