Corey's Top 10 Movie Flicks of 2015

10. Best of Enemies

In the midst of the amorphous blend of politics and reality television that has - and will continue to - engulf the 2016 US presidential race, Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon's look at ABC's revolutionary debates between conservative William F. Buckley and liberal Gore Vidal is an eye-opening reminder of the staying power of sensational politics. 

9. Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

Another all-too unsettling reminder of cyclical history, Stanley Nelson Jr.'s documentary of the rise and fall of the much-aligned but mostly misunderstood (and violently broken) Black Panther movement that gripped America in the 1960s is electric, angry and honest. Worth watching, if only for the fascinating parallels to today's Black Lives Matter movement.

8. Spotlight

Instantly (and rightfully) heralded as this generation's All The President's Men, Tom McCarthy's journalistic procedural of the Boston Globe's 2001 explosive expose on the Catholic Church's cover-up and complacence of an epidemic of sexual abuse slow-burns its righteous and contemplative energy and offers up tremendous ensemble acting. Yes, Spotlight is critically adored and important, but it is also demanding of our philosophical curiosity and attention. 

7. The Big Short

Adam McKay has always been willing to infuse his absurd comedies with sly political commentary, but with The Big Short, he finally lets his finely sharpened political claws draw blood. A furious and very funny indictment of the financial institutions, regulators, snake-oil salesmen and greed-mongers that nearly took down the world economy with shit-laden securities, McKay and Co's unorthodox film about the unorthodox men that saw through the finance world's pre-2008 parade of delusion is a surprisingly crackerjack entertainment. Memorable, fuming performances from Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling. 

6. Phoenix

In this year's most measured, complex and controlled performance, Nina Hoss commands the screen as a unrecognizable survivor of the Nazi death machine in German director Christian Petzold's wonderful World War II drama, Phoenix. A story of confused identities, allegiances and emotions, this deceptively simple, yet emotionally lush and gripping movie builds to a jaw-dropping climax that you will not see coming. 

5. Amy

With Amy, Asif Kapadia establishes himself as a bonafide documentary auteur, with a style all his own (that utilizes archival footage and voiceover) and a keen eye for what makes us all so tragically human. This, the best documentary I saw in 2015, is a brutally raw exploration of the demons that powered Ms. Winehouse's voice and songwriting, and ultimately led to her untimely demise. Having plumbed the depths of every frame of video and every paparazzi's flash, Kapadia finds the moments that endear us to the lost singer; the passions and convictions we never knew, or perhaps, never thought to notice. 

4. Anomalisa

The word "meticulous" gets bandied about by the film world often when describing particularly well-made films. But there is no other film - animated or live-action - from 2015 that deserves such a descriptor like Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson's stunning Anomalisa. The exceptionally slow art of stop-motion animation and detailed facial and kinetic puppetry bring to life the simple story of a depressed author's serendipitous encounter with a woman, unsparing in its wealth of real, raw emotion. There has not been (and perhaps will not ever be) a more beautifully awkward sex scene in an animated movie. 

3. Sicario

Easily the most ulcer-inducing movie experience of the year was thanks to Denis Villeneuve's Sicario, a thoughtful, beautifully rendered suspense flick. Villeneuve, a good Canadian boy whose careful, (*ahem*) meticulous film craft has catapulted him to the top tier of directors specializing in mature, R-rated fare - he will soon do Blade Runner 2. In this one, Emily Blunt is dragged into a classified mission to take down a powerful Mexican drug cartel, or is she? A ripping flick complete with powerful, expertly designed set pieces and a stellar turn from a near-wordless Benicio Del Toro.

2. Ex-Machina

28 Days Later scribe Alex Garland's first foray into directing is a mind-bender of the highest order; a science fiction that blends real anxieties about artificial intelligence, the evolution of our symbiosis with machines and the sexual allure of it all. Alicia Vikander puts in dominant, captivaing work as an android whose mad genius creator (Oscar Isaac) sets her up as a test subject for Domnhall Gleeson's wide-eyed programmer. Unexpectedly intelligent in the best ways possible, Ex-Machina signals the arrival of a badly needed voice in the world of original, ambitious cinema. 

1. Mad Max: Fury Road

The most pure, thrilling, enjoyable cinematic experience of the year, George Miller's magnum opus is the best action flick of this century so far. Adrenaline pumps like nitrous oxide through my veins as I watch this movie. It is complete sensory nirvana as George Miller fills every frame with colour, dirt, grime, fire and the roar of machines coming directly at us. We even give a crap about the plight of our heroes, played with assured, confident badassery by an unstoppable Charlize Theron and a primitive Tom Hardy. Singular images and moments from this movie are so original and crazy but make total sense given the dirty, post-apocalyptic universe; every detail is grounded by sound creative logic. Please: Hollywood and Mr. Miller, make more of this. Thanks.

Top 10 Movies of 2014

10. Gone Girl
David Fincher's deceptively sly, disturbing adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel is a consistently delicious meditation on sex, lies and media iconography. Rosamund Pike completely commits herself to a layered, deranged role.

9. Inherent Vice
Offering the closest thing you might get to a theatrical contact-high, PTA's Pynchon adaptation does justice to the author's penchant for absurd comedy, nonsensical plotting and poignant historical commentary. Worth watching, if only for Martin Short's scene stealing cameo as a cocaine-snorting Dentist.

8. Guardians of the Galaxy
A huge win for Disney/Marvel/nerds, James Gunn's space-action comedy was the top box-office grosser of the year and for good reason. Fully realized and filled with real soul (as truly evidenced by the funk-soaked soundtrack of 70's hits), this is the rare hollywood film that takes as much time for inventive space battles as it does for hilarious, endearing dialogue between CGI and human characters. The cinematic minting of Chris Pratt (a funny, funny, amazing man) has been one of the best surprises of the year.

7. The Lego Movie
Easily the best animated film of the year, The Lego Movie's limitless comic, visual and aural imagination amounts to a sheer a blast of cinematic joy. Lord/Miller, currently the top comedic writing/directing team in the biz, also inject a necessary nostalgia and anti-conformist spirit that infuses the breathlessly told story with actual weight. An instant classic.

6. Concerning Violence 
Hugo Goran Olsson's largely unseen follow up to The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (only having been screened in London and New York) is one of the most searing indictments of European (and American) atrocities in Africa committed to film. Using the words of Frantz Fanon's anti-imperialist The Wretched of the Earth and documentary footage from Swedish news archives (which makes up 95% of the film's footage), Olsson presents a clear and present case for the formulas that create armed resistance to occupation.

5. Life Itself 
Master documentarian Steve James lends a careful, meticulous but satisfyingly soulful touch to the life story of Roger Ebert, the world's most famous film critic. Not one to shy away from difficult themes or imagery, James smartly puts us bedside with Ebert as his health deteriorates, all the while building a convincing case for a perfectly flawed, but brilliant man who battled with alcoholism, ego and weight. But what shines through most is Ebert's true love for film, family and the joys of a fully-lived life.

4. Boyhood
For most of Richard Linklater's magnum opus, we see people. And as the film - following 12-years in the life of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) and his family - progresses and the actors begin to show their age, we start to see ourselves. I think the unanimous adoration for Boyhood comes from a very real place; it is not borne out of nostalgia for a more precious, innocent time, but from Linklater's ability to capture the thrills, melancholy and joy inherent in the twists and turns of growing older.

3. Interstellar 
Painting on the grandest of all cinematic canvasses, visionary director Christopher Nolan literally swings for the moon with his latest, a space exploration that literally transcends time and place. Admittedly, this is Nolan at his messiest and it deserves all the critical dissection it has received, but for sheer awe and thought-inspiring spectacle, Interstellar belongs on the very same shelf as Kubrick's 2001 and Kaufman's The Right Stuff.

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Minute for minute, the most pleasurable film of the year, Wes Anderson's comic caper is at once a sumptuous cinematic feast, hilarious heist flick and richly moving ode to an era of irrevocable change. Anderson's films have been described as being only for those with taste's similar to the director's, an opinion I have always met with derision. But with each passing film, he has been (literally) showing us his evolution from maker of meticulously framed and planned filmic storybooks to an auteur that commands a serious grasp of all the available cinematic tools as well as a keen sense of the intricacies of the human heart. 

1. Keep On Keepin On / Whiplash / We Are The Best! 
From Boyhood, through to The Lego Movie and many other films released this year, I kept seeing the theme of human expression, be it artistic, scientific or wholly creative in nature. In my own life, music has been my most significant form of expression. To me, the freedom and satisfaction that comes along with creating, practicing and playing music for an audience are wholly tangible; almost vital. The three best movies of the year, for me, managed to capture this same feeling in - virtually unidentical - cinematic bubbles all their own.

 

Keep on Keepin On is a remarkable documentary (perhaps still pending a proper theatrical, streaming or DVD release) that follows the burgeoning, fruitful relationship between Clark Terry, an ailing, legendary jazz trumpeter and 23-year-old blind piano prodigy Justin Kauflin, just as Kauflin prepares to compete in an elite, international competition. First time director Alan Hicks draws on his years as a drummer to portray, accurately and intimately, the remarkable bonds created between fellow musicians.

Whiplash is wunderkind director Damien Chazelle's intense cinematic exploration of fiery artistic ambition that happens to be played with sticks. But I found it less of a realistic portrayal of the modern jazz drummer's struggle than a breakneck, machismo-fueled celebration of the almost violent passion in the foundations of the (film and musical) genre. So bruising that some of the (permanent) calluses on my hands began to harden as I gripped the seat.

And finally we come to We Are The Best, Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's latest, following three unapologetically shit-disturbing 12-year-old girls in 1982 Stockholm aspiring to start a punk band - with almost zero musical talent. Hilarious, rebellious and heartfelt, this is one for the heralded canon of punk rock cinema. Moodysson directs with an honest, unflinchingly critical eye toward Swedish society in the early eighties, a time that was fraught with Cold War-imbued paranoid rage towards the political other; a time where to be punk was to embrace a dead art form.

Those that choose to express themselves through music, in all of its structures, practices and century-old traditions, know that how and why we choose to play is more important than the playing itself. Today, it is increasingly difficult to have ourselves truly heard in the growing and crowded cacophony of digital voices. For this reason, it seems only natural that we gravitate to cinema that so beautifully offers artistic solace amidst an uncertain future.

Corey A. Caplan's Top 10 Films of 2011

 10. The Descendants

I think it’s great the way that director Alexander Payne’s films always seem to sneak up on us with an unexpected wealth of comedy, then drama, then pathos, and ultimately beauty. In his latest take on his favorite subject, the modern middle-aged male, Payne paints with ugly humanistic tendencies set against a lush Hawaiian backdrop. His leading man, the always delightful Mr. George Clooney, is a perfect guide as the conflicted heir to an untouched swath of land who is dealing with a dying wife and her infidelities.

9. Project Nim

You cannot deny this: films about Monkeys have consistently entertained audiences since the dawn of the 20th century. What you might want to deny, are the tears that you will shed by the end of this emotional roller coaster ride of a documentary by James Marsh (“Man on Wire”). A thorough examination of the life of Nim Chimpsky, a Chimpanzee with remarkable communicative abilities, Marsh pulls heart strings from the human stories of those he imprinted on, while stoking anger against opportunists and corrupt scientists. Thought provoking and memorable.

8. Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest is my favorite hip-hop group of all time. Their best tunes are intense, funky and full of life. Thankfully director Michael Rapaport, best known for his work as a Hollywood actor, has made a film that is entirely reflective of ATCQ’s music. A colourful, smoothly edited, infectious documentary, Rapaport manages to wring raw feeling and a welcomed exhilaration out of the story of true musicians. They are creative, intelligent men once broken up by massive egos, but irrevocably united by the funkiness of their music.

7. 50/50

Sentimental without being sappy, Jonathan Levine’s follow up to the highly enjoyable “The Wackness” is a finely acted, funny and sincere piece of understated filmmaking. Starring the consistently wonderful Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam, a 28-year-old radio producer dealing with an extremely rare case of spinal cancer, “50/50” surprised everyone with its emotionally affecting approach to coming to terms with youthful mortality. Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick shine in supporting roles.

6. The Interrupters

Arguably the most “important” documentary of the year, director Steve James comes full circle with similar themes revolving around the black experience in America with his latest about a team of ex-gang members in Chicago; “violence interrupters” who specifically target at-risk youth, eliminating violent behavior at the street level. James, known for injecting his personal history and experience into his films, takes a step back here and lets his compelling subjects tell their stories. A scene involving an ex-thief confronting his victims months after a stick-up at a barber shop packs an emotional wallop because James, who filmed and directed, is unflinching in letting ugly, cathartic moments play out. Exceptional and raw documentary filmmaking.

5. Attack the Block

Joe Cornish’s first feature is a British Hoodlum-Action-Comedy-Horror film with a science fiction twist. And although on paper it seems like another overstuffed debut, it is impressive just how much of it works, with emotional power to spare. Following the tale of a gang of project-dwelling troublemakers as they inadvertently spark an interplanetary struggle against, in the memorable but perfect words of one character “gorilla-wolf looking motherf**ers”, Cornish executes one white-knuckled action sequence after another and finds time to flesh out his characters and the harsh socioeconomic realities that define them. Throw in some very memorable monster SFX and naturalistic performances by many first-time actors and you have one of the most surprisingly original films in recent memory.

4. Drive

A taut, intense and at times gorgeous piece of action-arthouse cinema, Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest isn’t merely a vehicle for Ryan Gosling’s simultaneously brooding and vulnerable lead character, but an exquisitely directed and realized meditation on identity and survival in a dog-eat-dog world. Meticulously photographed and edited, Drive is at times ultra-violent, hyper-stylized and thought-provoking. Gosling plays the “driver”, a mysterious, stoic figure with almost superhuman-like abilities behind the wheel of a car, mixed up in a violent mob-war involving an innocent mother played by an angelic Carey Mulligan, her son and (in an Oscar worthy role) Albert Brooks as a murderous kingpin. As with previous Refn outings, lots of blood is spilled and the atmospheric tension is amped up to 11, but what propels this film into the upper echelons of violent car-chase cinema, is its ability to thematically resonate while providing the requisite thrills. A film I was not able to shake from my conscience for a long time.

3. Beauty Day

A kitchen sink of a documentary, first-timer Jay Cheel’s “Beauty Day” is an uproarious, tender and poignant look at a dude who lives life to the limit. It is the story of the unbelievable life of St. Catherines, Ontario native Ralph Zavadil a.k.a Cap’n Video, whose popular cable access show in the early 90’s featured the Cap’n doing Jackass-like stunts ages before Jackass was even a nugget of an idea. What elevates Cheel’s film from what could have been a silly glorification of Zavadil’s admittedly hilariously dangerous television show is a willingness to get to the human core of the story; we see Zavadil literally break his neck trying to jump off a ladder propped up against a tree into his pool (an infamous stunt that landed him his 15 minutes of global notoriety) contrasted with harsh, emotionally sincere reactions from his mother and close friends. It’s also a beautifully shot and edited documentary with an evocative soundtrack and style to spare. This is the kind of seemingly effortless production that has made Canada one of the world leaders in energetic modern documentary filmmaking.

2. Cafe De Flore

The best Canadian film of the year, “Cafe De Flore”, Jean-Marc Vallee’s return back to his Quebecois roots after the big budget “The Young Victoria”, is a treat for the eyes, ears, mind and most importantly, the heart. A time-shifting, kinetic kaleidoscope of a film, “Cafe De Flore” asks more scathingly open questions about empathy, destiny and humanistic connection than any indie drama in recent memory. The film follows the parallel stories of Antoine (Kevin Parent), a DJ in modern day Montreal with a seemingly perfect life and a voluptuous new fiancee (Evelyne Brochu) experiencing a crisis of sudden guilt and remorse; and Jacqueline (the fantastic Vanessa Paradis) a single mother in 1960s Paris struggling for the love of her son, a child with Down syndrome, after a new girl enters his life. Vallee keeps both stories moving at a brisk pace, and like his previous Quebecois feature “C.R.A.Z.Y”, punctuates every scene with a heavy dose of Pink Floyd and other popular tunes from years past. But the use of music here is innovative in the way it questions the idea of the “shared experience” of a vinyl record: As the stories begin to interweave (revealing just how that happens would be a crime) and musical themes blend together, a philosophical magic trick is played on the audience, and if you’ve managed to fully engage with the story, what you’re left with is an extravagant, almost mystical realization about the timelessness of tragic romanticism and the power of love that binds us all. Yeah, it’s that deep.

1. The Tree of Life

“Feeling” and “emotion” are adjectives really thrown around a lot in the discussion and writing of film. The truth is that there is a dearth of films that really can be evocative enough to deserve such descriptors. Director Terrence Malick has spent his entire 40+ year career searching for these words and injecting them into every possible orifice of each of his five films. With “The Tree of LIfe”, he has achieved the fullest expression of his craft. Every single colour, expression and cut in this film pulses with a life and a fervor that is just so rare in modern filmmaking.

Keeping in form with most of Malick’s works, Tree of Life is an abstract poem, relying mostly on the lush power of his images in tandem with a delicate but grandiose soundtrack to tell his story, which centers on Jack (Sean Penn), an architect experiencing a melancholic relapse of the trauma brought on by the death of his younger brother in decades past. As Jack looks back in time to revisit his childhood, growing up in 60’s suburban Texas under the strict, demeaning rule of his father (Brad Pitt) and his delicate but idealistic mother (Jessica Chastain), Malick literally takes to the beginning of his world - the actual beginning of the world. What follows is a hypnotic and operatic “creation” sequence that transitions into the beautiful innocence of Jack's childhood, to the frustrating, dark revelations that accompany his adolescence, and eventually towards a sort of "afterlife" sequence.

It’s hard not to talk about Tree of Life without being unreasonably abstract and long-winded, but that’s because the film operates in the same way. For those that have completely connected with the film, they know that this is not a criticism. Malick paints his canvas with the precision of Monet and the wild volatility of Jackson Pollock, conveying both the messiness and confusion of human existence and the unifying, inspirational rhythms inherent in the universe. But that is life at its core though, isn’t it? A constant push and pull between the darkness of chaos and the affirmation of singularity. This is the kind of film is not afraid to leap with its eyes closed into the deepest, most human philosophical dillemas. For any serious movie fan, it’s worth taking the plunge.