25 Best Films of 2015
December 7, 2015 1:04 PM   Subscribe

Rolling Stone writer David Ehrlich's video countdown of the best films of 2015... [Vimeo] (Note: May contain spoilers for PHOENIX.)

Alternate youtube link.

COUNTDOWN:
#25: Girlhood
#24: Tangerine
#23: Mustang
#22: Junun
#21: The Forbidden Room
#20: James White
#19: The Mend
#18: The Hateful Eight
#17: Heaven Knows What
#16: Black Coal, Thin Ice
#15: Listen To Me Marlon
#14: Anomalisa
#13: Tokyo Tribe
#12: Magic Mike XXL
#11: Clouds of Sils Maria
#10: Mad Max: Fury Road
#9: Mistress America
#8: Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
#7: Eden
#6: The Duke of Burgundy
#5: A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting on Existence
#4: The Look of Silence
#3: Phoenix
#2: World of Tomorrow
#1: Carol

MUSIC:
"Runaway" by Kanye West (THE NIGHT BEFORE)
"Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin (TRAINWRECK)
"Diamonds" by Rihanna (GIRLHOOD)
"Roked" by Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and The Rajasthan Express (JUNUN)
"Happy Together" by The Turtles (45 YEARS)
"Sinnerman" performed by Nina Simone (WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE?)
"Girls Just Want to Have" performed by Cyndi Lauper (ANOMALISA)
"Opening" by Carter Burwell (CAROL)
"Speak Low" performed by Nina Hoss (PHOENIX)
"Tokyo Tribe" performed by Shôta Sometani (TOKYO TRIBE)

PREVIOUS YEARS:
THE 25 BEST FILMS OF 2014
THE 25 BEST FILMS OF 2013
THE 25 BEST FILMS OF 2012
posted by bluecore (25 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
I haven't seen a lot of these, but it seems like a great list. Looking forward to watching the video. I'm looking forward to The Revenant at the end of this year, and The Witch early next year as well.

One thing that would definitely go on the top of my own list would be It Follows. Edit: oops, that was 2014. Stupid imperfect perception of time!
posted by codacorolla at 1:07 PM on December 7, 2015


Wait, what? Magic Mike XXL? I mean... I saw it...it had enjoyable moments. But #12 on a best of the year? Not even.
posted by dnash at 1:11 PM on December 7, 2015


I was just doing my own mental top ten list (or top eight, since I left room for both Hateful Eight and The Revenant still to come) late the other night while walking my dog. Looks like I only have a couple in common with this guy.

8. The Wolfpack
7. Sicario
6. Kumiko The Treasure Hunter
5. It Follows
4. Dope
3. Spotlight
2. Mad Max
1. Montage of Heck

Note that I'm not sure if the RS list is counting docs, and a lot of those I haven't seen yet, and generally speaking my favorite movie from any year is something weird that I only hear about years later and go in unexpecting and it blows me away, etc etc.....
posted by mannequito at 1:15 PM on December 7, 2015


Have there already been screenings of The Hateful Eight?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:16 PM on December 7, 2015


I was about to comment in the earlier post about A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night that it was at the top of my Best of 2015 list so I'll just leave that here.
posted by cazoo at 1:41 PM on December 7, 2015


Fury Road should be much higher on this list. Witness me.
posted by Windigo at 1:45 PM on December 7, 2015 [8 favorites]


No Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this list is invalid.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:21 PM on December 7, 2015


Folks, the titles that did or didn't make the list are not what's interesting about this. What's interesting about this is the video countdown, which Ehrlich assembles lovingly and with lots of skill. It's pretty amazing stuff and even if you disagree with his choices he does an excellent job of selecting scenes and shots that bolster his case for the films he selects.

Also, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Respect.

(I swear I'm not David Ehrlich or David Ehrlich's mom. I don't even know the guy, but I think he does a bang-up job with these year after year.)

I'm not sure if the RS list is counting docs

Yes. Listen to Me Marlon is a doc.

Have there already been screenings of The Hateful Eight?

Yes, in both New York and L.A. I'm not sure about elsewhere. Tomorrow night will be at least the second NYC screening.

I was about to comment in the earlier post about A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night that it was at the top of my Best of 2015 list so I'll just leave that here.

That's a 2014 film and received some critics' awards last year.

No Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this list is invalid.

The studio has made a conscious decision to keep Star Wars under wraps. It's not eligible for most critics awards this year because it hasn't screened for any of them yet.
posted by Mothlight at 2:29 PM on December 7, 2015 [4 favorites]


I was pretty disappointed by A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting on Existence (although what a great title). I loved You the Living and while Pigeon had some good bits, it just didn't hold me like Andersson's earlier film.
posted by octothorpe at 2:46 PM on December 7, 2015


"Phoenix" has an ending that saves it and the performance Nina Kunzendorf, but was otherwise pretty lukewarm.

I don't get the "Magic Mike " thing, is this a cultural moment I just don't understand?

It's an interesting list, which is saying something.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:50 PM on December 7, 2015


No Ex Machina, Sicario, Spotlight, The Gift, yet somehow Magic Mike XXL qualified.

I will give a +1 to Clouds of Sils Maria. That film stuck with me for a while.

I'd also like to give a hearty endorsement to "Wild Tales" which was one of the best films I saw this year.
posted by smithsmith at 3:12 PM on December 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


I loved Phoenix, and I'm glad I didn't see this video before seeing the film.
posted by sutt at 3:58 PM on December 7, 2015


Wasn't World Of Tomorrow supposed to be awful?
posted by grumpybear69 at 4:52 PM on December 7, 2015


grumpybear69: "Wasn't World Of Tomorrow supposed to be awful?"

Maybe you're thinking of Tomorrowland?
posted by octothorpe at 4:54 PM on December 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oops, I was thinking of the George Clooney Disney movie. Tomorrowland. As noted by #.
posted by grumpybear69 at 4:56 PM on December 7, 2015


Folks, the titles that did or didn't make the list are not what's interesting about this. What's interesting about this is the video countdown, which Ehrlich assembles lovingly and with lots of skill. It's pretty amazing stuff and even if you disagree with his choices he does an excellent job of selecting scenes and shots that bolster his case for the films he selects.

The titles kinda do matter though since maybe the titles on his list and their order were somewhat informed by the process of editing together the video. It's probably not likely, but it definitely something I think about when this list looks nothing like my list and nothing much like many of the other lists I've seen so far.

It's too early for these lists. Most people haven't had opportunities to see many of what will be considered best of the year.
posted by dogwalker at 7:44 PM on December 7, 2015


God, I LOVED Fury Road!
posted by WalkerWestridge at 8:53 PM on December 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


Looks like a handful of these are on American Netflix at the moment:

#25: Girlhood
#24: Tangerine
...
#16: Black Coal, Thin Ice
...
#6: The Duke of Burgundy
#5: A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting on Existence
posted by codacorolla at 9:15 PM on December 7, 2015 [5 favorites]


Finally got around to watching this. Very well done.

As others have noted, this is really more about the creator's lovingly crafted thank you to the movies that touched him this year. The list is also interesting, but still somewhat secondary.
posted by Alex404 at 11:54 PM on December 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


I've only seen two of these, but given that I went to maybe five movies this year, I think that's a decent hit rate. And I saw #1. :)

A lot of these look interesting, many I hadn't even heard of. Cool.
posted by kyrademon at 3:04 AM on December 8, 2015


I think Magic Mike XXL is the best movie I saw this year.
posted by PinkMoose at 4:14 AM on December 8, 2015 [2 favorites]


Girlhood is pretty amazing even though the marketing decision to ape the title of Linkletter's recent film is annoying.
posted by octothorpe at 5:22 AM on December 8, 2015


Ehrlich podcasts on movies regularly (with two to three other awesome people) on Fighting in the War Room. (Mefi post on FITWR here.) As a usually avid listener to the podcast, much of the content of this list comes at completely no surprise. I think his co-podcasters were also kind of surprised by how much David enjoyed Magic Mike XXL. But, that's kind of his thing. There's usually one or two films over the course of the year that you simply do not expect him to enjoy, and he enjoys the hell out of them.

And you might argue that Ehrlich is Carol, by how much he adores the movie.
posted by Atreides at 6:45 AM on December 8, 2015


I have seen one (1) of these. Grrrr.
posted by doctornemo at 11:51 AM on December 8, 2015


I've only seen five of these so far, but there are several others on my to watch list. (As much as I love streaming services, it's made it a lot more difficult to see movies that aren't major releases in theaters.)

But I really like how diverse his tastes seem to be, and how well he ties things together and presents them in the video. This is obviously not a consensus list, and I like that about it.
posted by ernielundquist at 12:48 PM on December 8, 2015


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