Daniel Getahun · Matt Levine · Jeremy Meckler
Michael Montag · Frank Olson · Lee Purvey
Peter Schilling Jr. · Kathie Smith · Geoffrey Stueven · Peter Valelly
Michael Montag · Frank Olson · Lee Purvey
Peter Schilling Jr. · Kathie Smith · Geoffrey Stueven · Peter Valelly
Daniel Getahun
For me the biggest surprise of 2015 was that I enjoyed reheated cinematic leftovers. I have loathed the now decade-old trend of remaking old classics and rebooting franchises, but suddenly this year I found myself not only going to these blockbusters (with a skeptical smirk), but actually enjoying them. In fact among my favorites were three movies - Mad Max: Fury Road, Creed, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens - that showed that with the right seasoning and recipe, it's possible to defrost some frozen leftovers and make comfort food that tastes just like it does in your memory.
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Matt Levine
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HM: What We Do in the Shadows, one of the only movies I've embarrassed myself by laughing too loudly at. |
Jeremy Meckler
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Best Repertory Screening:
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Michael Montag
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Best Repertory Screenings:
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Frank Olson
Two of the best movies that I saw anywhere this year appeared at the Milwaukee Film Festival but have yet to receive a non-festival release in the US, thus making them ineligible for this list. Make sure that you make time in 2016 for The Club, Pablo Larrain’s lacerating yet wryly funny indictment of the Catholic Church (which would have been my number one had it been eligible) and Embrace of the Serpent, a visionary epic that recalls Aguirre, The Wrath of God as a surreal yet viscerally authentic depiction of dangerous jungle landscapes.
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Lee Purvey
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HM: Clouds of Sils Maria, Tangerine, She's Funny That Way |
Peter Schilling Jr.
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In a year when everyone's talking about how Hollywood finally got it right (ostensibly with Mad Max and Star Wars), I found myself championing independent and international cinema. Spielberg was a surprise with 7/10th of Bridge of Spies, but for my money no film was better, or even more exciting, than Céline Sciamma's Girlhood, Peter Strickland's The Duke of Burgundy, or Sean Baker's Tangerine (which has as much driving excitement as Fury Road.)
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Best Repertory Screening:
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Kathie Smith
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Geoffrey Stueven
It was the year of the individual, again. Films named after their human subjects dominate my list, but otherwise their conceptions of character have little in common beyond the broad-sweeping and obvious: self-determination, self-destruction, genius. These are privileges not afforded the five sisters of Mustang, a late addition to my list. Here’s the rare cinematic case, scarcely imaginable here in the U.S., of a first-person plural POV. The sisters move as one, at least until the same patriarchal regime that binds them together picks them off one by one and a lone narrator emerges.
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Best Repertory Screenings:
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Peter Valelly
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