This is Part two of our Two-Part first ever post. Part One should be pretty easy to find from here. I’m not even gonna link it for you. Enjoy Papas’ picks!
10. Mad Max:
90-minute car chases would not usually find their way to my list, nor would a movie with quite so little plot. But in a year where a number of well-received movies built themselves on their spectacle alone (see: The Hateful Eight, The Revenant), George Miller’s managed to stand out by being so batshit insane that it worked, and took the cake to boot. My heart raced, and that was just from watching on my 32-inch TV- a superlative indeed.
9. Joy:
It’s weird. I will be the first to admit that. But somehow, just as with Mad Max, it just works. David O. Russell drives as much pipe-dreamy kitsch into this movie and asks his repertoire star Jennifer Lawrence to bear it singlehandedly. And, boy, does she. Lawrence’s growth as the titular character brings to mind Al Pacino in The Godfather, and while the rest of the ensemble perhaps does not rise to that level, it is more than enough for Joy to make this list.
8 and 7. Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur:
People took great measures this year to draw the distinction between the adultish Inside Out and the more youth-oriented, though just as whimsical, Good Dinosaur. Those are misguided at best, malevolent at worst. These two great entries into the Pixar canon, stand out for what they both are: outstanding movies. And yes, The Good Dinosaur does get the upper hand here. Inside Out was a wonderful journey along Pixar’s typical lines, but there was something fun and refreshing about the simple wonder of The Good Dinosaur.
6. Bridge of Spies:
Speaking of tried-and-true, “Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg do 20th Century period piece” is not exactly headline news. But the cache of immense personal charm and talent couple with a message about the better angels of out nature, at a time when it is all too needed, to create a taut and uplifting thriller.
5. The Peanuts Movie:
Look, sometimes a movie gets on here just because it made me smile. No movie did that more this year than The Peanuts Movie. I’m a sucker for pure nostalgic joy, and this one got me big time. I dare it not to get you too.
4. Trainwreck:
If Amy Schumer’s Bud Light Party can promise me more hilarity like this, then they have my vote in November. The ensemble cast (looking at you, LeBron James) makes masterful work of Schumer’s bawdy material, all under the sure hand of Judd Apatow. Yeah, it hews close to Apatow’s usual formula, but if the rest of Apatow’s films could hew a little closer to this, the world would be a better- and funnier- place.
3. The Danish Girl:
Tom Hooper and the incredible pairing of Alicia Vikander and Eddie Redmayne create an impressive cycle of the ordinary and the extraordinary: a couple face ordinary challenges made extraordinary by their extraordinary circumstances, and they struggle ordinarily and extraordinarily to overcome, which, of course make for an extraordinary film. (Try saying that ten times fast.)
2. Brooklyn:
A quiet, perfect little film. Saoirse Ronan is the gem among the cast, with each glance and pregnant pause managing to be offhand and yet so meaningful. But she does not carry it alone, and together they make the movie gleam like green fields of Ireland themselves.
1. Spotlight:
A journalistic process piece. A political thriller. A horror movie. A test of faith. This movie is all of those things and more. For an Irish (and Greek) Catholic who went to parochial school in New England practicing a faith given to him from his Bostonian grandmother via his mother, this movie was always going to be meaningful. But even I could not begin to expect its overwhelming power. See it. And brace yourself.
Movie I still need to see: Steve Jobs– I was in a four month cultural black hole, guys. Something had to give. And unfortunately, it was an Aaron Sorkin movie. Thank goodness for Amazon Video.
Most underrated movie: Tomorrowland– Just because it’s a Disney movie doesn’t mean it has to be a daisies and sunshine. Yes, it was bleak, but the trifecta George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, and Britt Robertson, made the end of the terrible world a happy occasion.
Movie I feel most conflicted about: Star Wars: The Force Awakens– Some days, it seemed like it could make it’s way on to the list above. Other days, it seemed like it was a sadistically tired retread of a movie we all have seen a million times. I’m sure I will decide which it is for sure while I rewatch it many, many times for the rest of my life.
Life After Wawa 