As mentioned before, the year 2015 is moving on with breakneck speed, it seems. Currently we're already at the halfway point, and can look back at what's been a pretty surprising cinematic six months. So we asked ourselves what we liked best from 2015 so far, similar to
what we asked our readers earlier. We checked each other's preferences, decided the time was ripe for another poll, and tallied the results.
This time, no fewer than 24 Screen Anarchy contributors submitted lists of their Top 5 films of the first half of 2015, and 82 films featured in it. A complete list of all those titles can be found at the end of our countdown.
So click through the images, and check if your own favorites are on our list!
Or better yet even, maybe discover some titles to get curious about...
Ryland Aldrich, Kwenton Bellette, Christopher Bourne, Dustin Chang, Simon Cocks, Pierce Conran, Patryk Czekaj, Michele "Izzy" Galgana, Zach Gayne, Jaime Grijalba Gomez, Kurt Halfyard, J Hurtado, James Marsh, Peter Martin, Eric Ortiz Garcia, Hugo Ozman, Shelagh Rowan-Legg, Daniel Rutledge, Trung Rwo, Jim Tudor, Benjamin Umstead, Loïc Valceschini and Ernesto Zelaya Miñano
contributed to this story.
Let's start with five runners-up: these films all were literally one vote shy from entering the Top 10!
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (seen above)
Amy
It Follows
What We Do in the Shadows
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
On the number ten position: We Are Still Here.
Ted Geoghegan (we pronounce that as "Key-gun") has been working for years in the horror film industry circuit, in a variety of jobs and positions, and it's great to see his first feature as a director succeed as well as it does. A good fan does not automatically make a good creator, but Ted has (and brought together) enough talent to make We Are Still Here a special entry in the haunted house sub-genre.
It starts stylish and mesmerizing, and has great acting and cinematography, as Peter Martin mentioned in his review here. And even when it turns into a twisted and bloody thriller, it keeps hitting all the right beats.
On the number seven position: Entertainment.
No, that's not a typo: we have three number sevens in the list, a triple ex aequo. All three had been rated by several people in exactly the same way as well, meaning that under every fair counting mechanism, they still end up with the same amount of points. So, this list doesn't have a number nine or eight.
But on to the title: Rick Alverson makes a distinct, caustic, peculiar kind of "funny" films, and Entertainment fits in that mould, same as his previous film The Comedy did.
It makes his films an acquired taste, but there is no denying his craftsmanship. Ben Umstead called Entertainment masterful in his review.
Also on the number seven position: Inherent Vice.
Lots of people saw director Paul Thomas Anderson's newest film in 2014 already, but outside of the Americas it took its time travelling. Joaquin Phoenix plays a private eye at the end of the 1960s, who has to solve an insanely complicated case while being in a drug-induced haze, to hilarious results.
Dustin Chang called it an enjoyable romp in his review, and looking at its place in this list, many agree.
And ALSO on the number seven position: Whiplash.
Speaking of a staggered release: Ryland Aldrich reviewed Whiplash in January 2014 already. Hell, it was even in our 2014 Top 10 list already!
Never mind that though: Ryland called Damien Chazelle's film "an expertly crafted film, extremely entertaining, and one of the most crowd-pleasing Sundance openers ever". That was then, and it still is true now. Chazelle offers a view at a battle of wills between a dictatorially strict teacher and his talented (and decreasingly meek) pupil, and the acting by J. K. Simmons and Miles Teller is fantastic.
On the number four position: Court.
Wait, what?! Yes, once again we have a triple ex aequo, with three films taking the number four position. No fives and sixes in this list either.
Chaitanya Tamhane's Court is racking up awards and praise from all over the world, pointing him out as a talent to follow. Notable among those are India's National Award for best Film, and the two it won at the Venice Film Festival.
In the film, you see an old activist battle the Indian judicial court after being held in custody on absurd trumped-up charges. Dustin Chang called Court "a sobering, eye opening experience" in his review, and word-of-mouth on the film is very, very good indeed.
Also on the number four position: Selma.
Ava DuVernay's reenactment of the 1965 civil rights protests involving Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, James Bevel, John Lewis, and many others, has been met with great acclaim, both for the nuanced portrayals and great use of music.
In his review, Jason Gorber says the film "manages to get a near perfect blend of story drama, historical interest and rich and powerful performances".
And ALSO on the number four position: Victoria.
Making a single-shot film gets trickier the longer you try to make that shot. On top of that, it's a risky undertaking at best: your film may look gimmicky, and you take away one of cinema's most important toolboxes: editing.
Now take Sebastian Schipper's Victoria, which does the single-shot thing but lasts a whopping two-and-a-half hours! Not only that, it gets rave reviews from those who have seen it, or "experienced it" rather, as that is apparently more appropriate. In his review, Jeremy O. Harris even says the following: "Schipper and co. have dropped a nuke onto the stage of international cinema, daring the rest of the world to come ask them: How Is That Possible?"
Whoa!
In third place: Ex Machina.
Alex Garland's debut film as a director seems to be about the consequences of creating an artificial intelligence, until it suddenly targets something far more exploitative and dark, and moves its focus away from the science altogether. In her review, Shelagh Rowan-Legg mostly voiced disappointment over clichéed sexism and missed opportunities. When we polled reactions from within Team ScreenAnarchy, we got a lot of varied answers indeed!
Divisiveness could have gotten this one a lot lower in the list, had we polled for worst film as well. But the pro-film crowd (me included) felt strongly enough about Ex Machina, to make it end up in third place!
In second place: Inside Out.
Pixar is back, and this time, they're mad. Or emotional, rather. It deals with the emotions of a girl just after a move, while she moves into puberty, and is far from the kiddie fare you might expect, based on its visual design.
In his review, Jason Gorber calls the film an "exceptional work", and he also says that "This is Pixar growing up, and it's all the better for it."
Well, they almost won the top position in our list, so they are certainly doing SOMETHING right!
And the number one is: Mad Max: Fury Road!
Surprised? Probably not. Of all the ScreenAnarchy writers who participated in this list, a whopping three quarters had this title in their Top-5s, a third of which had it in position one even.
So yes, despite an often-aborted restart, a vacuous script, a troubled shoot, disastrous test screenings, arduous reshoots, and staggering fan anticipation, director George Miller delivered, and delivered magnificently. Old school action with real stunts looked awesome on the big screen again, and the lean story with strong characters refreshingly helped audiences invest in all the booms and bangs.
In his review, Jason Gorber calls it a tour-de-force masterpiece, and I won't fight him over it, even though I would undoubtedly ride into Valhalla glorious and shiny.
And here is the full list: all titles forwarded by everyone. In total, 82 titles were mentioned.
Interestingly, while all participants forwarded five titles, over two thirds of all the titles in this list were mentioned by only one participant each, like my personal number one Liza, the Fox Fairy (pictured above). It is a testament to how different and eclectic our tastes really are here at ScreenAnarchy... and that there are always more awesome films around than you can see in one lifetime.
'71
A German Youth
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
Aferim!
Alive
American Sniper
Amy
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Blackhat
Bridgend
Cartel Land
Chappie
Clouds of Sils Maria
Cop Car
Court
Deathgasm
Der Samurai
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
End of the Tour
Entertainment
Ernie Biscuit
Ex Machina
Far from the Maddin Crowd
Finders Keepers
Forget Me Not
Furious 7
Fury
Gangnam Blues
Girlhood
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Good Night Mommy
Helios
Inherent Vice
Inside Out
It Follows
Kung Fu Jungle
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
Li Wen at East Lake
Liza, the Fox Fairy (seen above)
Love & Mercy
Mad Max: Fury Road
Madonna
Manson Family Vacation
Mommy
NH10
On The Rim Of The Sky
Pale Moon
Phoenix
Port of Call
Queen of Earth
Selma
Shaun the Sheep
Slow West
Solomon's Perjury, Part 1
Spring
Still Alice
Tangerine
The Babadook
The Connection
The Duke of Burgundy
The Left Ear
The Overnight
The Pearl Button
The Salt of the Earth
The Taking of Tiger Mountain
Things of the Aimless Wanderer
Tigers
Trois Souvenirs de ma Jeunesse
Turbo Kid
Victoria
Violet
We Are Still Here
What We Do in the Shadows
Whiplash
White God
Wild
Wild Tales
World of Tomorrow
Young Sophie Bell
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