A thoughtful and well-written (understatement) list of the Top Movies of 2015, by journalist/novelist/broadcaster Oliver Farry.
Farry leads you off the beaten track, although a couple of popular films that reached a wide audience are on the list. But he gives a great sense of what else is going on around the world, and there is so much here to discover – to broaden your horizons, so to speak. I also loved Arabian Nights from Portuguese director Miguel Gomes (a three-parter, released as 3 separate films: and this was recently: they may still be in arthouse theatres), The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow-up documentary to the harrowing The Act of Killing, about the genocidal gangsters who wreaked havoc in Indonesia, a film I admired more than Farry did – although I agree that the follow-up is even more upsetting, and such an explosive topic that many of the crew are listed as Anonymous – similar to Jafar Panahi’s credit-list in his first film after his arrest, This Is Not a Film, a film on a zip drive smuggled out of Iran in the middle of a pastry.) And I loved A Most Violent Year, starring Oscar Issac (in a role that completely transformed him from – at least my introduction of him – the character in Inside Llewyn Davis) and Jessica Chastain. A mob movie that feels extremely small-time and petty: an interesting take on a familiar genre. And very glad to see the smart horror film It Follows included. For a long time, that film was in my Top 10. Taxi made it on my Top 10, the latest from dissident and hounded and supposedly “silenced” Iranian director Jafar Panahi, my favorite.
Many here I have not seen: I missed the screenings for Aferim! (bummed out about it, because the films coming out of Romania are so exciting: along with Iran, it is one of the most exciting film scenes in the world), and Cemetery of Splendour, by master Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. And many others I need to check out.
Once again, here is Oliver Farry’s list.
