30. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper) 
29. Steve Jobs (Danny Boyle)
To the surprise of no one, Danny Boyle directing an
Aaron Sorkin screenplay, hums along at a fever pitch for two hours of rapid
fire talking. Boyle simply decides to try and keep up with the actors, who are
(of course) walking and talking throughout – although using different formats
in the different eras, to give each their own look is an inspired choice. The
acting throughout the film is excellent – particularly Fassbender as Steve
Jobs, an asshole, who ever so slightly changes, Kate Winslet as his conscience
(even if Sorkin using a woman as a “great man’s conscience” has been done to
death at this point – but Winslet sells it), and Michael Stuhlbarg, as one of
his underlings, who strikes a surprising emotional chord. The film doesn’t have
the depth or the style of its spiritual kin – The Social Network, which was a
better movie in every way – but it’s still an excellent showcase for the
talents of the Boyle, Sorkin, Fassbender et al. 
28. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie)
How rare is it that the fifth installment in a 20
year old franchise could be argued to be the best of the series? Very rare –
but Rogue Nation may just be the best the Mission Impossible series has ever
been (really on the fourth entry – Ghost Protocol can compare). This movie has
everything you come to this series for – breakneck action, a complicated plot
of double and triple crosses, and Tom Cruise running while looking fiercely
determined. It’s also got a suspenseful sequence in an opera house that would
have made Hitchcock proud, a killer femme fatale (or is she…), lots of humor
and anything else director Christopher McQuarrie and company decide to throw at
the screen to see what will stick. This franchise seems to keep finding ways to
top itself – and really is a near perfect example of this kind of filmmaking.
27. Heaven Knows What (Joshua & Ben Safdie)
Joshua & Ben Safdie’s Heaven Knows What is one
of the most difficult films of the year to watch. It is based on the
experiences of its star – Arielle Holmes – as a drug addict, homeless teenager
on the streets of New York. Almost all of the cast are non-professional –
except for Caleb Landry Jones, who plays Holmes’ on-again, off-again boyfriend
(in the films metaphor for love and drugs – the intoxicating high when they’re
together, followed by withdrawal when they’re apart). This is not a film anyone
in their right mind would accuse of glamorizing drug use – these people do
everything possible just to get enough so they’re not miserable, they’re
constantly cold, and tired. It’s a gut-wrenching little film – one that too few
saw this year, but everyone who did will never forget.
Mia Hansen-Love’s Eden has been described by some as electronic music’s Inside Llewyn Davis – and while I wouldn’t go that far (after all, the Coen brothers movie is the best of this decade so far) – they do share some DNA, in this story that follows its protagonist for decade as he tries to make it as a DJ, falling further and further into drugs, gaining, and losing a beloved girlfriend, and then heading off into an uncertain future. The film is long – a little too long really, and does end up repeating itself as its winds its way through the decade. Still, the film, like Llewyn Davis, is not about a talentless hack who just cannot make it in the music business – it’s much sadder than that. It’s about a man who does have talent – quite a bit of talent – just not enough (a pair, identified as Daft Punk, come in and out of the movie – as if they were starring in another film running alongside this one, to show how little the hero of this moves ahead). This is Mia Hansen-Love’s third film – following The Father of My Children and Goodbye First Love – and each one keeps getting better than the one before it.
25. The Kindergarten Teacher (Nadav Lapid)
This Israeli film is essentially an enigma that
left me scratching my heading, and wondering what the hell I had just seen. The
film stars as excellent Sarit Larry as the title character, who gets involved
with one of her students, who may be some sort of poetry savant. The teacher
becomes increasingly obsessed with her pupil – and his gift – even to the point
where she’s willing to do something ridiculous to “protect” him. The boy
himself is a mystery – is there something supernatural or divine about him –
and what’s with the surreal touches in the movie. The film is a fascinating,
ambiguous film – with some of the most interesting camerawork of any film this
year. It really did deserve more attention than it got. 
24. 99 Homes (Ramin Bahrani)
Set in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis –
when the housing bubble burst, leaving many under water on their mortgages, and
in danger of losing their homes, 99 Homes really is a merciless look at the
kind of greed that leads to something like that – or more accurately, the kind
of greed that takes advantage of that. The film stars Andrew Garfield as a
young construction worker, who seems like a nice guy at first – taking care of
his mother, and his son – but then, he loses his job and his house – and ends
up working for the man who evicted him – played in one of the year’s best
performance by Michael Shannon. Shannon is a Real Estate broker – who used to
sell people their homes – and now makes more money, kicking them out and
running various other scams. Shannon is brilliant – precisely because his
arguments almost make sense – after all, he didn’t either give loans to people
who couldn’t afford them, nor take out a loan he couldn’t afford. He’s just
cleaning up other people’s mess – he just doesn’t seem to realize (or more
accurately, care), about the lives he is destroying. The film takes a misstep
in its final scenes – much like Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (1987), an obvious
influence – did as well, trying to put a happy bow on two hours of misery. It
doesn’t work – but everything up until then is great.
23. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (JJ Abrams)
I do have my problems with The Force Awakens –
mainly, that I wish that J.J. Abrams would have done something different with
the franchise, rather than just offer up what was essentially a remake of the
original film (I will be very disappointed if future films take the same
tactic). At the same time though, perhaps this is precisely what was needed for
this first new Star Wars film in a decade – a nostalgia trip that gets everyone
loving Star Wars again, so they do something more original later. It’s
undeniably one of the most entertaining films of the years – a complete and
total blast for fans for the series, that doesn’t make the mistake that Abrams
last film (Star Trek: Into Darkness) did in introducing characters and
references that they do not deal with in the context of this movie. In short,
it’s an easy pleasure slipping back into this Star Wars world. My only regret
is that my daughters are only 4 and 2 – and couldn’t share in the joy of this
one.
22. The Big Short (Adam McKay)
Co-writer and director Adam McKay found a way to do
the seemingly impossible – make a movie that explains the 2008 financial
crisis, and not make it feel like either a documentary or classroom lesson. We
have had those already – and some of them have been great (documentaries like
Inside Job, books like Too Big To Fail and, yes, The Big Short, and various
episodes of This American Life for example) – but for some reason, it makes
many people’s heads spin. Leave it to the director of Anchorman and Talladega Nights
to do something that is hugely entertaining, funny and yet also seethes with
anger over what happened, and explains it in a way that anyone could
understand. Part of that is because of the great ensemble cast Ryan Gosling and
Steve Carrell best among equals (why Christian Bale happened to be the one
singled out by The Academy – and others – I don’t get) – and part of that is
just that McKay wraps it all up in an entertaining package – like a bunch of
guys partying on the Titanic as its sinks, with a few guys trying, in vein, to
sound the alarm. The film is an entertainment – but it’s also much more
intelligent than we’re used to getting – and it marks McKay as the talented
director he must have always been. 
21. The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland)
The opening scenes of Peter Strickland’s The Duke
of Burgundy setup an erotic thriller – an homage to 1970s European soft core
porn movies – the opening title sequence could pretty much be one from that
era. As the opening credits give way to the first sequence – where a young
woman arrives at the house of an older woman, who bosses her around, and abuses
her – climaxing with some sort of sexual perversity (behind a door, that we do
not see) – we think we know what we’re in for. And then the movie shifts, we
see the same sequence again, from a different POV, that changes everything.
While there are certainly elements of the S&M erotic movie that we were
seemingly promised in those opening sequences, The Duke of Burgundy becomes a
much deeper film about, well, love – and what it means to love someone else,
and what you must sacrifice to make it work. It is also, brilliant constructed.
As with Strickland’s last film – Berberian Sound Studio – he is making films
that seem to be homages on one level, and are actually something quite
different underneath. I eagerly anticipated what he does next.
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