It’s the middle of July already and much has happened on screen so far in 2015. Jurassic World has broken box office records to become the number one movie followed by—no surprise—Avengers: Age of Ultron and Furious 7. There have been some unique comedies with great ensemble performances including the hilarious vampire mockumentary What we do in the Shadows and the sex farce The Overnight staring Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, and Jason Schwartzman. One of the biggest surprises and delights this year has been the release of Mad Max: Fury Road, which has garnered both box office success and critical praise.
We pulled together some of the films that we think are the best so far in 2015. So, if you’re determined to catch up with some of the movies and performances you’ve missed this year, here are our recommendations. Don’t forget to click on the movie title to view the trailers.
David’s Five Best Films so far
Gueros
Mad Max: Fury Road
Ex Machina
Sunshine Superman
Inside Out
Myrna’s Five Best Films so far
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Mad Max: Fury Road
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
The Wolfpack
Notable Performance by an Actor
David
John Cusack – Love and Mercy
Paul Dano – Love and Mercy
Jack O’Connell – ‘71
Myrna
Viggo Mortensen – Far From Men
Oscar Issac – Ex Machina
Ben Stiller – While We Were Young
Adam Driver – While We Were Young
Arnold Schwarzenegger – Maggie
Notable Performance by an Actress
David
Juliette Binoche – Clouds of Sils Maria
Kristin Stewart – Clouds of Sils Maria
Kristin Wigg – Welcome to Me
Myrna
Kristen Stewart – Clouds of Sils Maria
Phyllis Smith – Inside Out
Naomi Watts – While We Were Young
Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
Rinko Kikuchi – Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
What has been great about this year so far:
David
–Inside Out: The anthropomorphization of our emotions
–Slow West: Robbie Ryan’s Cinematography.
-Flying high in Sunshine Superman.
–Kingsman: The Secret Service / Mad Max: Fury Road : Villasns and heroes with prosthetic limbs.
–Monty Python Mostly Live: Stephen Hawking’s surprise drive by assault, “I think you’re being pedantic” he calls as he knocks down English physicist Brian Cox.
Myrna
–Jurassic World – Just because I miss dinosaurs, not because it was good.
-Mad Max:Fury Road – Amazing score composed by Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL.
–Kingsman: The Secret Service – Very fun spy spoof with great action built in.
-The shorts after Inside Out, especially the one with the cats.
–World of Tomorrow: Don Hertzfeldt’s 15 minute cartoon, might be the best thing of I have seen this year. Rent it on Vimeo.
What to look forward to in the next six months:
David
Oh, I don’t know? Maybe Star Wars!
Stars Wars shot on film.
Lily Tomlyn’s return to the big screen in Grandma.Let’s hope it’s better than Netflix’s insipid and blandly written Grace and Frankie.
Ricki and the Flash, with Meryl Streep in the lead, Diablo Cody’s script, and Jonathan Demme direction. It could be good or—most likely—just fun.
Myrna
Southpaw – the Gyllenhaal-aissance is upon us!
Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies
Crimson Peak – I’m all about anything del Toro
Pan – I’ll give anything Joe Wright does a shot
Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special
Oh yes and that little ditty called Star Wars
2015’s biggest disappointments so far
David
Tomorrowland – Pretty and pretty dull.
San Andreas – A pornographic CGI overload. Sensaround couldn’t make this one any better.
Jurassic World – It was completely forgettable and, by the way, where was Chris Pratt?
Myrna
Chappie, Chappie, Chappie…I so wanted to like you.
Blackhat– Beautifully shot but that’s it.
Jupiter Ascending – I still love the Wachowskis though.
San Andreas – You weren’t even fun.
The Cobbler – I was hoping this would be Adam Sandler’s new Punch Drunk Love but sadly no, not even close.
2015’s Worst and most annoying performances
Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Descending, I think I’ll do some of that whisper acting and then yell.
Johnny Depp in Mortdecai just another Pink Panther that doesn’t make the cut.
Jaime Dornan‘s performance was the most sadistic thing in Fifty Shades of Grey.
Sean Penn in The Gunman, please put your shirt back on.
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