HERE ARE my picks for the best films of 2015. Honorable mentions for Creed’s operatic dignity and subtle advocacy of racial reconciliation; The Forbidden Room’s unabashed creative inspiration; Mad Max: Fury Road for being a pro-feminist action film; Spectre for James Bond going beyond an eye for an eye; Grandma, Lily Tomlin’s crowning achievement as an actor embodying that it’s okay to be different; and Room, part-thriller, part-existential exploration, honest about trauma and the lengths love will go to protect the vulnerable.
10. Shaun the Sheep. A delightfully inclusive, breathtakingly crafted story about humans, animals, and nature as one family. With frenetic comedy and an open heart, it honors the marginalized, critiques superficiality, and even lets the villain live to learn his lesson.
9. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. An indie comedy-drama that avoids cliché and makes heroes out of nerds.
8. Beasts of No Nation. Evoking Apocalypse Now, a harrowing story of child soldiers, the legacy of colonialism, and how violence is transmitted from one generation to the next.
7. Clouds of Sils Maria. A stark reflection on identity and the conversation each of us has with the voice(s) in our head. Olivier Assayas’ film asks if we are living from the inside out or for external reward.
6. Brooklyn. A poetic and compassionate painting of the paradox of finding home as an immigrant.
5. The Salt of the Earth. The great German director Wim Wenders understands how images impact the world. This is the most visually overwhelming film of the year, in which photographer Sebastião Salgado heals the wounds of witnessing horror.
4. Love & Mercy. A brilliant music biopic about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys that is more interested in his inner life than his outer success.
3. Inside Out. This is the best Pixar film, a beautifully wise work about how to become a mature human being (there are no shortcuts).
2. Spotlight. Comparable to All the President’s Men, Tom McCarthy’s film tells a journalism story with no superheroes—just ordinary people doing faithful work to expose a monstrous injustice.
1. Listen to Me Marlon. An amazing, original film using Marlon Brando’s personal audio journals as the soundtrack to clips of his movies and archive footage. This is private confession reshaped for a public hungry for wisdom.
Gareth Higgins is an Irish writer and storyteller based in North Carolina. He is the founder of www.moviesandmeaning.com, and you can also find him at www.garethhiggins.net.
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