Top 10 Movies of the year 2015

10. Ex Machina

Universal Studios Ex Machina.

Of the dazzling Alicia Vikander, as the artificial-intelligence being Ava in Alex Garland’s brainy, agile sci-fi nightmare/reverie Ex Machina, my friend and colleague Richard Corliss wrote, “Trained as a dancer, Vikander lends Ava a grace and precision of movement that could be human or mechanical, earthly or ethereal.” And then, in his quietly spectacular way, Richard nailed the essence of her character in a single pirouette of a phrase: “a spectral eminence yearning to be a woman.” That is how you capture the everyday beauty of movies, a pleasure both ephemeral and everlasting.

9. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Warner Bros. Pictures The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Guy Ritchie’s riff on the Cold War-era TV show is an old-school pleasure, the kind of light spy caper that’s as rare these days as a pristine vintage Courrèges mini-dress. In this three-way flirt-fest, a trio of extraordinary-looking spy types—played by Alicia Vikander, Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer—revel in one another’s style and charisma, and that goes for the men, too. Once we’ve lost our taste for beautiful people, the movies really are finished.

8. Creed

Warner Bros. Creed.

Ryan Coogler’s second feature mines the Rocky legend for what seems like the umpteenth time—yet it’s both so fresh and so satisfying that it throws down a challenge to every filmmaker who dares to take on a reboot or sequel. Michael B. Jordan stars as fledgling prizefighter Adonis Creed, the illegitimate son of Rocky Balboa’s most sensational opponent, Apollo Creed. Sylvester Stallone returns in the role he made famous, only now he’s older, doughier, more battered—and even more touching. Creed is unapologetically melodramatic and all the better for it, wearing its heart right on its satin robe.

7. Tangerine

Magnolia Pictures Tangerine.

Sean Baker shot this exuberant little film on a couple of iPhone 5s, but it packs a Vistavision punch. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor give twin knockout performances as best friends, transgender women, and prostitutes Sin-Dee and Alexandra, who look for work and love on the seedier streets of Los Angeles. This is a comedy, laced with rambunctious, exuberantly raggedy dialogue. But it’s also one of those movies that takes you to a place beyond comedy—you’ll still be laughing but your breath catches a little on the way out.

6. Mustang

Ad Vitam Mustang.

In Turkish filmmaker Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s feature debut, five sisters living in a nowhere town by the Black Sea negotiate the rocky territory between sexual desire and the expectations—religious, social, familial—imposed on them. Gorgeously filmed, Mustang weighs a dream vision of girlhood against the much harsher reality of what it means to be a woman in a restrictive culture—but the real key to the movie’s power is that Ergüven can also make us laugh.

5. Iris

Magnolia Pictures Iris.

One of the final films completed by exalted documentarian Albert Maysles before he died in March, this portrait of the extraordinarily stylish nonagenarian businesswoman Iris Apfel is also a celebration of the revivifying power of creativity, and a reflection on the workaday joys and annoyances of long-term partnerships. (Iris’s husband of nearly 70 years, Carl, died not long after the film was completed, at age 100.) Apfel states that she likes being “in the world and of the world.” This movie lays down the challenge to go forth, boldly, wearing lots of necklaces.

Universal Studios Ex Machina.
Of the dazzling Alicia Vikander, as the artificial-intelligence being Ava in Alex Garland’s brainy, agile sci-fi nightmare/reverie Ex Machina, my friend and colleague Richard Corliss wrote, “Trained as a dancer, Vikander lends Ava a grace and precision of movement that could be human or mechanical, earthly or ethereal.” And then, in his quietly spectacular way, Richard nailed the essence of her character in a single pirouette of a phrase: “a spectral eminence yearning to be a woman.” That is how you capture the everyday beauty of movies, a pleasure both ephemeral and everlasting.

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9. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Warner Bros. Pictures The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Guy Ritchie’s riff on the Cold War-era TV show is an old-school pleasure, the kind of light spy caper that’s as rare these days as a pristine vintage Courrèges mini-dress. In this three-way flirt-fest, a trio of extraordinary-looking spy types—played by Alicia Vikander, Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer—revel in one another’s style and charisma, and that goes for the men, too. Once we’ve lost our taste for beautiful people, the movies really are finished.

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8. Creed

Warner Bros. Creed.
Ryan Coogler’s second feature mines the Rocky legend for what seems like the umpteenth time—yet it’s both so fresh and so satisfying that it throws down a challenge to every filmmaker who dares to take on a reboot or sequel. Michael B. Jordan stars as fledgling prizefighter Adonis Creed, the illegitimate son of Rocky Balboa’s most sensational opponent, Apollo Creed. Sylvester Stallone returns in the role he made famous, only now he’s older, doughier, more battered—and even more touching. Creed is unapologetically melodramatic and all the better for it, wearing its heart right on its satin robe.

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7. Tangerine

Magnolia Pictures Tangerine.
Sean Baker shot this exuberant little film on a couple of iPhone 5s, but it packs a Vistavision punch. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor give twin knockout performances as best friends, transgender women, and prostitutes Sin-Dee and Alexandra, who look for work and love on the seedier streets of Los Angeles. This is a comedy, laced with rambunctious, exuberantly raggedy dialogue. But it’s also one of those movies that takes you to a place beyond comedy—you’ll still be laughing but your breath catches a little on the way out.

0
6. Mustang

Ad Vitam Mustang.
In Turkish filmmaker Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s feature debut, five sisters living in a nowhere town by the Black Sea negotiate the rocky territory between sexual desire and the expectations—religious, social, familial—imposed on them. Gorgeously filmed, Mustang weighs a dream vision of girlhood against the much harsher reality of what it means to be a woman in a restrictive culture—but the real key to the movie’s power is that Ergüven can also make us laugh.