2015 brought a lot of new movies to the kitchen for the Film Industry. Perhaps many of you haven’t even seen them, that’s why we’d like to recommend you our favorites.
So then, the rhetorical question is rightful; why was this or that movie left out from the Toplist? Our answer is that the topic is very-very subjective and it only contains particular movies that drove us mad, made us extremely happy or even conjured us.
6. The Revenant
The movie is based on true events, The Revenant is an immersive and extraordinary cinematic experience capturing one man’s epic adventure of survival and the extraordinary power of human spirit.
In an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Guided by sheer will and the love of his family, Glass must navigate a vicious winter in a relentless pursuit to live and find redemption.
The Revenant is directed and co-written by renowned filmmaker, Academy Award winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel). And we have to tell you finally Leonardo DiCaprio has won an Oscar in the ‘best actor’ category.
Feel free to check out Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s other films on his IMDB profile
5. The Hateful Eight
Set / six / eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth and his fugitive Daisy Domergue, race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as „The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice.
Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren, a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix, a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff.
Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren, and Mannix seeks refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass.
When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob, who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray, the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers.
As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…
This movie is directed by Quentin Tarantino and was as big of a success as many of his other films. Go ahead and check them out on IMDB by clicking HERE!
4. Spotlight
Making an authentic movie about investigative journalism is not an easy thing to do. The filmmaking in this question is quite the same as shooting a film about a chess game or about the study of gravitational waves. The truth is that nothing (visually) impressive happens at all.
When someone got a secret information and starts to investigate the strings of the story, most of his work is making phone calls. He dives into archived files and gets information from people in uncrowded places. Then he sits down, takes notes while all the data became understandable.
Then once he brings up the whole story in front of the public, the case will have or won’t have consequences. These kinds of processes – depending on the complexity of the case – may take a whole year or more. Portraying it on the screen so that the viewer doesn’t leave the cinema after the first hour is more difficult than pee against the wind as they say.
Portraying it on the screen so that the viewer doesn’t leave the cinema after the first hour is more difficult than pee against the wind as they say. This film tells the riveting true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation that would rock the city and cause a crisis in one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions.
Directed by Academy Award-nominee Tom McCarthy, Spotlight is a tense investigative dramatic-thriller, tracing the steps to one of the biggest cover-ups in modern times.
Click here to learn more about Tom McCarthy’s life and career!
3. The Martian
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet.
With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit, and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return.
If you want to see more Ridley Scott movies, take a break and check out his IMDB profile first!
Based on a best-selling novel and helmed by master director Ridley Scott, The Martian features a star studded cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Michael Peña, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Donald Glover.
2. Steve Jobs
While most of the biographical dramas are showing how the protagonist’s life gets from A to B, then to C if he was lucky and D to Z in the last few minutes, this movie is quite different from that. In the end title of the film, “Steve Jobs” is quite revolutionary, grabbing all the essential points from the creative CEO’s life and the Apple company.
And the rest – we have to find out… Because director Danny Boyle’s and Aaron Sorkin’s film represents the just-before of the three most important turning points of Jobs’ career, roughly in forty minutes.
While the main character tries to fix his starting-soon presentation and he is arguing with his boss and ex-girlfriend, he tries to deal with her daughter from the relationship and wants to get helped to get his pieces together by his assistant.
We believe that Jobs was a great master of multitasking, but it becomes an overkill at some point. If Aaron Sorkin screenwriter’s name says something (All the President’s Man, The Social Network), you will know that the main character would sell his own mother for a bitterly honest monologue.
Read more about the remarkable work of Aaron Sorkin in this Wiki article!
But on the other hand, similarly to the Facebook-movie, the Jobs-version probably hasn’t got much to do with the real person in question. Or if it has… We only see a very narrow, very intense cross-section of the man. And those characteristics – which are outside of this circle – are only recognizable from discarded statements.
We can’t see how Jobs grew up, we can’t see how he launched Apple. There are things we don’t need to see. They shouldn’t get the whole Wikipedia on screen to make a biographical movie.
1. Demolition
There was the film in which Jake Gyllenhaal’s lover suddenly dies (Moonlight Mile), and there were lots of other movies in which a man in his early thirties tries to put together his life. This time, a mother with her naughty little son tries to help him (Jerry Maguire).
Because “Demolition” is the mixture of these two kinds of movies in which Gyllenhaal instead of falling apart, he rather disassembles things. Including the sink door of his workplace or even the house shared with his wife. The latter with a sledge, for example.
The Demolition was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée who is known for movies such as C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria, Dallas Buyers Club, and Wild. Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal), a successful investment banker, struggles after losing his wife in a tragic car crash. Despite pressure from his father in law, Phil (Chris Cooper), to pull it together, Davis continues to unravel.
If interested in Jean-Marc Vallée’s films, go ahead and check them out HERE on IMDB!
What starts as a complaint letter to a vending machine company turns into a series of letters revealing startling personal admissions. Davis’ letters catch the attention of customer service rep, Karen Mareno (Naomi Watts) and amidst emotional and financial burdens of her own, the two form an unlikely connection.
With the help of Karen and her son, Chris (Judah Lewis), Davis starts to rebuild, beginning with the demolition of the life he once knew.