By Muhammad Muzammal – Assistant Arts and Entertainment Editor
2015 was a special year for cinema. Films about the dangers of isolation and the need for survival pervaded the screen, alongside an ensemble of films where characters uncovered corrupt and problematic systems of power.
Complex love stories that analyzed the female psyche and went way beyond the “chick flick” stereotype were paired with films about the modern black American experience, helped to make 2015 a better year for American films, in terms of diversity.
5. “Chi-Raq” — Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq” is not only the director’s best film in years, but perhaps his most important one. A timely film, “Chi-Raq’s” title takes its origins from the dangers of the South Side of Chicago, where the death toll is higher than that of the American soldiers who served in the Iraq War. A searing indictment of gun rights, the film is a fiendishly brilliant satire that deconstructs masculinity and a powerful tragedy about the racial violence that stems from a terrible system of legislation. “Chi-Raq” is a multi-storied epic film with more genre bending than any recent picture in years. Oh and it’s also a hip-hop musical!
4. “The End of the Tour” — David Foster Wallace. You might’ve heard the name. The American author of the postmodern classic “Infinite Jest” gets a well-deserved treatment in James Ponsoldt’s “The End of the Tour.” The titular tour refers to a real life interview of Wallace, who was interviewed over the period of five days by writer David Lipsky, played with a slight attitude by Jesse Eisenberg. But the real hero is Jason Segal, who plays Wallace brilliantly, showing the genius as a shrewd but inviting writer, whose constant struggle of depression laid beneath his soft spoken, cool exterior. At its best, “The End of The Tour” is profoundly moving, searching for the beautiful yet painful things that make us human.
3. “Mad Max Fury Road” — This is an intense, in your face action thriller that is violent — poetically violent. “Fury Road” has our lead character, Max join female sex slaves to escape from the corrupt importune Joe. The film is at its most memorable when director George Miller turns the intensity level to the ninth degree, as engines collide, cars crash and rival desert gangs jump from one monster truck to the next. Miller’s imaginative car chase sequences have a relentless adrenaline rush seeping through them. But it’s the quiet, small moments that make the large moments count — whether it be female warrior Imperator Furiosa wanting to go back home or Max realizing his destiny. It’s a simple story that can be defined as one big chase sequence. Simple, but great inventiveness bounds.
2. “The Revenant” — Alejandro G. Inarritu’s “The Revenant” is beautifully photographed and a hauntingly mournful reminder of Native American genocide at the hands of European and American settlers. “The Revenant” is more than a simple revenge film. Leonardo DiCaprio does the greatest work of his career as the white frontiersman Hugh Glass, who’s buried alive after his Native American son is left for dead at the hands of John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), a snarling, angry brute. Inarritu’s vision of Glass’ journey from the dead to his revenge on Fitzgerald is one that is full of negative space framing that adds to the desolation of Glass. For Fitzgerald, the past metaphorically comes back through Glass and for America; its own past may come back if the country keeps avoiding its troubled history. Only then will progress come about.
1. “The Big Short” — If you told me that Adam McKay, director of goofball comedies such as “Step Brothers” and “Anchorman,” would make the best film in 2015, I would think you were as crazy as the heroes of “The Big Short.” Well, talk about irony. “The Big Short” is the perfect tragicomedy for these times and a masterpiece of Wall Street-based filmmaking. McKay miraculously stitches together the story of the handful of men — some hedge fund managers, some traders — who boldly predicted the financial collapse of 2008. Their prediction was directly based on the flawed housing market at the time. McKay uses celebrity cameos to break the fourth wall and satirical montages to help explain the financial jargon he throws at you. But don’t be afraid of the words. Be afraid of the truth, which urgently pulsates throughout this film.