Films of 2015

My fourth annual films of the year! I gotta say, this year I wasn't as excited as I normally am to compile this list. Probably because I was preoccupied this year. But nonetheless, I always have time for movies and lists. I watched a lot of newer films this year and caught up on the Oscar nominations from last year. And, on the subject of films, I ended up making my own short film for the film class I took this fall and loved it. While this list shrunk in comparison to last year, my love for film grew.

View past lists here (excuse the formatting) and view every movie I watched here

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)
Watched: 26 May
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Writer: Ana Lily Amirpour
Thoughts: It's dark, it's weird, it's got a great soundtrack. It gave me nostalgia being shot in the California desert and it made me want to wear a cape and take up skateboarding. I try to watch a few foreign films a year and I completely forgot this one was from another country because it felt relatable and current.




Boyhood (2014)
Watched: 11 January
Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Richard Linklater
Thoughts: Put this on my list of films that made me cry the hardest. In order to fully enjoy this one, I think you have to be one of the main characters. It makes it hit closer to home.




Chef (2014)
Watched: 13 February
Director: Jon Favreau
Writer: Jon Favreau
Thoughts: Sometimes you have to love a happy ending. This movie is feel good, the whole way through. Cuban sandwiches, friendship, cross country trips, a booming business? Sounds like fun to me.




Children of Men (2007)
Watched: 26 January
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Writer: Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton
Thoughts: Those continuous shots! It's a cinematographer's dream. Never mind the great shots, the story line could be all too real, too soon. What happens when women can no longer produce children? Clive Owen must save the day.




Copenhagen (2014)
Watched: 27 May
Director: Mark Raso
Writer: Mark Raso
Thoughts: Doesn't everyone love to travel to a foreign country and fall in love? It's a classic story but this one is slightly illegal and more romantic. No sex, just bike rides at dusk in Denmark.




Creep (2014)
Watched: 01 August
Director: Patrick Brice
Writer: Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass
Thoughts: A simple psychological thriller involving a wolf mask. Watch at your own discretion.




Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Watched: 21 March
Director: Jean Marc-Vallée
Writer: Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack
Thoughts: If you don't get easily sucked into the lives featured in Dallas Buyers Club then you're not watching properly. It's a rough story to get through but it needed to be told.




Death Proof (2007)
Watched: 23 October
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Thoughts: I don't know what came over me but I'm not going to question it. I was - and still sort of am - addicted to Death Proof. It's grungy and got a high contrast 70s charm to it. Not to mention amazing car chases and kick ass ladies.





The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her and Him (2014)
Watched: Her (18 April), Him (20 May)
Director: Ned Benson
Writer: Ned Benson
Thoughts: When your two favorite actors come together to make a gut wrenchingly beautiful romance you hop, skip, and jump to see it. It's a typical love story but it's oh so unique. Best to watch Her and then Him and not Them. It's so much more delightful when it's told through one pair of eyes.




Dior and I (2015)
Watched: 27 May
Director: Frédéric Tcheng
Thoughts: Raf Simons is an angel - I knew this going in. But I learned that he is as sensitive as I am and that the true heroes of a runway show (especially a couture show) are the seamstresses at the atelier. And I fell in love with that debut Dior show all over again.




Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
Watched: 19 July
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writer: David Nicholls
Thoughts: I'm such a sucker for those British-period-piece-romances. Especially when it involves a fresh faced British rose like Carey Mulligan and a hunk of a man like Matthias Schoenaerts.




Her (2013)
Watched: 26 Febraury
Director: Spike Jonze
Writer: Spike Jonze
Thoughts: This movie is so beautiful. It's so lonely but heartwarming and comforting all wrapped in one. The cinematography is killer. It's so romantic watching someone self destruct through rose tinted lenses.




I Hate The Way You Love (2005)
Watched: 14 August
Director: Morgan Lebus
Thoughts: I know The Kills are a big deal. They're only one of my favorite bands of all time. But what I wasn't full aware of: the incredibly gorgeous, respectful, unique and strictly platonic relationship between Jamie and Alison. I love you guys.




It Might Get Loud (2008)
Watched: 02 April
Director: David Guggenheim
Thoughts: *I love my music and fashion documentaries* The original guitar heroes. It's such a powerful thing watching three beautifully talented people like The Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White all jam together. And it's even more powerful watching them all admire each other. We're all fangirls.




The Longest Week (2014)
Watched: 20 July
Director: Peter Glanz
Writer: Peter Glanz
Thoughts: This movie made it onto the list not because of the fancy directing or the mind blowing story line. It's the colors, the costumes, the interiors, the cinematography (again!)! Olivia Wilde's character in this made me want to transition my wardrobe into a strictly 60s mod themed collection and wear cat eyeliner everyday. It's one of those stylish movies that just hits you in all the right places.




The One I Love (2014)
Watched: 27 April
Director: Charlie McDowell
Writer: Justin Lader
Thoughts: DO NOT READ ANYTHING ABOUT THIS MOVIE BEFORE WATCHING, JUST WATCH. It's stunning, yes, the acting - oh my goodness. But the twist! The story telling! It's what I watch movies for.




Predestination (2014)
Watched: 02 December
Director: The Spierig Brothers
Writer: The Spierig Brothers
Thoughts: Sarah Snook stole my heart in this one. She plays a man and a woman; as a man she sort of looks like Dane DeHaan and Leonardo DiCaprio's love child. Another good twist here, also. It's about time travel and it makes you think but don't let that stop you.




The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
Watched: 01 December
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Writer: Tim Talbott
Thoughts: What's crazy about this film is that it actually happened. I know a lot of films are "based on true stories" but this one is legit. What's also crazy? That someone (or a lot of someones, rather) let this happen and let it escalate the way it did.




Speed (1994)
Watched: 10 December
Director: Jan de Bont
Writer: Graham Yost
Thoughts: Laugh at me all you want, yes, I put what a lot of people would easily call one of the worst movies of the 90s. It's cheesy and it's cliche. Keanu Reeves kills it though. Dennis Hopper is the ultimate bad guy. And Sandra Bullock saves the day is only the damsel in distress for the latter half of the movie. We need bad movies like we need bad food. Speed is good for the soul.




The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights (2009)
Watched: 03 February
Director: Emmett Malloy
Thoughts: The magical, mystifying relationship and dynamic between Meg and Jack White is just as ominous as outer space. But what we do know very well about both is that it works and that it creates beautiful things.

Films of 2014

I don't want to survive. I want to live.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

Watched: 26 September

Director: Steve McQueen

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita N'yongo, Sarah Paulson, Benedict Cumberbatch

Synopsis: In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

The Koreans bought the church back, so we had to move across the street...to 22 Jump Street.

22 Jump Street (2014)
Watched: 29 June
Director: Chris Miller & Phil Lord
Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube
Synopsis: After making their way through high school (twice), big changes are in store for officers Schmidt and Jenko when they go deep undercover at a local college.

It was just important for us to know it hadn't gone away.

Adore (2013)
Watched: 08 February
Director: Anne Fontaine
Cast: Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel, James Frecheville
Synopsis: A pair of childhood friends and neighbors fall for each other's sons.

-I don't even remember what it was I was mad about and I don't care. Whatever it was that you did, I forgive you. -What I did? You and your lousy letters. Just to get one of them made me special even before I opened it. All your crappy stories, all your big dreams.

Beaches (1988)
Watched: 14 February
Director: Gary Marshall
Cast: Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey
Synopsis: A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years.

 I fucked up my whole life because of the way you sing.

Before Midnight (2013)
Watched: 19 January
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Synopsis: We meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.

I believe if there's any kind of God it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.

Before Sunrise (1995)
Watched: 18 January
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Synopsis: A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.

You can never replace anyone because everyone is made up of such beautiful specific details.

Before Sunset (2004)
Watched: 18 January
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Synopsis: Nine years after Jesse and Celine first met, they encounter each other again on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.

I just think you have let your troubles get in the way of your entire life.

Begin Again (2013)

Watched: 12 October

Director: John Carney

Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Adam Levine, James Corden

Synopsis: A chance encounter between a disgraced music-business executive and a young singer-songwriter new to Manhattan turns into a promising collaboration between the two talents.

But I have infinite tenderness for you. I always will. All my life long.

Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)
Watched: ?
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Cast: Léa Seydoux, Adèle Exarchopoulos
Synopsis: Adele's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks herself, loses herself and ultimately finds herself through love and loss.

I used to tell Walter, "Never start a fight... but always finish it." I didn't start this fight... but by God, I'm going to finish it.

Changeling (2008)

Watched: 13 October

Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Amy Ryan

Synopsis: A grief-stricken mother takes on the LAPD to her own detriment when it stubbornly tries to pass off an obvious impostor as her missing child, while also refusing to give up hope that she will find him one day.

Maybe you have some kind of fantasy about helping a woman in a faraway land.

Charlie Countryman (2013)
Watched: 27 January
Director: Fredrik Bond
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Mads Mikkelsen, Evan Rachel Wood
Synopsis: While traveling abroad, a guy falls for a Romanian beauty whose unreachable heart has its origins in her violent, charismatic ex.

I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right?

Contact (1997)
Watched: 05 December
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey
Synopsis: Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of intelligent aliens, who send plans for a mysterious machine.

Yes, I'm drunk. And you're beautiful. And tomorrow morning, I'll be sober but you'll still be beautiful.

The Dreamers (2003)

Watched: 11 October

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

Cast: Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel

Synopsis: A young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the '68 Paris student riots.

You're darn tootin'!

Fargo (1996)
Watched: 01 September
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Cast: William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi,
Synopsis: Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.

-Why are you wearing a police officer's uniform? -'Cause I am one?

Hot Fuzz (2007)
Watched: 31 May
Director: Edgar Wright
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Martin Freeman Olivia Coleman, Rafe Spall, Paddy Consindine
Synopsis: Exceptional London cop Nicholas Angel is involuntarily transferred to a quaint English village and paired with a witless new partner. While on the beat, Nicholas suspects a sinister conspiracy is afoot with the residents

No. After that, when I came up, I was on my own. That was the scariest part. And when I saw the two of you clinging to the tree, I didn't feel so scared anymore. I knew I wasn't on my own. You see?

The Impossible (2012)
Watched: 22 March
Director: J.A. Bayona
Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor
Synopsis: The story of a tourist family in Thailand caught in the destruction and chaotic aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Interstellar (2014)

Watched: 07 November

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine

Synopsis: A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in an attempt to find a potentially habitable planet that will sustain humanity.

Jeune et Jolie (Young and Beautiful) (2013)
Watched: 07 September
Director: François Ozon
Cast: Marine Vacth, Géraldine Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot, Charlotte Rampling
Synopsis: After losing her virginity, Isabelle takes up a secret life as a call girl, meeting her clients for hotel-room trysts. Throughout, she remains curiously aloof, showing little interest in the encounters themselves or the money she makes.

She fails in the end, but there's something beautiful and even heroic in her rebellion. My professors would kill me for even thinking this, but in her own strange way, Emma Bovary is a feminist.

Little Children (2006)
Watched: 20 May
Director: Todd Field
Cast: Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly
Synopsis: The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations in suburban Connecticut.

You have to make the money to buy a ticket.

Nightcrawler (2014)

Watched: 14 November

Director: Dan Gilroy

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton

Synopsis: When Lou Bloom, a driven man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.

Perhaps the only difference between me and other people is that I've always demanded more from the sunset. More spectacular colors when the sun hit the horizon. That's perhaps my only sin.

Nymphomaniac Vol: I (2013)
Watched: 07 July
Director: Lars von Trier
Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shia LaBeouf, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Uma Thurman, Christian Slater
Synopsis: A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.

I'm not like you. I am a nymphomaniac and I love myself for being one, but above all, I love my cunt and my filthy, dirty lust.

Nymphomaniac Vol: II (2013)
Watched: 25 August
Director: Lars von Trier
Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shia LaBeouf, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Uma Thurman, Christian Slater
Synopsis: The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adulthood, obsessions and what led to her being in Seligman's care.

he only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.

On The Road (2012)
Watched: 22 January
Director: Walter Salles
Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen, Elisabeth Moss, Amy Adams
Synopsis: Young writer Sal Paradise has his life shaken by the arrival of free-spirited Dean Moriarty and his girl, Marylou. As they travel across the country, they encounter a mix of people who each impact their journey indelibly.

Pray for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Prisoners (2013)
Watched: 02 March
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano, Viola Davis, Terrence Howard
Synopsis: When Keller Dover's daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?

Agent Mulder was my idea!

Paul (2011)
Watched: 10 May
Director: Greg Mottola
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kristen Wiig, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader, Jason Bateman, Blythe Danner
Synopsis: Two British comic-book geeks traveling across the U.S. encounter an alien outside Area 51.

Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?

Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Watched: 31 May
Director: Edgar Wrigt
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield
Synopsis: A man decides to turn his moribund life around by winning back his ex-girlfriend, reconciling his relationship with his mother, and dealing with an entire community that has returned from the dead to eat the living.




Room 237 (2012)
Watched: 03 August
Director: Rodney Ascher
Cast: Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns
Synopsis: An exploration of various interpretations of Stanley Kubrick's horror film, The Shining (1980).

Be happy for this moment, for this moment is your life.

Unfaithful (2002)
Watched: 19 August
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Diane Lane, Richard Gere, Olivier Martinez
Synopsis: A New York suburban couple's marriage goes dangerously awry when the wife indulges in an adulterous fling.

You've got to go your own way, and you, my friend, are going your own way.

The Way Way Back (2013)
Watched: 26 April
Director: Nat Faxon and Jim Rash
Cast: Toni Collette, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Steve Carrell, AnnaSophia Robb,
Synopsis: Shy 14-year-old Duncan goes on summer vacation with his mother, her overbearing boyfriend, and her boyfriend's daughter. Having a rough time fitting in, Duncan finds an unexpected friend in Owen, manager of the Water Wizz water park.

 I remember sitting up there, blood on my knuckles, beer down my shirt, sick on my shoes and seeing the orange glow of a new dawn break and knowing in my heart life would never feel this good again. And you know what? It never did. 

The World's End (2013)
Watched: 17 April
Director: Edgar Wright
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine, Rosamund Pike, Pierce Brosnan
Synopsis: Five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier unwittingly become humankind's only hope for survival.