My 2015 Favorite Movies

Full disclosure #1: I was busy in 2015, hence my last published post was over a year ago... Okay fine, I was being lazy so I didn't write in 2015. That was the bigger contributing factor.

Full disclosure #2: I didn't know what to write, hence my last published post was over a year ago... Okay fine, I knew I wanted to write about movies. I was just not inspired and motivated enough to write full articles so I opted to write shorter status updates on my Facebook instead.

Full disclosure #3: I didn't keep a ledger to properly document each and every movie I watched throughout the year, so the list I am about to lay out bounds to be incomplete with a few movies missing the cut. But I believe if a movie leaves an impression on you one would never need to go deep to recall it, and I had more than a week to do so. Anything beyond this list is probably rightfully does not belong here.

Full disclosure #4: There are still a lot of "presumably prestige" titles yet to open in this region. Most of the Oscar players are mysteries as of this moment (not that they are always my cup of tea, yes I mean you The Big Short). But you give some and you take some. There are a few entries from 2014 on my list which I first watched in 2015 (then again like I said, I didn't keep a ledger so it might have been 2014, in any case it is too time consuming to verify so they are here). I tried to keep the list to movies released in the past 2 years only, so even occasionally I did watch an old movie for the first time and loved it wholeheartedly they won't be featured here.

Full disclosure #5: More than 80% of the films I watched were (still are, and will continued to be) English, so my list is heavily English-oriented with only a few non-English and Asian films in the mix.

Full disclosure #6: The more films I dug out from my memory garden, the more frequent I felt "that was a good one, definitely making my Top 10". Before long I had made a list of... wait for it... 50 films! Yes, that was terrible, I know. It was as if I "loved" every movie I watched. But that was not true. I definitely watched more than 50 films in 2015. You'd realize some high profile snubs (The Force Awakens is not there, so is Spectre; Katniss and Tris are both missing, so are all the Marvel superheroes though Ant-Man almost made it). And to prove that I am not indecisive, I did manage to pick 10 favorites. But since I made all the efforts to come up with that wide 50 shortlist I'd hate for it to go to waste so I'm still laying out all of them before I finally reveal my top 10 at the end of this article.

As I scanned through my list of 50, I realized I could organize them into a few groups so the list appears to be neater. Sorry, one of the hobbies of a Business Analyst is to spot trends. We couldn't let the data just lay around unsorted and unorganized.

Now, if you're ready. Here we go...

Agents or Spies, All Types of Them

Let's start with something exciting and often action-packed. Here's a bunch of different agents or spies, either the serious ones or the silly types, both gentlemen and ladies... and in one case, a teenage boy and Mr. Darcy:

>> The surprisingly fun Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, where Tom Cruise definitely knew what makes an entertaining action film -- a hero who does not come with all the heavy background stories or childhood baggage (looking at 'cha, 007), a kick-ass lady agent and a funny sharp-tongued sidekick.

>> The came quietly and gone too soon Sicario, where Emily Blunt once again transformed herself into a bad ass female hero. The two very long scenes taking place in Mexico can really make you sit on the edge of your seat holding your breath waiting for what happens next.

>> The Melissa McCarthy vehicle Spy, where she donned a few different hairstyles and swore every 2 minutes but was somehow surprisingly upstaged by Jason Statham who truly showcased his comedic timing in one of the funniest films of 2015.

>> The light and trivial The Man from U.N.C.L.E., where it was the proof that light does not necessarily mean disposable and silly does not necessarily mean bad-taste. All three leads were in their finest form and their chemistry created sparks everywhere.

>> That teenage boy who was the Kingsman: The Secret Service, where the usually oh-so-serious Colin Firth proved that fighting a bunch of thuds can be so elegant and the oh-so-over-the-top Samuel L. Jackson proved that blowing people's heads up can be done in a non-Tarantino way.

In a Dystopian World...

All these events have not come to pass, and finger-crossed it never will (and chances are, it actually never will... come on, movies are movies and science is still science).

>> Mad Max: Fury Road, the year's most surprising hit that was actually very good. Nobody expected a fourth entry in a franchise from 30 years ago to be so refreshingly entertaining. The cinematography was simply breathtaking (the color tones were so brilliantly harmonized), with the outstanding sound effects making your thumbs move.

>> The Lobster, a world where single people get turned into animals, unless you run away to the woods leading a life of being hunted by the formal group. It really was not the weirdest movie on this list (we'll come to that later) and it was a love story wrapped in a nontraditional story-line.

>> Ex Machina, also a love story of some sort but with a dark twist. There were movies in the past exploring what happened when robots with artificial intelligence developed feeling just like human, but this one definitely did not care for all the sugarcoated crap and the melodramatic plot, and that ending was so shocking it left you speechless for minutes.

>> Cooties, which actually happened in our world during a time most likely present. Children infected with a type of virus after eating chicken nuggets were transformed into zombie-like savages and attacked the teachers in the school. No, it is not a gored horror movie, it is actually a comedy. The most politically incorrect comment you could probably hear coming out from someone’s mouth: It was so satisfying watching the teachers whacking the zombie-like children in the head. I’m sorry, it was. No children were harmed in the making of the film.

>> The Final Girls, a teenage girl and her friends were sucked into a 30-year-old slasher film starring her now deceased mom. It was like Pleasantville. No, it is also not a gored horror movie, it is also a comedy. A great fun choice if you don't like your slasher film to be Saw-level of horror. And it actually used some time in between the killings to develop the mother-daughter relationship so it was not all just cat-and-mouse chasing.

Young People... Like, Still-in-School Young

YA films were very popular in the last few years, and because the target audience are mainly teenage boys and girls the films usually don't bother to be pretentious and preachy. When done right, the films can be brutally honest and great fun to watch.

>> Mae Whitman was The DUFF, or The Designated Ugly Fat Friend. Of course, being a true Hollywood production the definition of "ugly fat" was still a lot more glamorous than the ordinary people like you and me. And yes, she got the hot boy in the end. Kinda makes you feel good huh?

>> Two Boys and a Girl, Part 1 in The Way He Looks, a Brazilian coming-of-age drama that tells the story of a blind boy falling in love with a new student but it evokes the jealousy of his childhood female friend. Exhibit on how to make a good movie without big drama or unnecessary twist. Also, I love how it made gay love just as ordinary as straight love. The leads were no typical flamboyant gay boys, just ordinary people like you and me.

>> Two Boys and a Girl, Part II in Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, an American coming-of-age drama that tells the story of the friendship between two guys and a girl diagnosed with leukemia. Exhibit on how to make a good movie even with some drama and a tear-jerking ending without being cheesy.

>> The adaptation of John Green's Paper Towns, where Cara Delevingne tried very hard to prove she was a good actress yet Nat Wolff did that without a sweat. It was not as deep as The Fault in Our Stars (Thank God!) but it was earnest enough to make you root for even the selfish female lead, not to mention the love-struck male lead.

>> And speaking of selfish... The Riot Club gave you a bunch of annoyingly selfish brats who formed an exclusive dining club at Oxford University. If you feel like slapping these dudes or smashing their heads into the wall after the movie, that's exactly what it wants to achieve. Okay, between whacking children’s heads and smashing these dudes’ heads into the wall, maybe I’m a little bit violent.

>> The Descendants of classic Disney villains were accepted into the same high school as the kids of Disney heroes, and learned to take control of their own destiny. Yes, it was cliché. But it was hard not to love it when there were catchy songs and pop dances, and a deliciously evil Kristin Chenoweth as Maleficent.

Still Very Young People... But Not-in-School-Anymore Young, Plus Their Romance

Ahhh... young love. You know how it works. It's sweet when you fall in love, and it's bitter when you get your heart broken. It's as simple as that. The few examples below demonstrate just that.

>> The young love as old as "once upon a time", Cinderella showed us you don't have to add in many new elements for it to be interesting when you adapt a classic story everyone knows. You just tell the story as it is, and it can still be a decent movie version of the classic tale.

>> Another adaptation of a classic novel (by Thomas Hardy), Far From the Madding Crowd reminded me of the Jane Austen-type of stories with headstrong women looking for love in the 18th/19th century England, and Carey Mulligan reminded me of a young Emma Thompson.

>> Love was not the only spotlight in Testament of Youth, the film also explored the cruelty of war and the emptiness you feel inside after losing someone you love deeply. Out of the three Alicia Vikander films on this list, she showed most restraint here yet all emotions were successfully conveyed through her journey of life.

>> Saoirse Ronan showed us why she's the front-runner in the upcoming Best Actress race in Brooklyn, a story of a young Ireland woman staying in Brooklyn and fell in love with a man of an Italian background. Her elegance gave the otherwise overly sentimental film an upward lift in quality. Julie Walters delighted in a supporting role.

>> There are two ways of defining The Theory of Everything: a biopic disguised as a love story, and a love story disguised as a biopic. Either way it was a heartbreakingly beautiful love story between Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane Hawking, mostly due to the excellent portrayal by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.

>> Yes, there's no denying that Love, Rosie was a flawed movie. But because it was a UK production, somehow I didn’t mind all its cheesiness whereas I usually rolled my eyes upon seeing them in a Hollywood production. It's bias, I can't explain why. Its charm is kinda like About Time: you just loved all the UK humor and ignored all the chick-flick nonsense.

Lost Contact Family Members Trying to Find Each Other

War torn families apart, separating them in two different places or two different worlds. Sometimes poverty does the trick too. Other times it is domestic reasons. Whatever the reasons are, below are three families waiting to reconcile.

>> Russell Crowe directed himself in The Water Diviner, playing a father embarking on a long journey to find his three sons who were lost in the war. It was a touching story of a father who would do anything to bring his boys home, beautifully acted by Crowe himself.

>> Speaking of father... Korean blockbuster Ode to My Father is a family drama depicting the central character from his youth to his old-age and how he never gave up the hope of finding his father and sister. Melodramatic? Yes. Unnecessary tearjerker? Absolutely. Touching? You bet.

>> A Taiwanese film directed by Sylvia Chang, Murmur of the Hearts 念念 is not strong in story-line, it's a story of two siblings separated when they were kids trying to cope with life while attempting to find each other. Yet, it was like a poetry (not that I know much about poetry), you just have to feel it with your heart. The English title kinda makes sense if you think about it.

We March for Social Equality

Black lives matter, gay lives matter, everyone's life matters. And here are two true stories of how people fought for social equality in history.

>> Participate in the march from Selma to Montgomery for the right to vote among African-American. Even an outsider like me can feel the tense of the fight and the determination of the fighters, that's how successful the film is. Now, do yourself a favor and go google the performance of the song Glory in last year's Academy Awards. You're welcome.

>> Have some Pride in the lesbian and gay activists who supported the British miners during the strike and follow their relationship with the residents of a small mining town in an uplifting and joyous film which did not undermine (pun intended) the seriousness of the issue.

A Few Weird (and Sometimes Crazy) Standalone Stories Built These Films

It's actually not a new idea. Hollywood films Babel and Hereafter are just two examples of mainstream movies employing this "standalone short stories coming together to build a movie" structure. Yet the titles listed below have two common threads among them: they are all non-Hollywood productions and they possess a certain degree of weirdness and craziness in the storytelling department.

>> You want crazy, look no further than Argentina's Wild Tales, a collection of six short stories with a common theme of violence and vengeance. Every story is crazier than the other. Try watching the one with two brawling drivers and not go "what the f*** is this crazy" while trying your best to keep a straight face.

>> Don't look for conventional fairy tales of kings and queens, princes and princesses in Tale of Tales, an English language fantasy horror film. You'd be shocked to find three stories about the royals that did not end with the conventional "happily ever after", yet surprisingly still made you sit through the whole 2-hour of unconventional fairy-tales.

>> Remember I said we will talk about the weirdest movie on this list? Here comes A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, a Sweden film that under normal circumstances will have me go "what a pretentious crap movie that makes no sense at all using the name of art", but it so happened I was in a light and silly mood on the day I first watched it, so I laughed hysterically.

And Speaking of Reflecting... Here's a Few Retired Old Dudes Reflecting Back Their Lives

Self-descriptive headline. Let's get to it:

>> Old dude Ian McKellen as Mr. Holmes, that's Mr. Sherlock Holmes. In this fictional tale about the elderly detective, we followed him trying to recall the details of his final case while his mind began to deteriorate. Yes, I know how it sounds, but this drama with a plain storyline was hugely elevated by the brilliant acting of Ian McKellen.

>> Old dude Robert De Niro lamented the loss of his youth (and his old office) while becoming The Intern for Anne Hathaway. What I like about the film is that director and screenwriter Nancy Meyers created a very earnest non-romantic relationship between the two leads (déjà vu of Kate Winslet and Eli Wallach from The Holiday), and for once romantic relationships took a backseat (do you even remember Rene Russo was in the film?).

>> Old dudes Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel lamented the lost of their Youth while staying in a luxury resort (there were so many words in that sentence I cannot relate to). It's slow in pace, but after a while you get used to it and started to enjoy its small humor a little here and there.

The Animated Category that is surprisingly without the Minions

Yes I adore the minions, but their spin-off from the Despicable Me series was a boring one when we followed them around the globe trying to find the most evil master. Instead, three other groups of equally cute and mischievous animated characters made it to the list when they embarked on their own adventures:

>> The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was not only fun, it actually incorporated many of the original series' elements into the story-line so fans of the original series were not left feeling isolated by the studio's quest to go "big" on their way to the silver screen.

>> Shaun the Sheep Movie, a stop-motion animated feature with the mischievous Shaun leading the flock of sheep around the city, mostly without dialogue. Yet the fun was plenty and the humor was not repetitive every 5 minutes unlike the minion’s.

>> Inside Out took a concept we were familiar with (our own emotions and imaginations) and churned out an entertaining story that only Pixar can pull off successfully while still pleasing both children and adults. The best Pixar film since Finding Nemo.

By the Way, Did I Mention I’m a Kid at Heart?

I did, right? I did just mention I love Minions and SpongeBob, right? Anyway, kid movies help me relax, which is usually what I need (and what everyone needs) after a day of hard work. Trust me, watching cute kids running around saying adorable things will put a smile on your face.

>> Kyle Catlett as The Young & Prodigious T.S. Spivet, a 10-year-old prodigy who ran away from home, taking a freight train across the United States to Washington, D.C. to accept a prize he won. It’s hard to resist the charm of a 10-year-old science geek with the face of an angel, and watching him trying to navigate his way to the big city alone will evoke the fatherly/motherly love inside of you.

>> Kit Connor as 9-year-old Tom who was trying to Get Santa out of jail and back to his Christmas present delivery duty. There were a lot of Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas movies every year but mostly they were the cliché family reunion soap dramas with dialogues you predicted well before the characters spoke them out loud. This one blended classic and modern elements well and made it into a joyous children movie. Jim Broadbent co-starred as Mr. Santa Claus and delivered one of the most charming Santa performance in movie history.

You Remember That Vanessa Carlton Song?

Yes, that one. That only song she is remembered for. It’s called A Thousand Miles. She professes she’ll walk a thousand miles just to see her lover. We didn’t get to find out if she actually did it, but here are those who actually did walk a thousand miles:

>> Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed in Wild, where she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail on a journey of self-discovery and healing. An emotional journey right from the first scene when she let out a frustrating howl all the way to the last scene when she ended her journey and seemingly found her redemption. That look on her face when she crossed the bridge, it was not only a relief but also a newfound appreciation towards the beauty of life. Watching this film was particularly emotional for me, as I too was in a somewhat fragile state much like Strayed. By the end of the movie I finally decided to let go of the baggage holding me back, and walking out of the cineplex I too found my redemption.

>> Robert Redford and Nick Nolte in A Walk in the Woods, where they hiked the Appalachian Trail. Unlike Wild, this journey was presented in a humorous way and the friendship between the two leads was the focus of the film. The interaction between these two men was fun to watch given how different they were, with Redford and Nolte brought their A-game to the screen.

A Bunch of People Doing Some Very Extreme Activities

These people were either professionals who did it for a living or amateurs who did it in the name of hobby, and they did some seriously dangerous (and cool) stuff. Oh, and there are a group of NASA folks too.

>> If Hollywood were to remake The Con Artists, there is a high possibility that Nicolas Cage will be in it. That’s the best description I can give you on this Korean heist drama about three con artists who were forced into a crime by the local gang boss. I know, it was not exactly a compliment when you name drop Nicolas Cage, but say what you will about that man he sure knew how to make an entertaining popcorn movie. And this Korean drama, despite predictable in every corner, was sure a lot of fun to watch.

>> The cycling sports drama from Hong Kong To The Fore focused on the friendship and love of the few passionate racers who experienced ups and downs over the course of a few years. A good sports drama needs to be able to pump your blood at the right time, and this film certainly knew how to do just that with all the racing scenes (especially the last one).

>> You probably already knew the sad incident that inspired Everest so you surely were prepared to be emotional when you walked into the cineplex, but it didn’t make it any easier watching the disaster unfolded in front of you. It is okay to cry if you want to, nobody will judge you in the dark.

>> Joseph Gordon-Levitt brought along a few guys and a girl with him to New York so he could do The Walk on a high-wire across the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center with their help. Not for the faintest of heart, because you might feel dizzy watching a few scenes. But setting that aside, this was such a fun movie to watch despite a very thin plot (he wanted to take that walk across the Twin Towers and he did just that, and that was the whole plot).

>> Obviously one of the most popular and critically acclaimed film of the year is going to make it to the list, so here we are -- The Martian, a surprisingly lighthearted film on a supposedly heavy subject (man was left alone on Mars, he probably would die, the NASA team competed with time to find a way rescuing him). Much of the film depended on the charm of its star Matt Damon, and his star power made you sat through more than 2 hours of running time without feeling bored at any moment.

The Two Disastrous Trains of the Year

Grouped so for no particular reason other than to poke fun at the movie titles. Oh, and for the fact that both of them feature some very fucked-up people in the leading roles.

>> Trainwreck, where the breakout star of the year Amy Schumer was so cynical and not believing in romance that she completely ruined her chance of finding happiness. You know how we can’t seem to dislike Melissa McCarthy even when she’s in some unlikable characters? That’s how I felt about Amy Schumer too.

>> The D Train, where Jack Black followed James Marsden around trying to jumpstart a bromance despite the latter being a complete a**h***, even running his own marriage. You know how we can’t seem to dislike Jack Black no matter what kind of unlikable characters she portrayed? That’s how I felt about James Marsden too.

Hero and Heroine of the Year

>> Tom Hanks as James B. Donovan in Bridge of Spies, a lawyer tasked to negotiate with USSR on prisoner exchange. The movie is an old-fashioned film carefully crafted and handsomely made in every angle by Steven Spielberg. Kinda reminded me of those classic studio films from the 50s and 60s, the kind like To Kill a Mockingbird.

>> Miriam Yeung as Lilian Lui in Little Big Master 五个小孩的校长, a headmistress who took upon herself to save a kindergarten at the verge of closure so that the remaining five pupils can continue studying. It doesn’t matter how cliché that sounds or how familiar the story feels like, it’s not like Hollywood hasn’t made it before. What matters is over and over it works, it touches our hearts still. That’s good enough for me.

>> Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain from A Most Violent Year. Yes I realized they were not heroes in this film, in fact they were flawed and they committed felonies. But I couldn’t find a suitable category for the film and we are at the end of my wide list of 50 so pardon my far-fetched categorization. Oscar Isaac did in fact play a hero pilot in Star Wars: The Force Awakens while Jessica Chastain was the mission commander of the spaceship in The Martian, so accept my rationale and we’ll leave it at that. For most of its 2-hour run-time, it felt like nothing happened and it almost seemed nothing would too. Contrary to the movie title which sounds very Tarantino, the movie was a good example of merely moving the simple plot with just the amazing performances of the two leads (much like The Theory of Everything).

And finally, as promised here comes my 10 favorites:

(1) Wild

(2) Mad Max: Fury Road

(3) Inside Out

These are without a doubt my top 3 but I kept switching their positions from time to time. This is how I feel about them and where they belong at the moment. Ask me in a different time and their positions will probably be in a different order.

(4) Pride

(5) Bridge of Spies

(6) The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

(7) The Way He Looks

(8) Wild Tales

(9) The Theory of Everything

(10) The Martian