2015 Wrap-Up

Movies

97 films watched in 2015, down from 102 last year.

Favorite Movies:

Mad Max: Fury Road
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
The Imitation Game
A Most Wanted Man
The Swimmer
The Stunt Man

Full list of movies - http://www.imdb.com/list/ls031784080/

TV Faves

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Parks and Recreation

(Also: In addition to all these movies, Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary got me in the mood for re-watching all the episodes from the Seventies. So far, I’ve watched all 24 episodes of Season 1, and 7 episodes of season 2.)

The film that had me thinking about it for days afterward:

• “The Swimmer” (Burt Lancaster, 1968)

Fantastic, compelling, had me saying ‘wow’:

• “Badlands” (Martin Sheen, 1973)
• “A Prophet” (French film, 2009)
• “A Most Wanted Man” (Philip Seymour Hoffman, 2014)

Watched my first Marx Brothers movies this year, and I laughed out loud more at these 80+ year-old films than I did at any recent comedy. (Except maybe “Spy” with Melissa McCarthy. I giggled throughout that!)

Westerns were never my favorite genre, but I saw a couple more John Wayne movies and truly enjoyed them.

2014’s “Birdman” got me jonesing for more Michael Keaton, so I had an 80’s themed mini-festival of “Night Shift,” “Mr. Mom” and “The Dream Team.”

My favorite performances all came from bio-pics:

• Chadwick Boseman as James Brown in “Get On Up”
• Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing in “The Imitation Game”
• Paul Dano as Brian Wilson in “Love and Mercy”

And the “Most Impressive and Busy Newcomer” award goes to:

• Oscar Isaac in “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “A Most Violent Year,” “Ex Machina,” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”