2015 Wrap-Up

2015 Wrap-Up

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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/

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TV Faves

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Parks and Recreation

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(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.)

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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”