Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
February 28, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema, Oscars Oscars Leave a comment
If I were in charge of unilaterally selecting the Oscars, here is who would be recognized. Nominees are listed in order of preference, winners at the top.
Best Picture
1. The Big Short
2. Spotlight
3. Ex Machina
4. Inside Out
5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Lead Actress
1. Alison Brie, Sleeping with Other People
2. Brie Larson, Room
3. Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
4. Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road
5. Cate Blanchett, Carol
February 18, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema Chi-Raq, Ex Machina, Inside Out, Jurassic World, Mad Max: Fury Road, Magic Mike XXL, Minions, Sicario, The Big Short, Unfriended 1 Comment
The best mini-movies that had us rocking in and falling out of our seats in the past year.
10. Jurassic World, T. Rex vs. Indominus Rex – A.K.A the 2015 Late Night War.
February 13, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema Alison Brie, Ex Machina, Oscar Isaac, Sleeping with Other People Leave a comment
Here is a rundown of the excellence in individual performances in films in 2015, starting with my choices for the 2 best and then the rest in alphabetical order. At the top are a fellow who talked and talked his way through a freaky-cerebral premise, and a lady who cracked her buoyant starting point into a heartbreakingly complicated interior.
Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina
Alison Brie, Sleeping with Other People
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Elizabeth Banks, Love & Mercy
Angela Bassett, Chi-Raq
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Josh Brolin, Sicario
Steve Carell, The Big Short
John Cusack, Chi-Raq
Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Benicio Del Toro, Sicario
Robert De Niro, The Intern
Deanna Dunagan, The Visit
Joel Edgerton, Black Mass
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Walton Goggins, The Hateful Eight
O’Shea Jackson, Jr., Straight Outta Compton
Michal B. Jordan, Creed
Brie Larson, Room
Peter McRobbie, The Visit
Jason Mitchell, Straight Outta Compton
Daisy Ridley, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Seth Rogen, Steve Jobs
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Jason Segel, The End of the Tour
Phyllis Smith, Inside Out
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road
Lily Tomlin, Grandma
Stanley Tucci, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
February 13, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema Creed, Inside Out, Krampus, Spotlight, The Big Short, The Hateful Eight Leave a comment
When the folks who say the words and act out the movements flocked together, these were the groups who made the most thunder.
February 13, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema, Television Best of 2015, Brooklyn, Creed, Furious 7, Krampus, Mad Max: Fury Road, Room, Sleeping with Other People, The Peanuts Movie, The Visit, Unfriended Leave a comment
I already posted my top 10 list, but wouldn’t you know it, there were plenty of other great movies. Here are three less than a baker’s dozen worth:
11. Mad Max: Fury Road – Charlize barks at the moon, giving us our most iconic image of 2015.
12. Krampus – The tricks are a treat, as is the teamwork among a dysfunctional family.
13. Creed – Adonis unapologetically forges ahead to be true to his identity and establish his family.
14. Sleeping with Other People – The question this time isn’t, “Can men and women be friends without wanting to sleep with each other?” but “Why wouldn’t they if they like each other enough?”
15. The Visit – Right at home on the corner of creepy and hilarious.
16. Brooklyn – Even when Eilis Lacey’s life is hard, there is so much love in her world.
17. Unfriended – The most formally ingenious movie in years, perhaps decades even.
18. The Peanuts Movie – Charlie Brown is preternaturally neurotic; ergo, this one’s a thinker.
19. Room – Tight corners promote empathy.
20. Furious 7 – The first F&F movie in which I actually remembered some of the plot aftewards.
December 31, 2015
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema Best of 2015, Bridge of Spies, Ex Machina, Inside Out, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, movies, Sicario, Spotlight, Star Wars The Force Awakens, Steve Jobs, The Big Short, What We Do in the Shadows 1 Comment
Clockwise from Top Left: Inside Out; Spotlight; Ex Machina; The Big Short (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots)
Box office records kept falling in 2015, and some of the biggest blockbusters were actually among the best films of the year! This is appropriate enough, as bigness was the name of the day in 2015, with Big Emotions and Big Ideas all over this list. Whether it was through muckraking journalism and statesmanship, the birth of new heroes, or the burning desire to make personal connections, the makers of the best films of 2015 made sure audiences heard what they had to say.
This top 10 list was originally posted on Starpulse in December 2015.
1. The Big Short – Spoiler alert: as the wild ride of Adam McKay’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ bestselling nonfiction thriller about the players who anticipated the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble settles into its conclusion, the epilogue reveals that every Wall Street fraudster was imprisoned and new stringent legal regulations have been implemented to prevent another crisis. Except, of course, that didn’t happen. This is an esoteric topic, but the audience for “The Big Short” knows it has been screwed. The level at which this swindling occurred is astounding and ridiculous, and the filmmaking that captures it is just as absurdly gut-wrenching.
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