What a year! What a lovely year! Okay, yes, Mad Max was huge in 2015 but he was far from the only highlight. The envelope please…
Use ▲ ▲ arrow keys to navigate. Read more about the Year in Review on our blog.
A true marvel of action choreography and an instant cult-classic, Mad Max: Fury Road is a breathlessly exhilarating and gloriously orchestrated cautionary tale that sets a new gold standard for action cinema. — Ruslan Mavrodinov
The fourth installment of George Miller’s rambunctious postapocalyptic saga arrives in theaters like a tornado tearing through a tea party. — davidehrlich
An effortless, insightful examination of class interaction, a heartfelt study in motherhood and, like it wasn’t enough, [a] breezy, good-natured, hilarious comedy. — Raul Marques
For the first time I have seen, no one in the audience stirs as the credits slowly work their way to the top of the screen. A silent vigil, or a communal prayer of hope? — Tom Sheridan
A comic-adventure with an emotionally vibrant soul, Inside Out continues Pixar’s tradition of creating rich entertainments that are narratively, technically, and artistically outstanding. … A celebration of what makes the heart click and the mind tick. — Travis Lytle
JJ Abrams has made a film that fans will love. It’s a creation that comes from a place of respect and reverence (and irreverence) for the original Star Wars films, and although I fear my enthusiasm may wane over the next few days, at this point I believe that this film is superior to all that came before it. — Grant Berridge
The film recycles its predecessor’s dreamy, nostalgic atmosphere, but tempers it with a consuming, paranoid dread, and its scares land hard. … It Follows is less concerned with punishing teenagers for their sexual proclivities than it is with the idea that sex opens the door for the looming specter of adulthood. — Rob Weychert
Action cinema at its finest — a vibrant, uncompromising masterpiece of motion, grit and nihilistic mayhem, and an absolutely gonzo, brutally unhinged genre picture filmed with clarity and restraint. … Look out, rest of 2015; Fury Road is the movie to beat. — Josh Lewis
17,407,854
9,185,617
4,161,239
1,140,588
394,378
242,666
“I laughed. I cried. I got genuine, bona-fide chills. I cheered. I wanted to leap in the air and hug every human, droid, and alien in the vicinity. Star Wars isn’t just back, but fully expanded and revitalized. It’s a genuine spectacle with enough history and operatic energy to fill every Star Wars fan with undiluted glee and … emotion.”
“The first 30 minutes of this movie are staggering. It’s all scale, lived-in myth, latent history. Every shot feels projected through the hollow of your own bones. And then the rest of the movie is an overly busy rehash with no sense of shape or urgency. … BUT. If this movie is hopelessly nostalgic for its own franchise, that self-serving theme should nevertheless continue to be validated by this sequel trilogy’s focus on the cyclical handoff from one generation to another, which was always destined to be the true narrative of the Star Wars saga.”
“I cannot get over how good The Force Awakens was. The direction is incredible. The acting is top-notch. The visuals are so vibrant. … This is by far the best-acted Star Wars movie of the bunch. There is so much ion and heart behind every performance. The action is so organic, precise, and breath-taking.”
“Whiplash painted a picture of my father’s life growing up, but from a distorted perspective. He had the pressure to perform, the constant demands, and the harsh discipline; but not about the music. Music was the escape. … Whiplash also took my breath away. Both Teller and especially Simmons give electrifying performances with nothing being held back.”
“I look around, I look around, I see a lot of reviews for this classic. Which means a lot of people have been breaking the first two rules of Fight Club. Now if you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life.”
“Stop treating this franchise like it’s some indestructible robot from the future. It isn’t. There is nothing left to tell. To be honest the story was finished after the absolutely brilliant first part. I blame James Cameron. He set the tone with the sequel, a very well made film that just about negated everything that was brilliant about its predecessor and turned an iconic sci-fi villain into an accessory.”
“Therein lies the major problem with the film. Boyhood is exactly that. It isn’t a particular boyhood, it isn’t even Mason’s boyhood. It is Boyhood: The Concept and all of the checkmarks that go along with it. Just like one’s daily horoscope, Boyhood is general enough for anyone to see some truth in it.”
“I don’t know who I feel worse for here. Jamie Bell, who has maybe three scenes and ten lines before he’s replaced by a pile of rocks; Kate Mara, who gets sidelined even more pronouncedly than the typical female character in these comic-book movies; Miles Teller, who is totally miscast as a shy nerd; … or Michael B. Jordan, who is perfectly cast as the Human Torch, but gets almost nothing to do.”
Full Metal Jazz Kit. Jettisons extraneous character details and hyperfocuses on the nasty and the visceral aspects of being a great musician (or a great anything, for that matter). In the process it ends up being more stressful and thrilling than most thrillers. — laird
Women in Hollywood celebrated a landmark year with this reel of 2015’s highest-grossing films helmed by women. Seven women directors cracked the top 100 list in 2015 compared with just two in 2014. There’s still a long way to go, so why not Women in Film’s #52FilmsByWomen project in 2016, and watch a film a week directed or written by a woman.
Video edited by Jo Chiang
The conceit itself takes A Nightmare On Elm Street most of the way, because [Wes] Craven solved a problem that plagues many movies about dreams: he makes the nightmare world both abstract and physical, so it’s not all scary elasticity on Freddy’s part—it’s a nightmare that literally bleeds into the real world. And that’s what makes it scary to me, because nightmares, no matter how menacing they are, can end once the dreamer wakes up. —Scott Tobias, The Dissolve
Play video
A tribute to Wes Craven by Jacques Stickman
If there was any trend in poster art last year it was this one: a sea of cream, bone, off-white, ivory and beige. And these weren’t the only ones either. Jeff Goldblum would like a few words.
This is just a flat-out, balls-to-the-wall, pedal-to-the-metal action film, no pissing about with long scenes of expository dialogue, no thrown-together romance to bring in the tween crowd, just a simple story that makes sense and a shit-ton of vehicular carnage. — bree1981
Some people denounce the January-March slate of wide releases but the truth is that they’re often goldmines of unintentional comedy. The Boy Next Door is a gloriously over-the-top, awkward masterpiece of cheese. — removed
It’s shallow, dense, formulaic, cliched, sexist, uninspired, lethargic, lazy, fundamentally flawed and … poorly made. Direction is absent and the screenplay is, to a degree, repulsive. — Zachary Goldkind
Letterboxd member and Rolling Stone staff writer David Ehrlich once again provides a thrilling look back at the year in cinema, and his picks for the top 25 films of 2016. Headphones recommended.
The acting is beyond impressive. John Arcilla brings genuine humanity and … a really compelling sense of madness. — Mek "Walter Fernandez" Torres
See the full list for 2016 and beyond…
Thanks once again from everyone at Letterboxd HQ for contributing your thoughts and energy over the past year. Please share this page with all the film fans you know!
See the full lists for each category, read the news post and please share this page to Twitter, Facebook, infinity and beyond!
