These are the films that I felt were the most innovative, important and influential; taking into account my own personal response to each one including how likely I was to want to see them more than once. Previously I’ve only considered films with a full theatrical release, but changing distribution models mean I’ve also included films with limited seasons, VOD releases and released direct to home entertainment.
Favourite ten films released in Melbourne, Australia, in 2015
1. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro G Iñárritu, 2014)
Released January
2. Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015)
Released June
3. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
Released March
4. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
Released May
5. The Salt of the Earth (Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, 2014)
Released April
6. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)
Released October
7. Holding the Man (Neil Armfield, 2015)
Released August
8. Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2014)
Released January
9. Far from the Madding Crowd (Thomas Vinterberg, 2015)
Released June
10. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
Released April
Honourable mentions
Twenty more films I loved this year, listed alphabetically:
‘71 (Yann Demange, 2014)
Released March
A Most Violent Year (JC Chandor, 2014)
Released February
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron, Roy Andersson, 2014)
Released October
Amy (Asif Kapadia, 2015)
Released July
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Released May
Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
Released May
Leviathan (Leviafan, Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Released March
London Road (Rufus Norris, 2015)
Released September
Love & Mercy (Bill Pohlad, 2014)
Released June
Marshland (La isla minima, Alberto Rodríguez, 2014)
Released June
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015)
Released July
Taxi Tehran (Jafar Panahi, 2015)
Released December
The Assassin (Nie yin niang, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 2015)
Released November
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller, 2015)
Released September
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (Ned Benson, 2013)
Released March
The Dressmaker (Jocelyn Moorhouse, 2015)
Released October
The End of the Tour (James Ponsoldt, 2015)
Released December
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014)
Released November
The Martian (Ridley Scott, 2015)
Released October
The Tribe (Plemya, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)
Released May
Special mention
Most of the other notable films I saw this year will be released in Melbourne in 2016, so I’ll include them on next year’s list rather than here, but I do want to give a special mention to one glorious film, whose fate in Australia outside of the festival screenings it received throughout 2015 seems to remain unknown:
Song Of The Sea (Tomm Moore, 2014)
This list was compiled for the Senses of Cinema 2015 World Poll
Thank you for reading my monthly summaries throughout the year and thank you to those of you who listen to my various radio spots. I was sad to finish up on the Breakfasters on Triple R (3RRR 102.7FM) a few weeks ago, but I decided that after being their Thursday morning film critic for the past six years, it was time to move on. However, Plato’s Cave keeps going from strength to strength and will return in 2016, and hopefully there will be a few more things that fall into place too.
But for now, I will leave you with the poem I was inspired to write after seeing Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation:
CINEMA AUTOPSY 