Click here if you missed part one of the countdown, in which films #85-#31 were revealed. And now, without further ado, 2015's top 30:
30. MAGIC MIKE XXL (dir: Gregory Jacobs)
187 points
No McConaughey, no Pettyfer, no problem. For many critics, this sequel to the Soderbergh male stripper movie (which placed #22 in our 2012 rankings) proved to be just as good (if not better) than the original. Some have even called it the most fun time at the movies in 2015, with the increase in dancing sequences being the main reason for that.
29. HARD TO BE A GOD (dir: Aleksey German)
206 points
Despite a lengthy production process that began in 2000 and lasted six years, followed by an even lengthier post-production that included the passing away of its director, German's adaptation of the 1960's Soviet science fiction novel finally premiered in late 2013, and made its way to theaters across the world at various points in the following two years (including a U.S. release in early 2015). Shot in black-and-white, the movie deals with a modern scientist that observes inhabitants of a distant planet that are going through their own version of the Middle Ages, but without their Renaissance.
28. THE HATEFUL EIGHT (dir: Quentin Tarantino)
208 points
Set in a large, Wyoming log cabin following the Civil War, Tarantino's latest involves a bounty hunter named John Ruth (Kurt Russell) who, with the help of a black Union major (Samuel L. Jackson) aims to take a wanted criminal (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to a nearby town to have her hanged. Walton Goggins, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Demian Bichir, and Bruce Dern play the remaining members of the film's important eight. The film made headlines by premiering in 70mm Panavision throughout various theaters in North America, the first time this was attempted by a filmmaker in decades.
27. THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY (dir: Peter Strickland)
215.5 points
Set in a world that seems to be entirely without men, a female couple (played by Sidse Babbet Knudsen and Chiara D'Anna) goes through the various problem that come out of their BDSM relationship.
26. AMY (dir: Asif Kapadia)
246 points
A documentary on the life of troubled British singer Amy Winehouse, who became famous in the mid-to-late 2000s and tragically died of drug overdose in 2011. The film is told through various footage recorded of Winehouse in her lifetime, as well as voiceovers from various people who were close to her
25. BRIDGE OF SPIES (dir: Steven Spielberg)
247.5 points
Tom Hanks stars as James B. Donovan, a New York attorney who, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, was tasked with serving various duties for the U.S. government, including the defense of an accused Soviet spy (played by Mark Rylance in a role that will surely earn him an Oscar nomination) and the negotiation of a prison swap between the U.S. and Eastern Europe.
24. TIMBUKTU (dir: Abderrahmane Sissako)
272 points
Sissako's latest (which barely snuck into the 2014 list, making an Honorable Mention appearances as the year's #95 ranked film) tells the story of the city of Timbuktu and its time under sharia law after being taken over by a group of militant Islamic jihadist. The film was honored early in 2015 as a Best Foreign Language film nominee at the Oscars.
23. IT FOLLOWS (dir: David Robert Mitchell)
278 points
A mysterious, ghostly figure hunts down a young women (played by Maika Monroe), and the only for her to escape it is by transferring its chase towards her to another person through sex. The movie premiered at Cannes 2014, and is considered by several critics to be the best horror movie in over a decade.
22. THE REVENANT (dir: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
281.5 points
In the same year in which Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu left the Oscars with a tripleheader of Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay trophies, he also came out with this revenge Western about American frontiersman Hugh Glass. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio in a performance that may finally win him that elusive Oscar this February, and sees Inarritu re-team with his Birdman cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki.
21. STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (dir: J.J. Abrams)
284.5 points
Prior to the start of 2015, many fans of Star Wars would've been content if the saga's long-anticipated seventh installment (the first Star Wars film since Disney's 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilms) was simply better than the much-maligned prequels. Now, after a box-office shattering release, it seems that the consensus believed the movie to do just that (and then some). The film featured the original trilogy trio of Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford reprising their beloved roles from thirty years ago, as well as a new set of characters including Rey (played by Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and ball-droid BB-8. On January 7th, 2016, The Force Awakens officially passed Avatar (2009) as the highest grossing movie in U.S. history.
20. THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL (dir: Marielle Heller)
306 points
A candid story about a teenager's sexual awakening and path to adulthood in 1970's San Francisco that begins with her having an affair with her mother's boyfriend. Bel Powley, Kristen Wiig, and Alexander Skarsgard star.
19. CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (dir: Olivier Assayas)
322 points
A famous, middle-aged actress (Juliette Binoche) is asked to act as a lead in a play that began her rise to stardom. The film also stars Kristen Stewart (as the assistant to Binoche's character) in a performance that has received much acclaim.
18. SON OF SAUL (dir: Laszlo Nemes)
332 points
A brutal film set in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust, this debut feature by Hungarian Laszlo Nemes earned the Grand Prix at the 2015 Cannes film festival and is considered to be the current Oscar frontrunner for Best Foreign Language film.
17. 45 YEARS (dir: Andrew Haigh)
350 points
A married couple's week of planning for their 45th wedding anniversary is disrupted when news arrives of the body of the husband's former lover being found in Switzerland. Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay play the lead roles in performance that gave them each acting awards at the Berlin Film Festival. The movie is considered yet another step up in the career of British director Andrew Haigh (who also directed Weekend, which placed #30 in our 2011 rankings).
16. THE LOOK OF SILENCE (dir: Joshua Oppenheimer)
353 points
Oppenheimer's follow-up to The Act of Killing (the #7 film in the 2013 rankings), in which he continues his focus on the Indonesian genocide of communists in the 1960s, this time by having one of the victim's relative have conversations with many of its perpetrators. This is our list's highest-ranked documentary of 2015.
15. THE MARTIAN (dir: Ridley Scott)
353.5 points
Based on the popular science-fiction novel by Andrew Weir, the film stars Matt Damon as a NASA scientist who must survive the Martian terrain on his own after being left behind by his crew. Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, and Sean Bean are also part of the cast.
14. CREED (dir: Ryan Coogler)
359.5 points
2015 was the year of surprisingly good sequels, one of which included this extension to the Rocky film franchise. Michael B. Jordan played Adonis Johnson, son of Apollo Creed, who decides to follow his father's footsteps and become a professional boxer. Sylvester Stallone reprises his iconic role as Rocky Balboa, who agrees to train Adonis.
12(tie). THE BIG SHORT (dir: Adam McKay)
363 points
A star-studded cast that includes Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt are part of this exploration into the 2008 financial crisis. Based on the book-of-the-same-name by Michael Lewis, it involves the story of a group of financiers who decides to bet against the U.S. housing markets in the years before the Great Recession.
12(tie). THE ASSASSIN (dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
363 points
The Taiwanese master Hou Hsiaso-Hsien earned a Best Director prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for this stunningly-shot (seriously, the cinematogrphy is incredible!) take on the wuxia genre.
11. TANGERINE (dir: Sean Baker)
373.5 points
A transgendered prostitute returns to the streets of Los Angeles and finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with a woman. Once she finds out, she attempts to get revenge. Starring Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, the movie became one of 2015's most-talked-about movies at Sundance, and gained notoriety for its iPhone 5s camerawork.
10. PHOENIX (dir: Christian Petzold)
374 points
A Holocaust survivor (played by Nina Hoss) returns to her German home following a facial reconstruction surgery that makes her unrecognizable, and begins the search for her husband in a movie that has been compared favorably to such classics as Hitchcock's Vertigo. Directed by Christian Petzold (who directed Barbara, the #51 ranked movie in our 2012 poll), it is the highest-ranked movie released in 2015 that was not made primarily in the English language.
9. SICARIO (dir: Denis Villeneuve)
384.5 points
An FBI agent (played by Emily Blunt) is used by an agent from the U.S. and Colombia to help them get the infamous Mexican drug cartel boss Manuel Diaz. Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro also star.
8. ROOM (dir: Lenny Abrahamson)
451.5 points
In 2013, Brie Larson had her breakthrough role in Short Term 12 (which placed #16 in that year's rankings). This year, she had her role that may get her an Oscar as a woman who plans an escape for herself and her five-year-old son away from a shed that they've been trapped in for years.
7. ANOMALISA (dir: Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman)
458 points
Charlie Kaufman makes his long-awaited return to the silver screen, with an animated film based on a mid-2000s stageplay he wrote. It was a film made entirely in stop-motion, and was co-directed by Duke Johnson, who also worked on the beloved "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" episode of Community. David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan provided the voices.
6. EX MACHINA (dir: Alex Garland)
537.5 points
A young-man (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a one-week trip to the home of the CEO of the company he works for (played by Oscar Isaac), and learns of the revolutionary AI system that CEO is creating behind closed doors. Alicia Vikander also plays a major role as Ava, one of the female AI androids that Isaac's character. Besides a top-ten appearance on the countdown, Alex Garland's film also holds this year's title of Highest Ranking Movie by a First-Time Director
5. BROOKLYN (dir: John Crowley)
608 points
Saoirse Ronan plays Ellis Lacey, an Irish native who immigrates to New York City and finds herself torn between living in her native land or her new home. The film also stars Domhnall Gleeson who now can claim a role in four of the 25 highest rankings movies of 2015 (along with The Revenant, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Ex-Machina).
4. INSIDE OUT (dir: Pete Docter)
842 points
Pixar's most acclaimed work since Toy Story 3 (which placed #4 in the 2010 rankings), in which the movie takes you inside the inner world of a young girl's mind as she adjusts to moving with her family from Minnesota to San Francisco. Amy Poehler, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader, and Phyllis Smith voice the main emotions in the film (Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear, and Sadness). It is 2015's highest ranking animated movie.
3. SPOTLIGHT (dir: Tom McCarthy)
1149 points
A team of investigative reporters for the Boston Globe (played by Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, and Brian d'Arcy James) is asked by their editors (Liev Schreiber and John Slattery) to investigate a potential pattern of child sex abuse by Catholic priests in the Boston area. Praised for its screenplay and its confident yet restrained filmmaking, the movie is considered the current frontrunner for the Oscar's Best Picture prize.
2. CAROL (dir: Todd Haynes)
1194 points
Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt, Todd Haynes's latest portrays the lesbian love affair between a suburban New York housewife (played by Cate Blanchett) and a younger shopping clerk (Rooney Mara) in the early 1950s. Mara earned a Best Actress prize at the 2015 Cannes film festival for her work.
And now, the moment you've been waiting two blog posts for: 2015's most critically acclaimed movie was...
1. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (dir: George Miller)
1724.5 points
Oh, what a lovely day!
If you had told most people in the start of 2015 that this movie, the fourth in a Mad Max franchise that hadn't made a new installment in 30 years and featuring a new actor playing the titular role (Tom Hardy, instead of Mel Gibson), would go on to be the year's most acclaimed piece of filmmaking, I doubt that most people would've believed you. But thanks to some imaginative world-building by George Miller (who also directed the previous three Mad Max movies) and his co-screenwriter (Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris), as well as a combination of terrific practical effects, thrilling car-chase set pieces, and an interesting slate of supporting characters (most notably Charlize Theron's Furiosa, who was essentially the movie's co-lead), Fury Road managed to do just that. Not since Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008) has there arguably been a summer blockbuster to receive this much praise by critics, receiving an appearance on 65% of the top-ten lists counted for the rankings, including a leading 68 #1 votes (the next best films in this category were Carol and Spotlight, who each had 36 #1 votes). Not only that, the movie has earned much adoration from the major year-end awards, receiving a Best Film award by the National Board of Review, a Best Drama nomination at the Golden Globe Awards, and a Best Motion Picture nomination by the Producers Guild of America. More than anything else, Fury Road managed to provide an exception to the Hollywood sequel fatigue felt by certain critics. All it took was the help of kick-ass musician shooting flames from his guitar while strapped on top of a monster truck to make that happen.
Coming Monday: A list of 2015 films which made an appearance on at least one critic's top-ten list, yet didn't accumulate enough points to make it onto the top 85.
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