I’ve seen a few movies in my time, so it’s very possible that a sense of burnout has set in. Perhaps that’s why most of the cinematic fare of 2015 left me with a feeling of “Meh” rather than elation or wonder. Were there good movies? Yes, plenty of them. Were there great movies? Very few, in my humble opinion. There were many works that did everything they were supposed to, yet did so with a dispiriting lack of passion or originality while more than a few films started off inspired, only to jump the tracks, brought low by a sudden bout of predictability.
Obviously, what with 2015’s record box office, mine is a minority opinion. It was a foregone conclusion the year would end with a bang what with the late release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but no one predicted that Jurassic World would do the monster business it did ($652 million domestic, $1.7 billion worldwide) while seven other films cracked the $200 million mark domestically and 17 others went over $100 million. If this isn’t a rebuke to the notion that home video and online streaming poses a threat to seeing a film in a theater, I don’t know what is.
There were films I liked that most didn’t (Paddington, Black or White, The Duff, Unfinished Business, Danny Collins, True Story, The D Train, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Crimson Peak), movies audiences liked that I didn’t (Taken 3, The Wedding Ringer, Fifty Shades of Grey, Furious 7, Pitch Perfect 2, Ex Machina, Magic Mike XXL, Minions, The Martian, Spectre) and those no one liked (Blackhat, Mortdecai, Jupiter Ascending, Seventh Son, The Gunman, Hot Pursuit, Tomorrowland, Aloha, Vacation, Fantastic Four, Pan, Rock the Kasbah, Burnt, Our Brand is Crisis, Victor Frankenstein, In the Heart of the Sea).
The year saw a prevalent number of strong female protagonists, a welcome trend that stretched across genres (Trainwreck, Sicario, The Martian, Joy, as well as four films on my “Best of” list) and hopefully signals a positive change not just in front of the camera but behind it as well. Also of note, and a bit under the radar, was the strength of low-budget, art house horror films (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, It Follows, The Gift, Goodnight Mommy) that were made with imagination and intelligence, eschewing gore for disturbances of a more psychological and emotional bent. And perhaps this is wishful thinking, but is the western making a comeback? What with the release of Mad Max: Fury Road, Slow West, Bone Tomahawk, The Hateful Eight and The Revenant, I am holding out hope.
It was easier for me to come up with a list of the 10 Worst Films of the Year than one of the 10 Best. Whether that is an indication of the declining quality of American film or my dealing with a bout of cinematic ennui is open to debate. However, I felt as though I didn’t profit from my time in the dark as much as waste much of it. In the end, it proved to be justification to dig a bit deeper to uncover some worthy, overlooked movies that deserve to be found once they appear on home video.
Contact Chuck Koplinski a ckoplinski@usd116.org.
