Honorable Mentions // 2015.
Moving up from the worsts, these are the films that are worth mentioning or recommending because they had some supremely excellent moments or elements, but also unfortunately counterbalanced by falling notably short in one way or another.
These shortcomings include: the director’s or studio’s usual lack of faith in the audience and thus adding unnecessary or redundant elements (The Revenant’s failure to let us accept nihilistic man vs.man, man vs. nature brutality, constantly adding in forced reasons for sympathy or motivation, or By the Sea’s explanation for it all nearing the end), redundant subplots and torpid narrative progression as gravitas or introspection (Ciało, Murmur of the Hearts, and Bone Tomahawk are all guilty), and very poor extremely shallow semi “twist” endings that almost destroy the weight of everything prior (Goodnight Mommy and Schneider vs. Bax).
But overall, these films, not only have some decent repeat quality and conversation starters, but also minimize my guilt of recommending something I don’t particularly consider great. As much as I enjoyed the music and sex scenes of Gaspar Noé’s Love, the droll and ultra-stylish rendition of Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, the precision direction and cinematography of Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, or the very straightforward goodness of Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation, I highly doubt I’d ever actively watch these again.
In any case, these are the honorable mentions:
Bone Tomahawk (S. Craig Zahler)
By the Sea (Angelina Jolie Pitt)
Ciało (Małgorzata Szumowska)
Goodnight Mommy (Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala)
Murmur of the Hearts (Sylvia Chang)
The Revenant (Alejandro G. Iñárritu)
Schneider vs. Bax (Alex van Warmerdam)
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