Best of 2015: Cinema

With each passing year, my annual lists (which seem to mark the only time I have in a given year for writing “for fun” about film) become increasingly, unintentionally esoteric, purposefully defiant of any form of order, woefully incomplete, and predictably homoerotic. As each year comes to an end, I lament the films upon films I haven’t seen and frantically try to fit as many of those into my December schedule as possible. This year, I realized that my list was going to comprise of a bunch of films most people hadn’t heard of, no matter how many Oscar screeners I try to hustle through, and I accepted that. When I was in my early 20s, I would have marveled at a list of films only the most elite of cinephiles had even heard of, but these days, I just feel like an asshole.

These 10 films impressed me more than all the others. I’m slightly embarrassed that there isn’t a single film by a female filmmaker on the list, but I suppose I’d be more ashamed if I included one just for the sake of inclusion. Feel free to share your thoughts or possible suggestions (my to-see list is already epic). I’ve included distribution information for all of the films I could find it for (in the U.S., U.K., and France). And without further adieu, my 10 favorite films of 2015, listed alphabetically:

• All Yours (Je suis à toi). David Lambert. Belgium/Canada.
• Carol. Todd Haynes. USA/UK.
• The Club (El club). Pablo Larraín. Chile.
• Everlasting Love (Amor eterno). Marçal Forés. Spain.
• Full Contact. David Verbeek. Netherlands/Croatia.
• The Here After (Efterskalv). Magnus von Horn. Sweden/Poland/France.
• Neon Bull (Boi Neon). Gabriel Mascaro. Brazil/Uruguay/Netherlands.
• Nova Dubai (New Dubai). Gustavo Vinagre. Brazil.
• Tales of the Grim Sleeper. Nick Broomfield. UK/USA.
• Te prometo anarquía (I Promise You Anarchy). Julio Hernández Cordón. Mexico/Germany.

I also wrote about 10 additional films that left an impression on me, as well as the two films I hated the most in 2015: Jurassic World and The Overnight. Look for my 2015 television and music wrap-ups later this week.

Oh, and the most overrated film of 2015? Mad Max: Fury Road, which might have made my honorable mentions list had the world not praised it to high heaven and set my viewing up for disappointment. Alas.

Best of 2015: All Yours (David Lambert)

All Yours (Je suis à toi). David Lambert. Belgium/Canada.

Shamefully overlooked by the mainstream film festival circuit as well as the LGBT ones, All Yours is Belgian filmmaker David Lambert’s bold and arresting follow-up to his well-regarded, more widely seen debut feature Beyond the Walls (Hors les murs), which premiered at Cannes back in 2012 and enjoyed a healthy festival run at gay fests across the globe. Perhaps due to a spoiler-y plot detail that arrives in the film’s third act, the gay festivals (in the U.S., at least) shied away from All Yours, and while lead actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (Glue) was rightfully awarded the Best Actor prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, All Yours didn’t see the mainline festival run it deserved following its premiere at Karlovy Vary.

As a brash, desperate hustler from Argentina who accepts an invitation to become the live-in boyfriend of a much older baker (Jean-Michel Balthazar, a regular of the Dardenne brothers) in Belgium, Biscayart is sensational, and like the protagonist in Beyond the Walls, Biscayart’s Lucas is a deeply complicated, impulsive, and frustrating figure, one you don’t often see at the center of a film… and one that’s hard to keep your eyes off. Rounding out the sad bizarre love triangle is the Audrey (Monia Chokri of Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats), a guarded young mother who works at the bakery.

Visually audacious and dramatically complex, All Yours should have announced Lambert as a visionary filmmaker on the rise, but as I’ve expressed many times before, I never quite seem to have my finger on the pulse. In the U.S., All Yours is currently streaming on both Netflix and Hulu from Breaking Glass Pictures for your viewing pleasure; it currently doesn’t have distribution in the U.K. Outplay Films released Je suis à toi theatrically in France earlier this year.

With: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Jean-Michel Balthazar, Monia Chokri, Augustin Legrand, Anne-Marie Loop, Achille Ridolfi