The 50 Best Movies of 2015

10) Jafar Panahi’s Taxi

The exiled Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi continues to reinvent genres and push boundaries of visual storytelling to deliver profound, quietly political films. His astonishing, documentary-like Taxi is certainly no exception. We watch Panahi drive around Tehran, and give a number of unnamed people a voice about their social and religious struggles. In the most memorable segment of the film, Panahi’s young niece enthusiastically films him for a class assignment, and recites what she’s learned in school about making “screenable” films while being noticeably challenged by the “sordid reality” of the world outside. Taxi is filled with unparalleled connotation throughout. Panahi doesn’t spell it all out, but instead gently helps his viewer extract the truth. — Tomris Laffly

9) Timbuktu

In a global political environment in which knee-jerk reactions to Islamic radicalism have become the norm, Timbuktu’s study of the violent repercussions of religious power is shocking for its patient, nuanced approach. Abderrahmane Sissako, one of the underrated auteurs currently working, has never made a film as formally impressive and socially significant as this. Few outsiders understand the multifaceted nature of Islam and Muslims’ relationship to (and victimhood against) terrorism to the extent that Timbuktu does. With his poetic vision and grasp of the milieu, Sissako has made the essential film about terrorism without a hint of hysterics or didacticism. — Amir Soltani

8) Brooklyn

A sweepingly romantic melodrama, John Crowley’s gorgeous Brooklyn beams with an aching love for the idea of home. Telling the story of the 1950s Irish immigrant Eilis, it tenderly captures that nauseating feeling of homesickness and celebrates love, friendship, and hard work as means of furnishing one’s life with meaning and purpose. Saoirse Ronan gives one of this year’s most emotionally captivating and quietly rich performances as the competent young woman torn between two loves; and more significantly, her roots and newfound identity in America. Brooklyn is a rare breed of woman’s picture, timely in its expressive reminder that America is a country founded on the shoulders of immigrants. — Tomris Laffly

7) The Look of Silence

If Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing attempted to introduce the Indonesian genocide through the lens of those who had committed the atrocities, his follow-up turns the camera around to enter the collective psyche of the victims. Through Adi, the protagonist whose family were directly affected by the assassinations, The Look of Silence dares to uncover open secrets, wounds that rupture the Indonesian society to this day. The weight of history is present in every frame, in even the most mundane interaction between people who have never fully recovered from the genocide. Oppenheimer captures these complex socio-political issues with grace, subtlety and frankness.  — Amir Soltani

6) Magic Mike XXL

For all the hand-wringing these days over whether a film fits a reductive notion of feminism, Magic Mike XXL’s enthusiastic endorsement of sex and, as importantly, talking about one’s sexual desires seems altogether rarer in American film. This is a film by and about men, but one that expresses total interest in what women want and how healthy relationships look for commonalities between both partners. It’s a film that encourages men and women to take the time and figure out what they want sexually, not only for their own gratification but because knowing their own bodies makes it easier to learn someone else’s. Wrapped up in a goofy road movie about male strippers’ last hurrah, this is the most quietly radical film Hollywood has made in years. — Jake Cole

5) 45 Years

How well do you know the person you’re married to? Have they relinquished all of their secrets into your custody? Have they told you everything about the pre-you portion of their lives? And if you think the answer to both of these is “yes,” how can you be certain? These are the questions Andrew Haigh muses over in 45 Years, the story of married couple Kate and Geoff (Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay) whose upcoming 45th anniversary party is tainted by the specter of his past. It’s a film of quiet observation and muted emotions that are liberated only in the face of utmost spiritual anguish. — Andrew Crump

4) Mistress America

In a frail, fragile tone of voice, Brooke (Greta Gerwig) stares off absentmindedly as she tells Tracy (Lola Kirke), and in turn the audience, that “everything becomes pure want.” Mistress America’s generic context as screwball comedy frames Brooke’s quarter-life crisis, and Tracy’s coming of age, in a manner of unexpected honesty: behind the frenzied dialogue, so keenly written by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, is the destruction of ambition and the construction of a self. It’s messy and melancholy, raw and relentless. And while her entrepreneurial ambitions are thrown in the air, the “pure want” of Brooke’s monologue is fulfilled: a friendship – a singular sororal bond – is formed, and sometimes that’s the most important thing to hold onto. — Kyle Turner

3) Carol

The beauty of Todd Haynes’ achingly wrought romantic drama Carol all lies in what goes unsaid. Not once within Phyllis Nagy’s sparse, tender script is the word “lesbian” or even “sex” uttered. As self-assured housewife Carol (Cate Blanchett, perfect) seduces budding shopgirl Therese (Rooney Mara, also perfect), she never resorts to overreaching double entendre, or even anything verging on the explicit. Everything is conveyed in looks, gestures, pauses, and silence. The fragile attraction between Carol and Therese is forged from things purer and more primal than words, defined by emotion and beauty for beauty’s sake. — Charles Bramesco

2) Tangerine

Trans narratives are beginning to assert themselves in mainstream and indie circles, but they are still vessels for cisgender actors to win acclaim for “challenging” roles. Sean Baker’s wonderful neo-screwball ducks this trend by casting trans actors and eschewing message-movie drama for comedy. The slightly smeary quality of the iPhone cinematography compounds the film’s sense of constant motion, pushed forward by the antic strides of Kitana Kiki Rodriguez’s pissed-off ex Sin-Dee and the more measured pace of her friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor). Interlaced with the furiously funny dialogue and manic situations, however, are clear, humble observations of the challenges of queer life, from poverty to acceptance, that hardens the characters into the scrappy individualists they are. — Jake Cole

1) Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller’s follow-up to his long dormant Mad Max series was miles better than it ever needed to be. A high-octane chase movie at its core, Mad Max: Fury Road drops you right into the middle of the action and expects you to keep up with this strange new world. Practical effects, pulse-pounding car crashes, and a pair of magnetic central performances (Tom Hardy as Max and Charlize Theron as the scene-stealing Imperator Furiosa) made for 2015’s most surprising and entertaining hit. As much as Hollywood’s current obsession with “sequel-itis” has been derided, Mad Max: Fury Road is the exception that proves the rule. — Mallory Andrews