OVP: Actress (2000)

OVP: Best Actress (2000)

The Nominees Were...

Joan Allen, The Contender

Juliette Binoche, Chocolat

Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream

Laura Linney, You Can Count on Me

Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich

My Thoughts: Every time we tackle one of the Oscar Viewing Project seasons, there's always 1-2 contests where I can't quite figure out what I'm going to do with the wins at the top of the season.  Sometimes, like 2001 Score or 2004 Actress, that is something I end up deciding in the moment, and still am not entirely sure I made the right decision.  Today, I feel more confident in where I'm headed, but I do think it's one of those races where I don't entirely know that I want to be on record as picking one of these performances, with three much-lauded pieces of work, above the others.

By sheer accident, we've started all of our 2000 acting races with the winner, and since this will never happen again, we'll finish that trend today by beginning with Julia Roberts.  Roberts' victory is considered by many to be about as perfect as you can get-the best combination of right actress, right time, and right role.  It's hard to argue with the logic there.  Roberts is sensational, giving a movie-star turn as the titular Erin, totally playing this for both the cheering crowds and for the discerning critics, making Erin prickly-but-lovable.  I admire the way that some of the speeches feel both off-the-cuff but rehearsed, as if Erin (and Julia) knew that this moment was coming, and have wanted to say them all of their lives.  There's a lived-in quality here that is undeniable.

The problem for Roberts is that she's also against some other great pieces-of-work.  Ellen Burstyn is giving maybe her most-celebrated (give or take The Exorcist) performance in Requiem, and it is truly something to behold.  The 1970's feminist archetype here plays a housewife with a drug addiction, and it's scary how well she incorporates failed dreams, inner-doubt, and abject loneliness into one performance.  I am not always on Darren Aronofsky's side (I think his films are difficult to watch, and sometimes head into Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-levels of despair that feel more about torturing than challenging the audience), but while Requiem is a tough sit, it's a good one, and that's due in large part to Burstyn.

While Burstyn was a comeback and Roberts a coronation, Laura Linney was an ascendance, though not to stardom (more to "elevated character actress").  Her work in You Can Count on Me is so strong.  I love the scenes where she's in the car, and she's laughing (or crying), and you just feel her Sammy as a person.  It's undeniable that much of her performance's strength comes from this authentic, marvelous chemistry she has with costar Mark Ruffalo.  It is rare to see a movie that has two actors playing siblings that feels so real, like you can't honestly believe these two haven't known each other their whole lives.  The best performances either actor have given to date.

Joan Allen in 2000 was on something of a streak, one that was about to end.  In six years, she'd amassed not only three Oscar nominations, but much-lauded work in The Ice Storm & Pleasantville that easily could've gotten her to five nods in six years.  Her work in The Contender isn't as impressive as some of the rest of that run, though.  I think this is strong stuff, but it's a lot of "girlboss" rah rah before that would become a thing.  We see her play a woman of honor in a town that wrings that from you, and her speech toward the end felt like an active play to liberal Oscar voters (or me...I'd vote for her senator too!).  But it doesn't feel like we really get to know her character-we just get to know her as an idea.

It always feels a little silly to me that Juliette Binoche, maybe our finest working actor, not only has just two Oscar nominations, but she has the latter one for a little trifle that most people mock.  That doesn't feel totally fair.  Binoche is good in Chocolat, and gives exactly what this little confection (pun intended) is meant to taste like, but it's just not a performance that deserves to be in the conversation for an Oscar.  Not every movie is supposed to be an Oscar nominee, and she lands all of her jokes, plays her character as unknowable (but still fascinating), but it's...this is not the sort of Grade A bubble gum that we complain about missing out at Oscar...one of the few times he nominates this, and it's not something totally refreshing like Clueless or When Harry Met Sally.  Still, on some level I'm glad that Binoche got a nomination since she's deserved this at least four times since (and multiple times before).

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes separate their nominations between Drama and Musical/Comedy, so we have ten women nominated for these awards.  For Drama, Roberts won, beating out Allen, Burstyn, Linney, and Bjork (Dancer in the Dark), while for Comedy/Musical Binoche actually lost to Renee Zellweger (Nurse Betty), the rare time the Globe winner bested an Oscar nominee; also in contention were Brenda Blethyn (Saving Grace), Sandra Bullock (Miss Congeniality), and Tracey Ullman (Small Time Crooks).  SAG went with the exact same lineup (and winner) as Oscar, while BAFTA got crazy, giving their statue to Roberts, but she beat Binoche, Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), & Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry)...a year after Swank won the Oscar.  In sixth place, it's surely Zellweger, but I'll be honest-this was one of those "locked up tight" Best Actress lineups that no one was going to break.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: The Oscars have been criticized, frequently correctly, for ignoring the achievements of Asian actors.  22 years before she won an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Michelle Yeoh would become the textbook example of this when she couldn't get a nomination for Best Picture nominee Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a nomination she more-than-earned.

Oscar’s Choice: The internet will occasionally convince itself that Burstyn was a threat here, but she was not.  This was Julia's time-one of the biggest locks this category has ever seen.

My Choice: This is a good moment to remind readers that the Oscar Viewing Project is a multi-decade experiment I'm doing, where I pick only the winner in a vacuum, meaning that I don't think about outside factors (like if they've already won) to see if I make the same mistakes as the Academy, even if that means an actor I like (and a performance I'd be proud to see win a statue) never takes home the gold.  In real life, I probably would've voted for Julia too, because I am not immune to a narrative.  But if we're talking the best performance in this lineup, it's Laura Linney, and she's going to get my statue atop Roberts and then Burstyn (all three are showing up in my My Ballot next week), even if that means Roberts, the biggest actress of her era, will probably never win an OVP.  Behind them are Binoche, and finally Joan Allen.

Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours!  Do you think that Roberts is genuinely the best of this lineup, or (in a vacuum) do you want to stand with Linney (or Burstyn)?  Do you think considering previous wins or career longevity is a good or bad way to handle close Oscar races with a lot of worthy contenders (like this year)?  And does it tick you off as well that Michelle Yeoh had to wait so long for her Oscar nomination?  Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Also in 2000: Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2000

Past Best Actress Contests: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

The Truth (2020)

Film: The Truth (2020)
Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Ludivine Sagnier, Clementine Grenier, Manon Clavel
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

At some point I think it'd be fascinating to do some sort of mini-series about "what followed the Palme?"  I have to imagine after winning the "Nobel Prize of Cinema" it's difficult to go back & create something that, at the very most, can equal your monumental achievement, and more-than-likely result in you underwhelming the audience.  Hirokazu Kore-eda had that task with The Truth, the followup to his lauded Shoplifters which won both the Palme & an Oscar nomination in 2018.  Kore-eda's strategy seems smart here-he goes completely to a different world with his characters, even adopting a different language (the movie is largely in French, sometimes in English), and so there's little trace to his magnum opus, though you can still see the intelligent lines that ran through Shoplifters in this movie, even if it's lighter & more intertwined with a version of reality centering around cinematic icon Catherine Deneuve.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Fabienne Dangeville (Deneuve), a beloved French actress who has recently written a book and is filming a Sci-Fi picture called Memories of My Mother which Fabienne isn't taking seriously, and doesn't consider to be particularly good.  Her daughter Lumir (Binoche), actor son-in-law Hank (Hawke), and granddaughter Charlotte (Grenier) are visiting her, and we learn that Lumir hasn't read the book yet, and doesn't agree with the depiction of her childhood in it.  She is upset that her mother seems more present in her life than she actually was in the memoir, and that her mother didn't mention Sarah, an actress whom Lumir looked up to, and whom she feels a kinship with in a way she didn't with her mother.  As the film goes on, the women hash through the jealousies, both professional & personal that Fabienne felt to Sarah, stealing away her daughter, and how she wishes things could be different (but not so much she'd do things differently).  The women end on better terms, and with Fabienne realizing a new zest for her career & life.

The movie is fluffy light stuff on first glance.  It's bliss having actors as good as Binoche & Deneuve in the leads, and the supporting cast is delicious-not just Grenier & Hawke, but also Ludivine Sagnier as a supporting actress in the film whom Fabienne befriends and Manon Clavel as Manon (not a lot of heavy lifting there), an up-and-coming actress who is proclaimed as "the next Sarah," which makes Fabienne standoffish toward her.  However, the movie has deeper layers in the work than you'd expect as it goes, and I ended up kind of liking it more than I should have.  Despite the fault lines (there are detours with Fabienne's staff that feel underwritten, as do some aspects of her complicated relationship with Sarah), in a similar fashion to Shoplifters the movie doesn't give easy answers, but it does give resolutions that fit people who are established in their lives & unlikely to change but for a fraction.

The movie's best asset is Deneuve, and the weird meta-fiction that Kore-eda gives to her in the script. While she's obviously playing a fictional character, Deneuve's Fabienne is so intertwined with Deneuve that they use actual facts from the actress's life to flesh out the character, like that she has two Cesars (which Deneuve does) and that she was going to work with Alfred Hitchcock before he died (Deneuve was supposedly set to star in The Short Night with Clint Eastwood, which would've been Hitch's last film if it had ever gotten off-the-ground).  They even give Fabienne a moment to shade Brigitte Bardot, with whom the real-life Deneuve once shared an ex (Roger Vadim).  This adds layers onto Deneuve's performance, and makes it some of her most interesting work in a while-when is she playing herself versus playing her fictional counterpart?  It's a fun game to play as you watch a deceptively sly picture.

OVP: The English Patient (1996)

Film: The English Patient (1996)
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Firth
Director: Anthony Minghella
Oscar History: 12 nods/9 wins (Best Picture*, Director*, Actor-Ralph Fiennes, Actress-Kristin Scott Thomas, Supporting Actress-Juliette Binoche*, Art Direction*, Cinematography*, Adapted Screenplay, Costume*, Sound*, Film Editing*, Original Score*)
(Not So) Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Stating a favorite movie has gotten harder as I've gotten older.  For years, it was a de facto answer (Casablanca), as sure as I could tell you my name is John or that I would definitely have sex with Colin Farrell if given the option.  But recently I've started to poke holes in that facade, realizing that as I've seen more movies than the average person will see in their entire lifetime at this point that it's okay to bring up Chinatown or Call Me By Your Name or Once Upon a Time in the West as potentially my favorite film ever made.  One of the movies that most strongly comes up when I decide to stray away from Casablanca as the Grand Teton of movies is The English Patient, a movie I was blessed enough to see at a "secret movie night" recently.  The English Patient is so ingrained in me that not only did I know it from literally the opening chord of the score (I literally squealed to my mom, sitting next to me, "it's my favorite movie!"), but also I have seen this film so often that I could literally mouth along to the words, as if I was at a rock concert and suddenly a favorite anthem began to play.  Since the film is arguably the movie I have the most arched eyebrows for when I mention it as potentially my favorite movie ever (even my mom who has known of my obsession with the film since I used to watch it alone in my bedroom every two months or so in high school, didn't quite get it after watching it with me for the second time), I figured I should rescue it today from the annals of being a Seinfeld punchline and talk about my English Patient.

(Spoilers Ahead) Okay, so the plot of The English Patient is somewhat hard to summarize as it's essentially two stories told chronologically and concurrently, so you're getting back story to one tale (about our present-day "English Patient" who has suffered terrible burns in a plane crash, and what happened to him before he was burned), and our current-state tale of Hana the Nurse (Binoche) who keeps losing everyone that she loves in horrible accidents toward the end of World War II.  The first half follows Almasy (Fiennes), the "English Patient," as he has a torrid affair with Katherine Clifton (Scott Thomas) who is married to Geoffrey (Firth).  All of them are helping to create maps of Northern Africa, which initially just feels like a past-time for bored and wealthy Europeans, but becomes crucially important as World War II breaks out, and increasingly battles are being fought between the Allies and the Axis powers in Africa.  Meanwhile, we learn seemingly contradictory things about Almasy in present-day, with him claiming to have been married to Katherine, and having him be accused of betraying the Allies (and his team, including the Cliftons) to the Germans, and in the process causing a thief named Caravaggio (Dafoe) who has traced down Almasy to come seeking his revenge, as Caravaggio blames Almasy for him being maimed (he had his thumbs cut off during illegal torture) during the war.  The film even has time for a second romance in the modern-day, between Hana and a young Sikh named Kip (Andrews), who disarms bombs and mines for a living.

The movie functions at once as a melodrama, a pair of doomed romances, and a mystery.  The first time you see it, it's not entirely clear what to do with our misleading narrator, who lies frequently in the present, so you don't know until the end that he's been telling the truth in the past.  The film kind of has something for everyone in this regard-if you don't really love the romances, you can always latch onto the "war is hell" portion of the story, as well as the central mystery, and of course there's two romances to point you toward, both of which feel fully-fleshed out (that's not a nudity joke, though there is ample nudity in the picture).

What I love about The English Patient (and this could honestly be a book, so for your own eyes I'll try to keep this relatively brief) is the way that it feels like a complete, epic story.  Frequently when a director like Minghella were to shoot for a big-picture sweeping tale there would be sluggish, potentially even ancillary aspects to the movie that don't keep it going; look at Minghella's impressive but less successful Cold Mountain for an example of a movie that can occasionally be spellbinding but gets lost along the way, never quite justifying its run-time.  The English Patient doesn't do that-it leaves layers for future viewings (it's impossible to get the depth of Binoche's Hana, and her misery the first time you see it, realizing what she has to go through while still maintaining a relatively caring-and-cheerful demeanor), but it's also a complete story all on its own.  It's not an epic that is long for the sake of being grand-it's long because the story demands it, and there isn't a lot of "spare" in the picture.  Unless you truly hate, say, the romance between Hana/Kip (and how could you do such a thing?), The English Patient is that rare movie that justifies heading into 3-hour territory without ever being dull.

The performances are brilliant.  All three of the Oscar-nominated leads are giving their best work here, and considering we're talking about Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, & Kristin Scott Thomas, that's saying something.  I can never quite decide my favorite performance in the picture, though I'd probably lean toward Fiennes on most days; he finds a thoroughly caddish rogue, someone we shouldn't sympathize with, and makes him a Heathcliff of the 20th Century.  Almasy is a brute, and probably not worthy of Katherine (or Hana, for that matter), but you understand the attraction here, and why he'd be the great love of her life.  Binoche finds an openness in Hana that is her trademark, but I love the quieter moments in her performance, the way that she is genuinely curious about the man she's caring for (always falling in love again), upon reflection.  Scott Thomas is in full-on glamour mode, never looking lovelier, but also is a woman who understands how to toe the line between being in a man's world, where she's frequently dismissed because of her gender and beauty, and someone who still manages to get things she wants, the way she wants them.  Along with sensitive portrayals from Dafoe & Andrews, the film's acting is just as good as the costumes, cinematography, and scoring, something you can't claim for a lot of romantic epics.

All-in-all, this is a movie I will always love, and that pretty much every age (even as I am now the age of the characters onscreen falling madly in love, rather than just someone imagining being so) of my existence will latch onto.  I am self-aware enough to know this isn't a picture for everyone-the dialogue is highly-stylized ("the heart is an organ of fire," "find that plant-cut out its heart,") but watching it in a packed theater, where the sparing jokes still land and the tender walk up to the Cave of Swimmers still had a number of wet eyes, I am reminded of why I love the movies-the very best ones unite us and captivate us in their stories.  The English Patient is a melodrama, one brimming with romantic tragedy, but it's also the very best of what the cinema can encapsulate-it's an escapist but all-too-human look at the lives of ordinary people put into extraordinary circumstances.

John's Top 10 Films of 2016

Yesterday we counted down the worst films of 2016, and since I don't want to leave you with the worst for very long (we get enough of that from the news right now), I am happy to start your Monday off right with a look at the best.  2016 wasn't my favorite cinematic year (certainly not when compared with 2014 or 2015), but it had a lot to say about grief, life, and the promises of humanity even when it's hard to find them in the real world.  Here (alphabetically, not in ranked order) are my ten favorite films of 2016:

Arrival (dir. Denis Villeneuve)

In a world where we regularly celebrate the mass destruction of superheroes and expect to see national monuments explode whenever there's an alien invasion, Denis Vileneuve's film finds all of the wonder of an alien encounter with none of the expected cliche.  A marvelous, precise performance by Amy Adams grounds this film about loss, sacrifice, and the benefits of peace.  Easily the best film I've seen from Villeneuve.

Everybody Wants Some!!! (dir. Richard Linklater)

I genuinely would have been fine with just a parade of these actors in baseball uniforms, but Richard Linklater doesn't play that way.  Everybody Wants Some!!! is the rare movie about nostalgia that isn't steeped in comforting the audience, but truly allowing them to relive the fleeting nature of youth, while never sparing them from the realities of time disappearing.  Plus, it does it while being insanely funny and quotable as hell.  Linklater continues his nearly impossibly-strong batting average with star-turns from Tyler Hoechlin and Glen Powell.

From Afar (dir. Lorenzo Vigas)

The best mystery film of the year, a wonderfully Hitchcockian creation.  Vigas plays with the politics of sex, class, and age in this noir that keeps you guessing right up until the end, and then beyond.  Anchored by naturalistic work from Alfredo Castro and Luis Silva, it's a pity that Oscar didn't see the necessity to nominate the year's best foreign-language movie.

Hidden Figures (dir. Theodore Melfi)

What happens when you take three of the most charismatic film stars working, put them in a film that centers around both a story you know (John Glenn circling the globe) and one you don't (the struggles of black women in the space program), have everyone involved running on top cylinders with a sharp eye on character growth, and add in some genuine old-school movie magic?  You get my favorite "Academy fare" movie since Argo.  This is the rare feel-good film that you won't be hating yourself for loving the next day.

Jackie (dir. Pablo Larrain)

I am not someone you'll find clamoring for a biopic, not least of which about one of the most famous stories of the 20th Century that's been told dozens of times previously.  And yet, Pablo Larrain had me from the opening scenes of Jackie, a movie that dares to question our understanding of one of the most famous people on the planet.  With a career-best piece of work from Natalie Portman, Jackie is that rare true story that leaves you wanting more once the credits begin to role.

L'Attesa (dir. Piero Messina)

The most obscure film on this list, L'Attesa took the most frequent cinematic subject of 2016 (the death of a family member), and turns it into a claustrophobic character study of two women struggling with grief and regret.  Juliette Binoche continues her streak as perhaps the greatest living actor with an intense naturalism, while Lou de Laage is every bit her equal as a young woman trying to understand impossible questions about her boyfriend's mother.

Manchester by the Sea (dir. Kenneth Lonergan)

Kenneth Lonergan knows better than pretty much any other writer in Hollywood the ways to finding the complicated emotions and realities of family, and the bonds that tie them together.  Here we are given a marvelous piece-of-work from Casey Affleck, a man who lives as a shell of his former self, failing with emotions that he cannot fully bear to admit to himself.  A truly devastating look at the human experience.

A Monster Calls (dir. JA Bayona)

It's rare to find a live-action children's film these days that asks tough questions for all of its audience, while still maintaining a sense of magic and discovery.  Never cloying, never false, always classic and straight-forward and intensely felt, JA Bayona's A Monster Calls is a miracle, a movie that towers from start to finish with a sheer appreciation of life, both its delicacies and its strengths.

Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins)

The most confident movie I saw this year was oddly about a deeply insecure young man's struggle with finding out who he is.  From start to finish, Barry Jenkins' opus shows us identity, both outward and in, and gives us performance after performance of wonderful realism and heart.  Stylistically and creatively a triumph to behold.

Silence (dir. Martin Scorsese)

It says something that at the age of 74, Martin Scorsese is not only making movies, but complicated, controversial, and difficult films that still manage to soar with meaning and strength.  Part thriller, part religious experience, and part epic, Scorsese shows the trials of faith and man's struggle with coming to terms with God's expectations in this brilliant picture, by my measure his finest since GoodFellas.

My Dozen Favorite Actresses

I am back to writing daily blog articles this week, and as a result of that, I want to do a few GTKY articles in relation to movies, as we're now entering the phase of the year where we weirdly overlap movies/politics.  The Oscars are picking up, the elections are in full-swing, and so I decided to do a series of three articles (we'll go one today, one Thursday, and one this weekend) where I count down my dozen favorite actresses, actors, and directors, of all-time.

I haven't really done this before, and I was debating whether to rank or whether to go alphabetical, and partially because of a cop-out, but mostly because I think it's darn near impossible to actually rank different actors/styles, I decided to go alphabetical below.  If I get enough comments (or at least a couple), I'll spill the beans about how I would have properly ranked these, but in the meantime, let's start with the ladies as they're always the most interesting.

Honorable Mentions: It has to be said that a lot of women were in contention here.  There are some that just missed (Cate Blanchett ignobly was positioned at thirteenth, with people like Tilda Swinton, Julie Christie, and Myrna Loy were not far behind).  There are a few actresses where I feel like they're poised for greatness, but haven't quite made enough movies yet (Chastain, Viola Davis, Cotillard, Weisz), while others I've always loved but can't quite claim to have seen enough of their filmography to warrant a spot (Stanwyck, Lombard, Hayworth, and Dietrich all spring to mind).  It also has to be said that I could name-check women that should be on this list until the end of time, while the men's list will not remotely approach this adoration.  This is an endlessly fun activity, though, so please berate, agree, and recommend in the comments (along with providing your own list).

Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982)

Oscar History: 7 nominations/3 wins (Gaslight, Anastasia, The Murder on the Orient Express)
First Impressions: I think my first experience with Ingrid Bergman was actually Casablanca-I want to say I saw it right at the same time as Anastasia so theoretically I could have seen her there first, but my gut is telling me Casablanca was the culprit.
Why the Love: I don't think that you can pinpoint exactly one reason to love Ingrid Bergman, for many years my easy answer for favorite actress (I'm not ranking here, but she'd be still be Top 5).  She has this instinctive, natural introverted glamour in every movie she makes.  Even when she's being funny or joyous, there's something mesmerizing in the way that she does it.  There are few actresses in the history of cinema I've felt more connected to the language of their eyes and faces-she is the sort of performer who would have been famous in every decade of the movies.
My Favorite Performance: Casablanca, most assuredly.  I know she didn't like that everyone pointed this movie out, but she's my favorite performance in my favorite movie, and the way she just effortlessly projects being the object of Rick's affection, and yet still striking in her own ways as a woman complicated by loving two men at once: it's to-die-for.
Missing Piece: Almost certainly the performance of hers I'm missing and most excited to see is Autumn Sonata.  I love both Bergmans, and so the idea of the two of them together is thrilling.

Juliette Binoche (1964-Present)

Oscar History: 2 nominations/1 win (The English Patient)
First Impressions: I think the first film I ever saw of hers was Chocolat, a film I remember quite enjoying when it came out even if it was a bit frothy (it's the sort of pleasant comedy that I tend to have a lovely time with even if it's not remotely Oscar-worthy), though I will save both my brother and I the embarrassment of sharing my initial thoughts of Binoche, particularly when she shockingly bested Lauren Bacall at the Oscars.
Why the Love: Binoche is truly a superb actress, one who finds the center in pretty much every characterization she's in, and who has been, in her forties and now fifties, continually growing.  Her early work as a young, earthy beauty has transformed into a mature, confident performer, one who continually amazes even decades after she first got onto our screens.  Honestly-Binoche is one of those rare performers I'll not only see all of their movies, I'd be willing to bet I'd like the movie that holds them.
My Favorite Performance: Surely it'd have to be (my favorite?-it competes with Casablanca on a steady basis) movie The English Patient.  The way she handles line readings as the optimistic, but consistently abandoned Hana is a work of pure poetry.
Missing Piece: I've never seen Blue.  I know, I have no excuse on that one.

Joan Crawford (1904-1977)

Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (Mildred Pierce)
First Impressions: Like most people younger than forty, my first impression of Crawford was clutching a wire hanger, being impersonated by Faye Dunaway in a camp classic (which I've never seen somehow, but we all know that rodeo even if we haven't caught the picture).
Why the Love: No Golden Age performer has grown more on me in recent years than Joan Crawford.  Seriously, for all of the Mommie Dearest jokes or the cracks about her shoulder pads, Crawford was a consummate movie star, and a damned fine screen presence.  Honestly-I have yet to find a film of hers where I didn't enjoy her, even if occasionally the films surrounding her border on the absurd (or more accurately in her grand guignol period, the camp).  Crawford is intensely watchable, perhaps even more so than her arch-rival (who, thanks to a fortuitous use of the alphabet, she sits right atop right now), and always holds the attention of every movie she's starring in (Joan Crawford doesn't do bit parts).
My Favorite Performance: I mean, I truly hope one of these isn't a horrible cliche, but I'm going to go with Mildred Pierce, where she's absolutely aces as a melodramatic mother (with a daughter from hell).  She won the Oscar in a bit of a surprise that year, but her victory was well-earned.  Truly, though-Joan Crawford's greatest role was pretty much always Joan Crawford.
Missing Piece: I haven't seen either of her other two Oscar-nominated turns in Possessed and Sudden Fear, so I'll go with those-arguably the two Best Actress nominations I'm most looking forward to from the late 40's/early 50's.

Bette Davis (1908-1989)

Oscar History: 10 nominations/2 wins (Dangerous and Jezebel)
First Impressions: The Kim Carnes song aside, my first introduction to Bette Davis was weirdly Jezebel.  When I first got into the Oscars I started randomly watching any film on AMC that had ever won a Big 6 trophy, which is why a twelve-year-old boy was watching a then sixty-year-old movie about a woman desperately (but unfortunately) in love with Hank Fonda.
Why the Love: Because Bette Davis doesn't take shit from anybody, and you have to admire someone like that.  You'll notice by now if you're peaking ahead that I didn't put her longtime Oscar rival Kate Hepburn on this list.  At one point she absolutely would have made this and if I expanded to 20 I probably would have found room, but Hepburn I almost never could get into when she did drama (1968 set aside).  Davis, on the other hand, was worth it whenever she was delivering a laugh or a dramatic line, and perhaps was best when she was trying to do both (Baby Jane Hudson, anyone?).  She was a consummate actress, even if the public toward the end of her career demanded a movie star, and one that echoed her tough broad persona even more than in her heyday.  Davis always delivered.
My Favorite Performance: I looked ahead-I don't always go with the cliche, so I'm here going to say the role that she was born to play (all do respect to the talented Claudette Colbert, but it wouldn't have been the same had the producers' first choice been available): Margo Channing.  Her throw-a-mink-like-a-wet-umbrella attitude was classic, and she sells all of the lines of (arguably) the best screenplay ever written with All About Eve.  A close runner-up is her desperate romantic nature in Now, Voyager, which is a much better movie than you remember it.
Missing Piece: I'm going to go with Dark Victory, the film she ended up in instead of Gone with the Wind, and the movie that many people suspect she would have clinched her third Oscar for had it not been for Vivien Leigh.

Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993)

Oscar History: 5 nominations/1 win (Roman Holiday)
First Impressions: Like so many, I remember loving My Fair Lady growing up, thinking it absolutely loverly.
Why the Love: Audrey Hepburn has also been someone that I've said for years is "my favorite actress" and depending on the day probably still is.  There's a quiet grace in her work, something that's hard to pinpoint but evident when she's at the top of her game.  It's not just the waif-like beauty, but also the way she presents her heartbroken self as genuine, and genuinely lonely.  I see something like Sabrina, and am flabbergasted at how good her performance is in an era where she was more likely to go into histrionics over a lost man than simply sustain a subdued facial expression.  Hepburn largely disappeared from the cinema after she set it afire for most of the 1950's and 60's, but she left a wonderful footprint.
My Favorite Performance: Sabrina Fairchild is actually pretty close to the top-it's one of those romantic comedies that works better if you slightly change the ending (Sabrina never really needed any man-just her Paris cookbooks), but I can't deny the impact that Holly Golightly has had on me.  I spent years after Breakfast at Tiffany's emulating her deep, distant love for Fred, to the point where I once walked in front of Tiffany's with a croissant, playing "Moon River" on my iPod.  Yes, that happened-the movies are my life.
Missing Piece: Arguably Hepburn is the actress I do the best on in terms of seeing all of the important works.  I am missing her Oscar-nominated turn in The Nun's Story, and while I haven't heard great things (it seems to be the weakest link in her AMPAS quintet), it's the only major film she ever made I haven't caught, so I'll go with that one.

Diane Keaton (1946-Present)

Oscar History: 4 nominations/1 win (Annie Hall, though Keaton better step it up if she's going to continue her strange only-once-a-decade Oscar streak).
First Impressions: One of my mom's all-time favorite films is Baby Boom, and we would watch it as a family on a regular basis for many a movie night-I probably still know most of it by heart.
Why the Love: Keaton's the quirky girl you desperately hope to be while forcing yourself to fit into a group of people you don't really like.  The actress is strangely good in drama (oddly enough, despite her multiple successful forays into comedy, she's actually best as a dramatic actress), imbuing her characters with a wide-eyed forcefulness, even if they don't match her actions.  She's spent years creating a honed, eccentric (and besuited) persona offscreen, but my love for her comes in the quieter, honest moments she brings to the big-screen.
My Favorite Performance: I told you I'd go off the beaten path here.  I love Annie Hall, don't get me wrong, and what a wonderful thing that she got her Oscar for Woody's magnum opus, but for me this has to go to Reds, one of the most romantic films ever made and almost certainly Warren's magnum opus as well.  I might even put Annie in third, behind Louise and then Kay Corleone, in the second installment of the series (I may or may not have done the "it was an abortion" speech every single time my brother and I were washing dishes as a kid).
Missing Piece: Here's a strange case where I've seen most of her work, including a lot of her stuff with Allen.  Perhaps Looking for Mr. Goodbar, the film that many people thought helped carry her Academy Award across the finish line?

Nicole Kidman (1967-Present)

Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (The Hours)
First Impressions: I believe that Nicole Kidman was one of the first actresses to ever really underscore what a sexy woman was for me, which is a weird thing for a very gay man to proclaim, but her work in Batman Forever was so glamorous, and I maintain to this day that I'd probably be into blonds if I were straight (fortunately for me I'm gay...and into redheads).
Why the Love: Kidman, after a decade of being married to Tom Cruise with only a spattering of success, managed to have one of the great second acts of movie history, pushing out a series of fine, pitch-perfect performances for auteur after auteur.  She is courageous as a performer (witness The Paperboy), gamely finding herself in pretty much every vision that is put in front of her, and is occasionally lightning in a bottle when she finds the right match for her icy, grand talents.
My Favorite Performance: Oh Satine, you are breathtaking, but I will always be looking to Virginia Woolf, waiting for the train.  I am that person who actually thought she deserved the Oscar for The Hours even in hindsight.
Missing Piece: The 2004 duo of Birth/Dogville stick out in my mind, or perhaps even the dark comedy of To Die For.  Either way, Kidman is that rare recent actress where I actually have some room to grow.

Vivien Leigh (1913-1967)

Oscar History: 2 nominations/ 2 wins (Gone with the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire)
First Impressions: Strangely, it's not Scarlett, but Blanche that first made my acquaintance.  I was eleven-years-old, and I credit that screening of A Streetcar Named Desire as the exact moment that I permanently became a fan of the movies, someone who didn't just go casually but was willing to devote their life to them.
Why the Love: Because Vivien Leigh is perfect, and not just because she gave two of the world's most iconic performances.  Leigh is glamorous steel, a weird conglomerate of pixieish beauty and a dangerous, ardent performer's heart.  She also may be one of the cinema's most underrated performers.  I mean, look at some of the work that she's done-even if she just had her two most iconic creations, that'd probably be enough to be on this list, but she also found time to make a slew of romantic heroines in the 1940's that were continually excellent.
My Favorite Performance: Leigh's made some of my all-time favorite films, and while Gone with the Wind is a titanic achievement (word-choice quite purposeful) and Waterloo Bridge is one of the most romantic movies I've ever seen, nothing compares to Streetcar.  I've seen thousands of movies, tens of thousands of performances, and this is my favorite in all of film history.
Missing Piece: I'd probably go with The Deep Blue Sea, a film that I absolutely loved Rachel Weisz in a few years (I would have given her the Oscar), as I think the tortured soul having a love affair is a part Leigh was born to play.

Shirley MacLaine (1934-Present)

Oscar History: 6 nominations/1 win (Terms of Endearment...though it's worth noting one of her nominations was for directing the documentary The Other Half of the Sky)
First Impressions: My first impression of Shirley was actually not a film, and not even her belief in channelling or UFO's, but instead an ardent need to see the film Guarding Tess, which looked delightful when I would constantly pass it at our local video rental store, but I never was able to rent it (it had to have been rated PG-13, which was forbidden in my household).  Either way, I loved the sly grin she had on all of those posters and was convinced it could be a favorite movie.
Why the Love: MacLaine is one of those performers I've come to more passionately as the years have gone by, an actress that is so consistent it's hard to remember she's also consistently refreshing.  I honestly can't think of a Shirley MacLaine performance I didn't love.  I've seen other actresses on this list upstaged, but I genuinely can't remember a single MacLaine film where she isn't the best part about it-it's the fact that she's always a trouper.  While other actors of her generation slid into the laziness of playing themselves over-and-over-and-over again (cough, Al Pacino), Shirley continues to make interesting films whenever she gets the chance well into her eighties.  Man do I wish filmmakers would take advantage of her still solid timing and ability.  We deserve a Shirley moment for the ages just one more time.
My Favorite Performance: Aurora Greenway-it's that perfect combination of terrific movie, marvelous movie star turn, and damn fine acting.  It was probably a victory for MacLaine at the Oscars because "how the hell hasn't she won yet?" but it's likely she would have won anyway even if she was hunting for a second trophy as she was just that good.
Missing Piece: I'll go with The Turning Point, a film that stars not only Shirley, but actually gets her to act opposite an actress I haven't seen her with (Anne Bancroft).  Shirley's always at her best starring opposite other women (Debra Winger, Meryl Streep), so this feels like an easy answer to investigate.

Maggie Smith (1934-Present)

Oscar History: 6 nominations/2 wins (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite)
First Impressions: Maggie Smith is that rare performer who, especially for Millennials, is littered with performances you remember from childhood.  My first impression of her was actually in Hook, though, as an aging Wendy.  I thought she was wonderfully creepy and old in the role (which is saying something for the makeup department, who made her look older than she was), and it was kind of a love affair whenever I found her later on in any picture.
Why the Love: Smith's voice is where it starts.  That crisp, precise accent that only she can achieve (though countless comedians are constantly trying to parody), is so marvelous and exact.  But she's an actress that can rely on more than just her dialect.  She's someone with great feeling.  It might shock a generation of people who watched her do her "Maggie Smith schtick" in things like Downton, Harry Potter, and Best Exotic Marigold, all prim and upper-crust, to know that she once-upon-a-time was an actress that was quite sexual in her role choices and would fling herself into affairs in my favorite of her works.  Smith is the sort of presence, even if the film's not on the top of its game, I'm always more than joyful to see show up on an opening credits line.
My Favorite Performance: Undoubtedly this would have to be The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, one of those rare Best Actress wins that not only totally deserved the win, but was the exact right moment for an actor who was actually a bit of a surprise victory at the time.  It's a towering achievement if you've never had the chance to catch it, and one of my personal favorite movies.
Missing Piece: I somehow have never seen the other film that won her an Oscar in California Suite, which I'll obviously hit sometime in the OVP, but impatience may get the better of me one day and I'll move it to the top of the queue.

Meryl Streep (1949-Present)

Oscar History: 19 nominations/3 wins (Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady)
First Impressions: I genuinely don't know what the first film starring Meryl Streep I ever saw was-I want to say it might have been Kramer or The Deer Hunter-that sounds about right as I would have seen both of those films when I was first starting to watch Oscar-winning pictures.  My first impression of her, though, was that she was an actress that was treated as something of a deity, as I remember reading an Entertainment Weekly Oscar issue in 1995 where they talked about how she could upset Susan Sarandon's expected victory as she had legions of fans at the Oscars who always voted for her (they may have been onto something there).
Why the Love: I mean, at this point naming Streep as one of your favorite actresses is like naming Michael Jordan one of your favorite basketball players-everyone has to do it.  But the point of the matter is that Streep deserves her spot in the pantheon.  Some of her work, especially when she's at the top of her game, is unmatched.  She can develop a naturalism onscreen like few others can achieve, and she's that rare multi-talented performer where it's almost hard to tell what she's best at-she can make you laugh, make you cry, she can sing like an angel and forebode with just the slightest of inflections.  All-in-all, Streep is worthy of all the hype.  After all, she can live up to it.
My Favorite Performance: For years I would have said The French Lieutenant's Woman, but I've actually had something of a resurgence this year of Streep roles (I've seen three of her Oscar-nominated turns for the first time...four if we think Florence Foster Jenkins gets there, which is looking increasingly plausible), and one of them has taken the top of the heap: Silkwood, where Streep casts aside pretty much any pretenses we have about her and just, scene-after-scene, is marvelous and exact and nails it.  A brilliant piece of work.
Missing Piece: Like I said, I'm working my way through all of Streep's Oscar-nominated turns quickly and swiftly, but I still have two left: A Cry in the Dark and One True Thing.  So I'll go with those two, but the Streep filmography gaps are closing quickly.

Kate Winslet (1975-Present)

Oscar History: 7 nominations/1 win (The Reader)
First Impressions: I actually most remember my mom talking about how much she liked her.  The 1995 Oscars were the first Academy Awards I really got into (it helped that there were several films like Apollo 13, Batman Forever, and Babe that I had actually seen which were up for a number of awards), and I recall my mom looking at the Supporting Actress lineup and proclaiming Kate Winslet the one that should have won.  As my mom dictated a lot of the movies I could see, that instantly added a huge weight in wanting to see Winslet in more films.
Why the Love: Winslet is the youngest actress on this list by nearly a decade, and so I teetered whether to include her or thinking perhaps she was still too new (and hadn't yet entered the treacherous-for-actresses period of her 40's).  Yet I can't deny the love is there, and pretty much always there.  I've seen most of Winslet's filmography, and she's one of the few women on this list I can genuinely claim I've seen every one of their Oscar-cited turns.  She's a vision, consistently, onscreen-someone who is rarely judgmental of her characters, which gives imperfect creations like Rose or Marianne or Hanna so much more weight as she portrays them on the big screen.
My Favorite Performance: I'm torn.  I think arguably her best acting role ever was Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a truly wonderful and special movie, one that will probably never be duplicated (it feels like the kind of film you only pull off once in a career), but the other half of me is screaming "TITANIC!" at the top of my lungs.  As she's the last actress listed here, I'll just say both and cheat and bravo for getting through one of my lengthier blog posts.
Missing Piece: Like I said, Winslet's a rare performer I've actually seen most of her major movies.  I'll go with her big break, though, which I haven't caught yet which is Heavenly Creatures.

There you have it-my twelve favorite actresses!  Like I said, please take some time to visit the comments section, as I'm positive you have your own list of favorite actresses, or thoughts on mine!  There's a plethora of comments directions to take, so I encourage you to do so!

Cosmopolis (2012)

Film: Cosmopolis (2012)
Stars: Robert Pattinson, Sarah Gadon, Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, Juliette Binoche, Jay Baruchel
Director: David Cronenberg
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

"Weird for the sake of weird" is something that I, as a filmgoer, am far more forgiving of than your average movie attendee.  I celebrate films that try to play with form and that are willing to go to different heights for a movie.  I do occasionally find them hard to grade (I'm still not sure if The Counselor was a good movie or not), but generally I try to at least see what the point of the weird was, because if there's a point or a larger purpose, I can get onboard with the movie.  Sadly for me and for my Thursday night, Cosmopolis is simply a film that's weird for the sake of being weird, rarely actually trying to make a strong statement that resonates outside of robotic, intense dialogue even though it has polished literary roots and a fine enough cast.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film, based on the novel by the acclaimed Don DeLillo, essentially follows Eric Packer (Pattinson), an obscenely wealthy but deeply neurotic hedge fund manager who spends most of his day in his state-of-the-art limousine.  We see Eric, recently married to the beautiful but largely uninterested Elise (Gadon), struggle with both his hypochondria (he literally gets a medical exam everyday, including a prostate exam that is both deeply disturbing and wildly erotic early in the picture), and his enormous sex drive, sleeping with multiple women and making sexual release a huge part of his day.  The film takes a turn late in the picture when Eric gets his inner Patrick Bateman on by randomly killing his head of security and then coming face-to-face with a man who has been threatening his life Benno Levin (Giamatti).  The movie's progress is steep, with him losing everything but still seemingly favorable to the life of Benno, and the film ends with Benno attempting to kill Eric, but we don't ever see if he pulls the trigger, and a series of Rothko paintings over the end credits in a callback to an earlier scene where Eric tries to buy the famed Rothko Chapel in Houston.

The film succeeds on occasion, it's worth noting.  Robert Pattinson's ability as an actor is definitely there (he's not Taylor Lautner) but he's not really as strong as he could be (he's not yet Kristen Stewart).  However, the role seems tailor-made for him, as few other people could play someone so deeply disturbed, but yet through money and unattainable beauty every person, including the audience, remains drawn to him even as he becomes a murderer and someone who is less and less concerned with his own welfare.  The other actors can sometimes play into the movie, particularly Juliette Binoche as a randy art dealer, seemingly screwing Eric not for the job but because he's actually good at sex, and Samantha Morton as an employee of Eric's who can command the screen just with that wonderfully firm voice.  Both Binoche and Morton are in the film only fleetingly, but they are great cameos and something the film could have used more of as it progressed down the rabbit hole.

The problem is that these few pluses don't make up for the myriad subtractions in the cast.  For starters, the dialogue, while clearly stylized to the point of incomprehension, borders that line between "a fascinating departure" and "how cool am I?" to wobbily and especially in the final showdown with Giamatti it gets far over the top, to the point where you almost wish it were a silent picture.  Cronenberg is a fascinating director when he wants to be, but I'm not sold yet that he's a great screenwriter, and that's true here, as the dialogue isn't quite sharp enough in its "autre" mode to actually be profound.  Combine that with the worst scenes of the film being toward the end (Paul Giamatti is one of my least favorite actors, and this is hardly his The Master moment of redemption as he hams it up and is actually playing a character that plays into all of his worst acting tics).  All-in-all, a boring movie that is interestingly shot and I truly wish he'd found a way to amp up the directorial flourishes, perhaps never actually leaving the limousine as the picture all falls apart when he takes away that insulation from a restless, disruptive outside world.

Those are my thoughts on this film, one I've wanted to see for a while and Netflix gave me a mailed reason this week.  How about you-are you a fan of Cosmopolis or the films of David Cronenberg?  Is there ever going to be a film of Paul Giamatti's where I actually love him in the role?  And Robert Pattinson-is he ever going to have an undisputed critical triumph?  Share your theories down below!

L'Attesa (2016)

Film: L'Attesa (2016)
Stars: Juliette Binoche, Lou de Laage, Giorgio Colangeli
Director: Piero Messina
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

There are few actors that I afford the blank check of "I'll see the movie if it stars X."  After all, even the best of actors will occasionally star in truly terrible movies (Meryl Streep in The Giver, anyone?), but Juliette Binoche is one of those names that simply put, I'll see in anything (particularly if it has subtitles).  Binoche remains one of the truly great actors of our time-she won her Oscar relatively early in her career so many lay film fans simply think of her as the woman who beat Lauren Bacall or the actress with Johnny Depp in Chocolat, but La Binoche's career has been a series of nearly endless highlights, constant reminders of the fantastic, brilliant actress we fell in love with in The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  As a result, with little knowledge about what the film was about or even what language it was in (I assumed, since it starred Binoche, that it would be in French but it is predominantly in Italian...the other other language that Binoche speaks), I slipped off on a Wednesday night (an odd cinematic evening for me as that is almost always Netflix night) to watch L'Attesa (aka The Wait), a film with no pretense or any sort of expectations except to look at Juliette Binoche.

(Spoilers Ahead) As a result of not knowing what I was getting into (even less so than usual for a guy who generally love/hates trailers and likes to just dive head first into a picture) I actually approached this film in a way I hadn't anticipated.  For starters, the film is so filled with ambience and mood it's difficult to tell at first whether we're about to see a thriller, a horror, an erotic romance, or a moody, rough drama, though in the end the latter wins out.  The movie is largely an acting duet between Anna (Binoche) and Jeanne (de Laage), the former a woman who starts the film in mourning and slowly comes out of her shell and the latter a young woman who is waiting for her boyfriend, Anna's son, and growing increasingly worried about why he will not visit her or call her.

The film's biggest issue, and the one it slowly overcomes in the second half but never quite believably tackles in the first, is that for a relatively intriguing girl like Jeanne, she never outwardly asks Anna why her boyfriend Giuseppe isn't coming yet or where he is.  The film is pretty explicit that Giuseppe is dead, as the film starts with a funeral and slowly but steadily mounts into what is clearly a deep mourning process for Anna, who cannot bring herself to tell Jeanne that her son is dead, but it is shocking that Jeanne has such little curiosity for what has happened, and perhaps she is meant to have always known and, like Anna, wants to extend the fantasy just a little bit longer.  The film isn't intended to be taken very literally (it's more of a cerebral exercise than anything else), but it's something that infuriated me in the first half before I settled into the acting duet in the second half, which is far superior.

The film's core is Binoche and de Laage, both of whom bring it in terms of cinematic wonder.  De Laage, whom I wasn't acquainted with before this film, comes from the Adele Exarchopolous school of impossibly earthy beauty, and her Jeanne is an intensely-felt, complicated woman at once intimidated by and intrigued by the woman she hopes to be her mother-in-law.  As the film progresses, and she realizes that she has been drawn to this odd woman, her guard stays up (we never get to know the truth behind her relationship with Giuseppe, or what precisely "happened last summer" as so much of the film's dialogue remains surface-level), but her presence, perhaps mirroring that of a younger Anna, is intoxicating.  There's a deeply-sexual scene late in the film where Leonard Cohen's "Waiting for the Miracle" plays while she dances with two men (one gay, one straight) and you half expect an orgy to pop up simply out of sheer intoxicating European eroticism, but the film is more about the mind than the pleasurable, and it resists.  Still, her allure and insecurity shines through, and I hope this isn't the last time de Laage and I are acquainted.

Binoche, continuing her stunning recent winning streak (Certified Copy and Clouds of Sils Maria still being the peaks), embodies Anna with such care that we don't learn her true motives until late in the film, as it dawns on the audience that not only is she trying to learn more about the son who abandoned her (first by growing up, and then by dying), but also because this is her last chance to be with the person she loved most in the world, even through a proxy.  She correctly states, in a devastating monologue late in the film, that Jeanne will move on with her life-she will marry and get someone new who will be the center of her universe.  It isn't stated, but directly implied, that Anna will not be so lucky, and will instead wander around her house, living a staid sort of existence, waiting for a beloved son to come home that never will.  Few actors have Binoche's control to keep this subtle, to not play for tears too early or showboat, but as a result we get a wonderful master class in acting.

The story is so rich in the second half, it's to be forgiven most if not all of its sins in the first half.  The script still has too many holes during the top hour, particularly when it tries to use emotional or staggered glances to fill in gaps even though we don't know these characters well enough yet to understand their meaning.  The second half blossoms so heartily, in terms of story, acting, and cinematography (there's a provocative scene featuring a series of capirote-sporting men during Easter week that will be particularly jarring for American audiences who associate that hat with racism, but its lensing feels like you've fallen into a Fellini picture), that this is mostly forgiven.  The film is the sort that sticks with you, and continues to make you want to seek out every Juliette Binoche picture you can get your hands upon.

The Best Films of 2015

Whew!  I went on a bit of a movie-watching bender over the past 36 hours, trying to scoop up as many of the missing films of 2015 that I could, and am officially ready to announce my Top 10 for the year (I already announced my Bottom 5 a few days ago on the blog).  Like with the worst of the year I didn't put them in a ranked order (they're alphabetical), but I highly recommend that you investigate all ten of these if you like to laugh, cry, and most of all enjoy fine cinema.  You'll note that every single one of these films has a female protagonist, which is unusual for me (I've never done that before with a film year), but appropriate considering this was clearly the year of the female-driven film, even if Oscar disagrees when they eventually crown Spotlight or The Revenant.  Without further adieu...

45 Years (dir. Andrew Haigh)

A deeply moving look at the hierarchies and intricacies of love and marriage.  Andrew Haigh has proven himself, with Weekend and Looking, a sharp observer of relationships and here we get the devastation of second guesses and suppositions.  Both Tom Courtenay and especially Charlotte Rampling dominate this in subdued, marvelous acting.

Brooklyn (dir. John Crowley)

Romance, especially big, complicated, straight-dramatic romance had largely gone out of fashion at the cinema until 2015, when films like Brooklyn brought it back.  Saoirse Ronan graduates to adulthood with the same level of ease that she portrayed in Atonement, and it pays off with a coming-of-age story that feels fresh, modern, and yet fully in its time-and-place.

Carol (dir. Todd Haynes)

I have never loved, but only liked, the films of Todd Haynes.  Until now.  Carol is the movie that made me a convert, and it's not hard to see why.  The film is that rare romance where you genuinely can't figure out how it will end until the movie actually gives us that answer (props to Phyllis Nagy on the wonderful screenplay), though all along you're breathlessly hoping that Carol and Therese end up together as Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara make a beautiful pair.

Clouds of Sils Maria (dir. Olivier Assayas)

This is what great acting and writing can accomplish-truly moving mountains.  Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart create something breathtaking in this look at celebrity, relationships, and aging.  The film came out so early in the year you'd be forgiven for thinking its time has passed, but Clouds lingers and comes back at you as it's too perceptive to disappear.

Ex Machina (dir. Alex Garland)

This was a wonderful throwback to the Science-Fiction films of the 1970's, where instead of battling aliens or zombies, we instead find ourselves at battle with ourselves and our own hubris.  Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac create a terrific acting trio, frequently one-upping each other with second agendas and the introspection of forced claustrophobia.

I'll See You in My Dreams (dir. Brett Haley)

Age was a great supporting player in a lot of the best films of the year, and none more-so than I'll See You in My Dreams, a film that meditates on when we stop experiencing newness in our lives and when we pack up the adventures and risks of our youth.  Blythe Danner has never been better (and Sam Elliott never sexier) than in this romance about two people trying something learned and making it feel rich and unexpected again.

Mad Max: Fury Road (dir. George Miller)

The most vibrant action film I've seen in years.  Brimming with lush visuals (John Seale deserves a standing ovation to go with that Oscar nomination), the film is raw, humming with energy, and a complete shock after a year where Jurassic World brought a franchise's heat crashing down.  Everything works, and you find yourself eagerly awaiting every single impending scene.

Room (dir. Lenny Abrahamson)

Based on the amount of tears that came down my face, this was not the smartest date movie I've ever selected.  That's really the only complaint here, as Room is about as wonderful as movies can get, with a perceptive look into the world both of a sheltered, innocent child like Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and a magnificent turn as a woman who doesn't know what to do with her lost youth in Joy (Brie Larson, finally getting the kudos her career has been demanding for years).

Spy (dir. Paul Feig)

The funniest movie I've seen all year...the funniest movie I've seen in several years.  I literally could not stop laughing, and that only happens when you have Melissa McCarthy in top-form (and during the first half of the film, in a form I've never seen her embrace on the big-screen) and a supporting cast of Rose Byrne, Alison Janney, Miranda Hart, and (particularly surprising and delightful) Jason Statham all showing ridiculously well-honed comedic chops.

Testament of Youth (dir. James Kent)

When I keep internally saying the words "Waterloo Bridge" you are doing something right onscreen.  This is one of the most romantic and fully-felt films I've seen in years, with breathy and airy romantic gestures between Kit Harington and Alicia Vikander, who in a year where everyone was awed by her work in The Danish Girl and Ex Machina, won my heart personally forever with her Vera, so defiant and full of ambitions bursting to find their purpose.

And there you have it folks-my top ten of the year!  Share your thoughts on these films (and if you haven't seen any of them, it's time to start clicking that 'Add' button on Netflix) along with your Top 10 lists in the comments!