The Top Ten Movies of 2015

1. Spotlight
Immensely powerful yet refreshingly subtle, this harrowing film is a timely reminder of the importance of keeping even the most authoritative of institutions accountable.

2. Mistress America
An insightful, hilarious and wicked-sharp take on navigating adulthood, that sneaks up on you with its warmth.

3. Inside Out
An amazing feat: funny, smart and incredibly touching.

4. Brooklyn
A universal narrative wrapped in faultless filmmaking.

5. The Big Short
Reverberates with relevancy and wit; stylish and startlingly informative.

6. Spy

It doesn't just expect you to laugh at a funny premise.  Instead it delivers a constant stream of hilarious dialogue and enough comedic action sequences to keep you laughing for dayzz...actually, it's been months and I still catch myself smiling over this movie.

7. 99 Homes
This essential companion to 'The Big Short' pulsates with heart-wrenching terror.  Incredibly timely.

8. Bridge of Spies
Led by reliably perfect direction from Steven Spielberg, a seasoned cast propels this by the book, engrossing drama.

9. Joy

While it doesn't soar to the heights that Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle did, Joy continues in the same theme of reinvention of self, with a cast that money just can't buy...well, until the Sony Hack proved that it could.

10. The Intern

The cinema equivalent of comfort food and I mean that in a good way.  How refreshing is it to watch a movie simply about friendship?  As it turns out, incredibly refreshing. 

                          The Biggest Let-downs of 2015

1. Aloha
Watching Aloha is like watching three of your favorite celebrities in a completely preventable and confusing trainwreck.

2. Steve Jobs
While I wasn't prepared for what Steve Jobs is - essentially a three-act play - I don't know if I will ever be prepared for boring AF.

3. Cinderella
Mind-boggling flat, from the lead performance to the original score, nothing dazzles.

   My Oscar Picks

Best Actress

Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Actor

Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight

Best Supporting Actor

Emory Cohen, Brooklyn

Best Supporting Actress

Rose Byrne, Spy

Best Director

David O. Russell, Joy

Uncertainty

   Change can be overwhelming but even worse than change can be the things you always thought would change, that don't.  This prompts its own change, that of acceptance.  As Jennifer Lawrence as Rosalyn said in 2013's American Hustle...

                            

               

    This morning I made a list, a list of five things I know and three things I don't.  While it was liberating to feel the weight of things I don't know lifted off my shoulders, it was comforting to find the weight of the things I do know still there.  

    That's when I realized, there is so much I don't know.  There is so much that is uncertain.  But I do know some things, they may not be very specific but they are abstract enough that they can fill spaces, and lead me across large plains and deep oceans, past the voids of darkness of things I will never know and through the even scarier trenches of things yet to be revealed.  The things I do know are strong enough and firm enough, to lead me safely home.

What to see when your friends are at Avengers for the third time or...A Pretentious Guide to Summer Movies

While We're Young
Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver & Amanda Seyfried
(Now Playing)

Seen it. Hilarious in a perfectly subtle way and so fresh for the first two thirds that it makes up for the rather formulaic third act.  It's also the first vehicle Amanda Seyfried has been funny in since Mean Girls.


Aloha
Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams & Bill Murray
(5/29)

I may have watched this trailer a dozen times.  Unfortunately there was negative buzz surrounding the film in the Sony-hack emails and a delay in a release date is never a good sign.  But let's be real, I  would pay $8 to watch this cast in a cereal commercial.


Love and Mercy
Paul Dano, John Cusack, Elizabeth Banks & Paul Giamatti
(6/5)

Music biopics have been done to death but with this dual past and present narrative of the subject (played by Dano and Cusack respectively), coupled with dramatic turns by Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti, I'd see it. 

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
A bunch of people you've never heard of, Nick Offerman & Molly Shannon
(6/12)

This year's The Fault in Our Stars with a grittier, realist edge, made major waves at the Sundance Film Festival this year.

Inside Out
Amy Poehler, Diane Lane, Mindy Kaling & Bill Hader
(6/19)

I love movies that make you feel.  I love learning about how the brain affects us.  I love Amy Poehler and for the most part, Pixar.  Obviously, I'm beyond sold on this movie.

Paper Towns
The blind kid from The Fault in Our Stars & super-model, Cara Delevingne
(7/24)

Another big-screen adaptation of one of John Green's novels (The Fault in Our Stars) and for that reason alone, I'm in.


Southpaw
Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker & Rachel McAdams
(7/24)

You had me at Rachel McAdams but then when killed you 15 seconds into the trailer you lost me.  Antoine Fuqua (director of "Training Day") brought me back; and though boxing movies have been beaten to death, I'm willing to watch Jake Gyllenhaal take a turn at it.


Ricki & the Flash
Meryl Streep, Mamie Gummer, Rick Springfield, Kevin Kline & Audra McDonald
(8/7)

Meryl Streep plays a rocker who returns to her family after abandoning them in pursuit of her dreams.  Her daughter is played by her real-life daughter, Mamie Gummer.  Rick Springfield plays Streep's bandmate.  Quintessential American director, Jonathan Demme is at the helm.  It's penned by the same screenwriter as Juno.  Again, Meryl Streep is playing rock and roll, what more do you want?!

Good.

         

       In a religious class recently I listened to a woman say that when she messes up, she fears that people will no longer see a light in her being.  Another man confirmed this would likely happen.  He reasoned that his mom always seems to know when he’s making poor choices.  There was a sense in the room that we were all on the verge of being stripped of our inner light.

I raised my hand, “What if when we’re making good choices, we’re good?  And when we’re making bad choices, we’re still good?”

        That thought has been with me lately.  Being good has been the quest of my life.  “I just really want to be a good person,” I’ve told people.  As those words came out of my mouth I felt them, sometimes through tears.  But honestly, sometimes it verged into an obsessive quest, ruminating on my failures, wondering if I truly am good.  And then I asked myself, What if you don’t need to spend your life trying to be good?  What if you already were?

The 2015 Joeys

Top 10 Movies of 2014

1. Boyhood

2. Whiplash

3. Selma

4. The Theory of Everything

5. American Sniper

6. The Fault in Our Stars

7. A Most Violent Year

8. Chef

9. Wild

10. Laggies

The Biggest Let-downs of 2014

1. Magic in the Moonlight

2. This Is Where I Leave You

3. Interstellar

My Oscar Picks

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper

Bradley Cooper didn't play Chris Kyle; Bradley Cooper was Chris Kyle.

Best Actress
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything

In a quite performance, Jones said so much.  In one look she made you fall in love with her and in another broke your heart.  She is the back-bone of this movie.

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Arquette's performance is rooted in authenticity.  It's as much her story as it is Ellar Coltrane's, thanks to her commanding performance.

Best Supporting Actor

J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

The whole movie falls apart if Simmons isn't believable.  It's an incredibly tricky role to get right and he nails it in a chilling way that haunts you long after you've left the theater.

Best Director

J.C. Chandor, A Most Violent Year

Every scene is masterfully constructed but not to a fault.  It's an incredibly fine line, and Chandor walks it while taking us back in time to a simpler, yet more captivating time in cinema.  His film opened to stellar reviews but didn't garner a single Oscar nomination.

Best Picture

Boyhood

A movie like "Boyhood" comes along once in a lifetime.  It's in a league all its own, an incredibly powerful film.