At the end of December 2015, the year’s best films included a comedy about a band leader who never takes off his huge doll head, a hit about an astronaut stranded on Mars and a romance set in Eisenhower-era America. The worst included a cyber thriller from Michael Mann and two films that took themselves far too seriously.
The picks were Frank, The Martian, Carol, Ex Machina, The Theory Of Everything and the Singapore documentary The Songs We Sang. The worst were Blackhat, plus a tie between Entourage and 1965. Weeks later, on 28 February 2016, the 88th Academy Awards showed how Hollywood rated several of them.
The best of 2015
Frank (NC16)
Domhnall Gleeson played Jon, a young man who joins a rock band as its keyboard player. Michael Fassbender played Frank, the band’s leader, who wears a doll head the whole time. The film was directed by Lenny Abrahamson from Ireland and written by Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan. Ronson also wrote the book The Men Who Stare At Goats, filmed in 2009. In 2015 the film won praise for being funny without sarcasm, even with its dark turns.
The Martian (PG13)
Ridley Scott directed this adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel, with Matt Damon as Mark Watney, an astronaut stuck on Mars. It came out in the same year as Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Jurassic World, Fantastic Four, Tomorrowland and Pixels. Next to them, it stood out because it was not part of a franchise. Awards: it landed 7 Oscar nominations, including best picture, but no best director nod for Scott. Damon was nominated for Best Actor as Mark Watney, and Drew Goddard’s screenplay was nominated for adapted screenplay. It went home with nothing.
Carol (R21)
Todd Haynes adapted Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price Of Salt. Rooney Mara played Therese, a shopgirl, and Cate Blanchett played Carol, a socialite. In 2015 the film won praise for how Haynes set the two women in a world that felt slightly faceless, which made them seem the only real people in it. Awards: Carol earned six Oscar nominations. Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress as Carol Aird and Mara for Supporting Actress. The film was also nominated for Ed Lachman’s cinematography, Sandy Powell’s costumes, Carter Burwell’s score and Phyllis Nagy’s screenplay. It left empty-handed.
Ex Machina
Alex Garland, the novelist behind The Beach (1996), made his debut as a director with this film. Gleeson played Caleb, a programmer. Oscar Isaac played Nathan, his boss, who asks him to test whether Ava, an android played by the Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, can pass for human. Its unsettling ending was a highlight in 2015. Awards: Garland was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and the film won one of its two nominations, Visual Effects, for Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett. That same night, Vikander won Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl.
The Theory Of Everything
James Marsh directed this biopic of the physicist Stephen Hawking. Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for playing Hawking. Felicity Jones played his first wife and was praised just as highly for a role written as his equal. Redmayne was back in the running the next year: he was nominated for Best Actor for The Danish Girl, as Lili Elbe.
The Songs We Sang
Eva Tang’s documentary is about xinyao, a Singapore music movement. It traces the roots of Mandopop back to songs written by students in the last days of Nanyang University, before it merged with the University of Singapore in 1980. The film includes interviews with Billy Koh and Liang Wern Fook, along with archive TV performances and newspaper clippings.
The worst of 2015
Blackhat
Michael Mann, who directed The Last Of The Mohicans (1992), made this global cyber thriller with Chris Hemsworth and Tang Wei. In 2015 it was judged dull and confusing, and its international cast was wasted.
Entourage and 1965 (tie)
Both films started as brand-linked projects and grew more self-important along the way. Entourage was based on the cable series about a Hollywood star and his friends. The film recast its boorish characters as creative geniuses. 1965 was a Singapore period drama made to mark the nation’s 50th anniversary. It mixed messages about race relations, history lessons and a conspiracy thriller. Its odd casting and unlikely plot coincidences drew criticism.
How the 2016 Oscars played out
The nominees for the 88th Academy Awards were announced on January 14, 2016. Chris Rock hosted the ceremony. “The Revenant” led with 12 nominations, and Mad Max: Fury Road won six awards, the most for the evening. Spotlight won Best Picture, and Leonardo DiCaprio won Best Actor and Brie Larson won Best Actress.