The 40 Best Movies of 2015

Joel Edgerton wrote, directed and stars in this white-knuckle psychological thrill ride that makes Fatal Attraction look like amateur hour. He plays a creeptastic guy who suddenly shows up in the lives of his former high-school acquaintance (Jason Bateman) and his new wife (Rebecca Hall), bringing along a shocking 20-year-old secret. This terrifying Gift is a keeper. — Marcus Errico (Photo Credit: STX)

Written, directed, produced and photographed by Cary Fukunaga (True Detective), this drama about a child (the revelatory newcomer Abraham Attah) forced into warfare by a merciless general (Idris Elba) has a strange, unsettling dichotomy to it. It’s shocking, horrifying, haunting, and traumatic — yet it all looks so stunningly beautiful. — Kevin Polowy (Photo Credit: Netflix)

Ukrainian artist Fedor Alexandrovich was just a small boy when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor melted down, but the incident scarred him forever. In director Chad Gracia’s thrilling documentary — an award winner at Sundance — he explores a conspiracy theory about what caused the disaster as the political situation in the former Soviet nation crumbles once again. — Jordan Zakarin (Photo Credit: Film Buff)

Ethan Hunt left James Bond in the dust in this year’s super-spy showdown. With Tom Cruise’s unparalleled, if slightly unhinged stuntwork, Rebecca Ferguson’s formidable turn as a potentially double-crossing agent, and a twist-filled finale that pays homage to The Sting, we have no problem pledging our allegiance to Rogue Nation. More Missions like this, please. — M.E. (Photo Credit: (Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions via AP)

How often does a documentary end and you wish it were actually a 10-part miniseries? That’s exactly what you feel after watching this deep look at the inner workings of Scientology. If you think you know anything about the controversial religion, Going Clear will shock you with what you have yet to learn. — Breanne L. Heldman (Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

Steven Spielberg jumped to the 1950s for his first film since 2012’s Lincoln to tell another story of a man who stood up for human rights at a tense moment in American history. Frequent collaborator Tom Hanks stars as James Donovan, a New York lawyer who has to negotiate a prisoner swap with the USSR and creates a bond with a spy in the process. — J.Z. (Photo Credit: (Jaap Buitendijk/DreamWorks Pictures/Fox 2000 PIctures via AP)

Three of Hollywood’s top young actors — Oscar Isaac, Domnhall Gleeson, and Alicia Vikander — headline director Alex Garland’s beautifully shot, slow-boiling sci-fi thriller about a Frankenstein-esque inventor, his naive protégé, and the sentient android they’re trying to perfect. Equal parts smart, sexy, and shocking, and always enthralling. — M.E. (Photo Credit: A24)

How do you best tell the story of a man whose creativity never clicked off? Creatively. Not only does this documentary about the late Nirvana frontman offer an in-depth look at his life, but it tells Kurt Cobain’s story in much the same way it seemed his brain worked. The singer’s drawings come to life through animation and his scribbles leap off the page, and by the end, Montage of Heck feels like Cobain himself is telling his story. — B.L.H. (Photo Credit: HBO)

In this brutal film about a brutal subject, Emily Blunt plays an idealistic FBI agent entangled with a shadowy government operative (Josh Brolin) and a mercenary with a dark secret (an Oscar-caliber Benicio Del Toro) in a drug skirmish on the U.S.-Mexican border. Director Denis Villeneuve’s taut, take-no-prisoners vision is a hard watch, but a rewarding one. — M.E. (Photo Credit: Richard Foreman, Jr. SMPSP/Lionsgate via AP)

The thrilling muscle-car sequel accomplished a monster task this year: It topped the totally insane stunts of the previous movies — let’s drive through two skyscrapers! — while still paying a worthy tribute to late cast member Paul Walker with a life-is-a-highway ending that leaves both gearheads and their fans in tears. — Kerrie Mitchell (Photo Credit: AP Photo/Universal Pictures, Scott Garfield)

The year’s most haunting movie doesn’t feature a ghost or a scary clown, but an evil spirit that can take the form of any person and seems to be lurking constantly just outside the movie screen. Director David Robert Mitchell’s sleeper hit filters the story of a teenage girl’s sexual awakening through the lens of a David Lynch-ian nightmare, with a clever sprinkling of '80s horror clichés and a killer synth score. — Gwynne Watkins (Photo Credit: Everett Collection)

Director László Nemes’s bracing Holocaust drama employs a remarkably immersive visual style to put viewers inside the mind of the title character, an imprisoned Jewish worker at a concentration camp who becomes obsessed with burying the corpse of a young boy. His intense focus on his mission allows the horrors around him to blur but never vanish completely from his — or our — eyes. — Ethan Alter (Photo Credit: Everett Collection)

Hollywood has tried to make a Brian Wilson movie for nearly two decades, but good things come to those who wait. This unconventional biopic alternates between a young Wilson (Paul Dano) crafting the Beach Boys’ future classic Pet Sounds and an older, more damaged Wilson (John Cusack) meeting his future wife (Elizabeth Banks). It’s both a riveting portrait of the artistic process and incredibly poignant love story. — K.P. (Photo Credit: Everett Collection)

Melissa McCarthy nails her star turn in Paul Feig’s satiric homage to the James Bond genre, playing a timid agent who learns to seduce Jason Statham, kick Bobby Cannavale’s butt, and flatten Rose Byrne with a single comeback, all while keeping the audience in stitches. — G.W. (Photo Credit: Twentieth Century Fox)

Marielle Heller’s stunning directorial debut tells the story of a 16-year-old girl named Minnie (breakout star Bel Powley) experiencing sex and love for the first time in the cauldron of drugs, art, and confusion that was 1970s San Francisco. What might have been a dark cautionary tale is instead funny, heartbreaking, and relatable, narrated in part through animations based on the underground comics that are Minnie’s obsession. — G.W. (Photo Credit: Everett Collection)

Reviving the most popular film franchise ever was no easy task, but J.J. Abrams delivered. While the plot retreads familiar Star Wars ground, The Force Awakens is propelled by a terrific young cast (led by Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, and Oscar Isaac), veteran players in fine form (with Harrison Ford absolutely owning the screen), and visual effects guaranteed to awe audiences (seeing the Millennium Falcon soar again brings chills). The year’s biggest film is easily one of its best. — M.E. (Photo Credit:Disney/Lucasfilm 2015 via AP)

Charlie Kaufman — the Oscar-winning writer of Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — returns to the big screen for the first time since his directorial debut, the 2009 drama Synecdoche, New York. His melancholy stop-motion feature, co-directed with Duke Johnson, is a gorgeous and bittersweet film about the little moments in life. Did we mention it’s gorgeous? — J.Z. (Photo Credit: Paramount)

Amy Schumer’s star exploded in 2015, thanks in part to this hilarious raunchfest about sex and relationships that she wrote and headlined. With the help of director Judd Apatow, love interest Bill Hader, and breakout comedy star LeBron James (you read that right), Schumer flips rom-com gender tropes and awkwardly dances her way to one of the most satisfying climaxes (pun intended) in years. — K.P. (Photo Credit: Everett Collection)

It came out all the way back in June, but don’t forget about this sweet, sad, and often-funny road movie, which stars Jason Segel as the late Infinite Jest author David Foster Wallace. Based on a book by David Lipsky (played here by Jesse Eisenberg) about his time spent interviewing Wallace for Rolling Stone, it’s a movie portrait of the price of fame, professional jealousy, and the struggles of a genius. — J.Z. (Photo Credit: Everett Collection)

Everyone’s favorite marmalade-loving bear emerged from the Peruvian rainforest into the 21st-century England without missing a beat or a fraction of the retro charm. Writer-director Paul King hits the family film sweet spot, crafting a feature that delights vintage Paddington aficionados while also making new ones. — E.A. (Photo Credit: Everett Collection)

An essential documentary for Amy Winehouse fans, filmmaker Asif Kapadia artfully weaves together interviews, sound bites, never-before-seen footage of the late pop star. What emerges is a portrait of a true jazz artist and desperately fragile woman whose rapid rise to stardom came at the worst possible time. — Meriah Doty (Photo Credit: A24)

Urgent, biting, funny, and beautiful, Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq is the writer-director’s best film in years. A modern-day adaptation of the ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata, the film stars Teyonah Parris as a woman in Chicago who leads a sex strike to protest the city’s relentless gun violence. (As their slogan goes: “No Peace, No Piece.”) It’s also a great showcase for the talents of Nick Cannon, who delivers his best performance to date. — J.Z. (Photo Credit: Parrish Lewis/Roadside Attractions/Amazon Studios via AP)

Brie Larson plays a fiercely devoted mother raising her young son (Jacob Tremblay) in captivity, and the two bring a world of emotion to their one-room prison. Even when the characters’ surroundings expand, that relationship never loses its intense intimacy. Theirs is a complex story about what is lost — and what is gained — through great tragedy. — E.A. (Photo Credit: A24)

A 2015 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Wild Tales offers six great movies for the price of one. Argentinian writer-director Damián Szifron’s wild imagination takes flight in each of the segments that comprise this addictive anthology feature, starting with an ordinary situation — like a case of road rage — and then letting it spin crazily out of control. — E.A. (Photo Credit: AP)

As nerdy, '90s hip-hop-loving high school senior Malcolm, breakout star Shameik Moore anchors this wild, charming tale of three outcast teens trying to unload a stash of drugs in South Central L.A. Malcolm’s self-awareness and sharp wit are just some of the treasures writer-director Rick Famuyiwa has stowed inside this imaginative gem of movie. — M.D. (Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

Director Jonathan Levine and stars Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt staged a 50/50 reunion and this time invited along Anthony Mackie (who we beg to do more comedy). The three play longtime New York bros who get buck-wild together every Dec. 24. With hilarious, heartfelt, festive cheer and loving nods to the likes of Dickens, Die Hard and Home Alone, it all adds up to a raucous Christmas movie miracle. — K.P. (Photo Credit: Sarah Shatz/Columbia Pictures via AP)

If Richard Linklater’s groundbreaking indie Slacker were made today, it might look a lot like director Sean Baker’s shot-on-an-iPhone wonder. Following two trans women (Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) over the course of a single day in and around one L.A. neighborhood, Baker paints a lively portrait of a community and its underrepresented citizens. The film’s generosity of spirit is as invigorating as its wicked sense of humor. — E.A. (Photo Credit: Magnolia)

Director F. Gary Gray’s biopic about the rise of rap group N.W.A. is a rambunctious rags-to-riches tale that’s as crowd-pleasing as it is socially relevant. Even better: It introduces audiences to a thrilling group of young actors including Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E and O'Shea Jackson Jr. as his father, Ice Cube. — M.D. (Photo Credit: Jaimie Trueblood/Universal Pictures via AP)

Just when you thought the vampire movie genre was out of ideas, New Zealand comedy stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi infuse it with flesh blood. Their horror mockumentary, about a group of vampire roommates just trying to get along in the 21st century, is as silly as it is endlessly quotable (“Leave me to do my dark bidding on the Internet!” shouts a vamp whose eBay session has been interrupted). — G.W. (Photo Credit: A24)

After tackling the '60s-era Indonesian massacres from the killers’ point of view in The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer delivers a follow-up documentary that pivots and gives the victims a voice. As a humble optometrist embarks on a mission to sit down with the men who murdered his brother, Silence depicts a country that still needs to confront its past before moving into the future. — E.A. (Photo Credit: Dafthouse)

The Rocky franchise has been plugging along for nearly 40 years now, yet this new installment feels magically fresh. With a bright young star like Michael B. Jordan in the ring and Sylvester Stallone — as the broken-down Rocky Balboa — in his corner, Creed delivers a one-two punch of modern sensibilities and throwback charms right up until the last rounds of the nail-biting championship bout. — B.L.H. (Photo Credit: Sarah Shatz/Columbia Pictures via AP)

For the follow-up to his Oscar-winning Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu delivers this excruciatingly intense, breathtakingly gorgeous Western. As 1820s frontiersman Hugh Glass, Leonardo DiCaprio bravely battles a brutal winter and vicious adversaries, both human and ursine, in this searing tale of survival and revenge. — M.D. (Photo Credit: Twentieth Century Fox via AP)

After a gentle start, director John Crowley’s period drama about a young Irish woman (Saoirse Ronan) who ventures to New York in the 1950s builds into a towering, swoon-inducing love story and ultimately makes for one of the most quintessential immigration stories ever put to screen. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself verklempt for the film’s entire second half. — K.P. (Photo Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute)

As stranded astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) sciences the s*** out of his stay on Mars, you can’t help but root for him in his quest to make it home. The Martian is a rousing story of the brilliant minds behind the rescue mission — and it also happens to be the best filmmaking we’ve seen from Ridley Scott in years. — M.D. (Photo Credit: Aidan Monaghan/20th Century Fox via AP)

Anchorman and Step Brothers director Adam McKay’s film about the 2008 financial crisis is an equal mix of hilarious and indignant, with a large helping of star power: Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, and Ryan Gosling all portray real, idiosyncratic people who made a fortune when the country’s economy tanked. But the film doesn’t celebrate that as any sort of victory; this is a movie with a whole lot of anger at the system that enabled such a score. — J.Z. (Photo Credit: Paramount)

This gem of a documentary examines the real-life tale of two North Carolina men locked in a fierce dispute over an amputated foot. It’s a laughably bizarre premise that soon deepens into a poignant examination of grief, class, and fame, and the very American yearning for greatness at all costs. — K.M. (Photo Credit: Sundance Institute)

Pixar’s most conceptually ambitious movie takes place largely inside the mind of Riley, an 11-year-old girl who is reeling from her move to a new city. As her personified emotions try to help her through the transition, they make the radical discovery that joy and sadness are equally important parts of growing up. Both imaginative and poignant, Inside Out makes most other family movies — with their generic message of “Be yourself!” — seem like kids’ stuff. — G.W. (Photo Credit: Disney/Pixar)

A period drama based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt, Todd Haynes’s Carol gets swept up in the romance between a wealthy housewife (Cate Blanchett) and a 20-something shop girl (Rooney Mara) in 1950s New York. A rapturous look at amour fou, it’s also a gorgeously realized melodrama with riveting performances from the two leading ladies. — K.M. (Wilson Webb/The Weinstein Company via AP)

George Miller’s eye-popping, ear-bleeding return to his signature post-apocalyptic Australian wastelands finds Tom Hardy’s laconic Max (a role originated by Mel Gibson) playing second fiddle to Charlize Theron’s badass Imperator Furiosa in a film that is essentially one epic car chase (or is that a Fury Road trip?) involving our gutty heroes and armies of feral, freaky bad guys. Two hours of unabashed, glorious mayhem. — M.E. (Photo Credit: Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

Based on the true story of the team of dogged Boston Globe journalists who uncovered the Catholic Church abuse scandal, director Tom McCarthy’s drama is cinematic storytelling at its best. With its stellar ensemble cast (including Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams) and a crackling depiction of shoe-leather reporting, it keeps on surprising until the very last scene. Spotlight is that rare film that’s deeply important and highly entertaining, and made for an easy choice to lead this list. — K.P. (Photo Credit: Kerry Hayes/Open Road Films via AP)