THE YEAR OF THE ESCALATOR: When December rolls around and critics list their favorite films of the last 12 months, our practice here at The Perpetual Three-Dot Column is to hold off a while, let our thoughts on the current year simmer, and instead post our picks for the best motion pictures of one decade ago, two decades ago, three decades, four, and so on. (And by "our" picks, I mean mine.) It's December now, so let's do it again.

When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 2015, it gave its Best Picture award to Spotlight, a movie about the Catholic child abuse scandal. This is the sort of film that does not merely show us a man describing his abuse as he walks past both a playground and a church; it has him then point out, out loud, that we are in front of both a playground and a church; and then, just in case we need any additional help with the concept, the camera pans to the playground and the church. What I'm saying here is, this didn't win the Oscar for subtlety. I like these better:

1. The Americans 3
Written by Joel Fields, Joe Weisberg, Stuart Zicherman, Peter Ackerman, Stephen Schiff, Tracey Scott Wilson, Lara Shapiro, and Joshua Brand
Directed by Daniel Sackheim, Thomas Schlamme, Kevin Dowling, Noah Emmerich, Dan Attias, Stephen Williams, Larysa Kondracki, Andrew Bernstein, and Christopher Misiano

If The Americans was the best TV serial of the 2010s, this was the season it became the best TV serial of the 2010s.

2. The Leftovers 2
Written by Damon Lindelof with Tom Perrotta, Jacqueline Hoyt, Patrick Somerville, Tom Spezialy, Nick Cuse, and Monica Beletsky, from a novel by Perrotta
Directed by Mimi Leder, Craig Zobel, Keith Gordon, Carl Franklin, Tom Shankland, and Nicole Kassell

Another series shifts from very good to great. It marks the occasion by letting Iris DeMent take over the theme music.

3. World of Tomorrow
Written and directed by Don Hertzfeldt

A child's guide to dystopia.

4. Anomalisa
Directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson
Written by Kaufman

The best portrait of a monothematic delusion since Don Siegel tackled Capgras syndrome.

5. BoJack Horseman 2
Written by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Peter A. Knight, Mehar Sethi, Joe Lawson, Joanna Calo, Vera Santamaria, Kelly Galuska, Alison Flierl, Scott Chernoff, Elijah Aron, and Jordan Young
Directed by Amy Winfrey, J.C. Gonzalez, Mike Roberts, Matt Mariska, and Ali Winfrey

Watching the first season of BoJack felt like watching a Seth MacFarlane show gradually evolve into a Don Hertzfeldt film. But by the second season, there was no doubt about what sort of dark, surreal universe you were swimming in; the question was just how dark it would get.

6. The Hateful Eight
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino

As befits a film about the aftermath of the Civil War, this ends with north and south lying together in an ocean of blood as a man quotes an ersatz Lincoln.

7. Kaili Blues
Written and directed by Bi Gan

"It's like being in a dream."

8. The Second Mother
Written and directed by Anna Muylaert

"I don't think I'm better, Val. I just don't think I'm worse."

9. Bone Tomahawk
Written and directed by S. Craig Zahler

Between this, #6, and #11, it was heck of a year for brutal westerns.

10. 66 (Old) Movie Dance Scenes Mashup
Directed by Michael Binder

This viral clip recuts a few dozen classic Hollywood musicals into an unofficial video for "Uptown Funk." It's over in under five minutes and it barely even has a title, but I think I like it even better than That's Entertainment!

Honorable mentions:

11. The Revenant (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
12. Florida Man (Sean Dunne)
13. Better Call Saul (Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould)
14. A Magical Substance Flows Into Me (Jumana Manna)
15. Mr. Robot season_1.0 (Sam Esmail)
16. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos)
17. Veep 4 (Armando Iannucci)
18. Weather Service (Kris Straub)
19. Thailand Moment (Les Blank)
20. The Forbidden Room (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson)

Note: Better Call Saul, Mr. Robot, and Veep are all TV shows, so the people in parentheses after those titles are showrunners, not directors. Though each of those folks directed at least one episode too, so I guess they're double auteurs.

Of the films of 2015 that I haven't seen, I'm most interested in Thoughts That Once We Had.

posted by Jesse 6:59 PM

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