2015 has been an interesting year for film to say the least. Unlike years past, there haven’t been those one or two landmark films that cast a shadow on the rest of the field, no Birdman, Boyhood, The Tree of Life, or There Will Be Blood for the film critic intelligentsia and wider moviegoing audience to rally behind in unison.

The filmic pillars of the past twelve months have been not films, but actors. Towering, career-defining performances from surging newcomers and refined Hollywood mainstays alike have wowed audiences in great numbers. Some belong to the best movies of the year; others are transcendent, standing a cut above the movie that harbors them.

With respect and admiration, Way Too Indie presents what we feel were the Best Performances of 2015. Be the roles leading or supporting, male or female, these twenty performances made the biggest impression on us.

Way Too Indie’s 20 Best Performances of 2015

Christopher Abbott – James White

We’re perpetually in close proximity to Christopher Abbott in James White, in which he plays the titular party boy/mama’s boy who flirts with self-destruction as a habit. Death breathes down his neck as he copes with his father’s recent death and prepares for his terminally ill mother’s departure. Abbott is a fireball of anger, frustration, love and regret that director Josh Mond always keeps in plain view, uncomfortable as that can be sometimes. Whether it’s with his slumped-over posture or with the twitch of an eye, Abbott bares James’ soul incrementally, with subtle physical tics and tells that hint at a raging internal war he can hardly contain. This is the kind of role actors live for, and this is the kind of performance that indicates greatness. [Bernard]

Joshua Burge – Buzzard

When Buzzard begins, Joshua Burge’s protagonist Marty is trapped by apathy, and by its finale, he’s fleeing in desperation. Burge characterizes Marty as a deadpan loser, a lower class user trying to milk the system to continue fostering his unimpressive existence. But as Buzzard unfolds, we begin to question exactly why Marty does what he does. Where did his poverty come from? Is the system he abuses perhaps partially responsible for his careless mentality? Burge forces the audience to finally sympathize with Marty long after they’ve (likely) dismissed him as an insolent dweeb. He carves complexity on a face we so easily prejudge and misclassify. Buzzard is a testament to the ability shoe-string budget features have to be meaningful, and Joshua Burge is responsible for a significant amount of its success. [Cameron]

Suzanne Clément – Mommy

In Xavier Dolan’s award-winning Mommy, Suzanne Clement plays the film’s most enigmatic character, Kyla, who lives across the street from the film’s two protagonists, the behaviorally inept Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon) and his single mother, Diane (Anne Dorval). Kyla is a complex and potentially traumatized character who has trouble verbalizing herself, symptomatic of the pain of losing a young son, which is revealed through subtle, visual queues early on in the film. Though Clement may not receive as much screen time as Pilon or Dorval (especially during the first half of the film), her understated performance is just as resonant, and for that, she deserves immense recognition. [Eli]

Benicio Del Toro – Sicario

Benicio del Toro has shown us so many dimensions of his gift that he seldom surprises us onscreen. Likewise, he seldom disappoints—he’s one of the best character actors we’ve got. But in Sicario, he changes up his game, playing a Mexican cartel land assassin who’s intimidating in the most frighteningly peculiar way. He doesn’t just beat up his victims and hostages; he invades their space, extracting information by leaning into them with his shoulder (and, in extreme cases, his crotch). His interpretation of the classic hitman archetype is one of the most interesting I’ve seen in years, a more psychologically sick and quietly menacing killer than what we’re used to seeing at the cinema. He isn’t a death machine, but a damaged, tired man who takes no pleasure in the chase but is nevertheless driven to kill by his obsessions. We’ve seen Benicio before, but not quite like this. [Bernard]

Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant

In critical assessments of a performance, the lengths to which an actor physically challenges himself can often be the sole takeaway from a film; however, Leonardo DiCaprio’s work in The Revenant goes beyond simply suffering for one’s art. As the vengeance-fueled Hugh Glass, DiCaprio is a constantly compelling force. He crawls through snowbanks with bloodstained hair, strains while climbing up snowy mountainscapes, and practically foams at the mouth while tied to a stretcher during the moment where he’s betrayed. It’s an assaulting experience for both actor and audience. Yet, DiCaprio is such an emotive, vulnerable performer that he never loses sight of the human beneath the flesh wounds. In the nearly three hours of The Revenant, much of which features DiCaprio alone and engulfed by nature, you get a sense of Glass’s thought process from the little hesitations and panicked glances over his shoulders. You see it on his face and in his body language. He’s a man that is beaten and battered, but immensely strong of will. Bringing humanity to the bleakest circumstance in remote locales is among the actor’s greatest achievements in a career full of notable roles. [Zach]

Anne Dorval – Mommy

In Mommy, Anne Dorval delivers one of the best lead performances of the year as a mother struggling to care for and understand her violent son amidst the more common struggles that lower-middle class families face. It’s a performance filled with such power and honesty that it makes this heartbreaking struggle (and the even more heartbreaking moments of fleeting happiness) all the harder to swallow. And like all great performances, Dorval is able to turn on a dime with the material, like when she finds the moments of humor in Xavier Dolan’s wonderful script and nails them. Don’t let this be a performance you miss this year. [Ryan]

Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs

How does someone step into the shoes of an icon and leave his own indelible impression? It certainly helps to be aided by the staccato rhythms of an Aaron Sorkin script, but in Steve Jobs, Michael Fassbender portrays the late Apple CEO like Silicon Valley’s Gordon Gecko—impossibly charismatic despite a ruthless streak of narcissistic tactics. As Steve Jobs, Fassbender doesn’t quite walk as much as glide from scene to scene. It’s easy to imagine a version of Sorkin’s play-like three-scene structure feeling too “start and stop” but Fassbender expertly throttles the film’s momentum like Travis Pastrana jumping dirt mounds at the X Games. Steve Jobs is an actor’s movie, but it’s Fassbender who handles the brunt of informing relationship through his actions. The magnetism of his performance both makes this movie enthralling and embodies the alluring aspects of Steve Jobs, the man. [Zach]

Nina Hoss – Phoenix

Nina Hoss’ subdued, tour-de-force performance in Christian Petzold’s post-Holocaust psychodrama Phoenix will leave viewers with their jaws firmly planted on the floor. Indeed, the final scene of Phoenix is so breathtaking and cleverly cathartic that it feels like the perfect end to a slow-burning cinematic puzzle. It’s primarily because of Hoss’ restrained performance as Nelly Lenz, the facially-disfigured and unidentifiable concentration camp survivor, that the gradual expansion of the film’s intensity works so well. And her eventual explosion, her emotional release that concludes the film, is simply one for the ages. [Eli]

Oscar Isaac – Ex Machina

While maybe not on the level of his work in A Most Violent Year or Inside Llewyn Davis, Oscar Isaac is always reliable for a good performance, and that doesn’t change here. One moment Isaac’s Nathan can be filling the audience with a sense of uneasy tension before quickly lightening the mood and filling it with laughter. Isaac brings so much charm and mystery to the role that he nearly steals the show from the wonderful Alicia Vikander. Isaac has quickly established himself as one of the better actors working today with a string of great performances; hopefully that streak will continue with his next film, another sci-fi movie called Star something or other. [Ryan]

Richard Jenkins – Bone Tomahawk

As Chicory, the old and seemingly useless town deputy, Richard Jenkins initially appears to be little more than comic relief in Bone Tomahawk. But as time goes on, and our characters make their trek to a shocking and brutal destination, Jenkins slowly but surely walks away with the film. Some credit has to go to S. Craig Zahler’s excellent screenplay, which gradually reveals a more complex character underneath Chicory’s buffoonish surface, although Jenkins’ ability to create such a genuine and sympathetic character from the page is what helps elevate Bone Tomahawk from a low-budget genre pic to a future cult classic. You can see the power of Jenkin’s performance already; despite a small release with little to no fanfare, he managed to get an Indie Spirit Award nomination, a surprising and—for those who’ve seen it—deserving pick. [C.J.]

Brie Larson – Room

The year’s most heart-wrenching film is anchored by one of 2015’s best performances. A young mother kidnapped and locked inside a shed for several years while raising her son, Joy (or “Ma”) is a tangled knot of trauma waiting to come undone. Beginning the film as a warm, protective woman doing whatever she can to shield her boy from their terrible situation, Larson often underplays the predicament. She imbues her character with the belief that if she can provide a sense of normalcy, her son might avoid permanent mental scarring. In the breathtaking moments when Larson has a raw, emotional reaction to the threat against her son, or the hope she retains for his future, her performance elevates Room to a special level of stories about family. When she collects her inevitable Oscar nomination, the broadcast may play a clip of her louder, more dynamic performance from the film’s latter half; however, Larson’s ability to balance emotional pain, world-weariness, naiveté, hopelessness and hope in one role is what makes this performance remarkable. [Zach]

Rooney Mara – Carol

The language of Carol is one communicated through gestures and expressions. Words are held back in almost every line of dialogue, so it’s up to the actors to divulge the psychology of the people they are attempting to embody. Rooney Mara, whose role in many instances is wrongly being credited as supporting, is astonishing in her ability to sculpt depth and humanity within Therese. If she’s hesitant, her hands and eyes will move a certain way. If she’s curious, her eyes will light up. Whether she is speaking or silent, we can always follow the emotional narrative occurring within Therese’s mind, and if that doesn’t speak to the caliber of her performance, I don’t know what does. [Cameron]

Elisabeth Moss – Queen of Earth

Elisabeth Moss’s performance in Queen of Earth is something out of a classic Hollywood melodrama—the kind of performance you would see from Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. From the first frame of the film (a close-up of the actress’ mascara-run face), Moss dominates the screen. Even while she is a wholly exaggerated person by the end of the film, almost animalistic, Moss leaves just enough humanity to ground herself. Director Alex Ross Perry helps give the performance the variance it needs with an out-of-time structure, jumping between past and present, showcasing the many levels of her depression. It’s the highest stakes role of the young actress’ career and she takes the opportunity by both hands, strangling it to unconsciousness. After her highly praised supporting role in Perry’s Listen Up Phillip, their follow-up together shows a fantastic working relationship and hopefully a pairing that will grow over the years. [Aaron]

Cynthia Nixon – James White

The highly underrated Cynthia Nixon provides the backbone to Josh Mond’s stunning debut feature. Nixon casts a strong shadow over the film even when she’s absent from the screen for extended periods. Her performance as a woman suffering from cancer is so fully realized that it’s almost too painful to watch (and probably will be for some). Another great element to her work here is how well she complements Christopher Abbott’s strong work in the title role, giving him so much to work off of. This is truly one of the strongest performances of the decade so far and will hopefully lead to even more equally interesting roles for Cynthia Nixon. [Ryan]

Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight

Mark Ruffalo has spun a pretty interesting career for himself. From his indie beginnings to becoming America’s favorite Hulk, Ruffalo perfectly blends a leading man’s charm with a character actor’s sensibilities. That plays well into his role as Mike Rezendes, a key member of the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting team. The film beautifully creates the team dynamic, but Ruffalo sticks out with the most dynamic emotional moments. The ticks and vocal choices may turn some off, but Rezendes is a fully-formed character. You believe his inner-struggle with the information he has uncovered and his passion for digging deeper. His scenes with Stanley Tucci, playing an attorney who possibly has incriminating evidence against a church official, are a highlight of his performance. They build an important relationship by the end of the film, but it is certainly a process, as the two veteran actors play a game of give-and-take across the film to prove themselves to each other. Above all, Ruffalo portrays the kind of journalist we wish every journalist could be—compassionate, hard working, intelligent, willing to take on the impossible story and push to find the difficult answers. This all comes out of Ruffalo’s workmanlike performance. [Aaron]

Michael Shannon – 99 Homes

When Rick Carver is first seen in 99 Homes, he’s callously insulting a man who just committed suicide moments earlier. At first glance Michael Shannon’s character appears to be a walking symbol of the heinous capitalist practices that created the housing crisis, but Shannon helps complicate things to the film’s benefit. Carver is fully aware of how immoral his actions are, but as he repeatedly points out, he’s merely playing by the same rules as everyone else. He is, much like the film’s protagonist, simply trying to survive and succeed within the system, albeit through more questionable means. It speaks to Shannon’s talents that he can take such an unlikeable character and, by portraying him as a ruthless pragmatist, turn 99 Homes into a more powerful and effective cri de coeur. [C.J.]

Kristen Stewart – Clouds of Sils Maria

The loveliest thing about Kristen Stewart’s performance in Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria is that it hardly feels like a performance. It feels like Kristen Stewart playing herself, only a slightly altered, slightly more cinematic version of herself named Valentine. She has such a natural presence onscreen, speaking and reacting like a normal human being while acting as the voice of reason for her boss and good friend (played by Juliette Binoche). In Clouds, Stewart is not only the most likable character, she’s also the most mysterious, albeit in a very simple way; for most of its runtime, there’s very little mystery to Valentine at all. Then, suddenly, a shift in the third act forces viewers to think about the significance of her character’s presence (in the context of the film’s themes) and, as a result, Clouds’ enigmatic nature multiplies. [Eli]

Mya Taylor – Tangerine

A lot of attention has been paid to Kitana Kiki Rodriguez’s lead performance in as Sin-Dee in Tangerine, and rightly so; it’s a brash, uncompromising and great turn from a first-time actress. But if Rodriguez is the ball of furious energy that keeps Tangerine going, then think of Mya Taylor as the film’s beating heart. Playing Alexandra, the more subdued friend of Sin-Dee, Taylor acts with a confidence and naturalism that prevents the film from veering too far off the map. Rodriguez may dominate the screen, but Taylor is the perfect, sensitive yin to her boisterous yang, and by the end it’s impossible not to recognize how vital Taylor’s performance is to the film’s success. [C.J.]

Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina

We might look back at 2015 as the year of Alicia Vikander. Overall, she had four great performances this year, including the romantic sidekick in the pulpy The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and two finely tuned dramatic turns in Testament of Youth and The Danish Girl. It’s her role as an A.I. in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina that leaves the biggest impression, though. Her role in the film is to basically prove the Turing test through a sequence of interviews with lonely programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson). Ex Machina‘s wonderful character design and effects go a long way, but nothing would work without her central performance. Vikander plays Ava with a softness and fragility that makes her completely irresistible to both Caleb and viewers. Her curiosity pierces through the usual robot affectations that Vikander wears well. She has to be both human and machine, hero and villain, and convincing enough to work within the film’s plot conceit. Her ability to effortlessly manage all of these complex layers is one of the most impressive feats we’ve seen all year. [Aaron]

Kōji Yakusho – The World of Kanako

In The World of Kanako, Kōji Yakusho portrays a man living in a perpetual state of dazed anger. He drinks himself half to death and has a long list of pent-up regrets and fears that orchestrate his emotional instability. When his daughter, Kanako, goes missing, he finds a direction in which to point his abstract fury. What Yakusho gives us in bringing this character to life is a master class in expressive body acting. Twitching, howling, and never failing to interact with his environment, Yakusho pulls no punches, diving into the core of his character’s deranged headspace and demented patriarchal rage. [Cameron]

]]> http://waytooindie.com/features/20-best-performances-of-2015/feed/ 0 http://waytooindie.com/news/now-streaming-movies-tv-this-weekend-july-17/ http://waytooindie.com/news/now-streaming-movies-tv-this-weekend-july-17/#respond Fri, 17 Jul 2015 15:35:29 +0000 http://waytooindie.com/?p=38496

Netflix has become the standard bearer for original content from a streaming service—not only in terms of their ever-growing catalog of traditional television series, but soon with original films from major stars and top indie directors. Amazon Prime may be well behind, even with hits like Transparent and Catastrophe, but they are looking to take a step in the original movie biz before they get too far behind. It was announced this week that Amazon Studios has purchased its first film to distribute, the upcoming Spike Lee look at inner-city violence Chiraq. In their exclusive, The Hollywood Reporter noted that the film will first receive a coveted December theatrical release with hopes of Oscar before being made available “relatively quickly to Amazon Prime customers” to stream. Piggybacking on last week’s streaming news on Paramount’s plans to release films more quickly to VOD, this is more evidence of the industry becoming more aware of and open to the benefits of streaming and more big-time projects are sure to follow. Before all of your favorite directors sign exclusive rights to stream their newest films, check below to see new titles that you can watch from home this weekend.

Netflix

Tig (Kristina Goolsby & Ashley York, 2015)

One underplayed but very important segment of Netflix’s original content plan are stand-up comedy concert films. If you are a comedy buff, there is a near-endless selection of specials to view from the very best in the business—Louis C.K., Kevin Hart, John Hodgman, Aziz Ansari and Mike Birbiglia all have a home on Netflix and the service seems to add more and more every week. Though not solely a stand-up special, the newest Netflix original documentary is a look into the life and work of one of the best alt comics of this generation, Tig Notaro. Tig picks up with its very funny subject days after she has been diagnosed with cancer, making it much more than a typical comedian profile. Notaro’s unique comedic voice and personality is really enough to sustain the film, but the added perspective gained through her tough situation will give her fans a deeper connection. Read our review of Tig.

Other titles new to Netflix this week:
Bojack Horseman (Season 2)
Creep (Patrick Brice, 2014)
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (Spike Lee, 2014)
Goodbye to All That (Angus MacLachlan, 2014)
These Final Hours (Zak Hilditch, 2013)

Fandor

The Spirit of the Beehive (Víctor Erice, 1973)

One of the most imaginative films ever made, Victor Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive showcases the power of cinema when a young girl in rural Spain sees James Whales’s Frankenstein. Young Ana is so transfixed and curious about the experience that she escapes into a fantasy world where she can leave her brutally turbulent life behind. If you love Pan’s Labyrinth, this film is a must watch, as it heavily inspired del Toro. As part of Fandor’s “Criterion Picks,” The Spirit of the Beehive is only available to stream for a limited time. Also new to Fandor is their next Spotlight series—“Game Changers,” a collection of thrilling sports documentaries and dramas. Films in the series include Hoop Dreams, Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, Fake It So Real, Headin’ Home: a biopic of Babe Ruth starring Babe Ruth as himself, and Boxing Cats: a short actuality film from the silent era where someone put tiny boxing gloves on house cats and staged a championship bout. That last one is worth the subscription cost alone.

Other titles new to Fandor this week:
Being Two Isn’t Easy (Kon Ichikawa, 1962)
Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)
The Unstable Object (Daniel Eisenberg, 2011)
Warrendale (Allan King, 1967)
Where Is My Friend’s House? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)

MUBI

The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzky, 2011)

If you have two and a half hours free, you do spend it in many worse ways than watching Béla Tarr’s minimalist masterpiece. Tarr has built his reputation on snail-paced but powerful films, with The Turin Horse one of his most striking. The film has a very interesting philosophical supposition—jumping off of a story that Friedrich Nietzsche sees a carriage driver whipping his horse, then puts his arms around the horse to protect it from the beating. Immediately after, Nietzsche would be diagnosed with mental illness and never speak again for the rest of his life. The punchline to the tale is “We do not know what happened to the horse.” The Turin Horse tells the following story of the horse, farmer and his daughter in the sometime-serene, sometime-brutal Polish landscape. Much of what we see are daily routines of their lives (the unnamed daughter peeling potatoes is a particular recurring scene), and ultimately becomes a mesmerizing showcase of editing, cinematography, set production and patience.

Other titles new to MUBI this week:
Aelita: Queen of Mars (Yakov Protazanov, 1924)
Marley (Kevin Macdonald, 2012)
The Past Is a Grotesque Animal (Jason Miller, 2014)
Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam, 1979)
Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)

VOD & Digital HD

Far from the Madding Crowd (Thomas Vinterberg, 2015)

Vinterberg’s follow up to the stunning and suffocating The Hunt is the equally stunning, but much more easy-going adaptation of the popular Thomas Hardy novel Far from the Madding Crowd. The film stars the always dependable Carey Mulligan as an fiercely independent woman who inherits a large farm and attracts three very different suitors—the most dreamy (editorializing) being Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone, Bullhead) as Gabriel Oak, a farm hand with a shared history. It might be a peculiar change in direction for the Danish filmmaker, but Vinterberg brings in a sure hand and naturalistic perspective to what could be just another boring British romance novel adaptation. With lush cinematography and a very talented cast, rounded out by Michael Sheen and Tom Sturridge, it will likely stand as one of the most emotionally searing, gorgeous films of the year. If you don’t live close enough to an arthouse cinema where it would have played during its limited theatrical release, it’s now available to rent or buy on iTunes.

Other titles new to VOD this week:
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
Dior and I (Frédéric Tcheng, 2014)
Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
The Salt of the Earth (Juliano Ribeiro Salgado & Wim Wenders, 2014)

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Well that was fast. Seems like just yesterday we were recalling our favorite movie moments from 2014. It’s hard to believe but we’re already halfway into 2015! So it’s time for us to reflect back on all the releases since January. Sure, the year has given us a fair amount of flops, like Tomorrowland, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, Hot Pursuit, The Cobbler, Aloha, and Entourage to name a few, but luckily in the deluge of releases we’ve come to expect these days, 2015 has delivered a few films worth flocking to theaters for.

There’s something for everyone on our list of the Best Films of 2015 So Far. Eclectic even for us, our diverse inventory includes some of last year’s Cannes Film Festival standouts, a must-see horror film, a Wes Anderson-esque western, several low-budget indies, and to round things out, a big studio action film who’s inclusion among our favorites is one of the more intriguing and pleasant surprises 2015 has thrown at us.

There’s plenty to look forward to later on in the year—we’re looking at you Knight of Cups—but in the meantime rest assured you already have some watching to keep you busy as Summer begins.

Way Too Indie’s Best Films of 2015 So Far

#20. Clouds of Sils Maria

There are few better words than “layered” to describe the labyrinth that is Oliver Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria, which made Kristen Stewart the first ever American to win Best Supporting Actress at France’s prestigious César awards. Normally this external detail might prove irrelevant to the work itself, but for a film that focuses so strongly on the generation gap and the notion of aging in the entertainment industry, the fact that Stewart’s subtle performance has overshadowed Juliette Binoche’s more sensational lead performance on the awards circuit is interesting in a self-referential sort of way. Indeed, the concept of parallels seems to go hand in hand with the predicament that Binoche’s character, Maria, finds herself in when she agrees to take part in a revival of the play that once upon a time sparked her career. However, issues of identity and the psychology of the performer are explored when Maria’s original role of Sigrid is given up to a young Hollywood celebrity, and she is forced to play the girl’s opposite as the older and more fragile Helena. Clouds will likely be remembered for its terrific performances, but Assayas’ writing and direction are what allow it to take some strangely enigmatic turns, especially in the second and third acts. It’s these puzzling moments that raise thought-provoking but potentially unanswerable questions in the mind of the viewer, and transform the experience, as a whole, into a difficult one to shake. [Eli]

#19. Faults

This feature debut from Riley Stearns contains just the right combination of absurdity and hilarity to make it one of the most entertaining movies of the year. Much of the success of Faults comes from the brilliant lead performance of Leland Orser, who plays an eccentric cult deprogrammer on the decline of his career. In order to pay back his agent from his recent book tour failure, he takes on a job to deprogram a woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) currently under a cult spell. From there, the film evolves into a thrilling chamber piece with unpredictable outcomes. Stearns crafts a wildly hypnotic film from a bare bones setup, establishing himself as an upcoming director worth keeping an eye on. With Orser and Winstead at the top of their game, Faults stands out as one of the best indie debuts of the year. [Dustin]

#18. Seymour: An Introduction

The old saying “those who can’t do teach” doesn’t apply to Seymour Bernstien, a legendary concert pianist who, at the peak of his career, gave it all up to become a music instructor and composer. Ethan Hawke, one of Seymour’s most famous pupils, made Seymour: An Introduction as both a documentary tribute to his mentor and a megaphone through which the 85-year-old’s wisdom and philosophies can touch those around the world, beyond his cozy NYC apartment. It’s a strikingly cinematic documentary about a man who’s developed an ultimate understanding of the link between music and life itself. A sampling: “You can establish so deep an accord between your musical self and your personal self that eventually music and life will interact in a never-ending cycle of fulfillment,” Seymour says on-camera. The man’s a master on the keys, but has a way of making words sing, too. [Bernard]

#17. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, the arthouse response to The Fault in Our Stars, isn’t quite the genre-redefining coming-of-age film some made it out to be when it premiered and won at Sundance last January. But it’s still a charming and likable enough film that supplies a nice alternative to the constant assault of summer blockbusters like Jurassic World and Terminator Genisys. Thomas Mann, in the lead role of Greg (the ‘Me’ of the film’s title), turns in a good performance that shows some promise for a career that initially started with duds like Project X, but it’s Olivia Cooke who really shines as his classmate who has recently been diagnosed with cancer. And Jon Bernthal continues his streak of great supporting turns; someone give this guy a much deserved leading role already! [Ryan]

#16. Jauja

Transfixing. That’s the first word that comes to my mind when I think about Lisandro Alonso’s fiercely strange Jauja. Filmed in a vintage 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio, the film boxes in its characters in a squircle with seemingly magical capabilities and, by way of a cinematography that’s got a wondrous use for depth-of-field and a mise-en-scene that engages empty spaces like no other film this decade, it creates a magnetic bridge between audience and screen. To put it another way, watching Jauja is to cinephiles what going to church on Sundays is to devout theists; an altogether spiritual experience. It’s set during the time of conquistadors, and first half is easy enough to follow; Danish Captain Gunnar Dinesen (Viggo Mortensen) brings along his daughter Ingeborg (Viilbjørk Malling Agger) on a joint expedition with an allied Spanish infantry. There’s tell of a mysterious army general who has vanished into the desert, never to be seen again, and when Inge disappears one night, Dinesen must gaze into the abyss of this desert in order to find her. That’s when the second half of the film takes over; surreal, compelling, and intimate, the film takes on transportational qualities as we follow the more and more perplexed Denisen. The allure of Jauja is almost as hard to explain as Dinesen’s conversation with the woman in the cave, and it’s got “acquired taste” written all over it, but for fans of meticulous shot composition, and a vibe that’s neither wholly David Lynch or wholly Andrei Tarkovsky, but some transmutated hybrid of the two, it’s a film that dives into the beyond and comes up for air with a plethora of treasures. Alonso is an arthouse storyteller known for stretching out thin plots and narratives in lieu of a viscerally visual journey, and Jauja is his most unforgettable one yet. [Nik]

#15. Heaven Knows What

Based on lead actress Arielle Holmes’ unpublished autobiographical novel, “Mad Love in New York City,” the Safdie Brothers’ newest output reaches uniquely authentic heights, primarily through Holmes’ distinct performance as Harley: a fictionalized depiction of her homeless and heroin-addicted former self. This imitation of life may be the closest to pure documentary that the world of fiction filmmaking has been in some time. To see Holmes maneuver her way through a simulated version of her troubled past is already haunting, but juxtaposed with Sean Price Williams’ floating camera and Isao Tomita’s heavy electronic synthesizer score, the film’s hyper-realism frequently borders on dreamlike surrealism and hits some unforgettable notes. Much of the film consists of Harley’s endless attempts to satisfy her insatiable appetite for a fix, as well as her interactions with other drug addicted and alcoholic members of the New York City homeless population. The repetitive and consistently uncomfortable nature of the film may repel some viewers, but for those fascinated by cinema that replicates reality on a deeper level than the norm, Heaven Knows What may end up being one of the year’s biggest surprises. [Eli]

#14. Appropriate Behavior

I find it quite fitting that Desiree Akhavan’s film début (writing, directing and starring) was the first that I watched and reviewed in 2015, and here it now finds its place among the best we’ve seen so far. Not a bad way to start the year, I’d say. This hipster Iranian-American bisexual rom-com feels as fresh as HBO’s Girls did back in 2012, but with an added diversity that show has always been sorely lacking in. Her jokes have the audacity of Broad City but with the wit of Woody Allen. As the film’s star, Akhavan portrays Shirin, a woman dealing with a break-up from the woman she sincerely loved while hashing through her naïve cultural confusion and general millennial narcissism. The film is at its most hilarious when exposing the ridiculousness of the young urban elite and their kombucha drinking, co-op volunteering, entirely self-conscious faux heroism. But while poking fun at her own generation, Akhavan adds a sense of romanticism even while being a woman behaving badly. On a list sorely lacking in comedy, you can be sure Appropriate Behavior has earned its spot here by being tear-inducingly funny and unapologetically sincere. [Ananda]

#13. Li’l Quinquin

Bruno Dumont’s Li’l Quinquin is, by a wide margin, the funniest film of 2015 so far, and that’s saying something considering how downright grisly it can be. Starting off as a sort of French rural riff on the recent surge of murder mystery miniseries, Quinquin follows the residents of a small countryside village when someone starts chopping up townspeople and stuffing their body parts into cows. As the 200 minute film—originally a 4-part miniseries in France—gets closer to finding a possible suspect, it becomes apparent that Dumont has little interest in solving the case. What begins as a quirky whodunit gradually transforms itself into an exploration of humanity, mainly our capacity to do good and/or evil. But even that reading is a bit of a reductive take on Dumont’s complex, philosophical and frequently uproarious work. People unaware of Dumont’s films will find Li’l Quinquin to be a great starting point, and those already familiar with his output should be shocked to find that he’s been hiding such an incredible sense of humor for this long. [C.J.]

#12. Girlhood

Every 16-year-old girl ought to have the world at her feet. Not all do. Marieme (Karidja Touré), the central character in Girlhood (Bande de Filles), does not. When she realizes she must do something to untether herself from a dead-end home life that includes a disinterested mother and an abusive older brother, her hopes of a higher education as a means of escape are dashed. It’s the film’s most devastating scene. When she says to her offscreen guidance counselor, “I want to be like others. Normal,” she is met with, “It’s a bit too late for that.” At 16 years old, she’s told it’s too late to make a positive change in her life. She remains undaunted, and instead looks for something else. This sets in motion a series of decisions and events that, in the hands of writer/director Céline Sciamma, resonate like those in other great coming-of-age films, yet remain completely devoid of the melodrama so prevalent in those films. It’s a remarkably genuine approach that not only grounds the film in terrific realism, it keeps the viewer highly engaged because all expectations of cliché are shattered. This refreshing take on the struggles of a lower-class teen is enhanced greatly by the talent and beauty of first-timer Touré. She is undaunted by the hopelessness of her situation, yet she never comes across as the type who dots her eyes with hearts, instead conveying sweet innocence in a hardscrabble shell that is simultaneously sympathetic and inspirational. It’s a performance worthy of praise in a film worthy of this list. [Michael]

#11. Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

In Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, Ronit Elkabetz stars as Viviane Amsalem, a woman seeking a divorce from her husband, Elisha (Simon Abkarian). This is the basic concept, but nothing else about the film is basic. It’s set in Israel, where there is no such thing as a civil marriage; each marriage is performed as part of a religious ceremony, and must be dissolved that way, too. Based on religious tenets, a husband must give his full consent for a marriage to be dissolved, and if he doesn’t want the divorce, the divorce doesn’t happen. Suddenly, this woman who has been trapped in an unhappy marriage finds herself trapped again—a prisoner of a system that stacks the deck against the same women it all but ignores in the first place. This makes the rules as much the antagonist of the film as the husband, if not more so, and it’s the film’s stroke of genius. Co-written/co-directed by star Elkabetz and her brother Shlomi, the film is a courtroom drama like I’ve never seen before, morphing from a tale of a wife trapped in a bad marriage to a commentary on a culture that treats women as afterthoughts. Not only is Elkabetz’s co-direction sensational, her performance is unforgettable as well. As the woman who will not be denied no matter how many men get in her way (husband, judges, witnesses), Elkabetz shows the weariness and frustration borne of years of roadblocks (the film spans five years!), with a steely layer of resolve beneath. With terrific storytelling fundamentals, compelling emotional depth, and crackling dialogue, the Elkabetz siblings could be Israeli filmmaking’s answer to the Coen Brothers. [Michael]

#10. White God

White God, which premiered and emerged victorious in the Un Certain Regard section of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, is a harrowing, brutal melodrama about animal cruelty that equally serves as a metaphorical story of class/race issues that have always troubled society. While the film sometimes falls short of fully realizing its potential due to shifting tones and a couple other missteps, it’s original and far too interesting to pass over. The film also features some of the most wonderfully cinematic images and some of the best editing of any film to be released so far this year. So if you missed White God during its limited theatrical run in the U.S. this past March then keep your eye out for it when it’s released on blu-ray and DVD July 28th. [Ryan]

#9. Hard to Be a God

Conceived in the 1960s, shot in the 2000s, and finally finished in 2013, Aleksei German’s magnum opus Hard to Be a God could easily claim the title of filthiest movie ever made without anyone batting an eye. German’s sci-fi adaptation takes place in the future, but the setting is like entering a time machine into the past; a recently discovered planet that’s just like Earth, except the planet’s civilization is currently living out its pre-Renaissance phase. The camera, always moving and in deep focus, captures it all with a realism and sense of immersion that few films have achieved before, making Hard to Be a God a simultaneously grueling and exhilarating experience. Not many people will be up for German’s challenge here, but those willing to roll around in the mud will find themselves awestruck at the staggering, groundbreaking vision on display. Some films are hard to shake off, but Hard to Be a God is in a class of its own; this is a movie you have to scrub off. [C.J.]

#8. Slow West

Before a frame was even shot, Slow West was flooded with promise. The feature-length directorial debut of John Maclean (DJ of the disbanded The Beta Band) stars Michael Fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn in two of the central roles. Surely the film would be interesting, but what resulted was something more. Following Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee) across the American West as he searches for the love of his young life, Slow West could have simply been a solid western. Instead, Maclean and company aimed higher: an absurdist send up of the genre, a coming of age cautionary tale, and a moralist adventure all in a simmering 83 minutes. Slow West is a rollickingly fun western, in equal measures tense and hilarious, absurd and painful. But what’s more is the astounding promise it shows of first-timer Maclean. Whatever he’s got cooking up next (hopefully another vehicle for his buddy Fassy) we’ll be there. [Gary]

#7. The Duke of Burgundy

Peter Strickland’s sumptuous tale of a rocky lesbian relationship inside a surreal BDSM bubble came out at the very beginning of the year, and still beats the competition in terms of pure cinematic sensuality. The narrative follows butterfly expert Cynthia (Danish vet Sidse Babett Knudsen) and her younger lover, Evelyn (Italian debutante Chiara D’Anna), as they cope with ebbs and flows of a deep relationship that’s starting to lose steam, noticed mostly through the oft-hilarious cracks in their masochistic role-playing scenarios. The Duke of Burgundy has a perfect balance of fearless indulgence, and is incredible on multiple levels thanks to Strickland’s methods of cinematic persuasion; his use of a hauntingly romantic score by Cat’s Eye, visually stunning montages that are edited in staccato-like fashion and pledge allegiance to Stan Brakhage’s chaos of celluloid, and setting his story in what looks like an enchanted château from Renaissance Era folklore. The Duke of Burgundy is above all else a tight embrace of everything that sets cinema apart from all other arts. Add to that the re-definition of “toilet humor,” the evocative lead performances that beautifully compliment each other in the way they contrast, and the unadulterated imagination at work—from the costumes to the butterflies, and the all-female world with no sense of time or place,—and you have a film that breaks conventional cinematic barriers in order to express something infinitely universal; love. In all its kinky, silky, paranoid, powerful, glory. [Nik]

#6. Buzzard

Buzzard isn’t a complicated film, but I find it difficult to describe in any intelligent way. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be completely confounded and charmed by its off-kilter sensibilities. As you are more than likely to not have seen Buzzard, here’s a little on the plot: Marty is a temp office worker, video game and horror film aficionado, overall slacker in the suburbs of Detroit. As he makes increasingly outrageously dumb decisions, he becomes more and more paranoid that the authorities (or something even more sinister) are out to get him. The film is a punk splashed throwback with its roots calling back to Alex Cox. Buzzard recent ties are to the comedy of Quentin Dupieux and Tim & Eric, and it more than holds its own against these more established and polished figures. There really isn’t much more I can say about the film than it is delightfully weird, awkward, and very, very cool. Joel Potrykus’s sophomore feature will hopefully be his indie breakout, though I surely hope he never loses his edge. [Aaron]

#5. It Follows

It Follows carves fresh terrain for horror movies, turning the sound of approaching footsteps into a signal of terror. David Robert Mitchell’s stylistic second feature film is a creepy, fun experience wholly unique in its approach. When a new boyfriend passes a sexually transmitted demon onto Jay (Maika Monroe), she and her friends work together to dispose of the monster and rid Jay of her curse. With striking cinematography and nods to John Carpenter classics (notably its ominous, synth-heavy score), the unsettlingly tense terror created in this film is surely among the greatest scary movies in recent memory.

Rather than make the true source of his scares the It Follows monster itself, the director Mitchell utilizes long takes that often place the demon off in the background slowly encroaching on Jay and her friends. The longer that a shot lingers, the more your dread will build. It Follows is a masterwork in the manipulation of anxieties. Its terrifying encounters with an unforgettable villain and the haunting imagery in It Follows leaves a chilling impact that will make you wonder what’s behind you. [Zachary]

#4. Wild Tales

With Wild Tales, Damian Szifron reminds us that, deep down, we’re all a bunch of filthy animals. The characters in this blissfully chaotic anthology movie do things we wish we had the balls to do, breaking free of their societal restraints to indulge in the sweet nectar of violence, revenge, greed and infidelity. Each of the film’s six short stories are insanely entertaining in their own way, and though terrible, terrible things happen across the board, the biggest surprise is how much fun it is to watch these people’s lives fall apart. Maybe it’s cathartic, maybe there’s a bit of wish-fulfillment going on, or maybe it’s just good, old-fashioned, pulpy entertainment. Wherever the film’s true appeal lies, what’s abundantly clear is that Szifron is a badass storyteller with a unique vision. In the film’s final story, a man stands over his lover. He hurt her badly, and she’s hurt him right back. They’ve raged and cried and thrashed at each other, and now they’re drained, stripped of everything. He opens his arms and doesn’t say a word, but she hears him loud and clear. “This is us, baby. We’re filthy animals, but at least we’ve got each other.” We’ve all got a wild side, and Wild Tales reminds us to embrace it because it’s what makes us human. [Bernard]

#3. Mommy

Love as the bond between mother and son is the subject for Xavier Dolan’s latest and perhaps best release so far Mommy. Following a widowed single mother struggling to make ends meet, Diane (Anne Dorval) raises her violent, ADHD son Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), with the help of Kyla (Suzanne Clement), a mysterious neighbor who has a curious verbal tick. Together, the three lost souls function as a patchwork family unit, accomplishing more together than they would be capable of apart. Although the movie concerns itself with characters managing in difficult circumstances, the energy with which Dolan allows the story to unfold gives the film surges of stylistic adrenaline.

Shot in a 1:1 frame with warm, yellow hues that somewhat resemble an Instagram video, Dolan’s camera moves frenetically, whipping from one side of a conversation to the other in order to accommodate Mommy’s tight aspect ratio. The square frame helps draw the viewer’s eye inward toward the middle of the picture, providing an intimate view of these characters as they have deeply personal experiences. Through adversity Mommy remains an exuberant celebration of minor daily achievements, emphasizing that attitude often dictates outcomes. This is a deeply empathetic movie with several heart-wrenching sequences. All of this comes accompanied by an assortment of iconic late ’90s needle drops (“Colorblind” by Counting Crows, “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65, “Wonderwall” by Oasis) and the best use of a Lana Del Ray song in cinema yet. [Zachary]

#2. Ex Machina

It’s no surprise that début film director Alex Garland made his chops for years as a screenwriter—his script for Ex Machina is one of the best sci-fi scripts in years. There is always a particular balance that has to be struck with good, smart science fiction, wherein the intellectual scientific and philosophical concepts need to be accessible while not watered down for mass consumption. The film is primarily a film made up of conversations between two people at a time (either programmer whiz Caleb and towering genius Nathan, or Caleb and femmebot Ava), and the dialogue is sparkling, full of lofty ideas and technical jargon without much of a reference key. I’ll admit there were times that I felt a little left behind in the conversation, and I frankly should be when two very smart people are talking about very smart ideas. That doesn’t mean that I couldn’t follow what was going on or felt the film was intellectually impenetrable, because its simplified location and high-concept premise, along with its eventual genre trappings, kept it all accessible. This all helps Ex Machina to be a unique science fiction film while tackling familiar science fiction themes. The three primary leads all give very different but equally brilliant performances, but Alicia Vikander rightly has gotten the most attention for her breakout role as A.I. seductress Ava. Simply put, if the actress in the Ava role doesn’t deliver, the film doesn’t work. Because a majority of the film’s premise has Caleb literally testing Ava to see if she has the capacity to be human, the audience is focused in on every word she says and motion she makes. It’s not really a spoiler to say that Caleb is fooled in ways, and so was I. [Aaron]

#1. Mad Max: Fury Road

His name is Max. His world is fire and blood. And this movie is barely even about him. How did a not-so-indie summer blockbuster action flick make it to the coveted #1 spot on this list? By doing what indie films do best—bring innovation to the big screen. In this way Mad Max: Fury Road is the most indie-spirited film out this year. Director George Miller, who made the original Mad Max for less than half a million dollars, and who has maintained that indie spark, is a patient man, who waited until the time was ripe and technology could accommodate his vision. Never has such patience paid off quite so well. Literally—as this film is doing nicely at the box office—but also in providing one of the most provocative action films to come out of the genre. Forget that its visuals are beyond stunning and its pace remains breakneck with hardly a second to catch one’s breath, it has sparked some of the most lively conversation of the year around feminism, female film leads (like I said, this film isn’t really all that focused on Max, it’s Charlize Theron’s Furiosa who should have top billing), and the surprising social commentary a post-apocalyptic action film can stir up on such lofty subjects as injustice, slavery, objectification, and male-dominance. Those who don’t want to think can enjoy the visuals, fast cars, and flame-throwing, but those who find an added pensiveness to their action film to be an invigorating bonus, will find Fury Road to be a whole new kind of avant-garde. [Ananda]

The last day of a festival is always bitter, rarely sweet. No matter how exhausted your bones are, or how badly your spine begs for a chiropractor, if the festival was a success you could do it all again for another two weeks. It’s with this dread, and a double shot of espresso to keep the focus, that I entered my last screening; Olivier Assayas’ Clouds Of Sils Maria. The final film shown in competition with a superstar cast of Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, and Chloe Moretz; three women representing three different generations in a story about coming to terms with the past, age, and the consequences of time. Sounds kind of lovely, doesn’t it? Not sure what happened then, because Assayas found a way to drop the ball on this one and produced a lazy, uninspired, and forlorn piece of work.

Maria Enders (Binoche) is a famous stage and film actress who is offered a role for a play she has a deep and personal connection to. The play is about a young seductress called Sigrid who manipulates the older Hanna into a lesbian relationship only to leave her brokenhearted and forgotten by the end. 20 years ago, Maria played Sigrid and immersed herself into the role so much that it mirrored her own personality. Now, after the death of the playwright who wrote the piece, Maria reluctantly accepts the much weaker role of Hanna, but has trouble coming to terms with the way the character is written as it fills her with past memories and present insecurities about her own relevance. With the help of her assistant Valentine (Stewart), she begins to rehearse the role and has slight trepidation and pretentious misgivings with the idea of working with Jo-Anne (Moretz), the 19-year-old Hollywood superstar who has a Lindsay Lohan temperament.

There is so much there to grab on to, it’s a shame Assays butterfingers practically every element of the story. The main conflict, Maria’s relationship with the role, is written with such melodrama that it forces a rather minor performance by one of cinema’s all time greats, Binoche. Her work in English has always been slightly inferior to her French roles, but it just never seems like she gets under the skin of her character and leaves a trail of overacted scenes. Stewart has never been better, and yet she’s still stuck in a stifled shell; even when she’s at her most animated. While Moretz brings in the laughs and proves to be the aspirin for the headache induced by the scenes she’s not in. She, too, has never been better but unfortunately we get much more stifled Stewart than catty Moretz.

The biggest obstacles, however, lie in the execution of the story not the actors who do their very best with what they have. Assayas is squarely to blame for the poorly written dialogue which sounds like it was copy-pasted from some Bold and the Beautiful episode and for montage sequences which make absolutely no contextual sense, only serving to push us away and check our watches. The name of the play is tied into the phenomenon evoked by clouds and wind in the mountains of Sils Maria, where Maria rehearses her part. While the imagery is captivating, and the idea even more so, the meaning behind it is lost in a haze of poorly edited and awkwardly placed images desperate to attach themselves symbolically to characters who are too poorly written to be attached to anything. Not even with the help of 3D glasses would you find three dimensions anywhere in this film.

So, my Cannes festival ends on something of a sour note screening-wise (though, a soon-to-be-published article will show you the high it actually ended on) because Olivier Assayas, usually so on point, missed all his targets with Clouds Of Sils Maria. Fans of Stewart will declare her Best Supporting Actress material mostly because this is her greatest role yet, Moretz surprises in a funny parody of Hollywood celebrities, and Binoche makes you miss Julianne Moore’s batshit crazy and entertaining woman with similar issues in David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars. Watch this only if you’re a diehard fan of someone involved, or if you’re interested in seeing what a comic book movie directed by Assayas would look like (a highlight among the weariness.) Otherwise, this thematically redundant and soapy opera full of flat notes is not worth your time.

Originally published on May 24th, 2014 during the Cannes Film Festival.

Following a successful opening night at the Mill Valley Film Festival that offered red carpet glamour and a glitzy outdoor celebration, day 2 was all about the festival’s bread and butter: the movies. It started with a pair of meaty arthouse dramas harboring powerhouse performances and ended with a metal god presenting a cult horror classic to cleanse the palate and send us home smiling.

Clouds of Sils Maria and Mr. Turner both star brilliant artists playing…well…brilliant artists. Juliette Binoche stars in the former as an eminently well-respected actress wrestling with her past life, while Timothy Spall grunts and groans as he paints masterpieces in his turn as the eccentric 19th century British painter J.M.W. Turner. Both actors’ performances will stand amongst the best of their respective careers.

But before we get to the heavy stuff, let’s have some fun and talk about our first taste of what’s got to be the weirdest/coolest program at the festival.

Master of Metal, God of Gore

After two films that were rich experiences to say the least (emotionally draining is another way to put it), it was a treat to end the night with the first installment of the festival’s four-part Artists in Residence program, curated by the four members of legendary metal outfit Metallica (who also happen to be local legends). Lead guitarist and horror movie expert Kirk Hammett took to the stage (after a packed autograph session) to introduce one of his favorite horror B-movies, Dracula vs Frankenstein, a cheesy but charming relic from the psychedelic ’70s. An avid collector of horror memorabilia, Hammett discussed with festival Executive Director Mark Fishkin his deep love for scary movies, old and new.

Here’s what Hammett had to say about his obsession with horror:

Stewart Earns Her Stripes

Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria is a serene yet mighty film worthy of its wonderful and universally-adored lead, Juliette Binoche. It’s also one of those rare films that passes the Bechdel test (passed only if a film shows women talking to each other about something other than men) with flying colors: Binoche is paired with rising starlet Kristen Stewart for the majority of the film, and believe me, their conversations are endlessly fascinating, with little help from men at all.

Binoche plays Maria Enders, an actress who made a name for herself as a teenager, playing the role of an office assistant who seduces and emotionally torments her older female boss. Now, decades older, Maria has been asked to be in the play again, this time playing the older woman. With her hip, young assistant Valentine (Stewart), she travels to Sils Maria to rehearse for the part, hiking through the Alps and sipping tea in a beautiful estate as she runs lines over and over, trying to connect with her new role as the old one incessantly tugs at her psyche.

We expect greatness from Binoche, especially with ripe material like this, and she delivers in full. What’s surprising is how excellent a dance partner Stewart is, keeping up with her veteran counterpart beat for beat. Honestly, there are some scenes between the two that I can confidently say Stewart was the best part of. She’s so perceptive and intelligent and compassionate, and it doesn’t hurt that her mellow, under-the-radar vibe fits the role perfectly. Color me impressed.

Growl…Groan…Grumble

Timothy Spall isn’t the prettiest man in the world, but he may be one of the world’s most valuable actors. He plays Romantic British painter J.M.W. Turner, a toad-like, lumbering man who snorts and groans his way through conversations, in Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner. The performance won Spall a best actor award at Cannes, which is no surprise once you see it; it’s positively unpredictable and unforgettable.

Covering the final 25 years or so in the painter’s complex, strange life, the film is a visually stunning portrait of a physically undesirable–but ingenious–man. Cinematographer Dick Pope utilizes some of the prettiest lighting and compositions you’ll see this year to amaze our eyes as Leigh’s patient camera largely sits idle. It’s breathtaking to see Spall’s measured performance framed by such sublime imagery, and I implore you to rush out to theaters to catch Leigh’s latest masterpiece when it hits theaters this Christmas.

That’s it for day 2 of the fest, but stay tuned because we’ve got loads more coverage coming your way from Mill Valley. If you haven’t done so yet (shame on you), check out our coverage of day 1, which includes Hilary Swank and Jason Reitman talking about their new films, The Homesman and Men, Women & Children.

Having premiered at Cannes over the weekend, the upcoming drama Clouds of Sils Maria has debuted a trailer for the film with an anxious Juliette Binoche, a disaffected Chloë Grace Moretz, and a thong-clad Kristen Stewart. With writer-director Olivier Assayas at the helm, Clouds of Sils Maria takes its name from the breathtaking views from the Alps of Sils Maria, Switzerland (the onetime home of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche), featured in part in this new teaser.

Starring Binoche as an aging starlet at the peak of her fame, asked to perform in a revival of the play that made her famous, only now in the role of the older woman. Moretz stars as the young actress that’s been cast in the role that made Binoche’s character famous, and Stewart plays Binoche’s assistant in this movie about age, nostalgia, and art imitating life (read our review).

Watch trailer for Clouds of Sils Maria

Unless you’ve managed to live without the internet since April 16th, the question “How do you feel about the Cannes lineup this year?” must have surfed its way to – or from- you by now. Yes, cinephiles around the world have been slowly digesting Thierry Fremaux’s announcement from April 17th, and Way Too Indie is no exception. As this years man in the field, my excitement is only contained by perpetual bouts of anxiousness as I mentally prepare for the invasion my body and mind will succumb to in three weeks time. 19 films competing for the main prize, 19 films competing in the smaller, edgier, and often times more revelatory Un Certain Regard section, 2 films in the Out Of Competition slot, 3 Midnight Screenings, and 5 Special Screenings (Cannes slang for Documentary.)

That’s 48 movies, and with Fremaux confirming that two or three more will be added in the coming weeks, that’ll make just about 50 or so films in the Official Selection. That’s not even including the Cannes affiliated Director’s Fortnight and Critic’s Week! What I would give to be able to see them all! But that’s not going to be possible, so once every film gets announced, and the schedules are out, I’ll have a better idea of what I’ll be able to catch.

In the meantime, you’d do well to bookmark this page because for the coming weeks this is going to be a PR mecca for everything Cannes related. We will have trailers, images, interview links and anything else we grab our hands on. You’re encouraged to use the comments section and let us know if we’ve missed anything!

IN COMPETITION

Clouds Of Sils Maria

Director Olivier Assayas

Saint Laurent

Director Bertrand Bonello

Winter Sleep

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Maps To The Stars

Director David Cronenberg

Complex look at Hollywood and what it reveals about Western culture.

Two Days, One Night

Directors Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne

The film follows Sandra, a young woman assisted by her husband, who has only one weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses so that she can keep her job.

Mommy

Director Xavier Dolan

A widowed single mother, raising her violent son alone, finds new hope when a mysterious neighbor inserts herself into their household.

The Captive

Director Atom Egoyan

A father tries to track down his kidnapped daughter.

Goodbye To Language

Director Jean-Luc Godard

The Search

Director Michel Hazanavicius

A woman who works for a non-governmental organization (NGO) forms a special relationship with a young boy in war-torn Chechnya.

The Homesman

Director Tommy Lee Jones

A claim jumper and a pioneer woman team up to escort three insane women from Nebraska to Iowa.

Still The Water

Director Naomi Kawase

Mr. Turner

Director Mike Leigh

A look at the life of British artist J.M.W Turner.

Jimmy’s Hall

Director Ken Loach

Political activist Jimmy Gralton is deported from Ireland during the country’s ‘Red Scare’ of the 1930s.

Foxcatcher

Director Bennett Miller

The story of Olympic Wrestling Champion Mark Schultz and how paranoid schizophrenic John duPont killed his brother, Olympic Champion Dave Schultz.

Le Meraviglie

Director Alice Rohrwacher

Timbuktu

Director Abderrahmane Sissako

Wild Tales

Director Damian Szifronr

Leviathan

Director Andrey Zvyagintsev

UN CERTAIN REGARD

Party Girl

Director Marie Amachoukeli

An aging nightclub hostess decides to settle down and get married.

Jauja

Director Lisandro Alonso

A father and daughter journey from Denmark to an unknown desert that exists in a realm beyond the confines of civilization.

poster via IndieWire

Le Chambre Bleue

Director Mathieu Almaric

Incompresa

Director Asia Argento

Titli

Director Kanu Behl

A young man in Delhi tries to break free from his controlling brothers.

Eleanor Rigby

Director Ned Benson

A New York couple’s relationship.

Bird People

Director Pascale Ferran

An American arrives in Paris, checks into a hotel, turns off his cell phone and starts his life anew.

Lost River

Director Ryan Gosling

A single mother is swept into a dark underworld, while her teenage son discovers a road that leads him to a secret underwater town.

Amour Fou

Director Jessica Hausner

Charlie’s Country

Director Rolf De Heer

Snow in Paradise

Director Andrew Hulme

Hard-hitting character study that’s based on the real story of one man’s journey to control his violence through religion. It takes us from the blood soaked East End of London to the world of the Islamic whirling dervishes.

A Girl At My Door

Director July Jung

Xenia

Director Panos Koutras

Strangers in their own birthplace, 16-year-old Danny and 18-year-old Odysseus cross the entire country in search of their Greek father, after their Albanian mother passes away.

Run

Director Philippe Lacote

Run escapes… He just killed the Prime Minister of his country. In order to do so, he had to act as if he was a crazy man, wandering through the city. His life comes back by flashes; his childhood with Tourou when his dream was to become a rain miracle-worker, his adventures with Gladys the eater, and his past as a young member of militia, in the heart of the politic and military conflict in Ivory Coast. All those lives, Run didn’t choose them. Everytime, he felt in by running from another life. That’s the reason why his name’s Run.

Turist

Director Ruben Ostlund

Hermosa Juventud

Director Jaime Rosales

Fantasia

Director Chao Wang

The Salt Of The Earth

Directors Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado

Away From His Absence

Director Keren Yedaya

The film plans to follow the incestuous relationship between a 60-year-old man and his 22-year-old daughter who live together in a small apartment in Israel. The film will deal with difficult moral and political issues. It faces questions such as how and why an evolving, adult woman is still having sex with her father — a man whom, despite raping her at an early age, she claims to be in love with.

White God

Director Kornel Mundruczo

OUT OF COMPETITION

Grace Of Monaco

Director Olivier Dahan

The story of former Hollywood star Grace Kelly’s crisis of marriage and identity, during a political dispute between Monaco’s Prince Rainier III and France’s Charles De Gaulle, and a looming French invasion of Monaco in the early 1960s.

How To Train Your Dragon 2

Director Dean DeBlois

It’s been five years since Hiccup and Toothless successfully united dragons and vikings on the island of Berk. While Astrid, Snotlout and the rest of the gang are challenging each other to dragon races (the island’s new favorite contact sport), the now inseparable pair journey through the skies, charting unmapped territories and exploring new worlds. When one of their adventures leads to the discovery of a secret ice cave that is home to hundreds of new wild dragons and the mysterious Dragon Rider, the two friends find themselves at the center of a battle to protect the peace. Now, Hiccup and Toothless must unite to stand up for what they believe while recognizing that only together do they have the power to change the future of both men and dragons.

Coming Home

Director Zhang Yimou

A Chinese man is forced into marriage and flees to America, but when he returns home, he is sent to a labor camp.

In The Name Of My Daughter

Director André Téchiné

The real life story behind the disappearance of Agnes Les Roux

MIDNIGHTERS

The Rover

Director David Michôd

A loner tracks the gang who stole his car from a desolate town in the Australian outback with the forced assistance of a wounded guy left behind in the wake of the theft.

The Salvation

Director Kristian Levring

In 1870s America, a peaceful American settler kills his family’s murderer which unleashes the fury of a notorious gang leader. His cowardly fellow townspeople then betray him, forcing him to hunt down the outlaws alone.

The Target

Director Chang

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Maidan

Director Sergei Loznitsa

A look at the 2013 and 2014 civil unrest in the Ukrainian capital’s central square.

Red Army

Director Gabe Polsky

Following the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, RED ARMY tells the story of the nation’s famed Red Army hockey team through the eyes of its captain Slava Fetisov. Whether he was pitted against enemies in the political arena or on the ice, Fetisov’s story provides a rare glimpse behind the Iron Curtain of the 1970s and ’80s by mirroring the social and political forces at work in the world around him. While helping pave the way for his nation to cross over into the next century, this one man demonstrated how sports could not only be an avenue for creative expression in a world determined to suppress it, but also be something so inextricably intertwined with a nation’s cultural and political identity.

Bridges of Sarajevo

Director Aida Begic, Leonardo di Costanzo & more

The Bridges of Sarajevo is a cinematic contribution to the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of WWI. The film is a collaboration of well known European directors, who all contribute one short to the feature film.

Cartoonists, Foot Soldiers of Democracy

Director Stéphanie Valloatto

The Ardor

Director Pablo Fendrik

An Argentinian western revenge tale starring juror Gael Garcia Bernal.

Geronimo

Director Tony Gatlif

A story about social conflict between Turks and gypsies as seen through the eyes of a teacher.

The Owners

Director Adlikahn Yerzhanov

Two brothers struggling to hold on to their ancestral home while their sister and mother lose their breath and mind, respectively.

Of Men And War

Director Laurent Becue-Renard