We’re finally reaching the home stretch of my 2015 year in review. Since the Oscars are going to be announced on Thursday and there’s sure to be much angry discussion, I figured I’d start this time by celebrating the top 15 movie scenes of 2015. It was so difficult to narrow this list down that unlike previous years I will present this as an alphabetical list. Enjoy!
*SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY*
Final Confrontation, About Elly
Nobody can do soul crushing conversations with characters having to wrestle with their religious and moral beliefs like Asghar Farhadi. In one of the final moments in the film, Sepideh has to choose between besmirching Elly’s name or lying to cover up for her friend, thus plaguing her with guilt about what happened for the rest of her life.
Nightmare, Anomalisa
Though the movie doesn’t measure up to this scene, for one moment it reaches its weird potential.
Cinderella’s Escape, Cinderella
How do you make a movie moment we’ve seen several times before interesting? Well you combine some CGI wizardry, nifty camera work, and the efervescent Lily James and you’ve got the perfect recipie for a wonderful movie moment.
Single Take Fight, Creed
One of the year’s most intense scenes was this wonderful piece of bravura filmmaking where Creed’s first major fight is shot all in one take. Coogler and Alberti bring their considerable visual eye to making this an extremely powerful moment.
Dance Off, Ex Machina
There’s not a more random, yet thrilling and chilling moment, as the dance number that pops up in Ex Machina. The moment functions as the extension of one man’s power over another, sexual machismo, and also a chilling reminder of the fact something sinister is happening.
1st Whale Attack, In the Heart of the Sea
Ron Howard and Anthony Dod Mantle were a match made in heaven for this picture as the filmmaking and camera movement aided in making this one of the scariest scenes this year. Those whalers didn’t stand a chance.
Chruch Fight, Kingsman: Secret Service
The most bonkers scene on this list bar none. This scene is like 3 mins of sheer carnage set to a rock beat starring Colin Firth. Who knew he was an action star?
White Chocolate, Magic Mike XXL
Much is rightfully being made of Joe M.’s raucous strip in the store, it’s Channing Tatum’s acrobatic tour de force that finds a spot on this list.
Opera Fight, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Chris McQuarrie has a gift for shooting parallel action and making characters pop and he does that with relish in this scene. There are many indelible moments in film, but Ferguson getting ready to fire her gun is near the top.
Bear Attack, The Revenant
This is one of the toughest scenes that I have ever sat through. It’s just brutal in every respect from the long takes, to Leo’s screams, everything about this moment in intense and awful.
The Plane Sequence, Spy
This might have been the scene that made me laugh the hardest out of anything in the theaters this year but the hilariousness of the botched assassination attempt, the plane crash, and McCarthy and Byrne’s ace comic timing was too much for me.
Detroit Concert, Straight Outta Compton
Straight Outta Compton is not a movie lacking for great scenes but none are as kinetic as the moment NWA decides to go against the warnings and perform Fuck the Police in front of the Detroit Crowd.
Barn Dance, Tom at the Farm
While the dance number in Ex Machina was a bit menacing and the one in Magic Mike pretty sexy, the dance number in Tom at the Farm is the perfect amalgamation of the two, with a dash more scares. When Tom is forced by his ex-lover’s brother to dance, you actually fear for his life. But then for a moment, the characters let their guards down and the dance becomes a dangerous seduction.
Opening Scene, The Tribe
There are many scenes that are more explosive and harrowing than this in The Tribe, but no film in 2015 had a better opening scene that this one. The far off camera, the only sound coming from the street and cars, is a brilliant way to let us into the world of the protagonist and get us on his side.
The Walk, The Walk
One of the most immersive uses of 3D ever, Robert Zemeckis creates a replica of an incredible death defying stunt. Joseph Gordon Levitt sells the hell out of this moment and the editing (cutting to the bleeding foot was so effective) made for a good time. As someone who is terrified of unsafe heights, this scene was a doozy, but shot so brilliantly I managed to watch the whole thing.
I hope this doesn’t come off as macho self-aggrandizing, but I gotta say I did not find that bear attack in The Revenant *nearly* has bad as you and others kept saying it was. I mean, the sequence is no picnic, but it goes on for so long and so obviously “shows off” its special effects that it started to feel monotonous to me, especially since there was no question that Glass was *of course* going to survive. Personally, the scene with the scissors in Goodnight Mommy is my ohmygodIcantwatchthis brutal scene of 2015.
It doesn’t come off like that at all but for me it was maybe the only moment in the film other than that run to the boat where the single take really brought the brutality out.
And omfg yes that scene in Goodnight Mommy was tough to watch…basically anything that happened in the last 20 mins. Although I kind of wished that that movie got a bit more fucked up if that makes sense.