RWT Top 20 Films of 2015: 20-16
This year our Reel World Theology Contributors all submitted their picks for Top 10 Best Films of 2015. We used a numeric scoring system to assign points to every movie that received votes and then counted up each team’s score to form our Top 20 film list for 2015. We will be releasing our Top 20 list this week. Feel free to let us know what movies would have made your “Best of 2015” list. Today we start with 20-16.
20. The Hateful Eight
“I’m not the world’s biggest Tarantino fan, though I’ve enjoyed his last few films immensely (maybe he’s growing on me). Hateful Eight worked really well for me. The cast is outstanding. The story is tense and interesting, a perfect setting for Tarantino’s famously talky dialog. And the whole film is a meditation on power and truth. Does the fact of a story matter, or does the belief we place in it? Tarantino uses the classic Western setting to point out that even rule of Law is one more story we tell ourselves to get by. The film ranges from religion to American identity to civilization. I hope to write about this film once I see it a few more times. It’s that good.” -JR Forasteros
Check out our Podcast Episode on The Hateful Eight
19. Timbuktu
“Masterfully artistic, gut-wrenchingly sad, and maddeningly unfair, director Abderrahmane Sissako has crafted a cinematic drink of cool water in a desert of religious extremism and injustice. The movie’s beautiful photography is juxtaposed with a simple story of a cattle farmer caught between life and the encroaching menace of religious jihadists in the nearby small town. Wrestling with complex issues of compassion, true worship, family, and hypocrisy, it is all through the lens of a Muslim faith, but incredibly pertinent to Christian faith as it relates to legalism, religious practice, and the Imago Dei. It is essential movie-watching of 2015.” -Josh Crabb
18. Steve Jobs
“It feels like you shouldn’t need more than the names Danny Boyle, Aaron Sorkin, Kate Winslet, and Michael Fassbender, but, in case you need more… I must admit that I tried to temper my very high expectations for this film but ultimately it wasn’t necessary. Sorkin’s script is fast and powerful and in the hands of Winslet and Fassbender it hits hard. I would be remiss to mention Seth Rogan as well who turns in a very noteworthy performance. Drama and intrigue surround this non-typical biopic. It is well worth your time.” -Mikey Fissel
Check out our Podcast Episode on Steve Jobs
17. Testament of Youth
“Testament of Youth is the powerful true story of a young woman who served bravely as a nurse on the front lines of the first World War (played fiercely by rising star Alicia Vikander). World War I is an era that doesn’t get a remarkable amount of coverage in the entertainment industry, so the film is quite refreshing to say the least. Not only is it sumptuously captured and scored, its emotionally raw and genuine in it’s depiction of being a youth during one of the worst times in European history.” -Alexis Johnson
Check out our review of Testament of Youth
16. What We Do In the Shadows
“I can count on one hand the number of movies that have made me laugh until my sides hurt, and What We Do in the Shadows near the top of that list. Now I’m ready for the sequel/spinoff, which was announced earlier this week.” -Blaine Grimes
