The sequel to one of Pixar’s great masterpieces is definitely not as good as its predecessor, but it does deliver a moving and truthful depiction of life with anxiety.
Take a seat, Sadness. It’s Joy’s night. That’s because Inside Out triumphed in a very competitive category (that also included Shaun the Sheep Movie and the truly outstanding Anomalisa) to take home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Oscars. It’s the second Best Animated Feature win for director Pete Docter (2009’s Up was the first) and the eighth win for Pixar Animation Studios (the other six, for those keeping score at home, are Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Toy Story 3, and Brave).
There’s a director who has been nominated for six Oscars. He even won once. His 2015 film was a critical and commercial success. It made over $350 million and has a 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
There’s another director who has been nominated for three Oscars...
Lists can be extremely useful, especially when you need to get organized, go grocery shopping or break down all the ways Jon Snow will return on Game of Thrones (very important). I like those kinds of lists, as the many Post-Its littered across my desk (and Macbook and iPhone) will show you. But making a Top 10 for the best movies of the year is a whole other monster, a film writer’s Sophie’s Choice. For someone as ridiculously indecisive as myself, it took days to finalize the final spots on this list.
There are just too many good movies. That’s my takeaway from this year’s annual exercise in critical masochism selecting the ten best films. My shortlist of 2015’s best movies is anything but short; running well over 30 outstanding entries. It feels like something I say every year, but it’s true; there are more great movies left off my list (like Clouds of Sils Maria and Experimenter and Brooklyn and Heaven Knows What and While We’re Young and about 20 others) than are actually on it. I actively agonized over the last couple slots for hours. (Yes, actual hours. I’m sorry, It Follows.)
It’s hard enough for film critics without Barry O. snatching up our freelance gigs, but President Obama and the First Lady weighed in with their choices for 2015’s best film.