The Movies I Most Want to See in 2015

A lot of sites have listed the most anticipated films of 2015, but honestly, their list doesn't usually match my own. It's a lot of the usual suspects. Avengers, Star Wars, Hunger Games, etc. I'm looking forward to those too, but I usually prefer to go off the beaten path. So I present my list of 12 films I'm most looking forward to seeing, roughly in order of release. 

The Last Five Years: I'm a big fan of Anna Kendrick and her musical chops. I loved Into the Woods, and that's just the first of three musical films she has in the can. Most people know that the Pitch Perfect sequel comes out in May, and I'm all over that too, but I'm even more intrigued by this adaptation of the Jason Robert Brown musical, co-starring Jeremy Jordan. (Feb. 13). 

Mad Max Fury Road - Well, shit. Have you SEEN the trailer? (May 15)

Jurassic World: That trailer works too. (June 12) 

Inside Out - Summer offers its greatest one-two punch with Jurassic World one week, and the film I believe will be Pixar's creative comeback on June 19. 

The Walk: Robert Zemeckis has long been the master of photo-realistic visual effects. With this film, chronicling the incredible tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, he may have accomplished his most impressive feat yet.

Crimson Peak - Jessica Chastain in a Guillermo Del Toro movie? That's all I need to know. (Ocotber 16)

Untitled Cold War Spy Thriller: Steven Spielberg directing a Coens script? That's all I need to know. And on the same weekend as Crimson Peak! (October  16)

Peanuts -I've been a fan of the classic comic for about as long as I can remember. I still have significant chunks of A Charlie Brown Christmas memorized. So when I heard a CGI movie was being made, I cringed. And yet the trailers, including the latest, seem to capture Schulz's spirit well. Five cents, please.   (Nov. 6) 

Spectre: Skyfall was the best Bond movie in EONs. (Bond fans will see what I did there.) The follow-up, also directed by Sam Mendes, is probably THE film I'm most looking forward to seeing in 2015. 

Star Wars - The Force Awakens:  Yeah, it's one of the obvious answers. But I'm excited like everyone else is. Besides, maybe it'll get people to stop bitching about the prequels, which are flawed but still take too much abuse.  (Dec. 18)

Joy: Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence team up for the third time with David O. Russell. After Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, that's fine by me. (Dec. 25)

Carol: I covered the shoot of this for the Journal-News in Hamilton last year and caught a glimpse of Cate Blanchett. So naturally, I'm curious to see how it turned out. (Fall) 

Silence: A Martin Scorsese picture. Any questions? (TBA, but probably in the fall) 

Sir Critic Lives: Every movie I saw in 2014

MOVIES 2014

Theaters

1. Blue is the Warmest Color A-
2. Inside Llewen Davis B+
3. Her A+
4. August Osage County C+
5. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit C+
6. Lone Survivor A-
7. Labor Day B-
8. The Invisible Woman B-
9. The Lego Movie A-
10. The Armstrong Lie B+
11. Frozen X3  A+
12. Philomena A-
13. Dallas Buyers Club B+
14. Wolf of Wall Street A
15. 12 Years a Slave  A
16. Nebraska A
17. Captain Phillips A
18. Her A+
19. American Hustle A
20. Gravity A+
21. The Monuments Men B
22. Non-Stop B
23. The Grand Budapest Hotel A
24. Muppets Most Wanted B
25. 300: Rise of an Empire B-
26. Noah B
27. Divergent B+
28. Bad Words B
29. Captain America: The Winter Soldier A
30. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 C+
31. The Railway Man A-
32. Under the Skin C-
33. Only Lovers Left Alive C
34. Locke A
35. X-Men Days of Future Past A-
36. Maleficant B
37. Edge of Tomorrow B+
38. The Fault in Our Stars A-
39. Fed Up A
40. Chef A-
41. Draft Day B
42. 22 Jump Street. A-
43. Neighbors B
44. Obvious Child B-
45. Jodowarsky’s Dune B+
46. A Hard Day's Night A+
47. Snowpiercer A
48. Begin Again A-
49. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes A
50. Life Itself A+
51. Guardians of the Galaxy A-
52. It Happened One Night A+
53. Lucy B+
54. Boyhood X2  A+
55. The Big Lebowski B+
56. Jersey Boys C
57. Magic in the Moonlight B+
58. A Most Wanted Man B+
59. Silk Stockings B+
60. Cavalry B+
61. The Drop B+
62. How to Train Your Dragon 2 A
63. Hector and the Search for Happiness A-
64. Gone Girl A-
65. Men, Women and Children C+
66. The Skeleton Twins B
67. Fury C+
68. Birdman A+
69. Kill the Messenger C+
70. Nightcrawler A-
71. Interstellar X3 A+
72. Big Hero 6 A-
73. Whiplash A
74. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: A=
75. The Boxtrolls B
76. The Theory of Everything B+
77. Citizen Four A
78. Rosewater B
79. Exodus: Gods and Kings C-
80. Top Five B+
81. Wild B+
82. The Hobit: Battle of the Five Armies A-
83. Into the Woods A

On the Small Screen

1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp  A-
2. Liberal Arts B
3. Last Tango in Paris  B+
4. Stories We Tell A
5. That’s Dancing B
6. A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy B-
7. The Aristocats B
8. The Black Cauldron C+
9. Ben-Hur (1925) B+
10. Harold and Maude: B
11. Millius A-
12. Listen Darling B
13. Miss Pinkerton B
14. Air Force B
15. No B+
16. Straw Dogs (1971) B+
17. Beneath the Planet of the Apes C
18. Escape from the Planet of the Apes
19. Transcendence C
20. Straw Dogs (2011) B
21. The Deadly Tower B+
22. Passage to Marseille B
23. Homefront C
24. Peyton Place B+
25. Sorcerer B+
26. Crazy Love A
27. Macbeth A
28. The Game B
29. All Quiet on the Western Front A-
30. Postcards from the Edge B+
31. Under Capricorn C
32. Airport: B
33. The Black Stallion: A-
34. Dodge City A-
35. Little Women (1949) B
36. Dracula  (1937)  B+
37. Dracula (Spanish) B+
38. The Steel Trap B+
39. Frankenstein (1931)
40. Wee Willie Winkie B
41. The Mummy B+
42. Edward Ullmer documentary B-
43. People Will Talk A-
44. Carnival of Souls B+
45. Altman A-
46. Happy Christmas B-
47. Chaplin C-
48. The Man with the Goden Arm A-
49. Buster Keaton: So Funny It Hurt B
50. It Happened on Fifth Avenue B
51. Remember the Night A-