1) Deli Man

I never reviewed this documentary, cause I saw it on a plane, and I usually don’t review movies I’ve seen on planes.  It was the perfect plane movie, but it was also the perfect movie movie – it was funny, and entertaining, and informative, and it actually made me cry – tears of joy.  It also made me proud to be Jewish, and reminded me what I value most of my Judaism – tradition thru food, and how we must never lose either.  Levy’s Rye said you didn’t have to be Jewish to love their bread, and the same is true of this documentary.  Bless you Ziggy Gruber – you are the Jewish Ziggy Stardust

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there were plenty of other grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat films in the ’15 of 2000, but instead of ranking them against one another, this year I’m juss gonna lump them together, saying they all grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat – in reverse alphabetical order…

 

Straight Out of Compton

if Paul Giamatti is your movie’s main a$$hole, and your soundtrack is NWA, you have a surefire hit

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Star Wars – The Force Awakens

JJ Abrams may have played it safe, leaning on the past, but that’s what the people wanted, and he gave us stuff we didn’t even know we wanted – a Rey of hope for the future  

George Lucas who?

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Spotlight

it’s the Zodiac of priest abusing children movies!!

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Son of Saul

imagine the intensity of Saving Private Ryan, but strip the patriotism and cheese, set it in and around a concentration camp, and let the horror destroy your senses – yes the würst date movie of 2015 is also one of its best!

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The Search For General Tso

a MUST for anyone who eats Chinese food in America (aka, every American)

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The Martian

who said Ridley Scott needed aliens to make space wonder-full?

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Maps To The Stars

I had to pick one fcuked up movie to make my list, so why not the one that says incest is best/würst!!!

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Mad Max – Fury Road

I mean the guy with the flamethrower guitar was the tamest part of the movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Joy

this is the movie American Hustle should have been, but wasn’t, but this is Joy, and Joy was all American, all hustle, and all awesome

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The Intern

schmaltz-o ball soup for the soul.  I SLURPPED IT UP BIG TIME.  can’t wait to watch it on cable for eons to come!!

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The Death of Superman Lives, What Happened?

the (second) greatest doc ever made about the (second) greatest film never made 

(the first was last year’s #1)

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Creed

some things DO get better with age

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Brooklyn

they say they don’t make movies like they used to, but they wrong.  they should say they should make more movies like this

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Black Mass

Deep as Whitey gave me a bulger in my pants

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The Big Short

finally, a movie about the economic collapse that doesn’t make you want to take a coll-nap

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Amy

too bad the title Trainwreck was wasted on another movie

 

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and now for the…

Honor Blackmanable Mentions

Vacation / While We’re Young / Tomorrowland / Steve Jobs / Rosenwald / Room / Pitch Perfect 2 / Kingsman: The Secret Service / It Follows / Iris / Furious 7 / Ex Machina / The Danish Girl

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our annual anal movie awards – The Thighsmans – drops the week of the Oscars 

until then, here’s the bestest films of yesterhere

2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
& 2002

Son of Saul (Saul Fia)
Better Culled Saul
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 107 min

And the würst date movie of 2015 is the László Nemes‘ Holocaust drama Son of Saul.  Oh what, you’ve had enough of Holocaust movies?  I kind feel that way (I can say that cause I’m Jewish), but this Holocaust film is unlike any I’ve seen before.  It’s about a Auschwitz death camp prisoner name Saul (Géza Röhrig, who looks like a Hungarian Mark Ruffalo), who is forced to work in a Sonderkommando work unit.  The job comes with zero perks (besides being alive… for the time being), and a zillion yards of pain.  These Sonderkommando workers are tasked with cleaning up all the dead bodies after they’ve been put through the gas chambers.  Yes, the movie is filled with horror, endless horror, but that’s not the main point

After one gassing, Saul finds the body of a boy and decides that it should have a proper Jewish burial.  He adopts this lifeless boy as his own ‘son’, and treats it as such.  While Saul has been stripped of his humanity, he still feels the need to maintain his identity, and his people’s.  The entire film and camera is always focused on Saul – pointing at him, and showing his point of view.  There’s a lot of intimacy with Saul, while there is a lot of horror going on in the background – and while the horror is in the actual background, it is always present.  For most of the film – Saul seeks out any imprisoned Rabbi who can help him achieve his goal of properly burying the boy, while his co-workers are focused on trying to rebel against their captors.  Eventually, it all comes to a head, and this is the Holocaust, so you know it aint ending with peaches and cream

Son of Saul is essential viewing, even if you have to take a date to go and see it

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Saul braves NY and LA this Friday and elsewhen in 2016

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…