Most of the end-of-the year lists of “Best” Films, “Best” Books, etc. come from critics who review films/books for a living.

I don’t claim any special film knowledge and just tend to write about how much I liked various films for whatever reasons. Here is a list of many (tho not all) of the films Ellen and I saw in 2015, largely ones that I rated four stars or higher (out of a system of 1-5 stars).

As I was posting this list, I thought of adjusting a few of the ratings (up or down) but decided to leave the ratings the way I made them a day or two after seeing each film.

Ellen’s ratings are in parentheses, some made at the time of seeing it, some as I’m constructing this post. Some she cannot remember. (I have the same memory problems on some of them, but I can refer to the mini-reviews I wrote.)

These starred categories are somewhat arbitrary, but generally the five and four and a half star films are pretty close, and I enjoyed those tremendously. The four star ones were all good, but I had some (minor) reservations. The three and half star ones were more problematical films but still may be worth checking out. Three starred ones were even more problematic.

If a film did not make it into one of these categories, I did not write a review.

A significant number, but certainly not all, of these films are either documentary, foreign, or small films, often only in the theaters for a few weeks, usually in one of the independent theaters in the DC area or in our DC Film Club. We did attend two film festivals in 2015 — one in Miami and one in Philly — where we saw a number of the films listed below. Note that some of the films mentioned are currently in the theaters.

If you click on any of the linked titles below, you will get to my mini-review of that film on MillersTime.

As always, I welcome your Comments about any of these or any others you saw this year which you particularly enjoyed.

Five Stars  *****

• A Brilliant Young Mind (Ellen rated it a 4)
• GETT (Ellen – 5)
• Ixanul Volcano (Ellen rated it 4)
• Love and Mercy
• Selma (Ellen – 4)
  
• Seymour (Ellen – 5)
• Spotlight (Ellen – 5)
• Testament of Youth
• The White Knights (Ellen – 5)
• The Fool

Four and Half Stars  ****1/2

• About Elly
• Bridge of Spies (Ellen – 4)
• Brooklyn (Ellen – 4)
• Cartel Land
• Clouds of Silas Maria
• Cut Snake
• Labrynth of Lies (Ellen – 4)
• Meru
• RAMS (Ellen – 4)

Four Stars ****

• Dheepan (Ellen – 4)
• Gemma Bovery
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
• Meet the Patels
• Mission Impossible Rogue Nation
• Mr. Holmes (Ellen – 4)
• Mustang (Ellen rated it 5)
• Phoenix
• Remember (Ellen – 5)
• Room (Ellen – 3 1/2)
• Rosenwald (Ellen – 5)
  
• Spy (Ellen – 3)
  
• The Big Short (Not Reviewed, But Rated) (Ellen -5 )
  
• The Club (Ellen – 5)
• The Farewell Party
• The Salt of the Earth (Ellen – 4)
• Set Fire to the Stars
• Warsaw 44
• When Marnie Was There
• Wild Tales (Ellen – 5)
• Woman in Gold (Ellen – 4)
  

Three and a Half Stars ***1/2

• Carol (Not Reviewed but rated) (Ellen – 4)
• 45 Years (Not Reviewed, But Rated) (Ellen – 4)
  
• Our Brand Is Crisis (Ellen – 3)
• Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba)
• (T)error (Ellen – 4)
• Trumbo (Not Reviewed, But Rated) (Ellen – 3 1/2)
  

Three Stars ***

• American Sniper (and a review by a friend – 5 stars)
  
• Anomalisa (Ellen 3; then a 4)
• End of the Tour
• Flowers (Ellen – 4)
• Paco de Lucia
• Suffragette (Ellen – 3)
• Where to Invade Next (Ellen – 2)