1) Mad Max: Fury Road
Any other year, Spring would be my best of the best – but George Miller made this a year to remember. Mad Max: Fury Road is a passionate middle-finger to the big-budget mentality of today’s Hollywood tycoons, proving that wild, creative originality can still put butts in seats.
Descriptors like “breathtaking” and “awe-inspiring” don’t even begin to encompass the cinematic beauty of Miller’s post-apocalyptic wasteland, nor do they capture what the likes of Theron, Hardy, and Hoult accomplish on screen. Color schemes pop, chaos ensues and action set pieces keep this full-throttle chase barreling forward at breakneck speeds.
[zergpaid]Junkie XL provides a tremendous, war-chanting score that ensures tension bubbles through intentional calculation, yet characters like The Doof Warrior rage on without abandon. I mean, we’re talking about a guitar-flamethrower-playing madman who’s tied to a massive rig carrying gigantic drums, simply to keep soldiers motivated. This content is pure lunacy, yet somehow Miller talked his way into a tremendous budget – and it was money well spent.
This is the cinematic life that we’ve been missing in theaters, and hopefully the success of Mad Max: Fury Road paves a golden road for equally maniacal products to find mass appeal in the years to come.
But if not, at least we got this little gift as a reminder of what movies can be. Thanks for the fever dream, Mr. Miller. It’s nice to have faith in the system once again.