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The Films of 2015. The 16th annual FiLM BiTCH Awards

PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES 

AND THE NOMINEES ARE... 

Best Musical Scene in a Musical
(or Performance Heavy Picture)
"(name of song?)"
Cast
CHI-RAQ
"Summer in Ohio"
Anna Kendrick
THE LAST FIVE YEARS
"I Want it That Way"
Joe Mangianello
MAGIC MIKE XXL
"Cold One"
Meryl Streep
RICKI AND THE FLASH
"F**k the Police"
O'Shea Jackson Jr
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON
Chi-Raq thrives on the messy friction of its disparate tones. Just b4 the teary climax we get this delicious comedy when they attempt to weaken the resolve of the women via cheesy boy ballads  TL5Y has some trouble with manic camera energy but this wonderfully staged / more traditionally mounted comic number is its easy peak -- Thank u Anna Kendrick  From the boy band excitement (his friends pressed egging him on) to the simple goal of a smile: this is funny, sexy, unexpected, and, like the movie, pro-joy  A quiet home with estranged family. Streep, strumming the guitar she learned to play for this, imbues so much wistful feeling into this nostalgia-conjuring number    The movie needs this scene to work, banking so much of its rebel yell on this moment and boy does it work. It helps that O'Shea is a dead ringer for his dad. 
 

Finalists: Channing Tatum reawakens his Magic in the sly "Pony" callback in Magic Mike XXL from the privacy of his own workroom instead of the stage; The Riff-off in Pitch Perfect 2 is good musical comedy fun and an expert deployment of the quippy Eurotrash villains

Semi Finalists:   "Drift Away" Meryl Streep & Rick Springfield - Ricki and the Flash; "The Next Ten Minutes" Anna Kendrick & Jeremy Jordan - The Last Five Years"Heaven" Matt Bomer in Magic Mike XXL; "The Schmuel Song" -Jeremy Jordan in The Last Five Years; "Flashlight" the cast of Pitch Perfect 2;

Note: If a musical number opens or closes a film it is part of the opening or ending category.

 

Best Musical Scene in a Non-Musical
"Get Down Saturday Night"
Oscar Isaac & Sonoya Mizuno
EX MACHINA
"Diamonds"
Cast
GIRLHOOD
"Cry Me a River"
Blythe Danner
I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
"Beer Hall sing-along"
Cast
A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH
Piano Interlude
Laia Costa
VICTORIA
 Ex Machina's much-discussed "tear up this f***ing dance floor" detour is a brilliantly surreal carnal touch for a very talky movie that's so sexually combustible on the inside    Girlhood is far more than this much-celebrated musical number, when it's band of girls dance in a hotel room to Rihanna, but it's celebrated for a reason. A tenuous moment of guard-dropping joy in difficult lives Blythe's voice won't come as a surprise to longtime fans (she's been in musicals) but it's a revelation to her young "date" in their gorgeously acted karaoke outing and a clear release for this lonely woman Roy Andersson's meticulously staged tableaux are always escalating as you watch them. The simple beer hall building set building to a crowded 1940s sing-along production number 

 Victoria risks a lot with both its gimmick and it's (too long) running time. But this beautiful intense break of sorts from the chatter, Costa pouding at the piano, ups the romantic ante just before the downward 'turn back, girl! tension

Runners Up

 

Finalists: The haunting Barn Dance between Tom and Francis in Tom at the Farm; "Let No Man Steal My Thyme" Carey Mulligan entertains guests in Far From Madding Crowd; and the atonal "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" reverie from Jennifer Jason Leigh in Anomalisa

Semi Finalists: "Toyland" Tangerine; "Big Rock Candy Mountain" Room; sing along foreplay at home - Futuro Beach; Imaginary Conducting - Youth

Note: If a musical number opens or closes a film it is part of the opening or ending category.

 

 

 

Best Action Sequence
Entering the Sandstorm
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Mad Max vs. Furiosa vs Nux vs Brides
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Opera
M:I - ROGUE NATION
Bear Attack
THE REVENANT
Border Crossing
SICARIO
 With so many warboys eager to be taken by Valhalla you need otherworld grandeur - you get it in this insane climax to the movie's first act  So many moving pieces ...and persons. So coherently and brilliantly staged, emotionally involving, and filled with surprise and rhythm  Easily the high point of this very solid action movie as mysterious agendas all colide during an opera performance. Who's this gorgeous assassin? There's a reason it immediately became the calling card of the movie and was responsible for half the buzz: sudden, gory, and terrifying  Just when you think you can't take the tension anymore... well, actually past that point, shit goes down. Beautifully attuned to Blunt's POV
 

Finalists: It was a great year for action, largely thanks to George Miller's new action masterwork but even in less perfect films there were inarguable standout sequences like the choreographed unbroken take on the Johnson vs. Sporino fight in CREED or the Hulkbuster Suit vs. Hulk in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON both of which were so strong it's unfortunate to leave them out of the top five.

Semi Finalists: The emotionally cathartic "we got our boy" rescue in THE MARTIAN; That final cluster-f*** battle (so many superheroes) in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON; The underwater operation in M:I- ROGUE NATION; that finale lightsaber battle in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS; and the initial Chaos with two Soldiers left behind that kicks off the breathless rest of '71;

And of any other action sequences from MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

 

Best Kiss
Michael B Jordan & Tessa Thompson
CREED
Carey Mulligan & Matthias Schoenaerts
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
Dakota Johnson & Jamie Dornan
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
Lily Tomlin & Sam Elliott
GRANDMA
Louis Garrel & Gaspard Ulliel
SAINT LAURENT
 
 Upside down &Naturalistically tender. And the bad rap preceding it is bliss 
 SWOON. Not a perfect movie but Carey & Matthias play the arc of their romance superbly   That elevator sequence has real pop punch. 
One of those complicated brilliantly performed scenes. You know the kind - they can elevate a whole movie. 
 Ridiculously hot in a seedy sort of way. 

Runners Up

Finalists: Eddie Redmayne & Ben Whishaw -The Danish Girl... beautifully acted. Too bad about the nose bleed spoiling the very confused mood

Semi Finalists: Song One, Southpaw, The Last Five Years

 

 

Best Sex Scene
Saoirse Ronan & Emory Cohen
BROOKLYN
Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt (via Melanie Laurent & Melvil Poupaud)
BY THE SEA
Cate Blanchett & Rooney Mara
CAROL
Alexander Skarsgard & Bel Powley
DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL
Mya Taylor & Karren Karagulian
TANGERINE
Pre-marital sex (by a few hours) SHHHHhhh Emory. Do you wanna wake the landlady?  The most beautifully sympathetic and tragicomic image in the movie. An estranged couple tiptoeing back to intimacy through a peephole  The sexual tension finally cut. The pajamas opening. Gah! [*orgasms*]  Minnie's loud bus confession "he f***ed me seven times" with a visual medley Car Wash. So visually funny/memorable. And weirdly suspenseful until that too generates laughter.
Runners Up

Finalists: The puppets in Anomalisa; it seems churlish to deny Fifty Shades of Grey... but which? The movie is a long string of them. If only they were slightly more pervy or EEO nude to justify the clenching of so many pearls. But yeah, all of them. Dakota & Jamie are beautiful and there's another chance to get it right in 2017; Amy Schumer and John Cena's dirty talk in Trainwreck 

Semi Finalists: Memorable threesomes in both Appropriate Behavior and Love"I fucking love Europe!"; hot sex that leads to a surprise relationship in Futuro Beach; 45 Years awkward randy try

 

Best Opening Scene
CREED JOY MAD MAX FURY ROAD MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION SICARIO
 "He fights. All the time." A widow meets an orphan she knows all too well. Joy introduces all of its (too) many selves through the grandmother (Diane Ladd) she trusts we'll, like Joy, have the "Patience to figure it out"  Capture / Escape / Recapture. Intense. Terrifying. And that's just before the title card. Tom Cruise doing the impossible. As he does. The familiar "what now?" is half the fun  These walls could (once) talk. A descent into hell in The Diaz House
Runners Up

Finalists: The Good Dinosaur's meteor shower; Shooting down through Skylight and onto Rug. "Good morning Room"; "Still Hurting" from The Last Five Years

Semi Finalists: Bridge of Spies, Trainwreck,

 

Best Ending
CAROL EX MACHINA PHOENIX SPOTLIGHT TANGERINE
 The dream like camera movement. A single look. The future? Ava starts anew, a shadowy future;  Caleb is already ancient history, on display in his own cage.  "Speak Low" Impossible to unsee. Burned in the memory like a tattoo on flesh  Immensely moving for something so low key. They just go back to work. [Phone] "Spotlight..."   A sideways tribute to friends as family in a humble laundromat. That final gesture is sublime.
Runners Up

Finalists: Furiosa ascends and Max vanishing... again. Mad Max: Fury Road; Wish there was room for  Magic Mike XXL. So brilliant that you don't see the festive explosions in the sky but only hear them, watching them through Channing Tatum's eyes. He's his own light display.  Baby he's a firework. 

Semi Finalists: Brooklyn, 45 Years, Mustang, Youth, and "bye Room"

 

 

Best Title Sequence (Opening or Closing)
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON INSIDE OUT MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION NASTY BABY TANGERINE

(Closing)

Love the bravado of immortalizing the movie in marble. Whatever it's faults, it didn't lack for scale

(Closing)

 Saving the best jokes for the credits crawl - Inside a cat's head. 100% accurate.

 

(Opening & Closing)

 a bomb wick circling and outlining the players and best scenes

(Closing)

Roller disco with the cast for inexplicable but delightful send-off

(Opening)

 Scratched up formica yellow with tinkly "Toyland Waltz" playing and cursive girlie titles like we're in Doris Day territory. But then...the donut "Merry Christmas bitch"

 

Finalists: Diary of a Teenage Girl (opening & closing) "I had sex today. Holy shit." cartoonish strolls into the movie and animations both in and out (and really all through it); Steve Jobs (opening) That prescient Arthur C Clarke interview boxed in black in white Computers. In your home? WHAT? Working from home? This is so straight up science-fiction! Black Mass (closing) flickering evidence files and surveillance videos. A basic approach perhaps but well designed and sobering. This was a true story; Jurassic World (opening) the egg crackings plus that sharp cut to one of the movie's best visual joke up front. Oh! Whew -- it's just a bird. Haha

Semi Finalists: Black Mass (closing) flickering evidence files and surveillance videos. A basic approach perhaps but well designed and sobering. This was a true story; Jurassic World (opening) the egg crackings plus that sharp cut to one of the movie's best visual joke up front. Oh! Whew -- it's just a bird. Haha; 

 Note: It was a weak year for interesting credit sequences but at least some films tried something beyond simple text with pretty design elements (The Martian, Carol, Creed) or manic visuals (Me & Earl and the Dying Girl, Ant-Man) with various degrees of success. But mostly filmmakers were content to just have words on screen.

 

Best Scenes (excluding aforementioned categories)
45 YEARS ANT-MAN AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON BROOKLYN
CAROL
Attic slide show Nested flashback via Michael Peña  Birth of The Vision "Splash" Harge vs Abby
DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD INSIDE OUT IT FOLLOWS JOY
"The making of a harlot" Barn Rescue  Bing Bong's Sacrifice Post Coital Reveal  QVC Debut

Finalists: Sam Elliott visit - Grandma; Melissa vs Dr Landry at the Car lot - Love & Mercy; Drugging - The Man From UNCLE; Bubble Bath - The Big Short; Commercial Rewind - The D Train; Bathroom Story -James White; Dream - Inside Out

Semi-Finalists: The Bus - Tangerine; Abstract Thinking - Inside Out; The Ball - Cinderella; Explaining the Movie - Clouds of Sils Maria;

MAGIC MIKE XXL ROOM
Chez Andie Rug Escape

 

 

 

NOMINATION TALLIES
ALL CATEGORIES ~  TRADITIONAL AND OTHERWISE
56 FILMS RECEIVED AT LEAST 1 NOMINATION

19 nominations
CAROL

16 nominations
MAX MAD FURY ROAD 

10 nominations
EX-MACHINA
SICARIO 

8 nominations
ROOM

7 nominations
SPOTLIGHT
SPY 

6 nominations
CREED 
MAGIC MIKE XXL
TANGERINE 

5 nominations
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
BROOKLYN
DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL
INSIDE OUT
STEVE JOBS

4 nominations
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
GRANDMA
LOVE AND MERCY
I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
M:I - ROGUE NATION
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON 

3 nominations
IT FOLLOWS
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

2 nominations
45 YEARS
BRIDGE OF SPIES
CHI-RAQ
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
CINDERELLA
GIRLHOOD
JOY
THE LAST FIVE YEARS
THE MARTIAN
THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
PHOENIX
THE REVENANT
RICKI AND THE FLASH 
SAINT LAURENT
VICTORIA 
YOUTH 

1 nomination
A LITTLE CHAOS
ANT-MAN
BLACK MASS
BY THE SEA
CRIMSON PEAK
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
JAMES WHITE
LOVE
MR HOLMES
MUSTANG
NASTY BABY
A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH...
PITCH PERFECT 2
SHAUN THE SHEEP
SON OF SAUL
THE TOMORROWLAND
TRAINWRECK
TRUTH

MEDAL TALLIES
ALL CATEGORIES ~  TRADITIONAL AND OTHERWISE
41 FILMS RECEIVED AT LEAST 1 MEDAL

17 medals
CAROL (8 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze)

16 medals
MAD MAX FURY ROAD (7 gold, 7 silver, 2 bronze)

9 medals
SICARIO (2 gold, 2 silver, 5 bronze)  

7 medals
EX MACHINA (2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze) 

4 medals
INSIDE OUT (4 gold)
SPOTLIGHT (2 gold, 2 bronze)
DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL (1 gold, 3 silver)
ROOM (2 silver, 2 bronze)
TANGERINE (2 silver, 2 bronze) 

3 medals
SPY (1 gold, 2 bronze)
LOVE AND MERCY (2 silver, 1 bronze)
CREED (1 silver, 2 bronze)
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (3 bronze) 

2 medals
GRANDMA (2 gold)
THE LAST FIVE YEARS (2 gold)
BROOKLYN (1 gold, 1 silver)
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (1 gold, 1 silver)
MAGIC MIKE XXL (1 gold, 1 silver)
STEVE JOBS (1 gold, 1 silver)
YOUTH (1 gold, 1 bronze)
SAINT LAURENT (2 bronze)
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (2 bronze) 

1 medal

gold
50 SHADES OF GREY
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
LOVE 
VICTORIA 

silver
45 YEARS
CHI-RAQ
GIRLHOOD
JOY
PHOENIX
RICKI AND THE FLASH
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
TRAINWRECK
TRUTH

bronze
BY THE SEA
CINDERELLA
I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
JAMES WHITE
THE MARTIAN
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION

 

some random stats for fun 
Please note: I am not thinking about these things at all while nominating! They are not intentional results. I'm only thinking about "best in ___ category" 

most noms for a film that did not make my top ten list: Sicario (10 nominations) which came in at #13 on my year-end list
most noms for a film not nominated for Oscar's Best Picture: Carol (19 nominations)
most noms for a film nominated for Oscar's Best Picture: Mad Max Fury Road (16 nominations)
most noms for a film I was lukewarm on: Straight Outta Compton (4 nominations) 
most noms for a film I didn't like at all really: The Revenant (2 nominations)
most noms for a film that received ZERO Oscar attention: Spy (7 nominations)
most noms for a film that received only 1 Oscar nomination: Creed (6 nominations)
most noms for a foreign language film: Phoenix (2 nominations)... hmm. way too low!

least noms for a film on my top ten list
: Mustang (1 nomination) 
least noms for an Oscar Best Picture nominee: The Big Short (zero)
least noms for a multiple Oscar nominee outside of Best Picture: The Danish Girl and The Hateful Eight (zero)
worst showing for films I actually loved: Appropriate Behavior, Of Horses & Men, The Second Mother, '71, and Tom at the Farm which all made my top 30 films received zero nominations. (WHAT? I'M SORRY! This is a reminder that seeing films long before the awards makes them difficult to remember even if you're conscientuous about such things; I screened almost all of them in 2014... or earlier in Tom at the Farm's case)

 

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