2015 in the rear view mirror

They say that older you get, the faster time flees by. At this rate I'll be in 2017 by the end of next week! Yes, once more the Wheel of the Year has zipped around, flinging off cultural gems and turds at random. Just like last year, I'm going to take a moment to remember the highlights - all only my personal opinion, of course

Best Movie (cinema):

This was a really good year for lead and interesting female characters in movies, even though Star Wars: the Force Awakens didn't actually make my cut.

My top five in order:

Mad Max: Fury Road

Inside Out 

The Martian

Straight Outta Compton

Sicario

Worst movie I watched: Sorry, but it has to be Fifty Shades of Grey...

Best Movie (DVD and download):

2015 was a year in which I made a special effort to watch horror movies that got no cinema release anywhere I could find. Some oddball and low-budget gems here, ranging from an MR James-meets--Lovecraft-nightmare...

The Borderlands

... to a japantastic YA dystopia with GIGANTIC MONSTERS!!!

Attack on Titan (live action)

Best TV:

Yes yes yes, I'm at least a year behind everyone else else. But without a doubt the boxed set that dominated my year was True Detective ... series one. God, that was awesome. Many many happy hours on the sofa!

Shame about series two, really. And you can say much the same about series one and two of Penny Dreadful.

Eva Green is WONDERFUL tho

Best Music:

A year of two halves. While I was going through a worried phase, I played Gary Numan's album Splinter over and over. It was a hand held in the dark.



Now that I'm more chilled, I have discovered Fall Out Boy's back-catalogue and they are great : -)

Best Book:

There are surprisingly few really good readable tree books out there - this one manages to combine both a strong practical knowledge of living and working in a wood and a solid grounding in biology, with tree history and lore and folklore and personal anecdotes. Beautifully evocative, yet (despite the misleading title) it is not in the least New-Agey. Thoroughly recommended.

Best Picture:




This year, a video. One I loved - because of the orangutan's clear demonstration of object permanence, and because its reaction was to laugh at the surprise. We are so close as species.