As beautiful disasters go, Pan is kind of divine. It’s fascinating to watch, filled with sights and sounds utterly unique in and of themselves. None of which makes it a good movie, per se, but it is a fascinating, at times an intently hypnotic one, and as failures go, I’ll take more like this Joe Wright mess every single day of the week.

I’m not going to make the case that Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse was some unsung, underappreciated horror-comedy classic that was wrongly dismissed by critics and audiences during its initial release back in November of last year, it isn’t and it wasn’t. But the movie does make me laugh, and I can’t help but like the cast and find myself amused by a number of their antics. Also, the gore effects are relatively inspired, and that in and of itself make this one a-okay in my book. So there.

Cherry Tree is the pits, and there’s little more to say other than that.

If only The Forest wanted to be more than it is, attempted to explore the more interesting interpersonal emotional tangents it continually hints at wanting to look at yet infuriatingly never does, then maybe it could have been something glorious. Instead, the film feels more like an expertly crafted missed opportunity, a suspense opus filled with some solidly intriguing ideas that for some reason it refuses to investigate.

Deathgasm is a hoot, holding up beautifully on repeat viewing filled with a number of creative delights not necessarily noticed on first viewing. Howden shows a lot of promise with this debut, and while I’m not automatically excited about him tackling a reported sequel next and not something different, considering the talent he shows here I’m more than willing to keep an open mind.

By my count, there were roughly 35 motion pictures I’d consider top tier or better, with another 20 or so I’d rate just behind them. All of which leads me to say, yes, I do believe 2015 was a great year for cinema, and I can’t help but think history will bare me out on that proclamation as the years mercilessly go by.

Writer/director Olivier Assayas’ latest drama is perfect, the movie a stunning portrait of a middle-aged actress (a dazzling Juliette Binoche) who comes face-to-face with her own career mortality when she’s asked to play the older role in the play that made her a star two decades prior. Funny, thought-provoking, intimate and authentic, the film is a nimble surprise that builds to an emotional firecracker of a climax.

Tangerine – “Baker’s film is so confident, so honest, so gosh darn friendly, of all things, that the tatty seediness of the underlying facets of the subject matter are never as off-putting or as uncomfortable as they potentially could have been. He never belittles his two heroines, never pokes fun at their respective situations. Instead, he celebrates their fearlessness while recognizing with gut-wrenching honesty the lengths they feel as if they must go to in order to be true to themselves and what it is they want out of life.”

Not every movie is Mad Max: Fury Road or Carol. Heck, they’re not even The Water Diviner, The Duff or even No Escape, perfectly acceptable genre fair that even with a misstep here or there proves to be hugely enjoyable in and of itself all the same. No, some movies are nothing but lost causes only worth sending to the dung heap, while others should be buried deep, deep within it never to be heard from again. The following ten titles are sadly some of those.