What’s fascinating is just how many levels this ingenious bit of storytelling virtuosity works on. The youngest of minds will be mesmerized by the dazzling colors and the enchanting characters, while more seasoned viewers will be just as deeply engrossed by the complexity of the themes being examined.

When Marnie Was There doesn’t just live up to the high standards of the countless classics that proceeded it, in many ways it brings all of the themes and the ideas Ghibli has been interested in dissecting throughout their storied history to brilliant summation. It’s a masterpiece, and as final efforts go I cannot think of anything better than that.

Mad Max: Fury Road is an ambitious, eye-popping spectacle of a world in constant chaos and the lengths those attempting to live within it will go to survive.

There will be few motion pictures released to domestic theaters in 2015 that are better than Clouds of Sils Maria.

A stunning piece of cinema, It Follows is a darkly bleak sojourn into adulthood that’s more than just your run-of-the-mill genre entry, Mitchell crafting a modern American masterpiece of disaffected youth dealing with the repercussions of their revolt that will undoubtedly stand the test of time.

A Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee, this deliriously entertaining, confidently composed satire of cultural, gender and class politics and mores is astonishing, deftly moving from one story to the next with freewheeling enthusiasm. While each segment is unconnected from those surrounding it, they all manage to convey common themes eviscerating the status quo, showing while catharsis and vengeance can go hand-in-hand, the price extracted for revenge is almost always worse than the cost of turning the other cheek.

All I really want is for people to experience the glories and the monumental achievements of A Most Violent Year for themselves sans too much input or explanation from me.

Subtle and beautifully heartfelt. Selma is an important movie, yes, but it is also a great one.

There’s no denying Birdman is impossible to take your eyes off of. From the opening image of a meteor careening across the sky, to its final moments when an actor combines insanity and inspiration into some form of creative euphoria, the movie is a vital, rhythmically alive character study looking at creation in all its complexity.