Cinema Scope: Top Ten Films of 2015

[see also 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011]

1. Cemetery of Splendor — Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2. Arabian Nights — Miguel Gomes
3. The Assassin — Hou Hsiao-Hsien
4. The Forbidden Room — Guy Maddin
5. Right Now, Wrong Then — Hong Sang-soo
6. Visit, or Memories and Confessions — Manoel de Oliveira
7. Lost and Beautiful — Pietro Marcello
8. No Home Movie — Chantal Akerman
9. The Treasure — Corneliu Porumboiu
10. Kaili Blues — Bi Gan

Special mentions

• 88:88 — Isiah Medina
• Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton — Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson
• Carol — Todd Haynes
• Chevalier — Athina Rachel Tsangari
• In the Shadow of Women — Philippe Garrel

Pazz & Jop: Top 100 Albums of 2015 (an annual poll of critics, published by The Village Voice)

[see also 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011]

1. Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp A Butterfly
2. Courtney Barnett — Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
3. Carly Rae Jepsen — E•MO•TION
4. Grimes — Art Angels
5. Sleater-Kinney — No Cities To Love
6. Sufjan Stevens — Carrie & Lowell
7. Vince Staples — Summertime ’06
8. Kamasi Washington — The Epic
9. Jamie xx — In Colour
10. Father John Misty — I Love You, Honeybear
11. Jason Isbell — Something More Than Free
12. Tame Impala — Currents
13. Alabama Shakes — Sound & Color
14. Miguel — Wildheart
15. Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment — Surf
16. Joanna Newsom — Divers
17. Future — DS2
18. Drake — If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
19. The Weeknd — Beauty Behind the Madness
20. Kacey Musgraves — Pageant Material
21. Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Original Broadway Cast — Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
22. Hop Along — Painted Shut
23. Björk — Vulnicura
24. Chris Stapleton — Traveller
25. Leon Bridges — Coming Home
26. Earl Sweatshirt — I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album
27. Kurt Vile — B’lieve I’m Goin Down…
28. TORRES — Sprinter
29. Dawn Richard — Blackheart
30. Oneohtrix Point Never — Garden of Delete
31. Shamir — Ratchet
32. Young Thug — Barter 6
33. Julia Holter — Have You In My Wilderness
34. Mbongwana Star — From Kinshasa
35. Adele — 25
36. Ashley Monroe — The Blade
37. Waxahatchee — Ivy Tripp
38. Beach House — Depression Cherry
39. Jazmine Sullivan — Reality Show
40. Rae Sremmurd — SremmLife
41. Chvrches — Every Open Eye
42. D’Angelo and The Vanguard — Black Messiah
43. Wilco — Star Wars
44. Royal Headache — High
45. Deerhunter — Fading Frontier
46. Low — Ones and Sixes
47. Protomartyr — The Agent Intellect
48. Beach Slang — The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us
49. Bob Dylan — Shadows In The Night
50. Titus Andronicus — The Most Lamentable Tragedy
51. James McMurtry — Complicated Game
52. Rhiannon Giddens — Tomorrow Is My Turn
53. Blur — The Magic Whip
54. Deafheaven — New Bermuda
55. DJ Esco & Future — 56 Nights
56. Dr. Dre — Compton
57. Destroyer — Poison Season
57. The Internet — Ego Death
59. Viet Cong — Viet Cong
60. Colleen Green — I Want to Grow Up
61. Lana Del Rey — Honeymoon
62. Bully — Feels Like
63. Jessica Pratt — On Your Own Love Again
64. Florence + The Machine — How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
65. A$AP Rocky — AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP
66. Arca — Mutant
67. Natalie Prass — Natalie Prass
68. Algiers — Algiers
69. Yo La Tengo — Stuff Like That There
70. Julien Baker — Sprained Ankle
71. Downtown Boys — Full Communism
72. Susanne Sundfør — Ten Love Songs
73. The Sonics — This Is the Sonics
74. Heems — Eat Pray Thug
74. New Order — Music Complete
76. Floating Points — Elaenia
77. Speedy Ortiz — Foil Deer
78. Holly Herndon — Platform
79. FFS — FFS
80. Joan Shelley — Over and Even
81. Jim O’Rourke — Simple Songs
82. HEALTH — Death Magic
83. Eric Church — Mr. Misunderstood
83. Laurie Anderson — Heart of a Dog
85. My Morning Jacket — The Waterfall
86. Bob Dylan — The Bootleg Series, Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965-1966
87. Jeremih — Late Nights: The Album
88. John Grant — Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
89. Car Seat Headrest — Teens of Style
90. Jeffrey Lewis — Manhattan
91. Ryan Adams — 1989
92. Janet Jackson — Unbreakable
92. The Mountain Goats — Beat the Champ
94. J.D. McPherson — Let the Good Times Roll
95. Erykah Badu — But You Caint Use My Phone
96. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats — Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats
97. Beauty Pill — Describes Things As They Are
98. Panda Bear — Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
99. Screaming Females — Rose Mountain
100. Tenement — Predatory Headlights

Glenn Kenny: 47 Noteworthy Films of 2015 (released in the United States)

[see also 2020, 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2013, 2012]

1. Hard to Be a God — Aleksey German
2. Anomalisa — Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson
3. Girlhood — Céline Sciamma
4. Horse Money — Pedro Costa
5. Mad Max: Fury Road — George Miller
6. Heart of a Dog — Laurie Anderson
7. Heaven Knows What — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
8. Brooklyn — John Crowley
9. The Hateful Eight — Quentin Tarantino
10. Shaun the Sheep Movie — Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
11. Ex Machina — Alex Garland
12. Phoenix — Christian Petzold
13. Son of Saul — László Nemes
14. Star Wars: The Force Awakens — JJ Abrams
15. The Assassin — Hou Hsiao-Hsien
16. Inside Out — Pete Docter
17. Carol — Todd Haynes
18. The Mend — John Magary
19. Timbuktu — Abderrahmane Sissako
20. Creed — Ryan Coogler
21. Fort Tilden — Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers
22. Clouds of Sils Maria — Olivier Assayas
23. The Revenant — Alejandro González Iñárritu
24. Magic Mike XXL — Gregory Jacobs
25. The Forbidden Room — Guy Maddin
26. Experimenter — Michael Almereyda
27. Queen of Earth — Alex Ross Perry
28. Hitchcock/Truffaut — Kent Jones
29. Democrats — Camilla Nielsson
30. Field Niggas — Khalik Allah
31. Bridge of Spies — Steven Spielberg
32. Eden — Mia Hansen-Løve
33. Mistress America — Noah Baumbach
34. Crimson Peak — Guillermo del Toro
35. Grandma — Paul Weitz
36. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation — Christopher McQuarrie
37. Trainwreck — Judd Apatow
38. Blackhat — Michael Mann
39. The Martian — Ridley Scott
40. Love & Mercy — Bill Pohlad
41. Tangerine — Sean Baker
42. Spotlight — Tom McCarthy
43. The Duke of Burgundy — Peter Strickland
44. The Big Short — Adam McKay
45. Ant-Man — Peyton Reed
46. I’ll See You in My Dreams — Brett Haley
47. Ballet 422 — Jody Lee Lipes

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 50 Best Books of 2015

Fiction

• Ancillary Mercy
  Ann Leckie
• Brush Back
  Sara Paretsky
• Did You Ever Have a Family
  Bill Clegg
• Eyes: Novellas and Stories
  William H. Gass
• Fates and Furies
  Lauren Groff
• Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years
  Thomas Mallon
• The First Bad Man
  Miranda July
• Fortune Smiles: Stories
  Adam Johnson
• Girl Waits with Gun
  Amy Stewart
• God Help the Child
  Toni Morrison
• A God in Ruins
  Kate Atkinson
• Golden Age
  Jane Smiley
• A History of Loneliness
  John Boyne
• In the Unlikely Event
  Judy Blume
• Inside the O’Briens
  Lisa Genova
• A Little Life
  Hanya Yanagihara
• Marry, Kiss, Kill
  Anne Flett-Giordano
• Our Souls at Night
  Kent Haruf
• Purity
  Jonathan Franzen
• The Secret Chord
  Geraldine Brooks
• Shanghai Redemption
  Qiu Xiaolong
• A Spool of Blue Thread
  Anne Tyler
• The State We’re In: Maine Stories
  Ann Beattie
• Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
  Salman Rushdie
• The Whites
  Richard Price (as Harry Brandt)

Nonfiction

• Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947
  Bruce Hoffman
• The Art of Memoir
  Mary Karr
• Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine
  Damon Tweedy
• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land
  Sandy Tolan
• Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America
  T.J. Stiles
• Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
  Erik Larson
• Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
  Jon Meacham
• Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
  Sam Quinones
• F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature
  William J. Maxwell
• The Ferguson Report: Department of Justice Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department
  United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
• The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and The Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom
  Blaine Harden
• H Is for Hawk
  Helen Macdonald
• Katrina: After the Flood
  Gary Rivlin
• Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig
  Mark Essig
• My Life on the Road
  Gloria Steinem
• On the Move: A Life
  Oliver Sacks
• Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story
  David Maraniss
• The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey
  Rinker Buck
• Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis
  Robert D. Putnam
• Pitch by Pitch: My View of One Unforgettable Game
  Bob Gibson and Lonnie Wheeler
• The Unsubstantial Air: American Fliers in the First World War
  Samuel Hynes
• Washington’s Revolution: The Making of America’s First Leader
  Robert Middlekauff
• Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped
  Garry Kasparov
• Young Eliot: From St. Louis to The Waste Land
  Robert Crawford

BuzzFeed: 16 Best Poetry Books of 2015

[see also 2019, 2016]

1. Voyage of the Sable Venus: and Other Poems
   Robin Coste Lewis
2. Oracle
   Cate Marvin
3. Reconnaissance
   Carl Phillips
4. Felicity
   Mary Oliver
5. Application for Release from the Dream
   Tony Hoagland
6. Boy With Thorn
   Rickey Laurentiis
7. Bright Dead Things
   Ada Limón
8. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude
   Ross Gay
9. Notes on the Assemblage
   Juan Felipe Herrera
10. Mistaking Each Other for Ghosts
    Lawrence Raab
11. The Uses of the Body
    Deborah Landau
12. How to Be Drawn
    Terrance Hayes
13. Shipbreaking
    Robin Beth Schaer
14. Wild Hundreds
    Nate Marshall
15. Sentences and Rain
    Elaine Equi
16. My Feelings
    Nick Flynn

Reverse Shot: 10 Best Movies of 2015

[see also 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2012, 2011]

1. In Jackson Heights — Frederick Wiseman
2. Carol — Todd Haynes
3. The Assassin — Hou Hsiao-Hsien
4. Clouds of Sils Maria — Olivier Assayas
5. Timbuktu — Abderrahmane Sissako
6. Hard to Be a God — Aleksey German
7. Arabian Nights — Miguel Gomes
8. The Look of Silence — Joshua Oppenheimer
9. Eastern Boys — Robin Campillo
10. Horse Money — Pedro Costa

The San Francisco Chronicle: Top 10 Books of 2015

[see also Top 10 Books of 2018, 100 Recommended Books of 2018, Top 10 Books of 2016, 100 Recommended Books of 2016]

Fiction

• Fortune Smiles: Stories
  Adam Johnson
• A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories
  Lucia Berlin
• The Sellout
  Paul Beatty
• The Story of the Lost Child
  Elena Ferrante
• The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories
  Anthony Marra

Nonfiction

• Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
  William Finnegan
• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America
  Jill Leovy
• H Is for Hawk
  Helen Macdonald
• Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga
  Pamela Newkirk

Harper’s Bazaar: 15 Best Books of 2015

[see also 2017]

1. Between the World and Me
   Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. Purity
   Jonathan Franzen
3. M Train
   Patti Smith
4. God Help the Child
   Toni Morrison
5. Go Set a Watchman
   Harper Lee
6. My Life on the Road
   Gloria Steinem
7. Fates and Furies
   Lauren Groff
8. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
   Salman Rushdie
9. City on Fire
   Garth Risk Hallberg
10. My Journey
    Donna Karan
11. Beauty Is a Wound
    Eka Kurniawan
12. The Book of Lost and Found
    Lucy Foley
13. A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories
    Lucia Berlin
14. The Girl On The Train
    Paula Hawkins
15. The Folded Clock: A Diary
    Heidi Julavits

David Hudson: Top 17 Films of 2015, as published by Fandor’s Keyframe Daily

[see also 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016]

1. The Assassin — Hou Hsiao-Hsien
2. Carol — Todd Haynes
3. Inherent Vice — Paul Thomas Anderson
4. Jafar Panahi’s Taxi — Jafar Panahi
5. Cemetery of Splendor — Apichatpong Weerasethakul
6. Mad Max: Fury Road — George Miller
7. The Look of Silence — Joshua Oppenheimer
8. 45 Years — Andrew Haigh
9. Victoria — Sebastian Schipper
10. The Forbidden Room — Guy Maddin

Honorable Mentions

• Arabian Nights — Miguel Gomes
• Mountains May Depart — Jia Zhang-ke
• Ex Machina — Alex Garland
• Counting — Jem Cohen
• Eisenstein in Guanajuato — Peter Greenaway
• Results — Andrew Bujalski
• Naz & Maalik — Jay Dockendorf

Alison Willmore: 19 Best Movies of 2015, as published by BuzzFeed

[see also 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road — George Miller
2. Anomalisa — Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson
3. Carol — Todd Haynes
4. Phoenix — Christian Petzold
5. Creed — Ryan Coogler
6. Jafar Panahi’s Taxi — Jafar Panahi
7. It Follows — David Robert Mitchell
8. Ex Machina — Alex Garland
9. Eden — Mia Hansen-Løve
10. Spotlight — Tom McCarthy
11. Heaven Knows What — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
12. The Martian — Ridley Scott
13. What We Do in the Shadows — Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi
14. The Duke of Burgundy — Peter Strickland
15. Blind — Eskil Vogt
16. Tangerine — Sean Baker
17. 45 Years — Andrew Haigh
18. Wild Tales — Damián Szifrón
19. The Diary of a Teenage Girl — Marielle Heller