Top 25 of 2015 (from #10 till #6)

10. While We're Young

Noah Baumbach is a director many love to hate. He is too self-aware, too ironic and not authentic enough. In short: he's a hipster because he was a hipster before hipsterism was hip. Together with fellow citizens Wes Anderson, Woody Allen and Jim Jarmush, Noah has a rather intellectual following. The contemporary hipster-zeitgeist has entered his works since he cast mumblecore favorite Greta Gerwig in Greenberg (and afterwards co-wrote France Ha and Mistress America with her). This influence is very present in While We're Young. An older, fortysomething couple, Cornelia and Josh (Naomi Watts and Ben Stiller), see their peers getting married, have children and do other "grown-up" stuff. A rather disciplined routine has sneaked into their lives and drained all the energy out of them. When they meet the twentysomethings Darby and Jamie (Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver), they suddenly revitalize. The young couple couldn't care less about social media or the internet, they don't use computers and consciously ignore the digital age. At first glance, their lives even seem to be carefree. Cornelia and Josh are allured by this somewhat primitivist attitude, and it doesn't take long before they fall in love with the younger couple's authentic way of life. This love blinds them from the fact that people remain people, with their own agendas, flaws and issues. While We're Young is not (only) about the young couple keeping up their appearances, it is about the older couple projecting something they deem lost (i.e. authenticity) on the younger couple and inductively finding it. While it may seem a somewhat cynical movie in the end, I feel it is more about the way that people who have lost their joie de vivre can deceive themselves in believing that imperfect things (in this case the pre-digital era, human beings,...) are perfect. It is by embracing the downside of things though, we can see beauty and authenticity without becoming disappointed or disillusioned. And that's exactly the way I look at While We're Young.

9. Black

Aaah, one of Belgium's most critically acclaimed films of 2015! No, not the most hyped film. Like I continue to stress: a hype is created by marketing and buzz. F.C. De Kampioenen 2: Jubilee General! and Safety First - The Movie were the most hyped Belgian movies of 2015. Black, D'Ardennen and Le tout nouveau testament were, in their turn, the most critically acclaimed and - because of that - they created a lot of buzz around their release which then resulted in a hype. Like with all critically acclaimed movies many people feel the urge to rebel against that verdict (that's why a film like F.C. De Kampioenen 2 gets off easy). As if fifteen film journalists have the power to make a definitive judgment against which all other judgments have to be measured. In the meanwhile De Kampioenen is just cashing in (despite negative reviews) and we all forget that Flemish "it's just all about a misunderstanding, oh no, hahahaha!"-humor is still dominating our wallets and bank accounts. For some reason we, as an audience, resent Black because of its unearned reputation, but at the same time we, as an audience, keep paying for adapted-from-television comedies, which we all know is just something that's only about the lulz anyway. We get mad for all the wrong reasons in this country and that's why I will stick with it: Black is one of the best Belgian films ever made. I agree, Adil and Bilall themselves have a very persistent way of showing up everywhere. They embody the kind of over-the-top entrepreneurial spirit and hysterical enthusiasm I find extremely irritating and even fake. Moreover, Black is an obvious Hollywood-influenced movie (Quentin Tarantino, Michael Bay, Tony Scott) with some imagery that clearly was inspired by Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers. In that way, Adil and Bilall have more in common with Jan Verheyen (one of Belgium's most "Hollywoodian" directors) than some care to admit. The difference is that the street cred of Black trumps all of Verheyen's, Bay's and Scott's movies. Like, really, all of them. Combined. So while both directors' attitude in the media may feel phony, their intentions of disrupting comfort zones and their efforts of bringing actual diversity in the Belgian movie scene, are absolutely not. Next time, maybe they should try to write an original script though, so we can see how creative their storytelling skills are.

8. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
More often than not, winners of some of Europe's most acclaimed awards (Golden Bear, Golden Palm, Golden Lion) just don't do the trick for me. Nonetheless, a winning streak began in May 2014 (Palm for Winter Sleep), went on to September 2014 (Lion for A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence) and ended in February 2015 (Bear for Taxi). I think that was the first time in my life this happened. The Swedish gem by master of the absurd Roy Andersson, hit all the right buttons. Just like in the Greek Weird Wave, people in Andersson movies are devoid of basic, human emotions. Emotions they lost because of the disenchanted world they live in. It magnifies the cold, apathic and narrow-minded mentality our own world seems to keep cultivating. The Camus- and Beckett-like absurdism of Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is of unprecedented quality. Because of that, this film is not easily digested. Just like in absurdist philosophy, this film resists all attempts to give meaning to it. It just is. The only thing we can do is accept it or, if we don't want to give in to the absurd, reject it. By accepting it, we can feel more liberated, more free. If we reject it, we are confronted by the absence of that which most of us aspire the most: meaning. This absence creates frustration, aversion and disapproval (in relation to the film) or despair, depression and elusive beliefs (in life). Absurdism finally got a few moments in the spotlights again. The icing on the cake though, is the repetitive singing of Felix Anéer's version of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (here: "Halta Lotta"), which sounds even more bleak when considering the Europe we live in today. Glory, glory, hallelujah, indeed!

7. The Lobster

Imagine a world where there are only two options for every human: being in a relationship or being turned into an animal. Not quite the world many of us would like to live in. Yorgos Lanthimos uses this dystopic tale as an allegory for the state Greece (or Europe, or the whole Western World) is in. There are no real choices, there is no real freedom. Or you go into a relationship (fake it if you have to), or you get cast out as an animal. In The Lobster we see David (Colin Farrell), who has recently been dumped, enter a hotel where all single people get rehabilitated. They get 45 days to find a new partner, otherwise they will be turned into an animal. Those 45 days hang like a noose above their necks, so they use whatever means necessary to find a suitable partner. To extend their stay at the hotel, they have to enter the nearby forest and hunt the singles - for every one of them they shoot, they get an extra day. The only choices they are left with  are completely meaningless (for example: they get to pick their own animal). When David escapes the hotel, he comes across a resistance group of singles. But the alternative isn't as beautiful as he hoped it'd be. The singles have become vengeful and have embraced some very authoritarian rules (for example: you cannot get involved with another human being). Ultimately, it appears every choice left to David, is between the devil and the deep blue sea. What's left is the utterly cynical and black resolution David turns to in the end. Allegoric much? The Lobster, just like Dogtooth and Alps, holds up a mirror to all of us. It may seem suffocating to get confronted with a worldview so grim, but it's not like Yorgos wants us to accept this view of the world. The Greek Weird Wave is a product of the state Greece is in. It's no surprise films like this arise from that country. Instead of only praising the gallows humor and black comedy, we can also approach it as an invite to fight the gruesome "faith" we are all in (and still are heading towards). Seen from that point of view, The Lobster's cynicism is just a witty, spirited and genuine way of confronting us with ourselves.

6. Lost River
Lost River is the perfect example of how a pastiche transcends itself. It is drenched in Terrence Malick and Nicolas Winding Refn (whom Ryan Gosling both thanks in the credits), spiced with David Lynch, a pinch of Harmony Korine and even some giallo dust. It is politically charged like a Michael Moore documentary and at the same time narratively quite dramatic like a Derek Cianfrance pic (whom Ryan also both thanks). With a crew comprising of DoP Benoît Debie (Spring Breakers and permanent DoP of Gaspar Noé and Fabrice Du Welz), composer Johnny Jewel (Bronson and some stuff in Drive) and editors Nico Leunen (Altiplano, The Invader, Kid, Waste Land, N: The Madness of Reason and permanent editor of Felix van Groeningen) and Valdís Óskarsdóttir (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and worked on several occasions with Harmony Korine and Thomas Vinterberg), it is almost impossible to not stay true to those influences. And while those influences are very clear and rather shameless, Ryan Gosling adds to them an almost perfect ingredient: synthesis. It proves he can both direct and write. He has exactly the right finesse and mindset it takes to weave all of the puzzle pieces together in a dreamy, provocative, emotional and reverberating work of art. Even the trailer and video clip-like featurette were of an outstanding nature (although that merit probably goes to the editors). Lost River was scorned and ridiculed by most of the press: the pastiche was labeled as sheer theft and consequently devalued. If you insist in calling it theft, please remember that this so-called theft was so transparent, that the remark of it being theft, is actually quite redundant and it serves no greater purpose than ill-advised slandering. Ryan has made an unfaked, magical experience of all he stole, with dialogues that are borderline poetry, a spellbinding score alongside the many saturated colors that elevate the senses and a political awareness we haven't seen anywhere in his acting career. Lost River, in one word, is immersive. I've watched it two times now and if it keeps on growing the way it does, in some years from now, this may actually become my favorite movie of 2015.

Next up: the top 5!