Steve Davis' Top 10 Films of 2015

1) Son of Saul

This remarkable Hungarian film about a Jewish prisoner conscripted to burn the Auschwitz dead finds moral redemption in the unimaginable.

2) Spotlight

The year's most solid piece of storytelling about The Boston Globe's finest hour is this generation's All the President's Men.

3) Mad Max: Fury Road

This thrilling post-apocalyptic Western was the real thing in a summer overcrowded with CGI dinosaurs and Marvel superheroes.

4) Inside Out

A supersmart animated feature about an adolescent girl's inner life, it speaks to every adult who was once a kid.

5) Steve Jobs

A man, a vision, and a computer, as told in three acts: It's the year's most brilliant conceit.

6) Brooklyn

The heart defines the home in this evocative movie about an Irish immigrant starting anew in Fifties New York City.

7) Amy

The familiar cautionary tale about fame gets fresh treatment in this documentary about the talented but fragile Amy Winehouse.

8) Carol

This exquisite movie about two women falling in love in the sexually repressed Fifties channels Douglas Sirk.

9) Listen to Me Marlon

The genius and charlatan Brando, a man of infinite contradictions, is revealed through his own words in this unworldly documentary.

10) Tangerine

A day with two transgender working girls on L.A.'s streets, shot on an iPhone: The future of film is here.

Near Misses

Goodnight Mommy, Room, Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Big Short, The Martian

Most Overrated

Beasts of No Nation, The Danish Girl, Sicario

Most Underrated

Cinderella, The Gift, What We Do in the Shadows

Wild Card

The year of enragement cinema: the conspiracy to conceal rampant priest pedophilia (Spotlight) and the rampant fraud triggering last decade's financial crisis (The Big Short)

Acting Kudos (Male)

Paul Dano (Love & Mercy), Matt Damon (The Martian), Jacob Tremblay (Room), Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight), Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Acting Kudos (Female)

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn), Cate Blanchett (Carol), Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria), Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Lily Tomlin (Grandma)

Best Director

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), László Nemes (Son of Saul), Paolo Sorrentino (Youth)

Best Original Screenplay

Goodnight Mommy (Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala), Inside Out (Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, Ronnie Del Carmen), Steve Jobs (Aaron Sorkin)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Brooklyn (Nick Hornby, based on book by Colm Tóibín), Carol (Phyllis Nagy, based on book by Patricia Highsmith), The Big Short (Charles Randolph, Adam McKay, based on book by Michael Lewis)

Worst Film

If you sat through the incomprehensible Jupiter Ascending until the credits rolled, you were: 1) multitasking; 2) paid to; or 3) in a coma.