The Winner of 2015

Rating: 10/10 (21 January 2016)

Twenty years from now, when film geeks and ordinary movie-goers both look back on the movies of 2015, which one will first spring to mind as the movie that most defined the year? Above the Avengers, above all the traditional Oscar-fare, above even the return of Star Wars, Fury Road stands as the movie of the year. I truly believe that in ten years this film will be near-universally regarded as one of the greatest action films of all time alongside Die Hard, Aliens, Terminator 2, The Matrix, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
It is an absolute masterpiece. A film so lost in it's world's insanity that the viewer can't help but be pulled into every mad minute of it. The near-constant action is directed and choreographed with a precision and eye for detail usually reserved for art films. It's commitment to practical effects adds reality to every explosion and car crash, every bullet fired and punch thrown until you can almost smell the gasoline, smoke, and blood. And yet there is such beauty in it, it's as if we're looking through the eyes of George Miller to see the beauty to be found in all the chaos and destruction. Awash in bright colors of orange and blue, that play as the gorgeous backdrop to the brilliant and unique designs of a fleet of tricked out muscle cars and war rigs making their eventual destruction into bits of flaming, twisted metal all the more visually stunning.
But all the action is backed up by a story with more feeling and humanity than countless more 'serious' films. Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult and a brilliant supporting cast milk every bit of emotion and character to be had from a script as stripped down and efficient as the film's visuals are over the top. The subtlest of facial expressions and effectual use of sparse dialogue manage to convey all the emotion we need to understand what's at stake. It's a story of redemption, of finding life and hope where there is none, of acting for justice and equality.
Mad Max: Fury Road won 2015 ladies and gentlemen. Give it a round of applause.