Let's Think About This For a Minute (The Year in Review 2015)

What does it mean for a society to reward criminals with promotions?  How can a literary genius thrive in the age of television?  When is a game not a game?  There was a lot to ponder in the past year's creative output, with even the World's Biggest Movie inspiring more than a few heartfelt think pieces. So, as we roll into Awards season, let's take a look back at all the stuff that made us think in 2015.

FILM

If we judged films purely on how angry they make the viewer, both THE BIG SHORT and SPOTLIGHT would come up winners.  Both deal with enormously powerful institutions propped up by lies and deceit.  Both films document the uncovering of the truth, and what this means for the millions of people who had placed their faith in these institutions.  And both serve to remind us just how few of the culprits have actually been held accountable.  Some ten years out from the financial crisis and revelations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic church, has anything really changed?

Beautiful, confusing, and largely overlooked, THE ASSASSIN is an enthralling Taiwanese period drama that may well be the best martial arts film you never see.  Devoting far more screen-time to beautiful environments and wordless gazes than actual swordplay, the film does suffer from some abstruse storytelling, but nevertheless remains a joy to behold.

What could have been an exercise in actorly ego-stroking, THE END OF THE TOUR turns out to be a moving, intelligent, and totally atypical outing for (of all people) Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg.  Eisenberg mostly plays Eisenberg as writer David Lipsky, but Segel shines as a version of David Foster Wallace constantly ill at ease with himself, with others, and especially with the internal struggle between his vast intellect and the lowbrow Middle America culture he obviously loves.  Here's one of his best essays.

VIDEO GAMES
Though we move into the age of VR, it should come as no surprise that the most interesting game design is still happening out in the weird, wide, world of indie.

Probably the most interesting example of this is HER STORY, in which players sift through a series of video interrogations involving a key murder suspect.  With videos only unlocked by guessing the right keywords, the story can be resolved in minutes or hours, depending on the approach you take.  If the ultimate revelation is a bit cliché (I can think of one Canadian filmmaker who handled the same theme a lot better), it's still a fun little game-like experience.

There's a wonderful art form known as the shadow sculpture (click that link and you won't be disappointed), in which a pile of miscellaneous objects is stacked in just such a way that its shadow takes the shape of a familiar image.  The iOS app SHADOWMATIC offers an interactive version of precisely that experience, and is just so damn cool you need to go drop your $2.99 on it right now.