The Lady in the Van (2015)

The Lady in the Van (2015)

[6] Maggie Smith headlines this true story adapted from a stage play by Alan Bennett, about a homeless woman who parks her van in a single, gay man's driveway and stays for fifteen years. Smith reliably carries the film, but…
Daddy’s Home (2015)

Daddy’s Home (2015)

[5] I was sick with bronchitis when I stumbled across this movie's sequel, Daddy's Home 2. And that movie succeeded in giving me a few chuckles and smiles when I was feeling down. So now that we're all in quarantine…
Being Charlie (2015)

Being Charlie (2015)

[6] Rob Reiner (Stand By Me, Misery) directs a script co-written by his son Nick Reiner about an eighteen-year-old (Nick Robinson) struggling with drug addiction while his father (Cary Elwes) runs for governor. Robinson's character is in and out of…
The Devil’s Candy (2015)

The Devil’s Candy (2015)

[7] Ethan Embry stars as a husband and father who moves his family to a new home where a mentally ill man (Pruitt Taylor Vince) committed murder. Embry's character is a painter, and through supernatural means, develops a connection to…
Spotlight (2015)

Spotlight (2015)

[6] Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) cowrites and directs this true story of a Boston investigative newspaper team who expose the Catholic Church for covering decades worth of pedophilic activity by over 87 priests in the city. Spotlight's not a…
The Visit (2015)

The Visit (2015)

[7] M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) returns to form after over ten years of sub-par and crappy output. The Visit is a small-scale but clever character-driven thriller about two children who go for a week-long visit with grandparents they've…
Ant-Man (2015)

Ant-Man (2015)

[6] Paul Rudd stars as one of Marvel's new feature film superheroes, a man who can shrink to miniature proportions with the help of a special suit. Michael Douglas shares a huge amount of screen time as the suit's inventor.…
Into the Grizzly Maze (2015)

Into the Grizzly Maze (2015)

[3] James Marsden, Thomas Jane, and Piper Perabo star in this wannabe animal attack movie that's really just an overwrought drama about estranged brothers burying the hatchet. The squabbling between the two men (all the men in the movie, actually)…
Chappie (2015)

Chappie (2015)

[7] Chappie starts out rough, juggling multiple storylines and shifting our character identification many times throughout the first 30 minutes, but once the title character is 'born,' the film gets more and more thematically compelling. Chappie is a robot designed to…
Grandma (2015)

Grandma (2015)

[8] Writer/director Paul Weitz (About a Boy, American Pie) creates a compelling star vehicle for Lily Tomlin with Grandma. Tomlin plays an irascible widower, who flits from girlfriend to girlfriend trying to fill the void left by her one true…