The Best Movies of 2015

Carol is the best-reviewed movie of 2015

It's official. Carol, a 1950s-set lesbian melodrama starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara—and the first theatrical feature from director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven) in eight years—is 2015's highest-scoring movie, edging out a number of strong contenders including best picture favorite Spotlight, Charlie Kaufman's animated Anomalisa (which had the Metascore lead until very recently), and British drama 45 Years.

In fact, 2015 appears to have no shortage of good films. Out of the 634 films released during the last calendar year to receive at least 7 reviews from professional critics, 61 received a Metascore of 81 or higher, the cutoff we use to indicate "universal acclaim" from reviewers. That's both the highest total and highest percentage (over 9.6%) of great films in years.

In fact, the numbers get even more impressive when you focus only on those elite films that scored 90 or higher. There were 11 such films in 2015, and if that sounds like a high number, it is. As you can see from the chart below, we have never before recorded a double-digit total of 90+ releases in a single calendar year; the previous high was 8 in 2013.

Total number of films scoring at least 90, by year

Just over 50% of films released in 2015 were reviewed positively by critics (scoring 61 or higher). That is a huge increase over 2014's success rate of 44.4%. The average Metascore for all films released last year also edged up to 58.7 (from 56.3 in 2014), and the number of horrendously awful films scoring below 20 was cut in half, from 14 in 2014 to just 7 last year. (One of them, though, may just be the worst film of the century.)

The year's best films

Below are 2015's highest-scoring overall films, followed by separate lists of the year's best movies in a variety of categories.

Highest-Scoring Movies Released in 2015

Movie Score Watch Now 1 Carol 96    2 45 Years 94    3 Inside Out 94    4 Spotlight 93    5 Sherpa 93    6 Timbuktu 92    7 Anomalisa 92    8 The Look of Silence 92    9 Jafar Panahi's Taxi 91    10 Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem 90    11 Hard to Be a God 90    12 Son of Saul 89    13 Of Men and War 89    14 Gangs of Wasseypur 89    15 Mad Max: Fury Road 89    16 Phoenix 89    17 Western 89    18 Democrats 88    19 Brooklyn 87    20 The Diary of a Teenage Girl 87    21 Listen to Me Marlon 87    22 The Duke of Burgundy 87    23 Dreamcatcher 86    24 Room 86    25 Tangerine 85    26 Girlhood 85    27 Amy 85    28 Horse Money 84    29 Heart of a Dog 84    30 The Fool 83    31 The Salt of the Earth 83    32 '71 83    33 Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck 83    34 Seymour: An Introduction 83    35 The Forbidden Room 83    36 Blind 83    37 James White 83    38 It Follows 83    39 Court 83    40 Arabian Nights: Volume 2, The Desolate One 82    41 The Second Mother 82    42 The End of the Tour 82    43 Office 82    44 Creed 82    45 Steve Jobs 82    46 Approaching the Elephant 82    47 Eden 82    48 Experimenter 81    49 Mustang 81    50 Coming Home 81    51 Bridge of Spies 81    52 Shaun the Sheep Movie 81    53 Twinsters 81    54 Sicario 81    55 The Big Short 81    56 Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One 81    57 A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence 81    58 Goodnight Mommy 81    59 In Jackson Heights 81    60 Two Step 81    61 Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens 81    62 The Martian 80    63 Arabian Nights: Volume 3, The Enchanted One 80    64 We Come as Friends 80    65 Love & Mercy 80      Theeb 80    67 Iris 80    68 Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom 80     69 Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief 80    70 White God 80    71 The Assassin 80    72 Finders Keepers 80    73 Welcome to Leith 80    74 Stray Dog 79    75 The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution 79    76 Counting 79    77 Hitchcock/Truffaut 79    78 Beasts of No Nation 79     79 Tu Dors Nicole 79    80 Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll 79    81 The Pearl Button 79    82 Li'l Quinquin 79    83 Clouds of Sils Maria 78    84 Queen of Earth 78    85 Christmas, Again 78    86 Breathe 78    87 Ex Machina 78    88 The Tribe 78    89 Meru 77    90 The Gift 77    91 Paddington 77    92 Mississippi Grind 77    93 Wild Tales 77    94 Best of Enemies 77    95 Buzzard 77    96 The Hunting Ground 77    97 Mediterranea 77    98 Prophet's Prey 77    99 Güeros 77    100 Grandma 77

For this and all tables in this article, only movies with seven or more reviews released in the United States between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015 were considered. Re-releases are excluded. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). Although scores have been rounded to the nearest whole number, movies are ranked prior to rounding. All scores in this article are from January 4, 2016.

Best 2015 Films by Genre

2015's Best Dramas (English-language, live action) 1 Carol 96    2 45 Years 94    3 Spotlight 93    4 Brooklyn 87    5 The Diary of a Teenage Girl 87

2015's Best "Dramedies" (English-language, live action) 1 Tangerine 85    2 Buzzard 77    3 Grandma 77    4 While We're Young 76     5 I'll See You in My Dreams 76

2015's Best Comedies (English-language, live action) 1 Mistress America 75    2 Spy 75    3 What We Do in the Shadows 75    4 Trainwreck 75    5 Results 73

2015's Best Documentaries 1 Sherpa 93    2 The Look of Silence 92    3 Of Men and War 89    4 Western 89    5 Democrats 88

2015's Best Foreign-Language Films (Narrative films only) 1 Timbuktu 92    2 Jafar Panahi's Taxi (aka Taxi Tehran) 91    3 Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem 90    4 Hard to Be a God 90    5 Son of Saul 89

2015's Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Superhero Films (English-language, live action) 1 Mad Max: Fury Road 89    2 Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens 81    3 The Martian 80    4 Ex Machina 78    5 Predestination 69

2015's Best Horror Films and Supernatural Thrillers 1 It Follows 83    2 Goodnight Mommy 81    3 Spring 69    4 The Harvest 68    5 Crimson Peak 66

2015's Best Mysteries and Thrillers (English-language, non-supernatural) 1 '71 83    2 Bridge of Spies 81    3 Sicario 81    4 Two Step 81    5 Queen of Earth 78

2015's Best Westerns 1 Jauja 77    2 The Revenant 75    3 Slow West 72    4 Bone Tomahawk 71    5 The Hateful Eight 69

2015's Best Animated Films 1 Inside Out 94    2 Anomalisa 92    3 Shaun the Sheep Movie 81    4 Paddington 77    5 Boy and the World 76

What about the year's worst movies?

Oh, we haven't forgotten about those. The lowest-scoring films released in 2015 can be viewed in the gallery below:

What are your favorites?

What are your selections for the best and worst movies of last year? Let us know in the comments section below. If you are looking for even more of 2015's best movies, be sure to check out our compilation of over 200 film critic top 10 lists as well as our 2015 Film Awards Scorecard.