15 best shots of 2015

Yesterday we looked at the best scenes in 2015, today it is time to take a look at the most glorious single shots that mesmerized me last year. Fury Road, my win for cinematography, takes the top spot with 3 mentions but there is something else entirely on the spot. Here are last year's choices.

Here we go:

15. Lucille, Crimson Peak

The cinematography is one of the things that work in Crimson Peak and in that movie when something worked, it worked in an astonishing way, just like the costumes or production design. My favorite shot of the movie is the one of manic Lucille descending the stairs with red clay behind her.

14. The explosions, Kingsman

Kingsman was all around a very surprising movie but one of the most astonishing things about was just how lovely this gory, violent, crazy movie was shot. There are so  many great shots in the film but the one that is the most dazzling and creative are the heads exploding into beautiful bursts of color.

13. Triumph, Steve Jobs

Michael Fassbender bathed in color first time on this list, and not the last, is the best shot in impressive movie which really should get more love. This whole ending was truly lovely and that moment was the best thing about it.

12. Doom, Macbeth

Macbeth is another of the beautifully shot pictures this year. Each frame of this movie is like a vivid, alive painting. The final sequences are the most impressive in the movie, both because in a very clever interpretation of how forest comes to Macbeth to bring him doom and in how everything looks like it's bathed in blood.

11. Pride, Spotlight

This right here is my favorite shot of the movie because it features Keaton, who gives the best work out of impressive ensemble of the film, and because it really captures the sense of pride these journalists had in what they've done. There are very few truly powerful moments in Spotlight but Keaton's quiet pride when he sees the trucks leave with the newspapers containing article, is just as powerful as Ruffalo's big, showy scene.

10. Our Furiosa, Mad Max: Fury Road

Fury Road's ending is one of the last year's finest movie moments and the look of triumph and freedom on Furiosa's battered face along with that beautiful slight smile she gives Max is a wonder to behold.

9. Teeth, Youth

Youth is a very tiring movie but there is a spark in it - that spark is Jane Fonda's short and fiery glorified cameo as the aging movie star. That shot is in the beginning of her big scene (one of the two scenes she has) and it's such a good way of setting the tone for it. In what follows Fonda nearly tears the screen apart.

8. Ascension,  Mad Max: Fury Road

Fury Road's ending, in addition to being my favorite ending of the year, is simply a series of incredible shots following one another. But the best one is that of Furiosa looking down on all those people as she is rising to the Citadel. It's a mixture of triumph and melancholy in the wake of Apocalypse.

7. Reflection, Sicario

There are dozens of masterful individual shots in Sicario but my favorite one is this one. It perfectly captures the character of Kate who is walking in fog this entire movie - unaware of what happens in the place she was brought to, of what people who surround her are capable of and of who she really is.

6.  It bleeds, It Follows

It Follows is one of the best shot movies of the year - it has so many incredible scenes and individual, stunning shots. But the film's finest moment is the climactic pool scene and the shot of Maika Monroe looking at the water filling up with blood.

5. Ilsa in the opera, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

There was no moment sexier in all of the films released in 2015 than Rebecca Ferguson loading that riffle and placing it on her knee. This shot is truly outstanding.

4. Ma, Room

The climax of Room's finest sequence - Jack's escape - ends with him and Ma being reunited. But what precedes this moment is Jack seeing his mother through the police car's window - with the glow of the light on her frantic face. Larson and the cinematographer both capture the insanity of mother's all consuming, all powerful and fearful love.

3. Reggie stands over Frances' corpse, Legend

Legend is not a movie worthy of Hardy's performances or wonderful cinematography. The film fancies itself a story of a gangster doomed, who lost everything after the loss of his love. The trouble is because of the inept script and horrible performance from Emily Browning you never feel love. But that shot of Hardy's Reggie towering over the pale corpse of Frances is truly powerful.

2. Hope, Mad Max: Fury Road

The night section of the movie is fabulous - it was actually filmed during the day with the portion of the screen tinted blue. And there is no shot finer than the one inside the Rig with the girls holding a lantern - a glowing image of hope - and Furiosa in the foreground, a light of hope still shining bright in her eyes.

1.  Blood lost, The Revenant

This is the finest shot of 2015 and yet another time, Lubezki and Inarittu take the top place. The entire movie is nature bearing witness to Glass going after Fitzgerald and blood spilled in the course of this vengeance. This shot of landscape with the blood of both men, so much of that blood, on the snow is so symbolic - it encapsulates the entire movie and it just stuns. While I don't think Lubezki deserves the top spot this year when it comes to cinematography, this single shot is outstanding.