Year-End Lists

Dennis Cooper: 12 Favorite Films of 2015

[see also 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

• Malgré la nuit
  Philippe Grandrieux
• A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
  Roy Andersson
• The Wolfpack
  Crystal Moselle
• The Look of Silence
  Joshua Oppenheimer
• Cemetery of Splendor
  Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• No Home Movie
  Chantal Akerman
• Hard to Be a God
  Aleksey German
• Natural History
  James Benning
• The Thoughts That Once We Had
  Thom Andersen
• Elri Paints Himself As A Tornado
  Michael Salerno
• Don’t Go Back to Sleep
  Stanya Kahn
• San Andreas
  Brad Peyton

Time Out London: 50 Best Albums of 2015

[see also 2014]

1. Ego Death
   The Internet
2. To Pimp A Butterfly
   Kendrick Lamar
3. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
   Courtney Barnett
4. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
   Florence + The Machine
5. Knockin’ Boots
   Julio Bashmore
6. My Love Is Cool
   Wolf Alice
7. Carrie & Lowell
   Sufjan Stevens
8. I Love You, Honeybear
   Father John Misty
9. Art Angels
   Grimes
10. Ratchet
    Shamir
11. All We Are
    All We Are
12. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
    Drake
13. Perpetual Motion People
    Ezra Furman
14. Short Movie
    Laura Marling
15. Fast Food
    Nadine Shah
16. In Colour
    Jamie xx
17. Elaenia
    Floating Points
18. The Magic Whip
    Blur
19. The Epic
    Kamasi Washington
20. Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
    Panda Bear
21. Ibeyi
    Ibeyi
22. Multi-Love
    Unknown Mortal Orchestra
23. Ivy Tripp
    Waxahatchee
24. Hinterland
    LoneLady
25. Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz
    Miley Cyrus
26. What a Time to Be Alive
    Drake & Future
27. Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
    John Grant
28. Starfire
    Jaga Jazzist
29. Jaakko Eino Kalevi
    Jaakko Eino Kalevi
30. Hunch Music
    Hunee
31. Architect
    C Duncan
32. Pylon
    Killing Joke
33. Fresh Blood
    Matthew E. White
34. Salome
    Marriages
35. From Kinshasa
    Mbongwana Star
36. PC Music, Vol. 1
    various artists
37. SUCKER
    Charli XCX
38. A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons
    Little Simz
39. La Di Da Di
    Battles
40. No Cities To Love
    Sleater-Kinney
41. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance
    Belle and Sebastian
42. Vulnicura
    Björk
43. Hairless Toys
    Róisín Murphy
44. Sexwitch
    Sexwitch
45. Why Choose
    Shopping
46. Too
    FIDLAR
47. Heyoon
    Landshapes
48. Music Complete
    New Order
49. Ashen Tang
    Royce Wood Junior
50. Are You Satisfied?
    Slaves

Dana Stevens: Top 15 Movies of 2015, as published by Slate

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

Top Ten, in alphabetical order

• 45 Years
  Andrew Haigh
• Amy
  Asif Kapadia
• Carol
  Todd Haynes
• The Diary of a Teenage Girl
  Marielle Heller
• Inside Out
  Pete Docter
• The Look of Silence
  Joshua Oppenheimer
• The Second Mother
  Anna Muylaert
• Spotlight
  Tom McCarthy
• Spy
  Paul Feig
• Tangerine
  Sean Baker

Runners-Up, in alphabetical order

• The Big Short
  Adam McKay
• Bridge of Spies
  Steven Spielberg
• Clouds of Sils Maria
  Olivier Assayas
• Mustang
  Deniz Gamze Ergüven
• White God
  Kornél Mundruczó

Maureen Corrigan: 11 Best Books of 2015 (as aired on NPR’s Fresh Air)

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2011]

• The Tsar of Love and Techno

  Stories
  Anthony Marra
• Honeydew

  Stories
  Edith Pearlman
• A Manual for Cleaning Women

  Selected Stories
  Lucia Berlin
• H Is for Hawk
  Helen Macdonald
• The Light of the World

  A Memoir
  Elizabeth Alexander
• M Train
  Patti Smith
• Bettyville

  A Memoir
  George Hodgman
• The Mare
  Mary Gaitskill
• The Buried Giant
  Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Story of the Lost Child
  Elena Ferrante
• No Better Friend

  One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII
  Robert Weintraub

Entertainment Weekly: 11 Best Books of 2015

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016]

1. Between the World and Me
   Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. A Manual for Cleaning Women

   Selected Stories
   Lucia Berlin
3. Dreamland

   The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
   Sam Quinones
4. Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl
   Carrie Brownstein
5. Dietland
   Sarai Walker
6. The Turner House
   Angela Flournoy
7. Trashed
   Derf Backderf
8. The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One

   At the Edge of Empire
   Daniel Kraus
9. Home Is Burning

   A Memoir
   Dan Marshall
9. Bettyville

   A Memoir
   George Hodgman
10. The Kind Worth Killing
    Peter Swanson

Lisa Schwarzbaum: 20 Favorite Movies of 2015 (as posted on Twitter in this series of tweets: 1, 2, 3, 4)

[see also 2012]

• Inside Out
  Pete Docter
• Spotlight
  Tom McCarthy
• Carol
  Todd Haynes
• Mad Max: Fury Road
  George Miller
• 45 Years
  Andrew Haigh
• The Diary of a Teenage Girl
  Marielle Heller
• Spy
  Paul Feig
• 99 Homes
  Ramin Bahrani
• Timbuktu
  Abderrahmane Sissako
• Son of Saul
  László Nemes
• A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
  Roy Andersson
• Love & Mercy
  Bill Pohlad
• Phoenix
  Christian Petzold
• Victoria
  Sebastian Schipper
• Clouds of Sils Maria
  Olivier Assayas
• Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
  Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz
• Amy
  Asif Kapadia
• ’71
  Yann Demange
• Room
  Lenny Abrahamson
• Buzzard
  Joel Potrykus

Dennis Cooper: 23 Favorite Poetry Books of 2015

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2012]

• Scattered at Sea
  Amy Gerstler
• Sentences and Rain
  Elaine Equi
• I Must Be Living Twice

  New and Selected Poems 1975 – 2014
  Eileen Myles
• Fantasy
  Ben Fama
• Alone and Not Alone
  Ron Padgett
• Bipolar Cowboy
  Noah Cicero
• Breezeway

  New Poems
  John Ashbery
• Salt Is For Curing
  Sonya Vatomsky
• Ban en Banlieue
  Bhanu Kapil
• Supplication

  Selected Poems of John Wieners
  John Wieners
• Skeleton Costumes
  Thomas Moore
• East Hollywood

  Memorial to Reason
  Harry E. Northup
• Veronica Bench
  Leopoldine Core
• War of the Foxes
  Richard Siken
• Eating the Colors of a Lineup of Words

  The Collected Early Books of Bernadette Mayer
  Bernadette Mayer
• Heliopause
  Heather Christle
• The Green Ray
  Corina Copp
• Blue Fasa
  Nathaniel Mackey
• Superior Packets
  Susie Timmons
• Goal/Tender Meat/Tender
  Paul Cunningham
• Benediction
  Alice Notley
• Alien Abduction
  Lewis Warsh
• Fogland
  Mike Krutel

Bilge Ebiri: 20 Best Movies of 2015, as published by New York Magazine’s Vulture

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2012]

1. Mad Max: Fury Road
   George Miller
2. Timbuktu
   Abderrahmane Sissako
3. The Mend
   John Magary
4. Best of Enemies
   Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon
5. Eden
   Mia Hansen-Løve
6. Heart of a Dog
   Laurie Anderson
7. Saint Laurent
   Bertrand Bonello
8. Room
   Lenny Abrahamson
9. Mustang
   Deniz Gamze Ergüven
10. Sembene!
    Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman

Honorable Mentions

• Blackhat
  Michael Mann
• Bone Tomahawk
  S. Craig Zahler
• Brooklyn
  John Crowley
• Carol
  Todd Haynes
• It Follows
  David Robert Mitchell
• Jauja
  Lisandro Alonso
• James White
  Josh Mond
• Spotlight
  Tom McCarthy
• The Keeping Room
  Daniel Barber
• The Second Mother
  Anna Muylaert

FasterLouder: 50 Best Albums of 2015

[see also 2012 • 2011]

1. To Pimp A Butterfly
   Kendrick Lamar
2. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
   Courtney Barnett
3. Currents
   Tame Impala
4. No Cities To Love
   Sleater-Kinney
5. In Colour
   Jamie xx
6. Sound & Color
   Alabama Shakes
7. Carrie & Lowell
   Sufjan Stevens
8. I Love You, Honeybear
   Father John Misty
9. Have You In My Wilderness
   Julia Holter
10. Art Angels
    Grimes
11. Summertime ’06
    Vince Staples
12. The Magic Whip
    Blur
13. Multi-Love
    Unknown Mortal Orchestra
14. High
    Royal Headache
15. Choose Your Weapon
    Hiatus Kaiyote
16. Melbourne, Florida
    Dick Diver
17. Natalie Prass
    Natalie Prass
18. Goon
    Tobias Jesso Jr.
19. Short Movie
    Laura Marling
20. Ego Death
    The Internet
21. Vulnicura
    Björk
22. White Men Are Black Men Too
    Young Fathers
23. Are You Alone?
    Majical Cloudz
24. Surf
    Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment
25. The Most Lamentable Tragedy
    Titus Andronicus
26. Divers
    Joanna Newsom
27. Viet Cong
    Viet Cong
28. Wildheart
    Miguel
29. B’lieve I’m Goin Down…
    Kurt Vile
30. Undertow
    Drenge
31. Sol Invictus
    Faith No More
32. In Another Life
    Bilal
33. Range Anxiety
    Twerps
34. Fading Frontier
    Deerhunter
35. I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album
    Earl Sweatshirt
36. It’s You
    Gold Class
37. What Went Down
    Foals
38. On Your Own Love Again
    Jessica Pratt
39. Why Make Sense?
    Hot Chip
40. Dark Night Sweet Light
    Hermitude
41. Uptown Special
    Mark Ronson
42. Depression Cherry
    Beach House
43. My Love Is Cool
    Wolf Alice
44. Oh Inhuman Spectacle
    Methyl Ethel
45. Sour Soul
    BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah
46. Feels Like
    Bully
47. Compton
    Dr. Dre
48. Every Open Eye
    Chvrches
49. Marlon Williams
    Marlon Williams
50. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
    Drake

Ben Kenigsberg: 10 Best Films of 2015, as submitted to the Variety Survey

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Phoenix
   Christian Petzold
2. Buzzard
   Joel Potrykus
3. Carol
   Todd Haynes
4. Heaven Knows What
   Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
5. Approaching the Elephant
   Amanda Wilder
6. In Jackson Heights
   Frederick Wiseman
7. The Assassin
   Hou Hsiao-Hsien
8. The Hateful Eight
   Quentin Tarantino
9. We Come as Friends
   Hubert Sauper
10. Tangerine
    Sean Baker