Part domestic drama, part two-timing revenge narrative, and all screwball pastiche, this Kickstarter-funded festival favorite, famously shot via iPhones, is, remarkably, an old-fashioned farce. Sumptuous, reflective, and inventive, this exacting and expertly choreographed film, which won the director’s prize at Cannes, is unlike any other action film released this year. While martial arts fans may be left out in the cold at this delicate, restrained, and original approach to sorcery and comeuppance, others will be blown away by Hou’s muscular long takes, the rich period details of the 9th-century Tang Dynasty setting, and the brilliant performance from the unerring Shu Qi in the eponymous role.

There’s nothing atypical about legendary Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s (Millennium Mambo) revenge-fuelled variation on the wuxia genre. You’ve never seen a film like Crumbs and you’ll never forget it, either. A post-apocalyptic melodrama, and peculiar pop culture collateral as objet d’art, this is a bedtime story for children of the far future. With a straight-face Crumbs tells the surreal story of a diminutive adventurer (Daniel Tadesse) who, along with his beloved Birdy (Selam Tesfaye), lives in a relinquished bowling alley, but must journey to find a tyrannical Santa Claus and ask him to put them aboard a spaceship.Īrmed only with his wits, a toy sword – still in it’s original packaging – and a vinyl pressing of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous to barter with, and dogged by a dollar store trinket-adoring Nazi, Crumbs is the crazy directorial debut from Ethiopian filmmaker Miguel Llansó. Without further ado, let the roundup commence, and in 2016 let’s catch up in the queue and compare notes, shall we? The auteur is alive and well, arthouse and blockbusters are plentiful, genre films are stronger than ever, female-led projects are populist and bankable, as are strong women characters. Why even narrowing the titles down to a workable 30 titles was no small feat – I cringe at the many worthy films that didn’t make the cut – and a cursory glance at the titles assembled here shows a wonderful and wide-ranging miscellany.

Anyone of the opinion that 2015 was a mediocre year at the multiplex just wasn’t looking hard enough.

Hd movies.in 2015