This past year was a great year for film, and more so than most, it was a year wherein the best films were critical as well as commercial successes. Without further ado, let's delve into my top films of 2015.

6. "Inside Out"

"Sadness. They came to help because of Sadness."

With "Inside Out," Pixar proved themselves capable of turning anything into emotionally resonant characters, and their story of a young girl's personified emotions helping her come to terms with a cross-country move is one of their finest films to date. Amy Poehler's turn as Joy is particularly compelling, as Joy travels through the depths of Riley's mind with Sadness in an attempt to return to the control room, where all of Riley's emotions reside. What would just be an ordinary children's adventure film is made greater when Pixar caps it off with a message for children and parents alike: it's okay to be sad, and you need to embrace that sadness in order to experience true happiness.

5. "Creed"

"One step, one punch, one round at a time."

To say that the original Rocky is timeless is simultaneously cliché and obvious, and as such, a modernization was hardly necessary. But "Creed," like its namesake character, wants to prove itself on its own merits, and it does so by using every tool at its disposal to capture the spirit of the original while telling a brand new story on its own. Ryan Coogler brings us into the boxing ring like was not possible in the original, and he leads Michael B. Jordan into the greatest performance of his career yet as the fiery Adonis Creed. What's more, Coogler encodes the history of the franchise into the story to give it the weight that would not have been present otherwise, leaving us with a film that uses its legacy to blaze a path into the future.

4. "Anomalisa"

"Did you change? Did I? Did something?"

in this stop-motion animated film, the surrealist director Charlie Kaufman takes a step back and brings us a simple, down-to-earth story about a man whose history of mental illness prevents him from forming meaningful connections with the world around him. Kaufman revels in the mundane here, and even when he teases at the possibility of using animation to take us on a surreal adventure, he quickly returns to reality and posits that this type of surreal fantasy is one of the many things that prevents people from truly connecting with one another.

3. "Spotlight"

"If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one too."

Tom McCarthy's dramatization of the Boston Globe's investigation of the Catholic Church's epidemic of child molestation is an excellent entry the oft-forgotten genre of journalism films, and like its predecessors, it revels in the slow, meticulous, and rewarding grind toward a completed story. In addition, its depiction of the survivors subtly reveals the long-term consequences of this childhood abuse, and McCarthy also shows us how the small compromises made by many people led to the invisibility of this epidemic, compromises that the Boston Globe itself is not innocent of. It is rare indeed to see a film concerned with this type of real-life heroism show such a moral failing on its heroes' parts, and its inclusion makes Spotlight a compelling story about imperfect people trying to do good for the world.

2. "Mad Max: Fury Road"

"We are not things! Our sons will not be warlords."

Before "Mad Max: Fury Road" was released, it had all of the qualifications to become an incredible success; it was franchise reboot helmed by the director of the original franchise, and that director, George Miller, made clear that he would be using practical effects for the majority of the film's mayhem. That alone would set it apart from the rest of the summer blockbuster crowd, but Miller took it a step further by turning a film about death cars in the desert into a feminist manifesto and critique of toxic masculinity. "Fury Road" soars thanks to this subtext, and the picture Miller paints of a colorful dystopia wherein a disabled woman rescues sex slaves from their patriarchal captor is the most unique of the year.

1. "The Hateful Eight"

"You only need to hang mean bastards, but mean bastards you need to hang."

"The Hateful Eight," Quentin Tarantino's eighth film, is the least "Tarantino-esque" film he's ever directed, and after setting aside most of his grindhouse and pulp influences, he weaves a near three-hour long tale devoted to exploring the complexity of human immorality. The film's titular "eight" are among the most despicable characters put to screen, all brought to life by a stellar cast, with Samuel L. Jackson's Major Warren and Jennifer Jason Leigh's Daisy Domergue being particularly exceptional. Tarantino puts these characters through the grinder as they're trapped by a blizzard, and he slowly reveals just what makes each of these characters revolting, culminating in a sanguine baptism that marks the characters for their sins, rather than washing them away.

Honorable Mentions

1. "Straight Outta Compton"

"Fuck the police, they have the authority to kill a minority."

F. Gary Gray's biopic deserves mention here not because it is one of the best films of the year, but because of its necessity. "Straight Outta Compton" allows us to look back at our recent history and see the influence of N.W.A. on the popular culture of the last two decades. And even though it loses thematic consistency in the second and third acts, the mythic greatness with which it presents N.W.A.'s tour and their legendary Detroit concert is genuinely breathtaking.

2. "Hamilton"

"Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?"

This is technically a Broadway musical, and I have technically only listened to the soundtrack and seen no more than the clips scattered across the internet. Those facts are only technicalities, however, as "Hamilton," in overcoming the limitations of the theatre stage, is an incredibly visual musical, with the songs "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)," "Say No to This," and "The World Was Wide Enough" using descriptive imagery to sell their scenes as effectively as a master cinematographer (if not more so). It also has one of the most gripping stories I have ever encountered, and while it's not the only story to ever have me invested in complex fiscal issues, it's certainly the one that's gotten me the most excited about it.