…Mad Max Fury Road?!

When word came out this movie was elected best film of the year (you can read the entire article and find the other award winners here), I was…I don’t know.

I like MMFR.  However, as much as I like it (and you can read my full review of the film here), there were things about it that didn’t work for me and I mentioned them in my original review.  Nonetheless, I came away liking the film and recommending it.  I further noted the best Mad Max film remains Mad Max 2 aka The Road Warrior.  Even to this day I find it hard to sit through that movie’s final chase sequence as it is both incredibly brutal and emotional.  Characters I’ve come to love perish in that final chase and, to prove how damn effective that film was, I can’t bear seeing them die.

That’s a movie that (excuse the language) has you by the balls.

Interestingly, many of the comments following the National Board of Review’s decision to name MMFR the best film of the year have shown there’s a deep schism between the film’s admirers and detractors.  Those who love the film really love the film while those who don’t openly wonder just what it is others saw that was so great in it.

Which means I fall somewhere in the middle.  I’ll be honest: I don’t know if MMFR deserves to be considered the best film of 2015.  On the other hand, I haven’t seen any of the others on their list, which are:

Bridge of Spies
Creed
The Hateful Eight
Inside Out
The Martian
Room
Sicario
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton

As with all things, one’s feelings for a work of art are deeply personal.  I thought MMFR was a very good film that didn’t quite live up to the high ceiling director George Miller set with Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior.  That doesn’t mean I think MMFR is “bad”.  Nonetheless, I suppose I’m closer to the detractor side than in agreement with the National Board of Review.  MMFR is a very good film but the best film released this year?

I don’t know about that.

C’est la vie.