Late though it is, here’s my list of my favorite films from 2015. Taking a cue from my friend and fellow film aficionado Bill Scurry, and because it ended up being a pretty good year for films, I decided to expand to 20 films and a few honorable mentions. A couple of points: these are MY favorite films of the year, not necessarily the ones I thought were the best-crafted. There are one or two that are dated 2014, but weren’t released until 2015, so I consider them fair game. Finally, you’ll notice there are a couple of glaring omissions (most notably Mad Max: Fury Road and It Follows). What can I say? I wasn’t as enamored of them as apparently everyone else in the cinematic world was. So here they are, in countdown order.

20. Pawn Sacrifice: Okay, if this film is even remotely true, Bobby Fischer was kind of a dick. But who wants to watch nice guys all the time? (Clearly, however, the movie implies that Fischer has a mental illness, possibly Asperger’s or Paranoid Schizophrenia, which accounts for his dickish behavior.) Much like the docudrama Bridge of Spies, Pawn Sacrifice also covers a footnote historical event—a chess tournament between Fischer (Tobey Maguire) and Soviet champ Boris Spassky, played by Liev Schreiber. (I don’t know anyone who can intimidate without saying a word like Schreiber does, by the way.) And just as Bridge’s spy exchange negotiation is symbolic of the larger relationship between two nations, so Pawn Sacrifice encapsulates the cold war in a meeting of the two greatest chess players of the time. Director Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai) certainly has the chops, and although he’s no Tom Hanks, Maguire is as good here as he’s ever been, supported ably by Schreiber and Peter Sarsgaard.

19. The End of the Tour: Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel play real-life writers David Lipsky and the tragic David Foster Wallace, respectively, with Lipsky interviewing Wallace for Rolling Stone. The two square off like hesitant, uncomfortable boxers that can’t decide whether to pummel or embrace each other. Eisenberg gives Lipsky a believable mixture of admiration, respect, and jealousy, which plays nicely against Segel’s socially awkward and sad Wallace. (Full disclosure: I don’t know much about either of these men, so I don’t know how accurate the portrayals are, but I liked them.) Director James Ponsoldt stays more or less out of the way here. He puts his trust in the two actors, winds them up, and lets them go. It’s one of those films that you will enjoy more, the more you connect with the relationship between these two men.

18. Victoria: Is it a gimmick film? Absolutely. And that does hurt it a little, but at the same time, you can’t help but admire the ambition of shooting a film in one long unbroken 140-minute take over twenty-some locations. The planning alone must have required Herculean effort. The film works without the gimmick, regardless, thanks to an absolutely stellar performance by Laia Costa as the title character. There are a few believability issues early on, but Costa is so adorable, you really won’t care. (Costa is the first foreign actress to win the Lola—the German equivalent of the Oscar—for best actress. The film picked up 5 others as well.) I don’t want to say too much about the plot, but if you can put aside those minor believability issues, and accept that the pacing is going to suffer because you actually have to move from location to location in real time, wait for elevators, etc., I think you’ll really enjoy this.

17. Spotlight: A great ensemble performance headed by Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo. However, it’s greatest asset is also its greatest weakness. We see HOW they do what they do, but because it’s such a large, rich cast, we don’t really get to know any of them well enough to know WHY they do what they do. I would have liked a little more of that, especially since—unless you’ve been in a coma for a couple of decades—you know where the plot is going. But there’s no doubt this is tightly crafted, and director and co-writer Tom McCarthy gives us a no-frills, efficiently filmed effort, which reflects the nature of the newsroom. It should be a solid Oscar contender this year.

16. Ant-Man: Not one of Marvel’s high-profile heroes, and not the best Marvel superhero film this year, but if there were any doubts that Paul Rudd could pull off an action-hero role, this should eliminate them. Scott Lang (Rudd), in the vein of the typical hard-luck hero (Peter Parker, Matt Murdock), is sympathetic and charmingly incompetent, and the harder things get for him, the more we root for him to save the day. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have Corey Stall as the unhinged bad guy, either. Don’t miss: Michael Pena stealing every single scene he’s in.

15. The Look of Silence: Joshua Oppenheimer focuses his lens a little tighter in this follow-up to The Act of Killing (2012). Although both documentaries deal with the Indonesian death squads, who killed over a million innocents in the mid-1960s, this one focuses primarily on one man’s attempt to make sense of his older brother’s death. Under the guise of providing free eye exams, Adi confronts those responsible for killing and mutilating his brother, Ramli. If you’ve seen the previous film, you know that those responsible for the killings seem to show no remorse or guilt for what they’ve done; indeed, they consider themselves “heroes.” And they still hold considerable power, which makes Adi either very brave, or very foolish. This is a powerful, yet disturbing film. But it’s fascinating. One of the more powerful scenes shows us a woman proudly introducing her ailing military father as one of those “heroes”; as Adi tells her of the atrocities her father has committed, we see her entire demeanor change, as she slowly realizes the man sitting next to her might be more horror than hero.

14. Phoenix: Another film I thought would be higher on my list. Tough year. In this Hitchcockian drama/mystery set in Europe at the end of WWII, Nina Hoss is Nelly, a concentration camp survivor who receives facial reconstruction surgery to restore her face, which was disfigured when she was shot and left for dead as the Nazis fled the camps at the end of the war. Her face is not the only part of her identity she is looking to reclaim, however. When she encounters her husband, he fails to recognize her, believing her to be a lookalike. In a Vertigo-like twist, things get complicated when he asks for her help in pretending to be the wife he believes is dead. The ending scene is worthy of the master himself, and will give you chills.

13. Bone Tomahawk: Perhaps my most controversial choice. Some critics found this blend of the western and horror genres tedious at best, overly violent at worst. It reminded me of the more traditional, early westerns, especially in its pacing and dialogue. I didn’t need a gunfight every few minutes; it was interesting enough to eavesdrop on these four men, out to rescue the wife of one of their own from a vicious band of Native Americans. It’s not quite fair to call it a horror film, either. It’s true, there are a couple of incredibly gory scenes (one so extreme that I thought I might be sick) but that alone doesn’t put it in the horror genre. Kurt Russell and Richard Jenkins are particularly good. Neophyte director S. Craig Zahler must have found his spirit animal to get all that talent (Russell and Jenkins are joined by Patrick Wilson and Matthew Fox) together on the cheap. It’s an old-fashioned western drama powerfully punctuated by sudden, brutal violence.

12. Wild Tales: I knew I loved this film from the first vignette. Writer/director Damian Szifron’s has put together a series of short tales that are so rich that they don’t FEEL like vignettes, but rather fully formed stories. The six tales of revenge and morality in modern-day Argentina are dark, but surprisingly funny. And there’s not a dud in the bunch.

11. The Martian: I’m not always a fan of Matt Damon, but there’s no question this film depends on him. Mark Watney (Damon) is left behind on Mars when his fellow astronauts believe him to be dead. The remainder of the film details both his struggle to survive on the unforgiving planet as well as the effort to—against all hope—retrieve him before his supplies run out. It has to be difficult to act without anyone to play off of (just ask Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks), but Damon does so well at giving Watney a likable, humorous charm, and director Ridley Scott immerses us so fully in his world that he never seems alone.

10. Avengers: Age of Ultron: I know this film took some knocks, but as far as superhero movies go, it was still pretty damn cool. Top notch effects, appealing (if only because they’re comfortable to us) characters, and shots that look like they’ve come right from the pages of a comic book. (C’mon, you can’t tell me that shot from the beginning of all six heroes advancing screen right in slow motion isn’t one of the coolest shots you’ve seen all year!) All that, and James Spader voicing the bad guy android? Sign me up!

9. The Wrecking Crew: Who were the best musicians you’ve never heard of? The studio musicians known affectionately as The Wrecking Crew, and if you were anywhere near a radio or television for the second half of the last century, you’ve heard them. Technically, the documentary is fairly ordinary, but I couldn’t stop watching this most extraordinary group of session musicians. The stories are fascinating, and if that weren’t enough, you get vintage video and audio footage of some of the greats, including Glen Campbell (himself one of the early members) Elvis, Brian Wilson, and the Chairman of the Board himself—Francis Albert Sinatra. Made in 2008, this finally got release outside of the festival circuit this year.

8. Last Cab to Darwin: A small Australian film about terminally ill cab driver Rex (Michael Caton), who leaves behind his house and Aboriginal girlfriend (Ningali Lawford), and travels to meet Dr. Farmer (Jacki Weaver), pioneer of a newly-legal euthanasia device. Strong performances from Caton and Lawford keep things interesting, and keep the film from becoming overly preachy or melodramatic. This one will take you through the gamut of emotions.

7. Mississippi Grind: This one flew under the radar for most people, maybe because of preconceived notions about Ryan Reynolds, I suppose. But Reynolds is good in this. Not as good, however, as Ben Mendelsohn, who gives perhaps my favorite performance of the year as Gerry, a perpetual-down-on-his-luck gambler, who truly believes that his pot of gold is just around the next corner. When he meets Curtis (Reynolds) one night at a poker table, the two take off for a tournament in New Orleans that just may solve all their problems. What I loved about this film was that even though it embraced a lot of the clichés prevalent in gambling films, I was never quite sure where it was headed. An excellent character study by writing/directing team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson). Don’t miss: Mendelsohn’ scenes with Analeigh Tipton’s Vanessa, a young hostess/escort.

6. Room: An amazing film, solidly built on incredible performances, most notably from Brie Larson, as Ma, who was abducted as a teen and is kept in a locked room; Joan Allen as Nancy, her mother; and Jacob Tremblay as Jack, her son by way of her abductor/rapist, and the only other person in Ma’s room. Tremblay has to carry some scenes by himself, and convey a believable character arc, which he does smoothly and believably, setting the bar pretty high for subsequent child actors.

5. Anomalisa: This should probably be higher up my list, and in a lesser year might have grabbed the top spot. Charlie Kaufmann and Duke Johnson co-direct this stop-action puppet story of Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis), semi-famous author of a customer-service book. While at a conference at The Fregoli hotel (Look up the hotel name if you want a little insight into the film.), he meets Lisa, a scarred (in more ways than one), quiet woman who he thinks may be the cure for his ennui. A superb performance by Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lisa, and Tom Noonan does a yeoman’s job as…well, I’ll leave that to you to find out. At times touching, hopeful, and disturbing (and not just for the graphic puppet sex), Anomalisa is a unique gem of a film. Best moment: Lisa singing a beautifully haunting a capella version of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”

4. The Lobster: I always seem to have a film or two on my list that I wouldn’t recommend to everyone. This is probably one of those. You’ll either love this absurdist dark comedy about a futuristic society where being single is not tolerated, and the unlucky must find a mate in 45 days or be turned into an animal and released into the forest, or you’ll hate it. It’s Logan’s Run meets Woody Allen meets Terry Gilliam meets Wes Anderson. Some nice touches by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, and Colin Farrell as the paunchy, bespectacled lead.

3. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: Winner of the Jury AND Audience awards at Sundance. Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, and Olivia Cooke all shine in this. It’s sweet and sad and funny thanks in part to a script from Jesse Andrews, based on his novel, and direction from Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (“American Horror Story”). Although it has a tendency to focus too much on Mann’s “Me,” the film makes up for it with the scenes between him and Cooke’s Rachel.

2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation: This is probably my favorite film series, now that the Die Hards have apparently come to an ignoble end. They’ve been consistently good (well, apart from the second one), but this is the best one since De Palma’s original. Cruise and Pegg have really embraced their characters, creating as strong a chemistry as any buddy picture I can think of, and newcomer Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust manages to out-Hunt Cruise’s Ethan Hunt a couple of times. Sean Harris is maliciously arrogant as Lane, providing a capable foil for the IM Force. There is a nice balance of action, mystery, and humor. Oh, and Tom Cruise runs.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens: What else could it be? For me, this was not just my favorite movie of the year, it was a movie event decades in the making. A nostalgic visit with some old friends, some really strong new performances, J.J. Abrams hits all the right notes, and no Jar Jar! I couldn’t have asked for more.

Honorable Mentions:

H1. A Royal Night Out: Sarah Gadon is lovely as Princess Elizabeth, but it’s Bel Powley as the sweetly goofy Princess Margaret who walks away with the film here. Both royals are out for a night on the town, incognito, on VE Day, when they get separated. Improbable but endearing.

H2. Spy: Sure, it’s sophomoric and silly, but this re-teaming of The Heat’s Melissa McCarthy and director Paul Feig was still the funniest movie of the year. Rose Byrne and Jason Statham contribute to the laughs.

H3. The Final Girls: Part homage, part meta-horror, The Final Girls takes over where films like Scream and The Cabin in the Woods left off, with a group of young film fans literally entering their favorite slasher film. Creative and witty, it’s a fun movie, especially for those who are fans of films like “Camp Bloodbath.”

Other Worthy Choices:

Bridge of Spies, Ex Machina, Kilo Two Bravo (Kajaki), Love & Mercy, Mr. Holmes, The Seven Five, The Walk, Who Am I?