CineDrunk: Best of 2015 - Top Ten Lists

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bb8

It's that time of year! We've seen more than one hundred 2015 movies, so it's high time we rank them--unmercifully.

Just kidding, we're as giddy as BB-8 to talk about this impressive crop of films. And we do just that in our latest CineDrunk podcast. Without further ado, our long-awaited top ten episode in which we are drunk on movies, lists, and celery martinis. Cheers!

Celery Martini
(adapted from Saveur)

2 oz London Dry Gin
1.5 oz lemon juice
1.5 oz dry vermouth
celery salt
lime wedge
celery hearts

Rim a martini glass with lime wedge and celery salt. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add gin, lemon juice, and vermouth. Shake vigorously and strain into rimmed glass. Garnish with a celery heart.
 

Watch the blog in the coming days for our full write-ups on the films that were most special to us in 2015. Want more? You can't possibly, but there's more anyway! Below is a short (we promise!) bonus podcast where we discuss even more films we loved from last year, though not quite enough to make any of our lists. Spiked hot chocolate is involved.

2015 Oscar Nominations Reactions

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2015 Oscar Nominations Reactions

They're heeeeere! Nominations for the 88th Annual Academy Awards were announced today, and it was The Revenant that came out on top with a whopping 12 nominations. Close behind was Mad Max: Fury Road with 10 well-deserved mentions. As is always the case with Oscar, there were a handful of surprise inclusions and a few jaw-dropping snubs. So let's dig in to see how I fared with my predictions and what the CineDrunk team thinks of it all.

Have a listen to our initial reactions below, and also subscribe to CineDrunk on iTunes. Read on for the list of nominations and prediction results.

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Final 2015 Oscar Nominations Predictions

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Final 2015 Oscar Nominations Predictions

The day we've all been waiting for has arrived! Or maybe just me and a handful of other nerds, I guess. The 88th Annual Academy Awards nominations will be announced Thursday morning in two batches beginning at 8:30am ET (you can view both announcements live at the Oscars website or the second announcement on most major news programs at 8:38am ET). The nominees will be announced live in all 24 categories by directors Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee, actor John Krasinski, and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs.

2015 delivered an abundance of quality films (we here at CineMunch will have our top ten lists and year-end superlatives ready for the public early next month), and I'm hopeful this year's crop of nominees reflect that quality. Knowing the Oscars though, they probably won't (I'm looking in your direction, Helen Mirren). Some of this year's categories are the most fluid and difficult to predict I've ever encountered in my 15+ years of prognosticating (Best Supporting Actor is wildly competitive), so there are bound to be some surprises.

Unlike my impressive performance last year (where I placed first on awards betting site GoldDerby out of more than 3,000 participants and experts), I expect to do considerably less well this year. I'll predict my overall prediction accuracy rate is somewhere around 72%. Look at me predicting my own predictions - someone stop me! Read on for my final nominations predictions.

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CineDrunk: 2015 Fall Movies Thus Far

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With November half gone, we've been busy at the cineplex as we work our way through the list of our most anticipated films of the season. This week we're discussing a handful of fall movies that may or may not factor into the fast approaching Oscar race. In honor of the season, our inspired cocktail was either titled the "Flouncy Flirty Fall Philanderer" or the "Clea DuFall."

Gin and Poached Pear Tonic
1 part gin
1 part tonic
1 part poached pear juice (find your own recipe b/c we're not helping)
1 sprinkle-dinkle cayenne pepper
1 small squeeze fresh lime juice

Pour gin, tonic, and pear juice over ice and stir. Add cayenne and lime juice. Garnish with lime, poached pear, or 1st Place Sash from the World Bartender Championships. Enjoy!

gintonic

Films Discussed in This Episode:
00:00   Intro & Drink Recipe
03:21   The Martian
13:17   Goodnight Mommy
18:21   Room
29:06   Black Mass
33:54   Everest
37:51   Crimson Peak
45:39   Sicario
49:05   Bridge of Spies
1:02:50   Steve Jobs