The best films of 2015 (so far)

The cream of the crop: every five-star review given by The Telegraph's film critics this year, updated regularly

1. Birdman

Credit: Fox Searchlight/©20thCentFox/Courtesy Evere/R

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Starring: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts
Certificate: 15
Running time: 119 mins

We said: Michael Keaton plays the one-time star of a Hollywood superhero franchise seeking to redeem himself on the Broadway stage. Keaton, a one-time Batman himself, "gives the performance of his career" in this "hilarious, beautiful, film-defying film". Read the full review of Birdman.

2. Selma

David Oyelowo (centre) as Martin Luther King Jr in Ava DuVernay's SelmaCredit: Atsushi Nishijima

Director: Ava DuVernay
Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Alessandro Nivola, Giovanni Ribisi, Tim Roth
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 128 mins

We said: British actor David Oyelowo is "electrifying" as Martin Luther King in Ava DuVernay's "scorching, full-bodied, flat-out great film" about the events that took place in Selma, Alabama, as members of the civil rights movement fought for the right for black Americans to vote. Read the full review of Selma.

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3. Inherent Vice

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Jena Malone, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short
Certificate: 15
Running time: 149 mins

We said: Paul Thomas Anderson's surreally funny Thomas Pynchon adaptation, which stars a "quietly dazzling" Joaquin Phoenix as a dishevelled LA private eye, is like no noir you've ever seen. Read the full review of Inherent Vice.

4. Foxcatcher

Credit: Scott Garfield

Director: Bennett Miller
Starring: Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Anthony Michael Hall, Vanessa Redgrave
Certificate: 15
Running time: 134 mins

We said: The true story of Olympic wrestler brothers Dave and Mark Schultz, and their fatal dealings with eccentric millionaire John Eleuthère du Pont (played by a near-unrecognisable Steve Carell), becomes a "smoke-black parable of modern America", with a screenplay as tense and tuned as piano strings. Read the full review of Foxcatcher.

5. Whiplash

Miles Teller and JK Simmons in 'Whiplash'Credit: Daniel McFadden

Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Miles Teller, JK Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser
Certificate: 15
Running time: 106 mins

We said: Superb performances from Miles Teller as a young jazz drummer and JK Simmons as his martinet of a mentor are at the heart of this "dazzling, exhilarating drama". Read the full review of Whiplash.

6. The Duke of Burgundy

Sidse Babett Knudsen and Chiara D' Anna in Peter Strickland's drama 'The Duke of Burgundy'Credit: Artificial Eye

Director: Peter Strickland
Starring: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Monica Swinn, Chiara D'Anna, Eugenia Caruso, Kata Bartsch, Fatma Mohamed, Eszter Tompa, Zita Kraszkó
Certificate: 18
Running time: 104 mins

We said: Two women who live in a grand old house in the middle of a moss-draped forest play out an elaborate sex game in this "uniquely sexy and strange film, built on two tremendous central performances and a bone-deep understanding of cinema’s magic and mechanisms."Read the full review of The Duke of Burgundy.

7. It Follows

Maika Monroe in David Robert Mitchell's psychological horror 'It Follows'

Director: David Robert Mitchell
Starring: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Jake Weary, Daniel Zovatto
Certificate: 15
Running time: 94 mins

We said: With its marvellously suggestive title and thought-provoking exploration of sex, this indie chiller is a contemporary horror fan's dream come true. Read the full review of It Follows.

8. Still Alice

Julianne Moore and Alec Baldwin in Richard Glatzer's and Wash Westmoreland's drama 'Still Alice'

Director: Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer
Starring: Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parish, Alec Baldwin
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 101 mins

We said: Julianne Moore gives one of her greatest ever performances playing a professor with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in this "gorgeous, piercing" drama. Read the full review of Still Alice.

9. The Tale of Princess Kaguya

The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Director: Isao Takahata
Starring: Aki Asakura, Yukiji Asaoka, Takeo Chii, Isa Hashizume, Hikaru Ijûin, Takaya Kamikawa
Certificate: U
Running time: 137 mins 

We said: Studio Ghibli's lovingly crafted film, based on a 10th-century Japanese legend about a reluctant princess trying to get back to the forests and hillsides of her childhood, is a work of "supreme artistry", and a fitting swansong for director Isao Takahata. Read the full review of The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

10. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence 

A Pigeon Sat On a Branch Reflecting On Existence

Director: Roy Andersson
Starring: Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom, Viktor Gyllenberg, Lotti Törnros, Jonas Gerholm, Ola Stensson
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 100 mins

We said: Roy Andersson's hyperreal series of comic sketches may be "untranslatable" cinema, but his film about doom and death and the ineffable weirdness of human experience willl make you laugh until you weep. Read the full review of A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence.

11. Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury RoadCredit: Warner Bros. Entertainment/Jasin Boland

Director: George Miller
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
Certificate: 15
Running time: 120 mins

We said: George Miller's return to the apocalyptic world of Mad Max is "nothing less than a Krakatoan eruption of craziness"; Tom Hardy is "totally commanding" stepping into Mel Gibson's shoes, and Charlize Theron is "superb" as the film's real alpha male, the rogue soldier Imperator Furiosa.  Read the full review of Mad Max: Fury Road.

12. Inside Out

Inside OutCredit: Disney-Pixar

Director: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen
Starring: Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, Diane Lane, Bill Hader, Phyllis Smith (voices)
Certificate: PG
Running time: 102 mins 

We said: Pixar's "searingly beautiful" new film is set inside the head of an 11-year-old girl, with Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger jostling for position. "The first tear was rolling down my cheek within 30 seconds," wrote Robbie Collin. Read the full review of Inside Out.

13. Listen Up Philip

Jonathan Pryce and Jason Schwartzman in 'Listen Up Philip'Credit: Everett/REX Shutterstock

Director: Alex Ross Perry
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Krysten Ritter, Joséphine de La Baume, Jess Weixler
Certificate: 15
Running time: 109 mins

We said: Alex Ross Perry's wince-inducing black comedy about two repellent literary blowhards – a young misanthropic egomaniac (Jason Schwartzman) and a subtle, Philip Roth-like grotesque (Jonathan Pryce) – marks the arrival of a major new directorial talent. Read the full review of Listen Up Philip.

14. Slow West

Director: John Maclean
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn, Caren Pistorius
Cerificate: 15
Running time: 84 mins

We said: There’s everything here from John Ford mythmaking to Coen brothers mischief-making, plus the sinewy sparseness of Sergio Leone – and even a little of the pride-puncturing slapstick the genre has occasionally attracted in films like Laurel and Hardy’s Way Out West and Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. Read the full review of Slow West.

15. Song of the Sea

Song of the Sea was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar this yearCredit: Studiocanal

Director: Tomm Moore
Starring: David Rawle, Brendan Gleeson, Lisa Hannigan, Fionnula Flanagan, Lucy O'Connell
Certificate: U
Running time: 93 mins

We said: Though it’s preoccupied with loss, Song of the Sea is a film that can barely stop itself from giving, and every scene shines with imaginative flourishes that could only possible in two-dimensional, hand-drawn animation. It's alive to the world in a way that challenges, and sometimes even defies, adult understanding. The only way to describe it is childlike. See it and feel four years old again. Read the full review of Song of the Sea.

16. The Wonders

Monica Bellucci in Alice Rohrwacher's The WondersCredit: Soda Pictures

Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Starring: Maria Alexandra Lungu, Sam Louwyck, Alba Rohrwacher, Sabine Timoteo, Monica Bellucci
Certificate: 15
Running time: 110 mins

We said: Alice Rohrwacher, the 31-year-old Italian film-maker, has conjured up a mesmerising coming-of-age tale: small and sweet in every good way, but alive with a power that seems to surge up from deep beneath its sun-roughened landscape. Read the full review of The Wonders. 

17. Hard to Be a God

A scene from Aleksei German's 'Hard to be a God'

Director: Aleksei German
Starring: Leonid Yarmolnik, Yuriy Tsurilo, Natalya Moteva, Aleksandr Chutko, Evgeniy Gerchakov
Certificate: 18
Running time: 177 mins

We said: An astronaut visits a mirror planet to Earth, stuck in an eternal Dark Ages, and witnesses scenes of grotesque barbarity. "Imagine Monty Python and the Holy Grail directed by Bruegel and you’re some way towards grasping director Aleksei German’s vision", says Robbie Collin. Read the full review of Hard to be a God.

18. 45 Years

Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling in Andrew Haigh's film 45 Years

Director: Andrew Haigh
Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James, Dolly Wells
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins

We said: A couple (Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay) struggles to cope when the husband learns that the perfectly preserved body of his ex-girlfriend has been discovered, 50 years after she slipped into an Alpine crevasse. Rampling "rarely been better" than she is in this "shattering, shivery marital drama". Read the full review of 45 Years.

19. The Walk

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit in 'The Walk'Credit: Sony Pictures Entertainment

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon, James Badge Dale
Certificate: PG
Running time: 123 mins 

We said: Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis glimmeringly recreates Frenchman Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, previously told in the documentary Man on Wire. Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes a thoroughly charming lead, despite his "prononced Franch acksong", and once we get to the main event, "the camerawork is subtle and meticulous, the 3D head-spinningly well-applied." Read the full review of The Walk.

20. Macbeth

Credit: Studio Canal/GenEditorial72

Director: Justin Kurzel
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Sean Harris, David Thewlis, Paddy Considine, Jack Reynor, Elizabeth Debicki
Certificate: 15
Running time: 113 mins

We said: This is already "one of the great Shakespearean movies," says Robbie Collin, "built around a pair of cosmically powerful performances from Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard." The text is pared back and key scenes have been ingeniously re-interpreted. "Everything here is so perfectly in tune with itself that you might expect the film to feel a little too neatly self-contained and vacuum-packed, like Game of Thrones with an arts degree. In fact it’s the opposite: raw, visceral and contagious." Read the full review of Macbeth.