Slow West did slow business at the box office this year, bringing in just $229,000. By anyone's standards, that's not great for a film starring the brilliant Michael Fassbender. It's hard to judge whether this was a legitimate flop or not. For one thing, it's a western, and rarely do they make a ton of money anyway. Then there's the matter of its release; it was a limited theatrical affair, with the film being unveiled via video-on-demand on the same day. The name of the film is also "Slow West," for God's sake, which doesn't exactly conjure up thoughts of exciting western action. So, no, not a whole lot of people saw this flick. Which is a colossal shame, though, given that it's probably the most unique western to have come along since Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. The movie is slow, yes, and it has a very European sensibility about it, but it's also strangely gripping, with a fantastic central performance from Fassbender playing a bounty hunter who teams up with a young boy - Kodi Smit-McPhee - out to find his lost love. As John Maclean's debut film... wow. Like this article? How many of these films did you manage to catch in 2015? Got any other overlooked or underrated films to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
