13 Awesome 2015 Movies That Deserve Best Picture (But Won't Get Nominated)

5. Love & Mercy

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90% (7.7/10) Why It Deserves Best Picture: Far from the conventional, template-driven musician biopic we're all sick of seeing, Love and Mercy immerses the viewer in two distinct periods of Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson's life, played by Paul Dano in the 1960s and John Cusack in the 1980s, as he wrestles with the onset of mental illness and creative friction within the group. Both Dano and Cusack turn in some of their finest ever work here, and Paul Giamatti is excellent as Wilson's dubiously-motivated therapist, but it's the approach that really makes the movie stick out. Rather than tick off a laundry list of dramatic touchstones, the film pulls the viewer deep into the creation of classic Beach Boys songs, ensuring it's a treat for even the most casual fan of the group. Why It Won't Get Nominated: It's been released too early and flies too low on the Oscar radar to really do much business, though it could get a few nods in the sound and song categories.