It's that time of the year again with my list joining the hundreds already online. Fair warning, I'm not a film critic who has to see every movie that comes out, but I try to watch at least one a week. But people seem to like my snarky reviews, so here's what I thought of the movies of 2015, which I found to be the strongest year in cinema since 2011.

First, in alphabetical order, are my five honorable mentions.

"Beasts of No Nation"

The Cary Fukunaga film walks the fine line between gruesome war movie and mainstream personal tragedy, feeling neither too exploitative nor too whitewashed. It also fortifies Netflix as a platform for interesting and challenging filmmakers to get their films seen, and I hope we see more of the same.

"Macbeth"

While it won't convert any non-believers to Shakespeare, people who love the play, Michael Fassbender, and Marion Cotillard won't be disappointed. Its cinematography is the best out of any film this year, with literally every frame stunning enough to be framed and placed in museums.

"Maps to the Stars"

Did I enjoy David Cronenberg's latest movie? Not really, but that was the film's intention. It's emotionally arresting, and you should see it.

"Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation"

Despite being the shallowest action movie of the year in terms of narrative seriousness, it far and away has the most complex female character of any (and I'm including "Fury Road," which will come later) in Rebecca Ferguson's "Ilsa" and the film deserves points for that. But above all, it's a fun, dopey movie and solidifies Tom Cruise as a star. I enjoyed it much more than I expected.

"While We're Young"

Adam Driver's second-highest-grossing film this year (by a sliver) is also the follow-up film for Noah Baumbach after the atrocious "Frances Ha." In this film, a middle-aged couple played by Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts revitalize their life through befriending a young couple played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. It gets (a lot) darker than that premise describes, and although it's still all about first-world problems, the plot kept me genuinely interested and stuck with me for days after.

And now, in order, with No. 1 being the best, here's my top-10 countdown.

10. "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"

On the surface, this film seems like a sub-"Fault in Our Stars," but with a pretentious film-school, look-at-me-I'm-a-Sundance-movie vibe. In reality, it's a very funny film with strong performances (particularly from Earl, played by R.J. Cyler) and, like "Beasts of No Nation," with an unsentimental heart in the right place. Good soundtrack too.

9. "Spectre"

It's as if a Sean Connery Bond film were made with today's technology. Sure, it brings those films' flaws with it, but it's an undeniably well-constructed action picture. And it's only a hair worse than "Skyfall," which is really a compliment in the grand scheme of things.

8. "Love and Mercy"

John Cusack and Paul Dano play the same character, Brian Wilson. Weirdly, enough, I bought it. It's that rare great biopic of a musician brought to life by superb writing and a sound design that rivals the complexities of the best of the Beach Boys.

7. "Sicario"

Denis Villenueve's newest film is transcendent in every sense of the word. Transcendent in that it takes a nihilistic approach to the drug-cartel genre film. Transcendent in that it casts a female lead (Emily Blunt, who's fantastic) despite the financiers' wishes. And transcendent in being an epic in an era of smaller, grittier films on dark subjects. Benicio Del Toro, as always, is also phenomenal.

6. "Mad Max: Fury Road"

It's a ridiculously simple plot -- essentially a whole bunch of people going from point A to B, then back to A -- wrapped up in action sequences so impressive and relentless that it's overwhelming to the mind and body (at least in a theater). At some points in the movie, I thought the action got to be too much and needed to slow down a bit, but it's also quite possibly the most important movie of the year and thus rated so high on my list. It's a female-led $150 million arthouse film spearheaded by an auteur. If there's any justice in the world, this will change the industry profoundly.

5. "The Stanford Prison Experiment"

Speaking of justice, here's one that didn't get any, with a gross of less than $1 million. It's a very faithful recreation of the actual experiment in the '70s and one of the most taut true-life thrillers in modern movies. Plus it has an amazing cast featuring Ezra Miller, Billy Crudup (who does an uncannily accurate Zimbardo), and Thomas Mann (of "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" fame, not the guy who wrote "Death in Venice").

4. "Inside Out"

It didn't make me cry like everyone else in the world (the preceding short, "Lava," was a much more devastating emotional experience for me), but it's an expertly crafted film that is Pixar's best work in years. I honestly don't know how they made such a psychologically complex film feel like a simple children's film.

3. "Ex Machina"

It's the best movie about the Singularity. Ever. Also it has great performances and a masterful screenplay. I don't need to say any more.

2. "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens"

There's not much more I can say about this movie that hasn't already been said and doesn't contain spoilers. It's not my number-one film of the year simply for the fact that the screenplay admittedly has some flaws (the origins of the First Order and the Resistance are awkwardly vague, for one) and doesn't stand on its own as well as the first "Star Wars." But it's otherwise roughly as good as the 1977 film and better than "Return of the Jedi" (but still not as good as "Empire Strikes Back"). Still, that's higher than my disappointed 12-year-old self after seeing "Revenge of the Sith" was expecting. Could you ask for more?

1. "Steve Jobs"

For those of you who didn't see this movie because Ashton Kutcher was in a terrible film a couple of years ago about the same real-life figure, you have about the same logic of people turning down a dish prepared by Mario Batali because you ate Olive Garden the week before. Danny Boyle's "Steve Jobs" is a masterpiece, full of an energy so lacking in most present-day movies. Sorkin's screenplay crackles and successfully penetrates the mind of one of the most important people of our time, regardless of what you think of him as a human being. The film is messier than Sorkin's other tech film, "The Social Network," but also more passionate, like what a Mahler symphony is to one by Mozart. Special shout-outs ought to be given to Michael Fassbender and Seth Rogen for pulling off extraordinarily difficult characters. The feature is rich, funny, and never boring, and I can't recommend it enough. It's one of the best films of the decade.