Lightletainers of the Year

Every year, I compile a list of the people I found the most entertaining throughout the year. Sometimes, I forget to share that information with the world.

The Cast of Ex Machina

It’s hard to say who had a bigger year between Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac. She, appearing in five equally entertaining and engrossing films and he, continuing his #Winning streak of disappearing into three diverse and increasingly high profile roles, culminating with the biggest movie of this, or any, year. Domhnall Gleeson’s no slouch either, appearing in two sure-to-be-Oscar-nominated films this year, as well as the aforementioned Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The reality is, assembling this crack cast again in the future is going to be a lot more expensive than whatever bargain prices Alex Garland got them for. Isaac just won a Golden Globe and Vikander is almost guaranteed an Academy Award Nomination come Thursday. She’s got a couple more indie projects in the works and he’s going to join the X-Men universe as the next villain. I’m not sure what Gleeson is up to but he won’t return texts at the moment, so probably very busy.

Amy Schumer

Maybe she isn’t your favorite comedian at the moment, but it’s hard to deny she had a great year. Every week, a new clip from her Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer was trending and she still had time to write and star in Trainwreck and go on the road with the Oddball Comedy Fest (which I caught in Toronto; she was terrific) and become best friends with Academy Award Winning actor Jennifer Lawrence. The two are reportedly writing a movie together for the two to star in, presumably Judd Apatow and David O. Russell will fight to the death to see who will direct.

Bill Hader

Speaking of Trainwreck, how about some love for its leading man? Hader was everywhere this year, playing Fear in Inside Out, a police captain in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, providing the voice for everyone’s favorite droid in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and playing everything else in the IFC series Documentary Now. HBO recently announced he’ll be writing, directing, and starring in Barry, a new series about a low-level hitman for next year, so look forward to more Bill Hader in your future.

The writers and cast of You’re The Worst

Every week this show broke my heart just a little bit more, which is not something you expect from an FX comedy. In season one, the tone of the show was bordering on dark, but in the second season, Stephen Falk just went full darkside, and pulled us all down with him. Giving your main character a crippling depressive episode while surrounding her with people who are not equipped to deal with it doesn’t sound like a set-up for high comedy, but it weirdly worked. We kept watching because we cared so much about the characters that we were willing to forgive their every transgression. Thankfully, it’s been renewed, so we can find out next year if they are able to forgive each other.

The cast and crew of Spy

I loved Spy. From top to bottom, inside and out, it was perfect. The cast, the plot, the action, everything. 2015 was a big year for the spy genre and for my money, this was the best one made. Even though it’s a comedy and the action was played more for laughs, it was more interesting and coherent than Spectre, had a better lead than Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and was slightly more entertaining than The Man From U.N.C.L.E., although not quite as well dressed. Jason Statham got a lot of attention for his “comedic turn” leading me to believe everyone’s forgotten the mostly comedic work early in his career before The Transporter franchise got a hold of him.

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