2015 SLEEPERS
                                                       Part 2
Here is a second batch of 2015 movies that I thought quite good and that didn’t get much play. Hope you can find one that you’ll enjoy.
Who didn’t love the enormous, goofy yellow guy on Sesame Street known as Big Bird? I guess we always realized there was a person inside that costume. I Am Big Bird is the true story of Caroll Spinney, who invented and played the giant creature for over 40 years. This fascinating documentary shows in detail how the magic was managed to captivate the hearts of children of all ages. Big Bird was the kind, slightly off-center friend we all wanted.  By the way, Mr. Spinney also voiced the hilarious Oscar The Grouch!
Ex Machina features the superbly talented Alicia Vikander as a beautiful life-like robot. She is subjected to the Turing Test which reveals whether the subject is human or mechanical. She far surpasses the threshold and we begin to wonder. Her creator has had unlimited funds to play around with robotics and a visitor discovers he plans to “kill” the gorgeous robot. He and she plot together to abort that plan. The plot thickens and that’s all I’m going to tell.
Steve Jobs is a better than average biopic about the founder of Apple, clearly one of the most brilliant minds to come along in a while. The film stars Michael Fassbender (another European able to seamlessly play Americans) as the obsessive and not altogether likeable inventor. Kate Winslet is quite good as an associate, and Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogen and Katherine Waterston complete a fine cast. But the movie belongs to Mr. Fassbender, portraying the wunderkind in this warts-and-all film. 
McFarland USA stars Kevin Costner as the improbable cross-country coach at a predominantly Latino high school in California. The school has never had a cross-country team, but McFarland has seen some of the boys run and knows that there is real potential for a good team. He talks the principal into letting him form a team, which meets with lots of resistence from the kids and their parents. This being not only a Hollywood, but also a Disney, movie, you already know great things are in store. But it is a lot  of fun getting there, and takes a good look into the hard lives of the kids and their families. 
Tangerines is an Estonian-Georgian film about the horrors of war and the humanity that still hangs on by a thread. Ivo decides to stick it out in his Estonian village
because he hopes to harvest his lucrative tangerine crop. Almost everyone else has fled the area because of the raging civil war. After a firefight in front of Ivo’s house, a soldier from each side is gravely wounded. Ivo takes in both of them and begins nursing them back to health. They each have vowed to kill the other when strength returns. Well, it doesn’t turn out that way. This is a nice little sleeper. Caution: The 2015 film named Tangerine (no S) is a real dog. 
Kids would like I Am Big Bird and McFarland. The rest are for adults. All are available on DVD and for streaming.