It may be true that the last five years’ Best Picture winners were released in the last quarter of the year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t gems to be found in the months before summer chills to fall. From film festival darlings to action reboots, new adaptations of classic literature to dual-manned biopics, 2015 has already offered a wealth of inspiring fare for the cinephile.
Here are TIME’s picks for the top movies of the year (so far):
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Mad Max: Fury Road
In a summer full of CGI dinosaurs and robots, Mad Max: Fury Road proves that action blockbusters can still be the sort of high art that gets a standing ovation at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Director George Miller not only perfected the form, building the rickety fire-shooting vehicles from scratch, but adds narrative heft, taking on serious issues like sex slavery in a nuanced way.
—Eliana Dockterman
Far From the Madding Crowd
The new adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel appeals to the Pride and Prejudice set, but with more subtlety and sadness than most Austen films, plus a hearty heaping of rustic drudgery. Carey Mulligan’s gutsy Bathsheba gets swept off her feet like the best of her 19th century romantic peers, but without their usual histrionics—somewhere between Lean In and Wuthering Heights.
—Sarah Begley
Love & Mercy
Paul Dano fulfills the promise of roles in Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood as a young Brian Wilson, the Beach Boy who’s going slowly mad while recording the group’s landmark album Pet Sounds. John Cusack shows us the older Wilson, now paralyzed by overmedication at the hands of a villain. It’s a gripping story of mental illness, which is sadly all too common, and true musical genius—which is extremely rare.
—Sarah Begley
Furious 7
Each Fast & Furious movie has gleefully attempted to outdo the previous one. Brought down a plane in the last movie? How about making cars fly out of one in the next? While Furious 7 doubled down on its self-consciously corny lines and over-the-top stunts—crashing cars through not one, not two, but three high rises—it also took a moment to give a surprisingly moving send off to star Paul Walker, who died in 2013. While he will be missed, this increasingly diverse franchise has a bright future.
—Eliana Dockterman
Ex Machina
Clouds of Sils Maria
Freed from Twilight, Kristen Stewart showed flashes of both savage intelligence and newfound sensitivity as the personal assistant to Juliette Binoche’s pampered, neurotic actress. The film works as both insider moviemaking satire and an enigmatic tribute to intergenerational bonds between women.
—Dan D’Addario
Welcome to Me
Kristen Wiig, at her best, has always had a far more barbed edge than her comedy contemporaries; there’s real bite, and pathos, to her most memorable characters. Add Alice Klieg to that pantheon. Wiig commits utterly to the story of an ill woman who spends her lottery winnings on a five-day-a-week talk show dedicated to praising herself and shaming her enemies. It works as comment on our media age, but soars as a portrait of suffering that only Wiig could make hilarious.
—Dan D’Addario
Dope
Writer-director Rick Famuyiwa’s tale about a nerdy black teen obsessed with ’90s hip hop culture rejects the trappings the typical coming-of-age flick, starting with its setting: Inglewood, Calif., otherwise known as “The Bottoms.” Newcomer Shameik Moore’s portrayal of Malcolm, who’s stuck between his ambition for a spot at Harvard and the whac-a-mole of obstacles that keep popping up to thwart him, thrusts the rising star into the well-deserved spotlight.
—Eliza Berman
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s adaptation of Jesse Andrews’ young adult novel is a love letter to his late father and a tribute to the cinema greats who professionally reared him—and the movie’s labor-of-love origins are felt throughout. Though its plot, in which a high school senior is forced by his parents to befriend a classmate with leukemia, begs comparisons to The Fault in Our Stars, the movie defies categorization as a typical teen cancer rom-com by keeping its quirky protagonists in the realm of friendship.
—Eliza Berman
The Boy Next Door
No, you didn’t stumble onto the list of worst movies so far, and no, this wasn’t included to make a larger point about how The Boy Next Door is the rare thriller that lets a middle-aged heroine objectify a dude for a change. (In that way, it’s basically the “I Luh Ya Papi” video of thrillers.) The Boy Next Door gets its due here because the cheap twists and unintentionally laugh-out-loud dialogue (first edition of The Iliad, anyone?) made for one of the most deliriously fun theater-going experiences of 2015.
—Nolan Feeney
