Room
Few scenes this year had me quite as breathlessly nervous as when the mother and son held captive finally make their escape. Based on the 2010 novel of the same by Emma Donoghue, Room begins mysteriously as we watch two people coping with life as prisoners without having any idea why they’re there or where they even are. That it turns out to be a shed in the back of an ordinary house in a suburban area just makes it all the creepier. What could have turned sensationalistic instead by focusing on the relationship between a remarkable Brie Larson and her five year old child (the gifted Jacob Tremblay) becomes something far more fascinating and unlike any other film I can recall seeing.