Griff the Invisible (2010)

IMDb plot summary: Griff, office worker by day, superhero by night, has his world turned upside down when he meets Melody, a beautiful young scientist who shares his passion for the impossible.
Directed by Leon Ford. Starring Ryan Kwanten, Maeve Dermody, Patrick Brammall, and Toby Schmitz.

Spoilers ahead.

I'm kind of torn on this one. It reminds me a bit of Lars and the Real Girl, and I was loving it up to the end, when it suddenly went the route of "love can fix everything and make mental illness awesome," which never sits well with me. The characters are fascinating in their own little worlds, but I'm disappointed enough by the ending that it left a sour taste in my mouth. I am wondering if there's another way to view this without that implication, because I wanted to love it a lot more than I did, and if I could find a way around the message I felt it sent, it might be able to climb the chart significantly.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Griff the Invisible > Hoosiers
Griff the Invisible < Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Griff the Invisible < War Horse
Griff the Invisible > John Dies at the End
Griff the Invisible > Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Griff the Invisible > Stalag 17
Griff the Invisible < Star Trek: Generations
Griff the Invisible < Witness
Griff the Invisible > Logan's Run
Griff the Invisible < The Stepford Wives (1975)

Final spot: #1046 out of 2693.

Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

IMDb plot summary: An affluent New York couple finds their lives touched, intruded upon, and compelled by a mysterious young black man who is never quite who he says he is.
Directed by Fred Schepisi. Starring Stockard Channing, Will Smith, Donald Sutherland, and Ian McKellen.

I wondered in the last few minutes of the movie if this was originally written for the stage (it was), given that some of the dialogue, especially toward the end, feels very theatrical. But unlike most theatre-to-film movies, I love how truly cinematic it is and actually struggle to think how a stage version could be as effective. The rapid cutting between the central story and the endless shallow anecdotal conversations in which our main couple retells their adventure over and over again really lets us see how everything in their lives becomes a story to tell at parties. I found myself fascinated by the cadence of their speech and how firmly it established this high-class art world they subsisted in. It's a tough movie for me to fully wrap my mind around right now, but I think it's going to stick with me, and I was impressed by it.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Six Degrees of Separation > Hoosiers
Six Degrees of Separation < Christmas in Connecticut
Six Degrees of Separation > War Horse
Six Degrees of Separation > Barton Fink
Six Degrees of Separation < Morgan
Six Degrees of Separation > The Hidden Fortress
Six Degrees of Separation > American Teen
Six Degrees of Separation > Captains Courageous
Six Degrees of Separation > Mr. Holmes
Six Degrees of Separation > Monsoon Wedding
Six Degrees of Separation < Loins of Punjab Presents

Final spot: #759 out of 2692.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

IMDb plot summary: Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares for battle with the First Order.
Directed by Ran Johnson. Starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, and Daisy Ridley.

The most artistically ambitious Star Wars movie yet, and I think it pays off. It adds some complexity to previously flat characters and subverts tropes in a really interesting way. Kudos to Johnson for not just rehashing the originals but actually moving forward to something new.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Star Wars: The Last Jedi < Christmas in Connecticut
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > The Woodsman
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > Hannah and Her Sisters
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > Loins of Punjab Presents
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > The Sting
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > Au Revoir Les Enfants
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > Gone in 60 Seconds
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > Cloud Atlas
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > High Strung
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > Chariots of Fire

Final spot: #674 out of 2691.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

IMDb plot summary: When a murder occurs on the train he's travelling on, celebrated detective Hercule Poirot is recruited to solve the case.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Starring Kenneth Branagh, Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom Jr., and Michelle Pfeiffer.

I've never seen the 1974 adaptation of the book, so I can't compare this to that, only the original novel. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even though it is quite theatrical in nature (as Branagh's films tend to be). In fact, I probably liked it better than most people did because of that. It's a deliciously stylish film, if very unsubtle in its style, with lavish visuals and elaborate shots all over the place. I found it also surprisingly moving toward the end, given how I'd remembered the story as being quite a bit more fluffy adventure than serious drama. Overall, made for a good watch.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Murder on the Orient Express > Inland Empire
Murder on the Orient Express < Christmas in Connecticut
Murder on the Orient Express > The Tourist
Murder on the Orient Express > Husbands and Wives
Murder on the Orient Express > Rogue One
Murder on the Orient Express < The Sting
Murder on the Orient Express < Star Trek
Murder on the Orient Express < Watchmen
Murder on the Orient Express > Le samourai
Murder on the Orient Express > Fanny and Alexander
Murder on the Orient Express < Oscar

Final spot: #749 out of 2691.

Colossal (2016)

IMDb plot summary: Gloria is an out-of-work party girl forced to leave her life in New York City and move back home. When reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, she gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this phenomenon.
Directed by Nacho Vigalondo. Starring Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, and Tim Blake Nelson.

(Spoilers ahead.)

This movie is 90% brilliant and 10% really awkward. Fortunately, most of that 10% is in the movie's first half and it gets much stronger as it gets toward the end. It was much more unsettling than I'd have thought it would be to see Jason Sudeikis as an out-and-out villain, and the final 10 minutes or so was the most satisfying defeat of a villain I've seen in a long time.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Colossal > Inland Empire
Colossal > Chariots of Fire
Colossal < Benny & Joon
Colossal < The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
Colossal > We're No Angels
Colossal > Shakespeare Behind Bars
Colossal > The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!
Colossal < Collateral
Colossal > The Florida Project
Colossal > Get Out

Final spot: #517 out of 2690.

Playtime (1967)

IMDb plot summary: Monsieur Hulot curiously wanders around a high-tech Paris, paralleling a trip with a group of American tourists. Meanwhile, a nightclub/restaurant prepares its opening night, but it's still under construction.
Directed by Jacques Tati. Starring Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Rita Maiden, and France Rumilly.

A few years ago I watched M. Hulot's Holiday as part of my very first movie challenge, and I didn't care for it at all. (To quote from that review: "What I ended up with was . . . seven slapstick gags, spaced out through an hour and a half movie, and interspersed with fifteen-minute scenes of people carrying around ice cream cones, setting up beach umbrellas, and quietly sitting drinking tea.") Tati's style of humor is *so* subtle and slice-of-life that it barely registers for me at all as comedy. Playtime appears to have just plopped a camera down in various businesses and let it run. I enjoy people watching, but if I'm going to people watch, I'll just go out and do that, I'm not going to watch a movie about people watching that hasn't even chosen the most interesting parts to show me.

1 star.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Playtime < 12 Monkeys
Playtime < Opening Night
Playtime > Chicken Little
Playtime > Man of Steel
Playtime < The Stepford Wives (2004)
Playtime < Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
Playtime < Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Playtime > How to Steal 2 Million
Playtime < The First Wives Club
Playtime < The Balloonatic
Playtime < 10 Items or Less
Playtime < The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Final spot: #2174 out of 2689.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)

IMDb plot summary: An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.
Directed by Noah Baumbach. Starring Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Marvel, and Ben Stiller.

Noah Baumbach gets a lot of acclaim for his naturalistic dialogue. He's certainly captured the rhythms of it, but I can't get past how weirdly expositional it is in this. "You wrote this song for me when I was five years old." "You and your sister went to live with your mother." It's just so off-putting. As less exposition was needed, however, the dialogue started working for me, and finally we ended up with something I could kind of admire even if I didn't really care.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) > George of the Jungle
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) < Split
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) < At First Sight
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) < The Road
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) > Son of Rambow
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) > Deconstructing Harry
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) > Interview with the Vampire
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) > Away From Her
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) > Choke
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) < Selma

Final spot: #1181 out of 2687.

The Disaster Artist (2017)

IMDb plot summary: When Greg Sestero, an aspiring film actor, meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, they form a unique friendship and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.
Directed by James Franco. Starring Dave Franco, James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Ari Gaynor.

Yeah, this was basically exactly what I wanted this movie to be. Just as funny, bizarre, and oddly moving as the book it was based off of.

4.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Disaster Artist > George of the Jungle
The Disaster Artist > High Strung
The Disaster Artist > The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
The Disaster Artist < A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Disaster Artist < The World's End
The Disaster Artist < Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Disaster Artist > Saving Mr. Banks
The Disaster Artist > The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Disaster Artist < Breaking the Waves
The Disaster Artist > Her
The Disaster Artist < The Wizard of Oz

Final spot: #300 out of 2686.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

IMDb plot summary: A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
Directed by Martin McDonagh. Starring Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, and Lucas Hedges.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri > Ghostbusters (1984)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri > Catfish
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri < The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri > Kiss Me, Stupid!
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri < Ernest & Celestine
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri > Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri > Monsieur Lazhar
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri > The Grey
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri < Jaws
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri > The Lady Eve
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri > Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Final spot: #425 out of 2685.

Maleficent (2014)

IMDb plot summary: A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child may be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land.
Directed by Robert Stromberg. Starring Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, and Imelda Staunton.

I'm a big fan of the original Disney version of Sleeping Beauty, and part of that is how interesting Maleficent is. Too bad this version of the story doesn't let her arc really land. It gets off to a solid start (the moment when she wakes up and finds her wings gone is surprisingly moving), but the movie switches her from villain to hero too early, too definitively, and with no clear impetus. It's just Aurora's magic Mary Sue abilities that transform everyone, I guess. It's a disappointing shift that significantly lowers the stakes for the rest of the film and virtually eliminates its emotional impact.

On top of that, the movie looks awkward. I'm sure they were going for a magical fairy tale ethereal quality, but it just looks fake and cheesy, and that flavors the storytelling. So yeah, this retelling doesn't work very well for me, which is a bummer because Maleficent is a great character. But I probably shouldn't have trusted Disney to tell a good villain story. That's not their strong point.

1.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Maleficent < George of the Jungle
Maleficent > Opening Night
Maleficent < The Perfect Score
Maleficent > Ip Man
Maleficent < Extremities
Maleficent < The Hoober-Bloob Highway
Maleficent < Fantastic Voyage
Maleficent > The Lizzie McGuire Movie
Maleficent < Sands of Iwo Jima
Maleficent > A Man Called Peter
Maleficent > Are You My Neighbor?

Final spot: #1830 out of 2684.

Footlight Parade (1933)

IMDb plot summary: Chester Kent struggles against time, romance, and a rival's spy to produce spectacular live "prologues" for movie houses.
Directed Lloyd Bacon. Starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, and Dick Powell.

This is interesting watching shortly after Gold Diggers of 1933, another 1930s Busby Berkely musical. In both instances, the musical numbers visuals are the best part, even if you have to do some pretty spectacular disbelief suspension to even pretend these scenes are taking place in a live theatre. There's a fascinating bit of (maybe?) history happening here too, looking at the attempts to make theatre relevant to a world obsessed with movies. (I seriously want to look up more about these "prologues" and whether they genuinely were a thing for the 1920s/1930s moviegoer.) The plot itself is pretty thin and, like Gold Diggers, I wish the movie numbers were spread throughout rather than held together until the end. But the final 30 minutes almost make the infinitely fluffy first hour worth it. Fun, but not substantial.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Footlight Parade > Ghostbusters (1984)
Footlight Parade < High Strung
Footlight Parade < At First Sight
Footlight Parade > Star Trek Into Darkness
Footlight Parade < A Separation
Footlight Parade < Peggy Sue Got Married
Footlight Parade < Swing Time
Footlight Parade > Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Footlight Parade < Fantastic Mr. Fox
Footlight Parade < Nine Lives
Footlight Parade < Marooned
Footlight Parade < Mad Max

Final spot: #1163 out of 2683.

Häxan (1922)

IMDb plot summary: Fictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in modern Europe.
Directed by Benjamin Christensen. Starring Maren Pederson, Clara Pontoppidan, Elith Pio, and Oscar Stribolt.

I'm struggling with how to review this. It's certainly a format I hadn't seen in many silent films before this -- much more like an educational docudrama, which is kind of fascinating. However, I frequently found my interest waning, and they jump around from subject to subject sometimes without my realizing it so it becomes difficult to follow a single person's story. This ultimately works for me more as a curiosity than as an interesting movie on its own. As such it'll rank low on the chart, but I did appreciate what they were trying to do.

2 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Haxan < George of the Jungle
Haxan > Sharknado
Haxan > The Witches of Eastwick (now there's a funky double feature)
Haxan < War of the Buttons (1994)
Haxan < Mystic River
Haxan > Little Lord Fauntleroy
Haxan > Cropsey
Haxan > Martha Marcy May Marlene
Haxan > Beaches
Haxan > Touch of Evil
Haxan < 12 Days of Terror

Final spot: #1595 out of 2682.