Seconds (1966)

IMDb plot summary: An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity - one that comes with its own price.
Directed by John Frankenheimer. Starring Rock Hudson, John Randolph, Jeff Corey, and Richard Anderson.

Right from the beginning of this movie, you know what kind of unsettling paranoid tone you're in for, as the camera goes for intensely uncomfortable POV shots. And then it definitely continues on in that vein. The main character is shuttled along from moment to moment, and then at the end when he realizes his lack of choice and agency, it's too late for him to do much of anything about it. It's an intriguing concept, and this is one of those science fiction movies that is more about the concept than the plot. There's not much really to care about in the narrative -- the central character is so indecisive and meandering that it's hard to really sympathize with him, and nobody else is around enough to matter -- but the *ideas* being proposed are engaging enough to carry it along. Definitely an interesting watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Seconds > Waterloo
Seconds < Pretty Woman
Seconds > Aliens
Seconds > Ghost World
Seconds < 28 Up
Seconds > The Thief of Bagdad
Seconds < Young Adult
Seconds > Children of Men
Seconds > Monsoon Wedding
Seconds > The Vanishing
Seconds > Three Colors: Blue
Final spot: #920 out of 3180, or 71%.