Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

IMDb plot summary: A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Directed by Sergio Leone. Starring Robert De Niro, James Woods, and Elizabeth McGovern.

Once Upon a Time in America is a Sergio Leone film following a gangster looking back at various points in his life that led him to where he is now. The storytelling jumps around in a nonlinear fashion as we follow our protagonist, played as an adult by Robert De Niro, and his life of crime and the relationships he forms with people around him. While Leone primarily did westerns, this big sprawling crime drama is... basically a western. I hadn't realized until this watch just how similar the bones of the two genres are. (I probably should have, given that I don't particularly care for either.) Leone's filmmaking is always lovely, with gripping cinematography and of course an amazing score by Ennio Morricone, and I cared more about this movie than I do most 4-hour crime epics. That being said, this still really isn't my kind of movie. De Niro's not a likable protagonist but also not a compellingly unlikable one, so I have trouble really caring what his relationship is like with his former gang members or if he's ever going to get with the girl he loved his whole life. Well-made but this just isn't my thing.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Once Upon a Time in America < Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Once Upon a Time in America > Wrath of Man

Once Upon a Time in America > Hitchcock

Once Upon a Time in America < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Once Upon a Time in America < House of Flying Daggers

Once Upon a Time in America > No Country for Old Men

Once Upon a Time in America > Lazer Team

Once Upon a Time in America < The Commitments

Once Upon a Time in America < Onibaba

Once Upon a Time in America < Wedding Crashers

Once Upon a Time in America > First Blood

Once Upon a Time in America > Kill!

Final spot: #2167 out of 3608, or 40%.

Framed (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Woman swears revenge against an Inspector who was responsible for her father's death.

Directed by George Archainbaud. Starring Evelyn Brent, Regis Toomey, and Ralf Harolde.

Framed is a 1930 melodrama about a woman whose father is killed by the police, and she determines in her heart to get revenge. Years later, she works at a casino that is frequented by the police chief's son, and she sees him as the perfect opportunity to get that revenge. Ruth, our main character, is the most interesting driving force here. There are mafia side plots going on all over the place, but that falls to the side in light of Ruth's primary goals here. Her story is compelling and Evelyn Brent does a marvelous job playing her and giving her lots of depth. Aside from that and her, though, the rest is just okay. There isn't a lot to point to in terms of filmmaking -- it's all just told very straightforwardly and simply. It's not bad, and our main character is definitely enough to recommend it, but it's not one of the movies in my 1930 project I'm likely to have very strong memories of when I look back at the end of it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Framed < Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Framed > How to Deal

Framed > Choke

Framed > Heat

Framed < The Savages

Framed > A Foreign Affair

Framed > The Paperboy

Framed < Stagecoach

Framed < Air Force One

Framed < De-Lovely

Framed > Blade

Framed < Waxwork

Final spot: #1942 out of 3607, or 46%.

The Tinder Swindler (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Posing as a wealthy, jet-setting diamond mogul, he wooed women online, then conned them out of millions of dollars. Now some victims plan for payback.

Directed by Felicity Morris.

The Tinder Swindler is a documentary following two specific woman who were scammed by the same man on Tinder. He built a relationship with them and then swindled them out of thousands of dollars before they found out and decide to take him down so he couldn't do it to anyone else again. It's a simple documentary, consisting mostly of interviews with these women, supplemented with chat logs, pictures, and occasional voice messages to help paint the story. Despite its simplicity, it is interesting because the subject is interesting, and the unresolved ending actually works really well from a narrative standpoint. It centers it as an ongoing concern for women in the dating world. Like a lot of documentaries, I struggle to evaluate it on a technical standpoint -- that portion is competent but not exciting. But it's probably worth a watch, especially if you have any interest in non-murder-y true crime stories.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Tinder Swindler < Deconstructing Harry

The Tinder Swindler > Asterix and Cleopatra

The Tinder Swindler > Con Air

The Tinder Swindler > Jimmy the Kid

The Tinder Swindler > The Savages

The Tinder Swindler < Spider-Man: Homecoming

The Tinder Swindler < Kate

The Tinder Swindler < The Lighthouse

The Tinder Swindler < Last Holiday

The Tinder Swindler > Finding Forrester

The Tinder Swindler > Chocolat

The Tinder Swindler > Molly's Game

Final spot: #1909 out of 3606, or 47%.

Falling in Love (1984)

IMDb plot summary: Although they live married lives, two strangers keep running into each other, starting a friendship that could blossom into so much more.

Directed by Ulu Grosbard. Starring Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Harvey Keitel.

Falling in Love stars Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro as two strangers who meet by chance doing their holiday shopping and then again on the train commuting to work. Despite both being married to other people, they begin an emotional affair that upends both their lives. I have this weird thing where I don't like Meryl Streep playing "normal" people. Something about her acting style lends itself beautifully to folks who are a little off the beaten path, but whenever she tries to play an everyday kind of person, she still feels a little odd, and not in a way that adds depth to otherwise forgettable character, but in a way that mismatches the rest of the movie. That's definitely the case here, and De Niro doesn't bring much else to it either. There's no real sense of what these characters like about each other, other than a sort of "love at first sight" spark. It's more interesting to watch them navigating this with their current partners than it is to watch the two of them together. Overall a forgettable and unimpressive romance that doesn't do either of its stars any favors, although it does have a great soundtrack from Dave Grusin.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Falling in Love < Duel

Falling in Love > Asterix and Cleopatra

Falling in Love < Con Air

Falling in Love < Sand Castle

Falling in Love < The Shadow

Falling in Love > K-19: The Widowmaker

Falling in Love > Ocean's Twelve

Falling in Love < The 5th Wave

Falling in Love > The Da Vinci Code

Falling in Love > The Devil's Brigade

Falling in Love < Red River

Final spot: #2608 out of 3604, or 28%.

Prix de Beaute (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Lucienne, typist and gorgeous bathing beauty, decides to enter the 'Miss Europe' pageant sponsored by the French newspaper she works for. She finds her jealous lover Andre violently disapproves of such events and tries to withdraw, but it's too late; she's even then being named Miss France.

Directed by Augusto Genina. Starring Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, and Augusto Bandini.

Prix de Beaute is a French film from 1930 about a beauty pageant to select the most beautiful girl in the world. One young woman enters, against the wishes of her boyfriend, and the ensuing fame it brings stretches their relationship to the breaking point. In a lot of these movies I've been watching from this year, I feel like the plot points are telegraphed well ahead of time, but I genuinely wasn't sure where this one was going to lead, which made its final scenes all the more powerful for me. It's an interesting movie to watch in a time of social media, where somehow the issue of men feeling like their women are being too publicly attractive is still a concern. It feels like a very modern story, just set in an older time frame. The movie moves pretty quickly and is an effective blend of silent and talking film technique -- there's plenty of spoken dialogue but the film also uses title cards to support transitions. I'm happy to be accessing a variety of non-English-language films as part of this project, and this is one of the more interesting ones.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Prix de Beaute > Deconstructing Harry

Prix de Beaute > Anna Karenina

Prix de Beaute < The Maltese Falcon

Prix de Beaute < Grave of the Fireflies

Prix de Beaute < We're Not Married!

Prix de Beaute < Mixed Nuts

Prix de Beaute > Primer

Prix de Beaute < The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Prix de Beaute < The Peanuts Movie

Prix de Beaute < Man on the Moon

Prix de Beaute < Mister Roberts

Prix de Beaute < Finian's Rainbow

Final spot: #871 out of 3601, or 76%.

Power (1986)

IMDb plot summary: After a close friend drops out of politics, a political consultant helping to find a replacement finds a web of corruption and deceit as well.

Directed by David Himmelstein. Starring Richard Gere, Julie Christie, and Gene Hackman.

Power is a Sidney Lumet film starring Richard Gere as a political consultant working with multiple clients at varying levels. He has grown far beyond his former mentor's level of success by not insisting on having any moral conviction about his clients, and we see him struggling with whether that was the right choice or not. Lumet frequently explored the idea of corruption in power through his films, and this is another one along those lines. It is kind of a strange one to watch in 2022, as our main character ends up landing on the idea that non-polished, earnest candidates are the best hope for the country, so it definitely set off a couple triggers for me, as that was exactly what people praised about our last president and said we needed, and I'm... not convinced that was it. But the film definitely demonstrates how tempting it is to tamp down goals in an effort to be more palatable, and how that's hard to climb back out of once the damage is done. It's not one of Lumet's most compelling movies, but it's an interesting one to add to his many variations on a similar theme.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Power < Duel

Power > Who's That Knocking At My Door

Power > Firecreek

Power > Jimmy the Kid

Power > The Madness of King George

Power > Spider-Man: Homecoming

Power < Passing

Power > Safety Not Guaranteed

Power < Absolute Power

Power < Escape from New York

Power < The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

Power > Seasons of the Heart

Final spot: #1841 out of 3600, or 49%.

Fresh (2022)

IMDb plot summary: The horrors of modern dating seen through one young woman's defiant battle to survive her new boyfriend's unusual appetites.

Directed by Mimi Cave. Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, and Jojo T. Gibbs.

Fresh is a 2022 thriller/horror/apparently comedy about a woman whose date with a man goes south FAST when she learns he wants to sell her meat to foodie cannibals on the black market. I say "apparently" comedy because while the premise of this story is indeed pretty wild and there are a few moments where it goes over-the-top ridiculous with it, the comedy never lands as much as the horror does, and I genuinely didn't know it was billed as a comedy at all until afterward. This is a pretty fun, gross movie that taps way into the female fear of being kidnapped by their dates. Our protagonist is a smart woman, as is her best friend who comes to her rescue, and the two of them keep the movie from feeling purely like exploitative torture porn, because they are both given enough agency that we can plausibly imagine they'll make it out. The film does a good job of really showing the unpleasantly visceral nature of the work our villain is doing and making it truly disgusting without actually showing *all* that much gore, which is interesting. Not an amazing movie or a groundbreaking one, but it hit every marker it needed to and was a good watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Fresh > Deconstructing Harry

Fresh > Anna Karenina

Fresh < The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Fresh < Grave of the Fireflies

Fresh < We're Not Married!

Fresh < Mixed Nuts

Fresh < Primer

Fresh < Fruitvale Station

Fresh > My Life as a Dog

Fresh < Autumn Sonata

Fresh > Kill Bill Vol. 2

Final spot: #890 out of 3599, or 75%.

African Kung-Fu Nazis (2019)

IMDb plot summary: A kung fu disciple seeks bloody revenge against Adolf Hitler and his army of goons in Ghana.

Directed by Samuel K. Nkansah and Sebastian Stein. Starring Elisha Okyere, Kwaku Adu, and Yoshito Akimoto.

African Kung-Fu Nazis asks, what if Adolf Hitler and Minister Togo fled Germany and Japan and took refuge in Ghana, where they achieved literal immortality and raised up an army of karate Nazis? And what if the only way to defeat them was in a martial arts championship? This is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. The first movie it brought to mind was The Last Samurai, another love letter to martial arts films made by a Black filmmaker. Of course, The Last Samurai was funny and well-shot and well-choreographed, while sadly African Kung-Fu Nazis is none of those things, relying too heavily on gore and too little on good fight sequences. The acting is all very wooden -- especially the interactions between our main character and his girlfriend, but all of it sounds pretty awkward. I kind of love the concept of this wild alternate universe. It brought to mind something like The Boys From Brazil, which I found equally hilarious in its conception, but this one falls unfortunately short on execution.

How it entered my Flickchart:

African Kung-Fu Nazis < Duel

African Kung-Fu Nazis < Who's That Knocking At My Door

African Kung-Fu Nazis > A Sound of Thunder

African Kung-Fu Nazis < The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

African Kung-Fu Nazis > Red Christmas

African Kung-Fu Nazis < Call Northside 777

African Kung-Fu Nazis < Uncut Gems

African Kung-Fu Nazis < Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

African Kung-Fu Nazis < Will Penny

African Kung-Fu Nazis < Soylent Green

African Kung-Fu Nazis < Darkest Hour

African Kung-Fu Nazis < You Were Never Really Here

Final spot: #3036 out of 3598, or 16%.

The Lost Daughter (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A woman's beach vacation takes a dark turn when she begins to confront the troubles of her past.

Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, and Dakota Johnson.

The Lost Daughter stars Olivia Colman as a woman on vacation in Greece, where she forms a strange bond with a family vacationing in the same area. Her time there is intercut with flashbacks of her young adulthood with her two daughters. This is one of the slowest burns I've seen in a long time. At one point I said to my husband, "It's been thirty minutes and so far it's just people being on the beach near other people." It does build to a payoff, but it really leans into the slow unraveling of the facts. Colman is incredibly restrained and subtle for the majority of this, making her character extremely enigmatic. This is Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut, and while I can see where she was going with it, it mostly doesn't work for me. Not just because it's slow, but because that enigmatic restraint feels too often like it's going nowhere, and I'm not convinced that the ending ties it together in a *coherent* way, although it is mildly interesting. I like the attention Gyllenhaal pays to her central character; I just wish I was more drawn in by her story.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Lost Daughter < Frank

The Lost Daughter > Madeline

The Lost Daughter < The Switch

The Lost Daughter > Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The Lost Daughter > Saturday Night Fever

The Lost Daughter > Teacher of the Year

The Lost Daughter < The Great McGinty

The Lost Daughter > Double Jeopardy

The Lost Daughter > Nowhere Boy

The Lost Daughter < Wes Craven's New Nightmare

The Lost Daughter > Buffalo Soldiers

Final spot: #2279 out of 3593, or 37%.

Showtime (2002)

IMDb plot summary: A spoof of buddy cop movies where two very different cops are forced to team up on a new reality based television cop show, while tracking down the manufacturer and distributor of an illegally made semi-automatic firearm.

Directed by Tom Dey. Starring Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, and Rene Russo.

Showtime is a 2002 buddy cop comedy starring Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy. De Niro is the tough guy detective who's good at his job and takes nothing from nobody, while Murphy is a cop with a secret dream of breaking into show business. They end up being paired together as perfect unlikely partners for a new reality TV show about police life, and while Murphy is thrilled to get his big break, De Niro finds the whole thing demeaning. This plays out exactly how you think it will. De Niro and Murphy are both likable and surprisingly understated -- their character tropes are clear but not played to the point of caricature. The central mystery is pretty bland, but it's just a vehicle to get these two to work together. The movie does a fun job of playing with the idea of reality shows and how their attempts at "authenticity" are just as staged as anything scripted, and watching De Niro push back on that is pretty satisfying. Overall, it's enjoyable if immediately forgettable.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Showtime > Fahrenheit 451

Showtime < The Black Cat

Showtime < Furlough

Showtime > Source Code

Showtime > The Recruit

Showtime < The Chorus

Showtime > Toy Story 2

Showtime < VeggieTales: Esther, the Girl Who Became Queen

Showtime < Were the World Mine

Showtime < Interview With the Vampire

Showtime < Captains Courageous

Showtime > Radio Days

Final spot: #1430 out of 3591, or 60%.

Amistad (1997)

IMDb plot summary: In 1839, the revolt of Mende captives aboard a Spanish owned ship causes a major controversy in the United States when the ship is captured off the coast of Long Island. The courts must decide whether the Mende are slaves or legally free.

Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, and Anthony Hopkins.

Amistad is Steven Spielberg's dramatization of a real-life trial just prior to the American Civil War in which a group of Africans stolen from their homes to be slaves rise up against their captors on the sea voyage and are brought to trial once they land in the States. On the surface it seems like a pretty straightforward trial, but questions of slavery, political reelection, potential war, and international treaties to create a perfect storm of precedent that paved the way for emancipation for the other enslaved Africans in the country. This is a story I honestly knew almost nothing about, so I appreciate learning more about this case. It's also very well told, showcasing all the political motivations that pushed people in certain directions -- it's upsetting but sadly not surprising to watch this question of human life and civil rights being argued one way or another based around a presidential reelection campaign. I appreciated also that the stories of the captured Africans got some focus, though I wish it had been more prevalent, as it really is their story. Overall, a pretty solid retelling of an important part of U.S. history.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Amistad > Fahrenheit 451

Amistad > The Game

Amistad < Castle in the Sky

Amistad < The Pawnbroker

Amistad < The Secret of Santa Vittoria

Amistad < Before Sunset

Amistad < The Pirates of Penzance

Amistad < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Amistad < My Name Is Joe

Amistad < Till Death

Amistad < Munich

Amistad > A Room With a View

Final spot: #896 out of 3589, or 75%.

The Medicine Man (1930)

IMDb plot summary: The son and daughter of an abusive shopkeeper turn to a medicine show salesman for help.

Directed by Scott Pembroke. Starring Jack Benny, Betty Bronson, and E. Alyn Warren.

The Medicine Man tells the story of a young woman who works for her overbearing father in his store, but then she falls in love with a swindler from a traveling circus, played by Jack Benny. There's really very little to this movie -- there is some light conflict where she worries that her father will not let her leave or will treat her younger brother badly if she does, but overall the stakes are pretty light and it's mostly just people wandering around the traveling circus. It was one of those movies where I could feel myself forgetting about it while I was in the middle of watching it. For some of the other ones in this project, I've been able to lean into an interesting film history component even when I've been bored by the narrative, but there wasn't much to grasp onto for this one. There's just nothing remarkable or worth caring about in this one.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Medicine Man < Frank

The Medicine Man < Madeline

The Medicine Man > Lady in Cement

The Medicine Man < Spider-Man 3

The Medicine Man > Little Italy

The Medicine Man > Hannibal

The Medicine Man < Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

The Medicine Man < Brokeback Mountain

The Medicine Man < Marathon Man

The Medicine Man < Paramount on Parade

The Medicine Man < You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

The Medicine Man < Maggie's Plan

Final spot: #2972 out of 3590, or 17%.

Sundown (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Neil and Alice Bennett are the core of a wealthy family on vacation in Mexico until a distant emergency cuts their trip short. When one relative disrupts the family's tight-knit order, simmering tensions rise to the fore.

Directed by Michel Franco. Starring Tim Roth, Albertine Kotting McMillan, and Samuel Bottomley.

Sundown tells the story of a man vacationing in Mexico with his sister and her children. When he and his sister learn that their mother has died, they immediately make plans to return, but the man pretends he has lost his passport so he can continue on his vacation. Tim Roth plays the main character here, and he plays it so interestingly, without even an inkling as to what purpose or motivation he might have. We see him enjoying his time and lying to his sister about the difficulties of replacing his passport in a foreign country, and we can't figure out whether he's selfish or hurting or running from something or some entirely different explanation. The film spends most of its time on this part of the story and then goes in two unexpected directions at the end that I'm not convinced add much to the narrative, especially since they're such a drastic departure from the laidback tone of the rest of the movie. Overall, despite an interesting concept and some good performances, the film doesn't quite gel for me, particularly in how it chooses to end.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Sundown > Fahrenheit 451

Sundown < The Black Cat

Sundown < The River Wild

Sundown > Source Code

Sundown > The Recruit

Sundown < Wristcutters: A Love Story

Sundown > Toy Story 2

Sundown < Blazing Saddles

Sundown > Were the World Mine

Sundown < The Crying Game

Sundown > Albert Nobbs

Final spot: #1420 out of 3588, or 60%.

Raffles (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A distinguished English gentleman has a secret life--he is the notorious jewel thief the press has dubbed "The Amateur Cracksman". When he meets a woman and falls in love he decides to "retire" from that life, but an old friend comes to him with a predicament that entails him committing one last job.

Directed by George Fitzmaurie. Starring Ronald Colman, Kay Francis, and David Torrence.

Raffles tells the story of a charming man-about-town who happens to be at a dinner party on a night when the police suspect a home robbery will take place. We begin to learn that he might have criminal ties himself, putting at risk his relationship with another rich socialite. There's something about Raffles' roguishness that absolutely endears him to the audience, despite learning he is clearly being a thief partway through the film. He seems to wish the people around him no ill will and even see them with fondness while also making plans to steal their valuables. The actual narrative arc is a little thin, and the cinematography is not especially noteworthy, but watching these characters interact is more enjoyable than I expected, and the final showdown scene is satisfying, if tied up a little too neatly. It's certainly not the BEST gentleman thief movie around, but it's an adequate one.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Raffles < Fahrenheit 451

Raffles > Annie (1999)

Raffles > Adventures in Babysitting

Raffles > Venom

Raffles > Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam

Raffles < The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini

Raffles > Unbroken

Raffles > Kate

Raffles > Smokin' Aces

Raffles < The Librarian: Quest for the Spear

Raffles < Free Guy

Raffles < Maverick

Final spot: #1857 out of 3587, or 48%.

King Richard (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams became who they are after the coaching from their father Richard Williams.

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. Starring Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, and Jon Bernthal.

King Richard is a biopic about Richard Williams, the very involved father of tennis sensations Venus and Serena Williams. Will Smith plays him in this film, and we see him coordinating opportunities for his daughters, setting the parameters of their training, and occasionally making controversial decisions to bring them to stardom through unconventional means. Smith is pretty great in this role -- he did a lot of research and spent a fair amount of time with the actual Richard Williams, and it pays off in the way his character feels more fleshed out than a lot of biopic leads. There are few narrative surprises here if you know the Williams sisters' story already but it does a lovely job of bringing it to life. The young actresses playing Venus and Serena just radiate confidence and positivity, which is charming, even if it sometimes reach the point where sometimes they don't entirely feel like real teenagers so much as symbols of success for Richard to guide. I would have liked to see a little bit more focus on the girls and their relationship with tennis, each other, and their father. The few moments we do see of that are by far the most compelling pieces. Overall a very watchable movie that directs the viewers' attention back to the subjects, as it should.

How it entered my Flickchart:

King Richard < Frank

King Richard > Annie (1999)

King Richard > Adventures in Babysitting

King Richard > Venom

King Richard > Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam

King Richard < Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

King Richard > Unbroken

King Richard < New Faces

King Richard < All the Money in the World

King Richard > The Morning After

King Richard > Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

King Richard < JFK

Final spot: #1872 out of 3586, or 48%.

The Blue Angel (1930)

IMDb plot summary: An elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer.

Directed by Josef von Sternberg. Starring Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, and Kurt Gerron.

The Blue Angel is about a strict professor and the nightclub singer his students have become enamored with. He goes down to meet her after scolding his students about the attention he pays to her, but he ends up falling in love himself. This is rather a fascinating little tragedy that doesn't take at all the path I expected it to. It's such an interesting twist to see the stern professor not only fall in love with the woman he's been warning his students about, but for that to be his downfall ultimately as well. And while it definitely paints the woman, played by Marlene Dietrich, as the primary cause of his demise, it does a surprisingly good job of humanizing her as well. She seldom seem malicious, just unhappy, and used to finding her own happiness where she can take it. I also really liked how the film used Dietrich's musical numbers to paint the story's emotional tone, from risque to sweet to ominous. Overall definitely a good watch from director Josef von Sternberg.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Blue Angel > Fahrenheit 451

The Blue Angel > The Game

The Blue Angel < The Goodbye Girl (1977)

The Blue Angel < The Pawnbroker

The Blue Angel < The Secret of Santa Vittoria

The Blue Angel > Rounders

The Blue Angel < Detroit

The Blue Angel < This Boy's Life

The Blue Angel > Mr. Brooks

The Blue Angel > The Man in the Iron Mask

The Blue Angel < Mixed Nuts

Final spot: #830 out of 3585, or 77%.

With Byrd at the South Pole (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Account of Admiral Byrd's 1928 expedition to the South Pole. Academy award winning cinematography.

No director listed.

With Byrd at the South Pole is an early documentary following-- well, exactly what the title suggests: Admiral Byrd's expedition to the South Pole. As makes sense with the technology of the time, it's mostly silent footage with a voiceover explaining what's going on -- what the explorers are looking for, how they're doing their research, and what their plans are when things go wrong. There is something historically fascinating about documenting such early exploration of such a remote place in the early days of film. It feels almost like something that shouldn't exist. As far as the narrative or historical information conveyed through the documentary, it's fine. It's thorough. We get to see all the different precautions they had to take to be able to go beyond their base and how they studied the wildlife around them, and even a time or two where something goes extremely wrong. Stories like this have been told since then, so the connection I had to it now was very much like going to a museum and realizing the artifacts you're looking at came from an era of history that seems long gone. Definitely an interesting watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

With Byrd at the South Pole < Frank

With Byrd at the South Pole > Annie (1999)

With Byrd at the South Pole > Adventures in Babysitting

With Byrd at the South Pole < Venom

With Byrd at the South Pole < Deep Red

With Byrd at the South Pole > Easy Rider

With Byrd at the South Pole > Legends of the Fall

With Byrd at the South Pole < The Shop Around the Corner

With Byrd at the South Pole < The Fourth Kind

With Byrd at the South Pole < Office Space

With Byrd at the South Pole > The Illusionist

With Byrd at the South Pole > Val

Final spot: #2153 out of 3584, or 40%.

Walk on the Wild Side (1962)

IMDb plot summary: A man arrives in New Orleans searching for his former girlfriend, an artist who now works in a bordello.

Directed by Edward Dmytryk. Starring Laurence Harvey, Capucine, and Jane Fonda.

Walk on the Wild Side tells the story of a man returning back home to reunite with his girlfriend after spending the last few years taking care of his dying father. His girlfriend, however, moved on from him after he left and is now living and working in a brothel in New Orleans, and she is certain when he finds her that he won't want to be with her anymore. While the melodrama in this film is at extremely high levels, I found it captivating, and when I dug down as to why, I realized it was because most of the key players in this were women. Yes, our central protagonist is a man, but the women around him are fascinating, particularly the characters played by Barbara Stanwyck and Jane Fonda, who are just mesmerizing and I could watch an entire movie about just the two of them. That adds a new slant to what feels otherwise like a very familiar story and captivated me the whole way through. And while the story is tropey, it's not told badly by any means, just predictably. This is one I'd recommend if only to see some great performances from some great actresses.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Walk on the Wild Side > Frank

Walk on the Wild Side < The Black Cat

Walk on the Wild Side < Poltergeist

Walk on the Wild Side > Source Code

Walk on the Wild Side > The Recruit

Walk on the Wild Side > Wristcutters: A Love Story

Walk on the Wild Side < Phone Booth

Walk on the Wild Side < The Parent Trap (1961)

Walk on the Wild Side < Renaissance Man

Walk on the Wild Side < Chaos Theory

Walk on the Wild Side < Death at a Funeral (2007)

Walk on the Wild Side > 12 Years a Slave

Final spot: #1398 out of 3582, or 61%.

She's All That (1999)

IMDb plot summary: A high school jock makes a bet that he can turn an unattractive girl into the school's prom queen.

Directed by Robert Iscove. Starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, and Matthew Lillard.

She's All That is a romantic teen comedy from the 90s starring Rachel Leigh Cook as the unpopular artistic girl and Freddie Prinze Jr. as the popular jock who makes a bet that he can make any girl homecoming queen, even Cook. The two start hanging out, but of course Prinze starts falling in love with her and Cook will find out any moment it was all a bet. The biggest problem with this -- well, aside from the hilarious "girl takes her glasses off and is suddenly hot" trope -- is that I don't buy the chemistry between the two leads at all. When they start to talk about having actual feelings for each other, it almost startled me because there was almost no indication of that up until that point. A rom com's job is pretty simple: have its audience live vicariously through its characters as they discover a new romance, and this seems to be missing the most important steps. Cook's journey is more about fighting her own demons by herself than it is anything to do with him, and his journey is almost nonexistent. On top of that, despite describing it as a rom com, there's not much actual humor in it. Overall, a pretty uninspiring watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

She's All That < Frank

She's All That > Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

She's All That < Adventures in Babysitting

She's All That < In the Mood for Love

She's All That < The 5th Wave

She's All That < Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989)

She's All That < 13 Going on 30

She's All That < Christmas on the Square

She's All That > The Little Drummer Boy

She's All That > Who's That Knocking At My Door

She's All That > How to Deal

She's All That > Wrath of Man

Final spot: #2675 out of 3583, or 25%.

Metal Lords (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Two friends try to form a heavy metal band with a cellist for a Battle of the Bands.

Directed by Peter Sollett. Starring Jaeden Martell, Adrian Greensmith, and Isis Hainsworth.

Metal Lords is a coming-of-age movie about two high school outcast best friends who are in a metal band together. One of them is really, really serious about the music, while the other is mostly just trying to survive high school. Things ramp up when the group decides to compete in the Battle of the Bands and have to double down to be good enough to win. One of the things I appreciated about this movie is that even when the situations they're in are a little outlandish, these kids do feel fairly realistic. Their concerns and reactions are grounded and feel like something kids might actually think and feel and worry about. I also enjoy how this movie brings its love of metal music to the foreground. Is it pretty cheesy, maybe even to the point of feeling written BY an actual teenager? Sure, but it feels like it's having so much fun I can't mind too much. It's cute and sweet and does what it's supposed to do, and even though I can't imagine wanting to rewatch it any time soon, it was a fun enough one to see.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Metal Lords > Les Miserables (2012)

Metal Lords < Woman in the Dunes

Metal Lords > The Mauritanian

Metal Lords < L'atalante

Metal Lords < Mean Girls

Metal Lords > Bottle Rocket (1996)

Metal Lords < Oh Darling Yeh Hai India

Metal Lords > The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Metal Lords < The Miracle Worker

Metal Lords < Marooned

Metal Lords < The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Metal Lords > Lady Bird

Final spot: #1283 out of 3614, or 64%.

Benedetta (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A 17th-century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions. She is assisted by a companion, and the relationship between the two women develops into a romantic love affair.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Starring Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, and Daphne Patakia.

Benedetta is a Paul Verhoeven movie about a young woman who grows up in a convent in 17th century Italy. As an adult, she begins a secret affair with one of the other women in the convent, while also publicly having visions and experiencing stigmata, though some of the other nuns are suspicious she is faking these miracles. This is apparently based on a non-fiction book, though there's not a lot of material I can find on the book so I can't tell you how close the story is to the actual story. I can tell you that I didn't enjoy this at all. Verhoeven always rides the line between exploitation and profundity, and here I think it falls pretty solidly in the former camp, with erotic and religious images being combined in a way that feel less thoughtful than flippantly salacious. There is an interesting exploration to be had of how young women with culturally taboo desires may conflate quote-unquote "holy ecstasy" with "carnal ecstasy," but I don't think this film handles it in at all an interesting manner. There's a story in here I'm interested in seeing, but Verhoeven obscures it seemingly only for shock value.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Benedetta < Les Miserables

Benedetta > Wrath of Man

Benedetta < Hitchcock

Benedetta > Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Benedetta < Into the Dark: Pooka!

Benedetta < Less Than Zero

Benedetta > Burning Annie

Benedetta < The Adjustment Bureau

Benedetta < The Unsinkable Molly Brown

Benedetta < Paint Your Wagon

Benedetta < Nine

Benedetta > The Conjuring

Final spot: #2451 out of 3609, or 32%.

8-Bit Christmas (2021)

IMDb plot summary: In 1980s Chicago, a 10-year-old sets out on a quest to get the Christmas gift of his generation: the latest and greatest video-game system.

Directed by Michael Dowse. Starring Winslow Fegley, Neil Patrick Harris, and Steven Zahn.

8-Bit Christmas is a holiday movie where a man tells the story of one of his childhood Christmases -- in particular, one where he was trying desperately to get a Nintendo, whether by purchasing it, winning it, or begging his parents until they got it for him. This is absolutely A Christmas Story for kids who grew up in the 80s, with its episodic storytelling and hyperbolic flights of fantasy and adult voiceover wryly commenting on the action. And it definitely taps into a fresher version of that childhood nostalgia and works for me about as well as that one did, which is to say it's charming and has some fun moments but I don't find it moving or deeply relatable for my own experience, and it's definitely banking hard on its relatability. It's the kind of thing that does indeed only make sense to watch around the holidays, when my nostalgia levels are turned way up and I can be nostalgic for a childhood that wasn't even mine and still have a good time with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

8-Bit Christmas > C'mon C'mon

8-Bit Christmas < The Game

8-Bit Christmas < The River Wild

8-Bit Christmas > Divergent

8-Bit Christmas < Green Room

8-Bit Christmas > Inspector Clouseau

8-Bit Christmas < Children of Paradise

8-Bit Christmas > The Sword in the Stone

8-Bit Christmas < You've Got Mail

8-Bit Christmas < The Gold Rush

8-Bit Christmas < Bowfinger

8-Bit Christmas > Footlight Parade

Final spot: #1494 out of 3577, or 58%.

Nobel Son (2007)

IMDb plot summary: A professor of chemistry wins the Nobel Prize. His wife joins him to Stockholm but his PhD. working son gets kidnapped. The kidnapper demands $2,000,000 = prize sum.

Directed by Randall Miller. Starring Alan Rickman, Bryan Greenberg, and Shawn Hatosy.

Nobel Son is a way, way, way too complicated thriller about an insufferable Nobel Prize winner, his wife, and his son, who is kidnapped while he's away accepting the Prize. I guess I won't spoil this by going any further into detail, but there are about 10 different "twists" going on here, and none of them are clear. I think there was an attempt to make this partially a dark comedy -- some of the big dramatic moments are so silly they feel like they must have been somewhat self-aware and meant as jokes -- but I think a startlingly large number of them were probably intended to be cool mindbending reveals. None of them are, especially as they render earlier scenes just absolutely baffling and obscure character motivation so many times it's impossible to know or care who is on whose side by the end. There is some enjoyment to be gotten out of the over-the-top performances of Alan Rickman as the Nobel Prize winner, who is level 10 obnoxious for no reason, and Eliza Dushku, the son's love interest, a spoken word poet who is just constantly writhing with pleasure at the small beauties of life. But overall it's just too convoluted and too convinced it's clever.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Nobel Son < Frank

Nobel Son < Annie (1999)

Nobel Son > Move Over, Darling

Nobel Son < Spider-Man 3

Nobel Son > Jane Eyre (1997)

Nobel Son > Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Nobel Son > Bullitt

Nobel Son > American Graffiti

Nobel Son > The Zen of Bennett

Nobel Son > The Machinist

Nobel Son < There's No Business Like Show Business

Final spot: #2914 out of 3581, or 19%.

The Doorway to Hell (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Despite his efforts to go straight, a young gangster keeps falling back into crime.

Directed by Archie Mayo. Starring Lew Ayres, James Cagney, and Dorothy Mathews.

The Doorway to Hell is a 1930 gangster movie about a man getting ready to give up a life of crime and settle down with his romantic partner. Little does he know, however, that she is cheating on him with one of the other men in his gang, and his plans to get away from that lifestyle may not work out and may instead endanger himself, his new wife, and his younger brother. This is an early James Cagney movie -- he plays the cheating friend involved with the lead's wife -- and it's interesting to see him as a side character instead of a lead, especially since the lead himself isn't very interesting in this story. In preparation for writing up this review a few days after seeing the movie, I revisited the Wikipedia page to refresh myself on the plot details and realized, to my surprise, I remembered very little of it. It all kind of blurs together for me into other gangster pictures of the same era. It certainly is one of the earlier examples, and I'm sure aficionados of the genre would notice where later movies took their lead from films like this, but it wasn't particularly interesting for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Doorway to Hell < The Keep

The Doorway to Hell > Big Fat Liar

The Doorway to Hell < Sullivan's Travels

The Doorway to Hell < Labor Day

The Doorway to Hell > The Devil's Brigade

The Doorway to Hell < So I Married an Axe Murderer

The Doorway to Hell > Our Paradise

The Doorway to Hell > The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The Doorway to Hell < Tombstone

The Doorway to Hell < The Amazing Spider-Man

The Doorway to Hell < Stand and Deliver

The Doorway to Hell < After the Thin Man

Final spot: #2520 out of 3565, or 29%.

Mass (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Aftermath of a violent tragedy that affects the lives of two couples in different ways.

Directed by Fran Kranz. Starring Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, and Reed Birney.

Mass is a one-room story about two couples meeting to talk about their children, one of which was the victim of a school shooting six years ago, while the other was the shooter. The film stays on these couples throughout their whole meeting. To pull off this kind of stagey story, all in one room in real time, you have to have a really tight script, incredible actors, and cinematography that keeps the focus on them, and that's all absolutely the case here. We've got Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton as the victim's parents and Reed Birney and Ann Dowd as the perpetrator's parents, and each one of them is such an interesting character. It feels like a play in the absolute best way, the kind of play that keeps you riveted to the edge of your seat because the dramatic tension in the story and the characters has hooked you in, and when the time is up you barely even realize you've just spent two hours watching the same scene. The script flows naturally from one moment to the next but still manages to hit all the essential beats and give each character a chance to really shine in the narrative. It's kind of an incredible accomplishment.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Mass > Fahrenheit 451

Mass > The Black Cat

Mass > Castle in the Sky

Mass < Bullets Over Broadway

Mass > Savannah Smiles

Mass > Requiem for a Dream

Mass > Unforgiven

Mass < A Charlie Brown Christmas

Mass < Seven Psychopaths

Mass > Sabrina (1954)

Mass < The Bridge on the River Kwai

Final spot: #247 out of 3580, or 93%.