The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

IMDb plot summary: An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in with a Midwestern family.

Directed by William Keighley. Starring Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, and Monty Woolley.

The Man Who Came to Dinner follows a famous but ill-tempered writer (played by Monty Woolley) who ends up injuring himself in a small rural town and needing to stay there through the holidays. We watch him making unreasonable demands of his hosts, inserting himself into their business, and disrupting their lives. This is clearly meant as a comedy, but Bette Davis as the author's longsuffering assistant is the only person we can really root for in this story, and she's one of the ones who goes through the most emotional turmoil at the hands of her boss, so I mostly found myself feeling bad for her and hating our titular man who came to dinner. I think there's supposed to be a begrudging "he's the worst but it's all going to work out" love-hate relationship with him, but I just hated him, and it made it hard to buy into any level of heartwarming the ending is meant to be. The dialogue is witty and there are some good one-liners in here, but other than that, it doesn't work for me as a story, much less a holiday story, and I'm not likely to rewatch it any time soon.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Man Who Came to Dinner < The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Man Who Came to Dinner > National Treasure: Book of Secrets

The Man Who Came to Dinner < No Highway in the Sky

The Man Who Came to Dinner > Murder!

The Man Who Came to Dinner > Rancho Notorious

The Man Who Came to Dinner < Bully

The Man Who Came to Dinner > Hal King

The Man Who Came to Dinner < Ready Player One

The Man Who Came to Dinner < Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

The Man Who Came to Dinner > No Sudden Move

The Man Who Came to Dinner > Night Falls on Manhattan

The Man Who Came to Dinner < Coraline

Final spot: #2475 out of 3827, or 35%.

Barbie (2023)

IMDb plot summary: Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence.
Directed by Greta Gerwig. Starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and America Ferrera.

I'd be surprised if anyone doesn't know the gist of the Barbie movie, but here goes: It's Greta Gerwig's take on adapting the classic children's doll to a film narrative. We follow Margot Robbie as "Classic Barbie" in Barbieland as she has a bit of an existential crisis and has to enter the real world to find her purpose again. Gerwig and I seldom see eye-to-eye in her films, and that mostly holds true here when it comes to her female leads. Ryan Gosling as Ken absolutely steals the show here, with a far more compelling character arc than Barbie or almost any of her female co-leads, and it's no shade on Robbie, who is a talented actress. Gerwig's experience of femininity is just so drastically different than my own that I don't connect to Barbie any more than I did Lady Bird or her version of Jo March. That being said, it is a very *fun* movie, with lots of jokes that perfectly land and some gorgeous atmospheric set design. It's worth watching just for the sets and costumes alone, and if your style of storytelling meshes with Gerwig, I'd imagine it'd be an even more enjoyable ride. But ultimately, I admire it from a little bit of an emotional distance.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Barbie > The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Barbie < Key Largo

Barbie > The Tragedy of Macbeth

Barbie > The Country Girl

Barbie > Auntie Mame

Barbie > Father of the Bride (1991)

Barbie > National Lampoon's Vacation

Barbie < The Menu

Barbie > The Palm Beach Story

Barbie < H.M.S. Defiant

Barbie < Leaving Las Vegas

Barbie > Feet First

Final spot: #976 out of 3826, or 74%.

The Faculty (1998)

IMDb plot summary: When Casey Connor, Herrington High School's newspaper photographer, witnesses the murder of a nurse and sees her alive again, he decides to investigate the bizarre happenings.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez. Starring Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, and Laura Harris.

The Faculty is a light horror thriller set inside a high school where aliens are taking over -- well, the faculty. A small group of students figure it out and try to find a way to defeat them before they take over the whole school and then the world. This is exactly the goofy gooey teen horror I wanted it to be, with lots of aesthetically fun (if not wholly realistic) effects showing the creatures taking over the teachers' bodies. The character development is light but just fun enough to make it easy to root for our heroes, and they lean in and out of their school stereotypes in some fun and surprising ways, which makes it extra fun when they're trying to figure out which of them may be an alien in disguise. Overall, an enjoyable fluffy watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Faculty > Solaris (1968)

The Faculty < Key Largo

The Faculty > The Count of Monte Cristo

The Faculty > Corrina, Corrina

The Faculty < Nerve

The Faculty < Marjorie Prime

The Faculty > After Yang

The Faculty > Cleo from 5 to 7

The Faculty > The Post

The Faculty > A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Faculty > A Christmas Carol (1951)

The Faculty > Pain and Glory

Final spot: #1132 out of 3812, or 70%.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (1974)

IMDb plot summary: Four armed men hijack a New York City subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. The city's police are faced with a conundrum: Even if it's paid, how could they get away?

Directed by Joseph Sargent. Starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, and Martin Balsam.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is the story of a train that is hijacked by four criminals and the law enforcement officials trying to get the hostages released. It's a pretty engaging story as thrillers go. I was particularly interested in how it showed all the many, many bureaucratic threads that intertwine to keep things up and running, and how difficult it is to keep life going when something falls apart. I do wish that in all that jumping from viewpoint to viewpoint and seeing everyone's response to the hostage-taking, that we got a little bit more of the hostages themselves at the center of this crisis. We get the smallest glimpse into their lives and it really would have turned up the human aspect of the tension if we had gotten to know them a bit better. That being said, though, it's an interesting film, if emotionally distant, and definitely worth it for fans of the genre.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three > The Last Dragon

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three > Juno and the Paycock

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three < We're No Angels (1955)

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three < Catfish

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three < Metal Lords

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three > Ghostbusters (1984)

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three > Singles

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three > Sweet Smell of Success

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three > Ballet Shoes

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three > Ping Pong Playa

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three > Lady Bird

Final spot: #1369 out of 3810, or 64%.

The Woman King (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Starring Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, and Lashana Lynch.

The Woman King is inspired by the true story of the Agojie, a group of all-female warriors in West Africa. Viola Davis plays their general, and we see her train new recruits, lead battles against threats, and reveal pieces of her mysterious past. This movie looks great, with rich cinematography, costuming, and lighting in a way that highlights the near-legendary status of these warriors. At the end of the day, though, this is a very good movie that is just mostly not for me. It's political historical action, and while I love that it focuses its attention on characters who don't usually get the spotlight, the tropes of those genres are still very much present and fail to hold my interest for long. Davis is, of course, always excellent in any role she tackles, and it's worth watching even just for her. If you have any interest in this part of history or just want to see an action movie set somewhere different, this is one to check out.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Woman King > The Blues Brothers

The Woman King < Key Largo

The Woman King < The Tragedy of Macbeth

The Woman King < The Glass Menagerie

The Woman King < 12 Angry Men (1997)

The Woman King > How I Live Now

The Woman King > I Am Legend

The Woman King < The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The Woman King < Gold Diggers of 1933

The Woman King > Deceiver

The Woman King > Celeste and Jesse Forever

The Woman King < Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

Final spot: #1817 out of 3825, or 52%.

Blood Freak (1972)

IMDb plot summary: A biker gets a job at a turkey farm and agrees to act as guinea pig for some chemicals that need tested, failing to anticipate the murderous side effects.

Directed by Brad F. Grinter. Starring Steve Hawkes, Dana Cullivan, and Randy Grinter.

Blood Freak is a grainy 1970s B-horror movie about a man who becomes a marijuana addict and then, uh... partly turns into a turkey that eats the blood of other addicts. On the surface this sounds like a delightfully wacky premise for a movie, sort of Reefer Madness style, but as far as an actual "bad movie" watching experience, it feels more along the lines of Manos: The Hands of Fate -- mostly slow and tedious and low-quality enough that it's unpleasant to sit through without a group of folks riffing it with you. The video and audio quality are low enough that I frequently struggled to follow what was going on (in fact, I was only fully clear on the plot thanks to Wikipedia) and it's full of dull moralizing about the meaning of the movie that is somehow both overly didactic AND vague. This isn't one that will make it into my regular rotation of cheesy B-movies any time soon.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Blood Freak < The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Blood Freak < Beauty and the Bestie

Blood Freak < Cocktail

Blood Freak > Hidalgo

Blood Freak < Mr. Mom

Blood Freak > Roger Dodger

Blood Freak < Mannequin

Blood Freak < Hollywoodland

Blood Freak > The Wolfman

Blood Freak > Fireproof

Blood Freak < Man of Steel

Final spot: #3514 out of 3824, or 8%.

X (2022)

IMDb plot summary: In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives.

Directed by Ti West. Starring Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, and Brittany Snow.

X is a horror film about a group of young adults who rent out an old mostly-empty farm in which to shoot an adult film, while the owners of the farm lurk around being generally ominous. And then people start dying. It's kind of a vague horror story that leans more into the vibe than into clear narrative answers for anything that's happening, and while that mostly works, I do find myself wishing I had a deeper understanding of what the actual motivation was for any of these character. Without that, though, it's still a semi-interesting slasher pic with a creative atmosphere. And after this and Infinity Pool, I am fully on the Mia Goth train. She brings such an unusual energy to everything she does, and while I forgot about the details of both of these movies pretty quickly after watching them, the image of Mia Goth wandering through the worlds sticks with me. I know I've sworn off franchises, but I am tempted to go ahead and watch Pearl, the companion piece to this one, to see if that is a more satisfying watch than this one.

How it entered my Flickchart:

X < The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

X > National Treasure: Book of Secrets

X > Outbreak

X < The King and I

X > Hellfighters

X > Like Crazy

X > Life of Pi

X < King Kong (2005)

X > Up Tight!

X < Cropsey

X > Belfast

Final spot: #2170 out of 3823, or 43%.

Tremors (1990)

IMDb plot summary: Natives of a small isolated town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one.

Directed by Ron Underwood. Starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, and Finn Carter.

Tremors is a fun comedy sci fi thriller about a town that discovers the surrounding desert is full of enormous worms that are starting to attack the citizens. It was especially fun to watch this shortly after Them!, which also features oversized creepy crawlies borne from nuclear experimentation, but where Them! was solemn and cautionary, Tremors is playful and high-energy. We get a beautifully distinct cast of characters, each of whom bring their own perspectives and solutions to the table, and watching them interact and try tactic after tactic to save their town is just such a fun ride. There's not a lot of depth to either plot or character growth, but that's not what the film is trying to do, so it's not missed. While I don't typically lean into gross-out horror, some of the worm death moments are viscerally icky in a way that I really enjoyed -- a couple moments I laughed out loud at how unexpectedly gooey it was. Overall, a delightful watch that I had a good time with.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Tremors > The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Tremors < Elf

Tremors > The Tragedy of Macbeth

Tremors > The Country Girl

Tremors > Auntie Mame

Tremors > Father of the Bride (1991)

Tremors > National Lampoon's Vacation

Tremors < Till Death

Tremors > The Palm Beach Story

Tremors > H.M.S. Defiant

Tremors < The Menu

Final spot: #973 out of 3822, or 75%.