Everything Is Illuminated (2005)

IMDb plot summary: A young Jewish American man, with the help of an eccentric local, endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village that was ultimately razed by the Nazis.

Directed by Liev Schreiber. Stars Elijah Wood, Eugene Hutz, and Boris Lyoskin.

Everything Is Illuminated follows a young American, played by Elijah Wood, who travels to Ukraine in search of some of the characters he has heard about from his family history. He is guided along his journey by an ambitious but eccentric local and his even more eccentric grandfather. The film is exactly what it looks like it's going to be: quirky (maybe too quirky for its own good), and ultimately hopeful and warmhearted despite its frequently dark subject matter. Its stylized visuals, dry humor, and editing choices feel very much like a director emulating Wes Anderson, and it carries with it that same sense of whimsy. Anderson usually takes that whimsy right up to the point of being exhausting but stops, while this one definitely crosses the line a few times. Still, there are moments of genuine beauty and emotional resonance scattered throughout, especially when the film quiets down and lets its story breathe instead of just be weird. It's a sweet, strange little movie, and I think it would have been exactly my jam in my college years, but now it feels dated and uneven, with a few good moments scattered throughout.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Everything Is Illuminated (2005)

📊 Ranked #1973/4072 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 51

lost to Wonder Man (#2032 → #1283)

beat Stagecoach (#3050 → #3049)

beat Rich and Strange (#2540 → #2984)

beat Planet 51 (#2286 → #2535)

beat In Search of a Midnight Kiss (#2159 → #2172)

beat The Lion in Winter (#2096 → #2161)

beat Liberal Arts (#2063 → #2059)

beat The Suburbans (#2047 → #2046)

beat The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (#2039 → #2092)

lost to The King and I (#2035 → #1971)

beat Meet John Doe (#2037 → #2033)

beat America's Sweethearts (#2036 → #2031)

The Time of Your Life (1976)

IMDb plot summary: William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play revolves around the denizens of a San Francisco bar in 1939.

Directed by Kirk Browning. Stars Benjamin Hendrickson, Richard Ooms, and Nicolas Surovy.

The Time of Your Life is a TV-filmed version of based on William Saroyan’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play, which unfolds entirely in a San Francisco bar, where a rotating cast of eccentric characters drift in and out, sharing jokes, heartbreaks, and philosophical musings. The script strings together dozens of little plot threads -- some touching, some strange, some funny. It's very episodic, more like an anthology of vaguely connected scenes than a complete story. It’s also unmistakably theatrical, for better or worse. The dialogue is witty and sharp as is familiar from cleverly crafted stage scripts, but the staging often feels static on screen. I find a lot of charm in the familiarity of the staginess, but there are times where I also feel the distance when that staginess is translated to film. It mostly makes me think how much more engaging this would be on a stage.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Time of Your Life (1976)

📊 Ranked #1310/4071 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 70

beat Wristcutters: A Love Story (#2032 → #2034)

lost to My Name is Joe (#1014 → #1013)

beat The Green Knight (#1521 → #1546)

lost to Passing (#1267 → #1257)

beat The Black Phone (#1394 → #1523)

lost to Inland Empire (#1330 → #1326)

lost to Decision to Leave (#1362 → #1361)

lost to Aliens (#1378 → #1375)

beat Bridge of Spies (#1386 → #1620)

lost to I, Tonya (#1382 → #1362)

lost to The Great Mouse Detective (#1384 → #1382)

lost to Pain and Glory (#1385 → #1305)

The Kid Detective (2020)

IMDb plot summary: A once-celebrated kid detective, now 32, continues to solve the same trivial mysteries between hangovers and bouts of self-pity; until a naive client brings him his first 'adult' case to find out who brutally murdered her boyfriend.

Directed by Evan Morgan. Stars Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato, Adam Brody, and Kaleb Horn.

The Kid Detective is a hypothetical gritty, grown-up sequel to Encyclopedia Brown: what if the boy genius detective grows up, finds the one case he can't solve, and life falls apart. It's a concept that could have been painfully gimmicky, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they pretty much nail the execution. Adam Brody is perfectly cast as the main character, playing just the right mix of weary depression and lingering boyish idealism to make the tone work. The tone is key here, by the way, and it walks a tricky line between dark comedy and genuine tragedy, shifting from absurd humor to moments of real emotional weight without losing its way. By the time the final mystery is wrapped up, was both funnier and sadder than I thought it might be. The Kid Detective turns what could have been a one-joke premise into something both enjoyable and oddly touching. What an interesting surprise.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Kid Detective (2020)

📊 Ranked #820/4070 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 81

beat Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (#2032 → #2033)

beat Pig (#1015 → #1022)

lost to Her (#508 → #521)

beat Winter Light (#761 → #1104)

lost to School of Rock (#634 → #635)

lost to Autumn Sonata (#697 → #703)

lost to The Talented Mr. Ripley (#729 → #698)

beat Super (#745 → #753)

lost to Cats (#737 → #740)

beat Spotlight (#741 → #732)

beat Coherence (#739 → #738)

lost to Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (#738 → #760)

Juror #2 (2024)

IMDb plot summary: While serving as a juror in a high-profile murder trial, a family man finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma, one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict or free the wrong killer.

Directed by Clint Eastwood. Stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, and J.K. Simmons.

Juror #2 has a great premise: A juror (played by Nicholas Hoult) realizes partway through a criminal trial that he himself might be the person responsible. The film leans heavily on talky dialogue scenes, a la 12 Angry Men, which often don't work, and Hoult's tightly wound performance, which always does. He grounds the story, which is needed more often than I'd like -- the script can’t resist waxing a little too poetic about the nobility of the American legal system. It's a topic well worth exploring, but it doesn't explore so much as just seem like vague patriotic propaganda. Still, despite a few eye-rolling dialogue scenes, there are moments of brilliance throughout, and the moral questions it raises are undeniably gripping. Without giving anything away, the ending lands just right for me, leaving me with a final taste of the film as an uneven but intriguing courtroom drama that I'd recommend but wouldn't necessarily rewatch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Juror #2 (2024)

📊 Ranked #1158/4069 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 74

lost to Clueless (#2031 → #1751)

beat Late Night with the Devil (#3048 → #3047)

beat Under the Roofs of Paris (held at #2539)

beat The Worst Person in the World (#2285 → #2341)

beat The Keep (#2158 → #2159)

beat A Night to Remember (#2095 → #2092)

beat X (#2062 → #2134)

beat Brothers (#2046 → #2105)

beat The Suburbans (held at #2038)

lost to Moonrise Kingdom (#2034 → #913)

beat America's Sweethearts (#2036 → #2035)

beat Wind River (#2035 → #2396)

Sophie's Choice (1982)

IMDb plot summary: Sophie is the survivor of Nazi concentration camps, who has found a reason to live with Nathan, a sparkling if unsteady American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Peter MacNicol.

Sophie’s Choice is one of those cultural touchstones films I "should have" seen already... but I'm not convinced it quite deserves that title. The film follows a young writer who becomes entangled with Polish Holocaust survivor Sophie, played by Meryl Streep, and her highly volatile lover, played by Kevin Kline. The relationship between the latter two is both magnetic and toxic, filled with love, cruelty, and instability, and the writer becomes an audience insert observer of their dynamic. Streep is extraordinary here. Her acting choices for Sophie are both distinct and completely believable. Kline is also incredible, though, filling his scenes with a terrifying mania, making the pair fascinating but sometimes very difficult to watch. All that praise aside, though, I came away ultimately disappointed. Their relationship goes round and round in circles, peeling away layers and back story, until it culminates in the story of Sophie's titular "choice"... but that scene feels oddly disconnected from the rest of the story. It isn't the smoking gun revelation about Sophie that it's set up to be, it's just one more horrifically tragic piece of her past that then gets jumped past to tie up loose ends. Maybe the novel handles this better. I’m curious to read it and see if it's able to make that connection. As it stands, Sophie’s Choice is beautifully acted and very compelling for much of its runtime, but somehow both too long and not long enough to tie its pieces together.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Sophie's Choice (1982)

📊 Ranked #1613/4068 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 61

beat Cinderella (#2030 → #3078)

lost to Pig (#1013 → #1018)

lost to Muppet Treasure Island (#1520 → #1519)

beat Spy (#1776 → #2268)

beat Batman Forever (#1647 → #2262)

lost to Spider-Man 2 (#1584 → #1583)

lost to True Romance (#1615 → #1617)

beat Cake (#1631 → #1634)

beat Undercover Blues (#1623 → #1628)

lost to The Slipper and the Rose (held at #1619)

beat Logan (#1621 → #1624)

lost to The Trojan Women (#1620 → #1622)

I'm Still Here (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A woman married to a former politician during the military dictatorship in Brazil is forced to reinvent herself and chart a new course for her family after a violent and arbitrary act.

Directed by Walter Salles. Stars Fernanda Torres, Fernanda Montenegro, and Selton Mello.

I'm Still Here is a Brazilian film based on a true story about a family living through Brazil's military dictatorship of the 60s through the 80s. When the husband, a dissident politician husband, is arrested and disappears, we follow his wife holding her family together and seeking out the truth of what happened to her husband. The film unfolds slowly -- so slowly, in fact, that it took me almost the entire runtime to really get invested in the story. But patience pays off here: the final scene brings everything together beautifully and makes the rest of the story click into place for the first time. This is why I don't give up on movies halfway through if they're not working for me -- sometime you have these endings that flip it around entirely. It makes me want to rewatch it now that I know where it’s heading, because I feel like it would be an entirely different emotional experience for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 I'm Still Here (2024)

📊 Ranked #1617/4067 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 61

beat Wristcutters: A Love Story (#2030 → #2031)

lost to Date Night (#1013 → #871)

lost to The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (#1541 → #1525)

beat The Help (#1741 → #1760)

beat The Long Kiss Goodnight (#1648 → #1704)

lost to Metal Lords (#1585 → #1551)

beat Vanya on 42nd Street (#1616 → #2161)

lost to Pushing Tin (#1584 → #1582)

lost to Godzilla (#1607 → #1494)

lost to The Shining (#1612 → #1607)

beat De-Lovely (#1614 → #2043)

beat Marie Antoinette (#1613 → #1658)

Silkwood (1983)

IMDb plot summary: A worker at a plutonium processing plant is purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing worker safety violations at the plant.

Directed by Mike Nichols. Stars Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher.

Silkwood tells the true story of Karen Silkwood, a worker at a plutonium processing plant who becomes a whistleblower when she starts to realize how many serious safety violations her company is allowing. This of course leads to pressure from the company for her to stop talking. Meryl Streep is so down to earth in this movie. I often don't like her playing "regular" people and find her more believable in more extreme characterizations, but she completely disappears into this role. Karen feels authentic, with a quiet strength that makes her feel realistically flawed but easy to root for. The story itself is infuriating -- in a "this should never have happened" way, not a "this is poorly written" way. You really feel the injustice of the big corporation crushing the sole individual speaking out. There is a good chunk of the film devoted to Karen's interpersonal drama with her boyfriend and her best friend roommate, and that's a lot less compelling, but it does offer some more context for her character, so I don't have too much of a complaint about it -- just that it's the least interesting part of the film. Overall, it’s a pretty good film: grounded, angry in all the right ways, and in many ways that's due entirely to Streep's strong performance.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Silkwood (1983)

📊 Ranked #1551/4066 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 63

beat Mame (#2029 → #2031)

lost to The Menu (#1013 → #1019)

lost to Superlopez (#1519 → #1367)

beat Evil (#1775 → #1783)

beat The Help (#1646 → #1779)

beat The Intouchables (#1583 → #1578)

lost to Malcolm X (#1551 → #1543)

beat Pushing Tin (#1567 → #1601)

lost to River's Edge (#1559 → #1550)

beat The Chorus (#1563 → #1723)

beat Blow Dry (#1561 → #1809)

beat mother! (held at #1560)

The Mean Season (1985)

IMDb plot summary: When a teenager is shot at the beach, a journalist from The Miami Journal is sent to cover the story. He's called by the murderer and told there'll be four more.

Directed by Phillip Borsos. Stars Kurt Russell, Mariel Hemingway, and Richard Jordan.

The Mean Season stars Kurt Russell as a journalist investigating a serial killer, when he begins to get phone calls from the killer himself, asking Russell to publicize his story. This one definitely takes a while to get going. The setup drags quite a bit before the thriller elements really kick in, and even then, it keeps dampening the tension so it never feels as sharp as it could. However, there is a kind of pulpy fun to it once things start moving. I see it taking a stab at some statements about fame and media obsession which could be extra interesting through today's social media lens, but unfortunately those ideas get muddled and never quite land. Additionally, while I like Kurt Russell in other roles, he's pretty wooden here, playing his character too detached to hold me. That's a lot of negative tossed at the film, but mostly it's just "fine." Middle-of-the-road, unmemorable, but watchable.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Mean Season (1985)

📊 Ranked #2366/4065 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 41

lost to Girl Shy (#2029 → #1877)

beat Benedetta (#3045 → #3047)

beat Chocolat (#2536 → #2540)

lost to The Wailing (#2283 → #2250)

beat National Theatre Live: The Habit of Art (#2409 → #2418)

lost to Dunkirk (#2346 → #2298)

beat Mudbound (#2377 → #2407)

beat It Comes at Night (#2361 → #2388)

lost to Maverick (#2353 → #2277)

beat Aakrosh (#2357 → #2360)

beat Le Week-End (#2355 → #2359)

beat Jimmy the Kid (#2354 → #2377)

Millennium Actress (2001)

IMDb plot summary: A TV interviewer and his cameraman meet a former actress and travel through her memories and career.

Directed by Satoshi Kon. Stars Miyoko Shôji, Mami Koyama, and Fumiko Orikasa.

Millennium Actress is an anime film about an aging actress giving a rare interview about her decades of work. The film jumps back and forth in time, showing us the memories she’s sharing with her audience. I had high hopes for this one because I loved Perfect Blue, but I just didn’t quite gel with Millennium Actress. It took me a long time to really grasp the concept -- what was memory, what was movie, what was metaphor -- and by the time it locked in, I felt a bit distanced from the story. As a result, it never quite carried the emotional weight I think it was supposed to. That said, I can see how it might play out better on a rewatch, knowing where it’s going and what it’s trying to say. Overall, it’s interesting, and it looks gorgeous, but it didn’t quite hook me on this first viewing.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Millennium Actress (2002)

📊 Ranked #1544/4064 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 63

beat The Inspector General (#2032 → #2310)

lost to The Substance (#1016 → #1017)

lost to The Wolf of Wall Street (#1511 → #1512)

lost to The Mummy (#1781 → #1766)

lost to American Teen (#1902 → #1538)

beat Natural Born Killers (held at #1977)

beat 21 (#1897 → #1898)

beat Hans Christian Andersen (#1917 → #1983)

beat Miss Europe (#1911 → #1918)

beat Swing Girls (#1903 → #1911)

beat Krull (#1856 → #1861)

Romero (1989)

IMDb plot summary: The life and work of Archbishop Oscar Romero who opposed, at great personal risk, the tyrannical repression in El Salvador.

Directed by John Duigan. Stars Raul Julia, Richard Jordan, and Ana Alicia.

Romero stars Raul Julia as real-life El Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who encouraged the church to take a stand against government corruption, despite the danger it put his life in. This is a slow burn, but I'd say the story is worth it in the end. I'm always drawn to stories about people of faith standing up for justice, and this one handles that theme with nuance. Julia does a great job playing this character. He is not flashy, but he brings quiet conviction to the role, making him feel very human -- extremely important for a film that could lean into sappy adoration. By the time the credits rolled, I found myself wanting to learn more about Romero himself. While the film is often very dry, I suspect its final effect is that it will linger with me for awhile.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Romero (1989)

📊 Ranked #1973/4063 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 51

beat How I Live Now (#2030 → #2032)

lost to The Impostors (#981 → #983)

lost to Kajaki (#1521 → #1533)

lost to Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (#1776 → #1767)

beat Sweet Charity (#1902 → #1929)

lost to A Warm Corner (#1837 → #1795)

lost to Orgazmo (#1870 → #1578)

lost to Kanal (#1886 → #1677)

beat The Ladykillers (#1894 → #1921)

beat Roma (#1890 → #1898)

beat King Kong (#1888 → #2139)

lost to To Be or Not to Be (#1887 → #1862)

Kneecap (2024)

IMDb plot summary: When fate brings Belfast teacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed "low life scum" Naoise and Liam Óg, the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish, they lead a movement to save their mother tongue.

Directed by Rich Peppiat. Stars Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, and DJ Próvaí.

Kneecap is a fictional biography of the Irish hip-hop group Kneecap, starring all the members as themselves. It tells the story of how they got together and rose to fame despite pressure from multiple sides to quit. This movie is such a strange surprise, made all the more so when I discovered this was a real group and not just a fully made-up story. How much of the story is true? Who knows, but it doesn't matter much because the story and the songs within it are so good. The music is really the emotional core here -- hip-hop is a great musical genre to pair with a story about the fight for Irish identity, and it works all the way through. I loved getting to hear them rap in both English and Irish. It becomes such a powerful statement about rebelling and being counterculture, and it gives extra impact to the story. Overall, this film is very enjoyable, and it also left me wanting to check out Kneecap's music afterward. Definitely worth watching!

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Kneecap (2024)

📊 Ranked #1179/4062 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 72

beat Earth (#2031 → #2748)

lost to Pariah (#1017 → #989)

beat Flora and Son (#1521 → #1520)

beat Glory (#1269 → #1444)

lost to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (#1158 → #1118)

lost to Marjorie Prime (#1206 → #1099)

beat Garbo Talks (#1234 → #1340)

beat Wag the Dog (#1225 → #1226)

beat VeggieTales: Where's God When I'm S-Scared? (#1212 → #1352)

beat The Bells of St. Mary's (#1171 → #1172)

beat Going My Way (#1169 → #1170)

beat Time Bandits (#1209 → #1238)

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001)

IMDb plot summary: After marrying a poor woman, rich Rahul is disowned by his father and moves to London to build a new life. Years later, his now-grown younger brother Rohan embarks on a mission to bring Rahul back home and reunite the family.

Directed by Karan Johar. Stars Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, and Shah Rukh Khan.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is a Bollywood film about a family who exiles their oldest son for marrying outside of the father’s will. A decade later, the younger son sets out to try to reunite them all. One of the things I often really enjoy about Bollywood films is their willingness to tell giant sprawling stories across generations, and that really pays off here. There's a great swooping narrative demonstrating all the actions from the past shaping the present. That sense of generational tension gives the story emotional weight, even when it veers into melodrama. The musical numbers are also excellent -- colorful, energetic, fully worth stopping the story to focus on every time. It's a great balance of spectacle and heart, and the ending is truly satisfying. One I can see myself coming back to.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001)

📊 Ranked #1258/4061 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 71

beat Hotel Rwanda (#2028 → #2030)

lost to Targets (#1012 → #1005)

beat The Tragedy of Macbeth (#1520 → #1493)

beat The Pianist (#1266 → #1484)

lost to Spellbound (#1138 → #1135)

beat Nine to Five (#1201 → #1386)

lost to Good Will Hunting (#1169 → #773)

beat If Beale Street Could Talk (#1185 → #1535)

beat VeggieTales: Josh and the Big Wall (#1177 → #1783)

beat Ghostbusters II (#1173 → #1211)

beat Hoodwinked! (#1171 → #1259)

lost to South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (#1170 → #1147)

Presumed Innocent (1990)

IMDb plot summary: As a lawyer investigates the murder of a colleague, he finds himself more connected to the crime than anyone else.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Stars Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, and Raul Julia.

Presumed Innocent stars Harrison Ford as a prosecuting attorney whose coworker (and affair partner) is brutally murdered, and he finds himself implicated by evidence he can’t disprove. This was a pretty bland film that never quite makes it where it wants to go. The story is pretty lifeless with a few erotic scenes tossed in, but they very much feel gratuitous. They come across as a cheap cash grab trying to bank on having cast attractive actors -- although, also, if you want your audience to be drawn in by Harrison Ford being hot, you should not also give him the dorkiest haircut of all time. It almost manages to pull the whole thing together with a creative answer to the mystery, but then it tanks that by trying to make that answer seem much more profound than it actually is. Ultimately this is a bland thriller that doesn't have much to make it work.

How it entered my Flickchart:

lost to Clueless (1995)

lost to Ready Player One (2018)

won against Madigan (1968)

won against Robots (2005)

lost to The Number 23 (2007)

won against McLintock! (1963)

won against The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

won against The Bishop Murder Case (1929)

won against Soup to Nuts (1930)

won against In Time (2011)

lost to Batman Begins (2005)

won against Lincoln (2012)

22%, #3142/4060 on my Flickchart.

The Holy Mountain (1973)

IMDb plot summary: In a corrupt, greed-fueled world, a powerful alchemist leads a messianic character and seven materialistic figures to the Holy Mountain, where they hope to achieve enlightenment.

Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Stars Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas, and Zamira Saunders.

The Holy Mountain is a surrealist film by Alejandro Jodorowsky, so I’m not going to go much into plot because it’s not super comprehensible. I had heard of this movie but didn’t realize until I started watching that it was directed by the director of my all-time least favorite film, Fando y Lis, so I didn’t have high hopes for it. It wasn’t nearly that unpleasant, but it sure was boring for me. I understand that it's not plot-driven, that it's supposed to be surreal and full of symbolism, but after a while, it just felt like chaos for the sake of chaos. The visuals are often striking, sure, but without a narrative thread for me to latch onto, I couldn't stay invested. The most interesting part, by far, was the section showing life on different planets. Each one was unique and creative, and it was a fun little tangent that actually held my attention. But the rest of the film dragged on for what seemed like forever. Jodorowsky is not for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Holy Mountain (1973)

📊 Ranked #3679/4059 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 9

lost to Meet John Doe (held at #2026)

lost to Bottle Shock (#3040 → #2972)

lost to Enough (#3550 → #3510)

beat Winter Passing (#3803 → #3811)

beat I Accuse My Parents (#3676 → #3684)

lost to Hostage (#3613 → #3575)

lost to Airborne (#3644 → #3642)

lost to GoldenEye (#3660 → #3661)

lost to Wimbledon (#3668 → #3670)

 lost to The Godfather Part II (held at #3672)

lost to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (#3674 → #3671)

beat A Sound of Thunder (#3675 → #3683)

Patriot Games (1992)

IMDb plot summary: When CIA analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets him and his family for revenge.

Directed by Phillip Noyce. Stars Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, and Patrick Bergin.

Patriot Games is a Jack Ryan movie starring Harrison Ford as Ryan, who intercepts two brothers trying to kill a British lord and, in the process, kills one of them. The living assassin makes it his life’s mission to get revenge on Ryan for his brother’s death. I don’t really know this franchise at all, but I’d always assumed more political intrigue, while really this one primarily comes down to one man and his family being personally harassed. I’m not complaining – that’s a more interesting story to me, and the assassin, played by Sean Bean, ends up being the most fascinating character as he continuously throws his cause under the bus to carry out his personal revenge. The pacing is pretty solid, as it’s a long film but moves along quickly enough that it doesn’t FEEL long. It doesn’t make me want to watch anything else in the franchise – Ryan himself is by far the least interesting piece here – but this was enjoyable enough.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Patriot Games (1992)

📊 Ranked #2315/4058 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 42

lost to King Kong (#2025 → #2015)

beat Hour of the Wolf (#3039 → #3037)

beat Only You (held at #2531)

lost to Drive (#2278 → #2274)

beat Thoughtcrimes (#2404 → #2406)

beat Dr. No (#2341 → #2371)

beat Pokémon: The First Movie (held at #2309)

beat About Last Night... (#2293 → #2307)

beat Dr. Seuss on the Loose (#2285 → #2508)

beat A Tale of Two Sisters (#2281 → #2285)

beat Dhamaal (held at #2279)

In a Violent Nature (2024)

IMDb plot summary: When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 70-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it.

Directed by Chris Nash. Stars Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, and Cameron Love.

In a Violent Nature is a mostly standard slasher film told, unusually, from the point of view of the killer. Point of view is literal here – we follow him through the woods as he stalks a group of college aged students, but he does not speak or give us much insight into his actions. While I enjoy the slightly sideways perspective this takes on the slasher genre, and at least one of the deaths was so surprisingly gruesome that I laughed out loud, there is a LOT of just… nothing in this movie. Lots of walking through the woods, picking up weapons, walking by people who are talking and listening to them… it feels almost more like watching a Let’s Play video, where the moments of action are few and far between. If I was more engaged in the slasher genre overall, this might pop more for me, but I did find myself zoning out for large chunks of the movie as we trudged through leaves. Horror fans should probably check this out, but I like this better in theory than I do in execution.

How it entered my Flickchart:🎥 In a Violent Nature (2024)

📊 Ranked #2278/4057 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 43

beat The Cloverfield Paradox (held at #2025)

lost to Mister Roberts (#1011 → #1014)

lost to Beauty and the Beast (#1518 → #1477)

lost to Abigail (#1772 → #1741)

beat Footlight Parade (#1898 → #1895)

beat Gold Diggers of 1933 (#1835 → #1942)

beat Stalag 17 (#1803 → #1814)

beat The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (#1787 → #2076)

lost to Spy (#1779 → #1772)

beat My Blueberry Nights (#1783 → #2390)

lost to Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (#1781 → #1769)

lost to Once Upon A Mattress (#1782 → #1748)

Nickel Boys (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A powerful friendship develops between two young Black men as they navigate the harrowing trials of reform school together.

Directed by RaMell Ross. Stars Ethan Cole Sharp, Sam Malone, and Najah Bradley.

Nickel Boys follows two Black teenagers who are sent to a reform school for boys, where they bond with each other as they weather the negative treatment from the adults and figure out what their futures might look like. This feels like one of those movies that flew in, wowed everybody, and then suddenly disappeared and nobody’s talked about it for a year. The filming gimmick is that it’s told entirely from first-person point of view cinematography, switching between the two main characters as they take center stage. It definitely is an attempt to put us in the characters’ shoes, but it also calls attention to the gimmick in a way I don’t love. The story is interesting and I want to follow along with it, but oddly the camera gimmickry distanced me from it, which I’m sure is exactly the opposite of the intention. As a result, though, this one left me emotionally cold even when I appreciated pieces of the artistry.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Nickel Boys (2024)

📊 Ranked #2096/4056 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 48

lost to The Last Metro (#2024 → #1327)

beat Robots (#3038 → #3276)

beat Pacific Rim (#2530 → #2527)

beat 42nd Street (#2277 → #3089)

lost to The Beach (#2151 → #2095)

beat The Adventures of Huck Finn (#2214 → #2215)

beat BASEketball (#2182 → #3008)

beat The Room (#2166 → #2180)

beat A Hard Day's Night (#2158 → #2166)

beat Holiday Affair (#2154 → #2299)

beat Frank (#2152 → #2159)

Black Beauty (1994)

IMDb plot summary: The fates of horses, and the people who own and command them, are revealed as Black Beauty narrates the circle of his life.

Directed by Caroline Thompson. Stars Alan Cumming, Sean Bean, and David Thewlis.

Black Beauty is a film adaptation of the children’s book about a horse’s life as he goes through a variety of living situations and owners that are sometimes cruel, sometimes kind. Alan Cumming voices Black Beauty’s thoughts as a narrator. It’s been years since I read this book, but this film brought back a lot of warm fuzzy memories and was charmingly told. The language, particularly Black Beauty’s narration, is clearly targeted toward younger viewers, and I don’t mind it – it gives the story a wholesome sheen that ties the tone together and helps to offset the more disturbing pieces of the plot. I also appreciated the pacing, which is active enough to keep younger viewers engaged but slow enough to allow the quieter moments to land. This all sounds much more impressive than it perhaps is – it is definitely still a children’s film, just a pretty well-done one. I was more drawn into the story than I expected, and if I was a horse-obsessed child, I suspect this would be exactly what I wanted.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Black Beauty (1994)

📊 Ranked #1789/4055 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 56

beat In Search of a Midnight Kiss (#2024 → #2037)

lost to SubUrbia (held at #1010)

beat Oddity (#1517 → #1643)

lost to The Hunt for Red October (#1262 → #1220)

beat Hook, Line and Sinker (#1388 → #1537)

lost to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (#1325 → #1187)

beat The Miseducation of Cameron Post (#1356 → #1390)

lost to The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (#1340 → #1338)

lost to The Zone of Interest (#1348 → #1341)

lost to Solaris (#1352 → #1347)

beat Triangle of Sadness (#1354 → #1971)

beat Dangerous Liaisons (#1353 → #1360)

Total Eclipse (1995)

IMDb plot summary: Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.

Directed by Agnieszka Holland. Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, David Thewlis, and Romane Bohringer.

Total Eclipse tells the story of the turbulent love affair between French poets Arthur Rimbaud (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (played by David Thewlis). Verlaine takes Rimbaud under his wing as a younger poet, and the two begin a wildly volatile relationship. There’s just so much generally unpleasant about this story, these characters, and the film as a whole. Thewlis often has an uncanny ability to ooze sleaziness, and here that is turned up to 11, as he runs into a love affair with a minor and treats his wife despicably. DiCaprio doesn’t fare much better, with the almost hilariously obnoxious self-righteousness of the young, and I never once want him to get what he wants. While obviously they aren’t supposed to be a paragon of romance, the movie definitely hints that there’s something beautiful or at least worthwhile about their relationship, and I just don’t see it. It’s just two hours of miserable people making each other miserable, and I don’t know what I’m meant to get from it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Total Eclipse (1995)

📊 Ranked #2804/4054 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 31

lost to Letters from Iwo Jima (#2017 → #2018)

beat Funny Face (#3037 → #3105)

lost to Internet Famous (#2530 → #2534)

lost to First Blood (#2782 → #2680)

beat The Conjuring (#2908 → #3020)

lost to Argylle (#2845 → #2851)

lost to Holiday (#2876 → #2526)

beat American Hustle (#2892 → #2926)

lost to Sorry, Wrong Number (#2884 → #2585)

lost to Avalon (#2888 → #2497)

lost to Finding Forrester (#2890 → #2453)

lost to The Butter Battle Book (#2891 → #2887)

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Jamie regrets her breakup with her girlfriend, while Marian needs to relax. In search of a fresh start, they embark on an unexpected road trip to Tallahassee. Things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals.

Directed by Ethan Coen. Stars Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Beanie Feldstein.

Drive-Away Dolls tells the story of two women who sign up to deliver a car across the country, only to find out that they are carrying forbidden cargo, and someone is after them to get it back. This is a weird delightful film that is a solo film by Ethan Coen, and if all Coen Brothers movies were like this, I’d be a much bigger fan of their work. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan are both so charismatic – Margaret Qualley is quickly becoming one of my favorite new actresses. There’s a playful zaniness to this that comes out both in the silliness of the actual forbidden cargo and in the strong contrast between Viswanathan’s anxious, private nature and Qualley’s absolutely unrestrained hedonism. It is a wild, over-the-top ride that I had a great time with.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

📊 Ranked #993/4053 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 77

beat The Phoenician Scheme (#2023 → #2027)

lost to His Girl Friday (#1010 → #1006)

beat She's Having a Baby (#1517 → #1518)

beat The Long Day Closes (#1262 → #1273)

beat Morning Glory (#1136 → #1139)

beat Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (held at #1073)

beat Life as a House (held at #1041)

beat Draft Day (#1025 → #1110)

lost to Gremlins (#1017 → #991)

beat Wizards (#1021 → #1023)

beat City Lights (#1019 → #1021)

beat Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (#1018 → #1019)

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

IMDb plot summary: The legendary Greek hero leads a team of intrepid adventurers in a perilous quest for the legendary Golden Fleece.

Directed by Don Chaffey. Stars Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, and Gary Raymond.

Jason and the Argonauts is an epic fantasy adventure telling the legend of Jason assembling a crew to go find the Golden Fleece, which will allow him to unseat the unlawful ruler of his country. The story here is pretty simple, but the creativity of the filmmaking is what makes me recommend this movie. The film uses stop-motion animation, in collaboration with Ray Harryhausen, to portray the various creatures the adventurers must defeat to achieve their goals. While these obviously aren’t photorealistic the way that we’ve come to expect of our adventure movies in the 2020s, it truly brings out the fantasy nature of the story. It’s delightful to see these statues and animated creatures interacting with our real-life performers, and, for me anyway, it means it’s never boring – it even keeps the exposition short so we can get to the next battle quickly. This was a surprisingly fun watch!

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

📊 Ranked #1146/4052 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 73

beat The Commitments (#2022 → #2227)

lost to Re-Animator (#1010 → #1011)

beat The Muppet Christmas Carol (#1516 → #1617)

lost to Hoodwinked! (#1262 → #1145)

beat The Harder They Fall (#1388 → #1786)

beat Corrina, Corrina (#1325 → #1372)

beat Shadow of the Vampire (#1293 → #1294)

beat Maine Pyar Kiya (#1277 → #1276)

beat Punch-Drunk Love (#1269 → #1334)

beat Logan's Run (#1265 → #1296)

beat The Palm Beach Story (#1263 → #1266)

How to Survive a Plague (2012)

IMDb plot summary: The story of two coalitions -- ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) -- whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition.

Directed by David France.

How to Survive a Plague is a documentary looking at the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, focusing particularly on the activists who banded together to demand better research. It’s difficult to rank documentaries, much less such dark ones about deep injustices in our country’s past. The film does a great job of cutting together footage from that actual time period alongside talking heads of people who survived the epidemic long enough to be able to find a sustainable treatment. One thing that stood out in particular was the general attitude that so many of these people had: that they personally almost certainly would not survive, but they wanted to do their best for their future community. The film also captures how difficult it is to get a whole community to narrow their focuses enough to actually accomplish something – in-fighting and diverse interests make it all too easy for the group to fracture and lose their communal power. It’s a thoughtful and interesting look at a very dark time in our nation’s history, and the final moments where we finally got to see a glimpse of hope are powerful. Worth watching, for sure.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 How to Survive a Plague (2012)

📊 Ranked #1515/4051 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 64

beat Spider Baby (#2022 → #2029)

lost to Widows' Peak (#1010 → #1012)

lost to Jurassic Park (#1516 → #299)

beat Five Graves to Cairo (#1769 → #1835)

beat Hustle (#1642 → #1645)

beat Evita (#1579 → #1575)

beat The Princess and the Frog (#1547 → #1572)

lost to Hollywood Homicide (#1531 → #1485)

lost to Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (#1539 → #1532)

beat Godzilla (#1543 → #1574)

lost to Kajaki (#1541 → #1512)

beat Spider-Man 2 (#1542 → #1583)

Body of Lies (2009)

IMDb plot summary: A CIA agent on the ground in Jordan hunts down a powerful terrorist leader while being caught between the unclear intentions of his American supervisors and Jordan Intelligence.

Directed by Ridley Scott. Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, and Mark Strong.

Body of Lies is a military action thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a CIA agent in Jordan trying to root out a terrorist in hiding, and Russell Crowe as his boss giving him orders from back home in the US. I’ll be honest, though, this is one of those films where I had to use Wikipedia to remind me of the plot because it stuck so little in my head. I remember disguises and people constantly being double-crossed and some unpleasant torture scenes, but not any aspect of how the plot came together. The one piece I do remember was Crowe as the head honcho back in the States, who is frequently seen having brutal conversations over the phone with DiCaprio as he is, for example, shuttling his kids to school or helping with homework. Seeing him making “the tough decisions” while being living cozily in his suburban life, fully shielded from any of the psychological stress of those in the field, is harrowing. However, that’s the only piece of this film that really stands out. Most of it feels exactly like most military action thrillers of this part of the decade, and I’ve already seen enough of those to be bored of them. Some good, a lot of bland.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Body of Lies (2008)

📊 Ranked #2532/4050 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 37

lost to Spider Baby (#2021 → #2011)

beat The Number 23 (#3034 → #3037)

lost to Genius (#2527 → #2523)

lost to Come to the Stable (#2779 → #2612)

lost to Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (#2905 → #2533)

beat Hiroshima Mon Amour (#2968 → #2972)

beat The Double Life of Véronique (#2936 → #2939)

beat Incredibles 2 (#2920 → #2924)

lost to The Night of the Hunter (#2912 → #2891)

lost to Carol (#2916 → #2459)

beat The War (#2918 → #2922)

beat Sixteen Candles (#2917 → #2931)

Overboard (2018)

IMDb plot summary: After a spoiled, wealthy yacht owner is thrown overboard and loses his memory, a mistreated employee convinces him that he is her working-class husband.

Directed by Rob Greenberg. Stars Eugenio Derbez, Anna Faris, Eva Longoria.

Overboard is a gender-swapped remake of the 1980s film in which a spoiled rich person falls off their yacht, losing their memory, and is tricked by a former employee into thinking the two were married. In the original, it was a man lying to a spoiled woman, and in this version, it’s a woman lying to a spoiled man. I’m not sure the gender swap actually makes the awfulness of the romance any better, though. It’s such a manipulative story, and I know I have to have some suspension of disbelief, but nothing is going to make me root for Anna Faris as the main character when this is the path she takes, even if out of desperation. What does make this film palatable is how charismatic Eugenio Derbez is as the perpetually confused amnesiac trying to figure out how to be a good human again. He manages to sell the character, and it’s worth it watching him work to make connections with the people around him. Unfortunately, in a rom com, you really need to buy into both your leads, and Faris just never comes across as sympathetic enough for us to want her to succeed here. A messy movie that attempts to update the original and doesn’t quite stick the landing.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Overboard (2018)

📊 Ranked #1584/4049 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 62

lost to Away We Go (#2021 → #1958)

beat Late Night with the Devil (#3033 → #3032)

beat Cold Mountain (#2527 → #3325)

beat Once Upon a Time in the West (#2275 → #2282)

beat Metropolis (#2148 → #2152)

lost to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (#2085 → #1426)

lost to The Baby-Sitters Club (#2116 → #2028)

beat Arthur Christmas (#2132 → #2214)

lost to Sinbad of the Seven Seas (#2124 → #1893)

beat Pat and Mike (#2128 → #2129)

beat National Theatre Live: The Seagull (#2126 → #2128)

beat Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (#2125 → #2131)

Only Yesterday (1991)

IMDb plot summary: A twenty-seven-year-old office worker travels to the countryside while reminiscing about her childhood in Tokyo.

Directed by Isao Takahata. Stars Miki Imai, Toshirô Yanagiba, and Yoko Honna.

Only Yesterday is an anime film by Studio Ghibli that takes place in two different time periods. In the present, we have a mid-twenties woman going to work on a farm in the country for the summer and making connections with the people there. Then, alongside that, we see flashbacks of her 5th grade self figuring out romantic relationships, disapproving parents, academic struggles, and volatile relationships with siblings. The movie this reminded me a little bit of (although of course this one came much earlier) was Mirai. That one is more fantastical, but both feature young people drawing on their memories and imagination to help them process a new situation they are in. I really like the framing that this character has of bringing her fifth grade self along on this journey. Seeing her reflect on the person she was and the struggle she had and how it impacts who she is now, whether in a positive or negative light, is really lovely. This one feels like it's full of small impactful moments that I only managed to catch a fraction of while watching the film. It definitely feels like it would hold up to multiple viewings, with different layers of character and theme being revealed each time. But even for just a first watch, it was a very moving story.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Only Yesterday (1991)

📊 Ranked #521/4048 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 87

beat Ender's Game (#2019 → #2023)

beat The Pursuit of Happyness (#1008 → #1012)

beat I ♥ Huckabees (#503 → #555)

lost to Fright Night (#251 → #249)

lost to The Great Muppet Caper (#377 → #374)

beat Conspiracy Theory (#440 → #435)

lost to Strange Days (#408 → #407)

lost to (500) Days of Summer (#424 → #419)

lost to The Goodbye Girl (#432 → #422)

lost to Black Narcissus (#436 → #430)

beat Hero (#438 → #469)

beat Hearts Beat Loud (#437 → #462)

Morning Glory (2010)

IMDb plot summary: An upstart television producer accepts the challenge of reviving a struggling morning show program with warring co-hosts.

Directed by Roger Michell. Stars Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, and Diane Keaton.

Morning Glory stars Rachel McAdam as the newest executive producer of the lowest-ranked morning TV program in the nation. She jumps in trying to find ways to boost the ratings, including hiring a legendary journalist, played by Harrison Ford, as the new anchorman. Ford is irritated to be doing new shows that he feels are beneath him and his level of expertise, and everything starts going wrong. This movie is a very simple and straightforward comedy drama without a lot of surprises in it, but it's sweet and works for me most of the time. I think I have to give most of the credit for that to Rachel McAdams, who really excels in this role. Her character is clearly neurodivergent coded while also being extremely competent at her job, even if she struggles in social situations. Harrison Ford does the same character he basically always does these days: grumpy old man who turns out to maybe have a heart. While that can sometimes be tedious, he has good foils here to bounce off of in McAdams and Diane Keaton, who make his schtick land a little better. The pacing of the film is also a particularly good, with each scene going on just long enough to keep us engaged without wearing out its welcome. Even though you know exactly how the story is ultimately going to play out, it keeps you engaged and wanting to watch more of it because you want to see what it's going to look like as it goes. A pleasant surprise.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Morning Glory (2010)

📊 Ranked #1105/4047 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 73

beat The Fighter (#2018 → #2542)

lost to Wizards (#1008 → #990)

beat Pushing Tin (#1514 → #1516)

beat Were the World Mine (#1260 → #1660)

beat Godzilla Minus One (#1133 → #1207)

lost to Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (#1070 → #1068)

lost to Laurence Anyways (#1101 → #1100)

lost to It (#1117 → #1112)

beat Cats Don't Dance (#1125 → #1123)

beat Family Business (#1121 → #1454)

beat The Death of Stalin (#1119 → #1342)

beat Ghostbusters II (#1118 → #1136)

Dogfight (1991)

IMDb plot summary: Before leaving to fight in Vietnam, a group of teenagers play a game where they try to seduce the ugliest girl they can find.

Directed by Nancy Savoca. Stars River Phoenix, Lili Taylor, and Richard Panebianco.

Dogfight tells the story of a group of young marines who are on their last night before they ship out and they agree to have a "dog fight," in which each of them invites a woman out on a  date, and whoever has the ugliest date wins. We follow one particular couple, in which the girl finds out what's going on and is deeply hurt by it. The next day the marine finds her, apologizes, and discovers that he actually really enjoys spending time with her and tries to make it up for her by going on an actual date. I knew very little about this film going into it, other than that it had been made into a musical at some point. It's a quiet film, just exploring these two characters and their relationship to each other, to others' perceptions of them, and to the war. Our two lead actors, River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, carry this beautifully. These characters are very believable, flaws and all, and it makes it far more engaging in the moments they do manage to connect. It reminds me a little bit of a less intellectual Before Sunrise, in terms of the mood evoked. I feel like this is one that's going to stay with me. Its quiet character examination is moving and memorable. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Dogfight (1991)

📊 Ranked #679/4046 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 83

beat Clear and Present Danger (#2018 → #2393)

beat The Song of Lunch (#1008 → #1200)

lost to Six Degrees of Separation (#503 → #467)

beat 5 Centimeters per Second (#755 → #742)

lost to Dancer in the Dark (#629 → #635)

beat Summer Wars (#692 → #713)

lost to Shiva Baby (#660 → #647)

lost to They Came Together (#676 → #667)

lost to Yojimbo (#684 → #656)

lost to Black Christmas (#688 → #690)

lost to Enchanted (#690 → #677)

beat The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (#691 → #846)

State of Play (2009)

IMDb plot summary: An investigative journalist probes the murder of a Congressman's mistress.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald. Stars Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, and Ben Affleck.

State of Play is a political thriller starring Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams as journalists digging into the mysterious death of a senator's staff member. Crowe and the senator, played by Ben Affleck, are longtime friends, and the question of whether this is a conflict of interest for Crowe to be investigating is definitely a concern. Like many stories about journalists, this one requires you to follow along very carefully piece by piece, as it's so easy to lose track of how the latest lead is related back to the original thing that they're looking into. Ffollowing the trail of breadcrumbs in these films is often kind of an exhausting thing for me, but it was done pretty entertainingly here. Without giving too many spoilers away, I also thought the way in which the story ended was creative and more nuanced than I expected. None of the actors particularly stand out, but none of them missed the mark either. The whole film is kind of like that, not exciting but not shoddy by any means. It's probably going to particularly appeal to you if you are already a fan of this genre or of any of the actors involved, but as someone with more neutral feelings on all of those, I thought it was fine but have no need to watch it again. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 State of Play (2009)

📊 Ranked #1916/4045 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 53

lost to Malignant (#2017 → #2008)

beat You Only Live Once (#3028 → #3027)

beat Her Man (held at #2523)

beat Selma (#2271 → #2272)

beat It's Kind of a Funny Story (#2146 → #2140)

beat The Firm (#2081 → #2080)

beat Gothika (#2048 → #2066)

beat The Perfumier (#2032 → #2533)

beat The Trial (#2024 → #2065)

lost to Muppet Treasure Island (#2020 → #1986)

lost to John Wick (#2022 → #1915)

beat Chain Reaction (#2023 → #2024)

A Simple Favor (2018)

IMDb plot summary: Stephanie is a single mother with a parenting vlog who befriends Emily, a secretive upper-class woman who has a child at the same elementary school. When Emily goes missing, Stephanie takes it upon herself to investigate.

Directed by Paul Feig.  Stars Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, and Henry Golding.

A Simple Favor stars Anna Kendrick as a naive single mother who befriends a glamorous public relations executive, played by Blake Lively. When Lively goes missing, Kendrick, always eager to help fix things, steps in to try to solve the case as well as look after Lively's son and husband left behind, and things get complicated. The first half of this film is a lot more compelling than the second. It's one of those mysteries where as the mystery gets revealed, it's less interesting than the dynamic that was set up to begin with. The scenes of Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively interacting early on are magnetic, and I could watch a whole movie just about their friendship and their contrasting levels of comfort and confidence and what they do and do not share with each other. As it goes on, it gets messy and plays one too many cards of "who's the actual good guy," and when it finally ends I found it unsatisfying. I don't know that it was a bad ending per se, probably the one that we needed to have, but it just didn't hold up to the excitement of the first half of the movie. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 A Simple Favor (2018)

📊 Ranked #1032/4044 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 75

beat Ender's Game (#2017 → #2021)

beat Sarah, Plain and Tall (#1007 → #1025)

lost to The Fallen Idol (held at #503)

lost to Point Break (held at #754)

lost to Sleight (#881 → #853)

lost to Hannah and Her Sisters (#944 → #947)

lost to What's Eating Gilbert Grape (held at #975)

lost to The Impostors (#991 → #927)

beat The Pursuit of Happyness (#999 → #1016)

lost to Re-Animator (#995 → #984)

lost to Trick 'r Treat (#997 → #995)

lost to My Life as a Dog (#998 → #957)

Paper Man (2009)

IMDb plot summary: A washed-up writer forms an unlikely friendship with a teenager from Long Island.

Directed by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney. Stars Jeff Daniels, Emma Stone, and Ryan Reynolds.

Paper Man is a dramatic comedy starring Jeff Daniels as a writer struggling with his second book, Lisa Kudrow as his highly successful doctor wife, and Emma Stone as an angsty local teenager with no direction in life. Daniels holds himself up in a small remote town, hoping to find the inspiration he needs, but ends up developing a strange parental relationship with Emma Stone and behaving more and more erratically until his wife becomes concerned for him. There is a style among a lot of indie stories that I adored in the mid-2000s and then got abruptly very bored of, and this is in that style: misunderstood artist, misunderstood teenagers, occasional moments of magical realism, casual reveals of deep trauma, all with a quirky small town vibe. I can see what it's going for, but the pieces seldom fit, and it doesn't do a great job of striking the right drama/comedy balance. There are definitely pieces early on where I was genuinely concerned for Emma Stone's well-being as she interacted with Daniels, and that just doesn't juxtapose super well against zany imaginary friends helping you find the right name for your main character. There's a pretty fun, if small, plot reveal toward the end that gives us a very moving scene between two of the minor characters, but it was by far the best part of the movie. The rest of it is well-intentioned but pretty muddled.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Paper Man (2009)

📊 Ranked #2118/4043 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 48

lost to Rock of Ages (#2017 → #1294)

beat You Only Live Once (#3027 → #3030)

beat Chocolat (#2523 → #2526)

beat Pitch Perfect 2 (#2271 → #2279)

lost to Bridge to Terabithia (#2144 → #2136)

beat Something the Lord Made (#2207 → #2212)

lost to Marvin's Room (#2175 → #2166)

beat Sneakerella (#2191 → #2201)

lost to Sunday in the Park with George (#2183 → #2155)

lost to Mrs Brown (#2187 → #1740)

beat David Copperfield (#2189 → #2205)

lost to Pride and Prejudice (#2188 → #2182)

Empire Records (1995)

IMDb plot summary: Twenty-four hours in the lives of the young employees at Empire Records when they all grow up and become young adults thanks to each other and the manager. They all face the store joining a chain store with strict rules.

Directed by Allan Moyle. Stars Anthony LaPaglia, Debi Mazar, and Maxwell Caulfield.

Empire Records is a day in the life of a record store owner and the many artsy teenagers working at the same store. While there are a bunch of different plot threads being followed, with each of the employees having their own little drama, the two larger plots being followed are 1) that the closing employee last night took the $9,000 that was meant to be deposited and gambled it away in Atlantic City, leaving the store owner panicked that it's going to mean the loss of the store, and 2) the store is hosting a giant meet and greet session for a popular star of yesteryear who is releasing his newest album. This is the most '90s film I have maybe ever seen. That's not a bad thing, I love this. The characters are dynamic, the dialogue is funny and sharp, definitely past the point of believability, but it's just so fun to hear them interact. While they have their relational problems, this group of employees also is weirdly heartwarming together. One scene where they host a fake funeral for the goth teen is a particularly perfect blend of comedy and sweetness. I'm not really sure how I missed out on this one all those years, but this one is a delightful gem and I definitely anticipate coming back to it at some point.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Empire Records (1995)

📊 Ranked #447/4042 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 89

beat John Wick (#2016 → #2018)

beat Widows' Peak (#1006 → #1008)

beat Revengers Tragedy (#502 → #500)

lost to Your Name. (#251 → #250)

lost to The Disaster Artist (held at #376)

lost to Hero (#439 → #437)

beat Bringing Out the Dead (#470 → #471)

beat Black Panther (#454 → #455)

lost to Women Talking (held at #446)

beat Carrie (#450 → #479)

beat The Maltese Falcon (held at #448)

beat The Kindergarten Teacher (#447 → #449)

The Pagemaster (1994)

IMDb plot summary: A cowardly boy, who buries himself in accident statistics, enters a library to escape a storm, only to be transformed into an animated illustration by the Pagemaster. He has to work through obstacles from classic books to return to real-life.

Directed by Pixote Hunt and Joe Johnston. Stars Macaulay Culkin, Christopher Lloyd, and Kanin Howell.

The Pagemaster stars Macaulay Culkin as a young child who is afraid of everything, but when taking shelter in the library during the storm, he is abruptly drawn into the world of books (portrayed by a shift from live-action to animation) and must find his way out with the help of several genre looks. He encounters various literary characters such as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Long John Silver as he makes his way back home. This is cute. This is for kids. I'm all for stories that take literary concepts and characters and stories and condense them down so that kids can have a solid understanding of them. The plot itself doesn't really matter as much as the fun of coming across the different characters and having to interact with them. The book characters that Culkin journeys with are extremely broadly written tropes but they function fine as children's storybook sidekicks. I might have been way more into this as a kid, as someone who loved reading all these classics and would have enjoyed seeing them on screen all condensed together in the same world, but it doesn't offer a lot of new and exciting things for me as an adult. That's okay. It's not for me. I watched it too late. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Pagemaster (1994)

📊 Ranked #3292/4041 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 18

lost to Short Circuit (#2016 → #2012)

lost to The Accidental Tourist (#3024 → #2977)

beat Mr. & Mrs. Smith (held at #3533)

lost to A Stranger Among Us (#3280 → #3275)

beat Move Over, Darling (#3406 → #3477)

beat Asterix and Cleopatra (#3343 → #3347)

lost to Good Night, and Good Luck. (#3311 → #3288)

beat Carousel (#3327 → #3330)

beat Billy the Kid (#3319 → #3324)

beat Pepito y la lámpara maravillosa (#3315 → #3318)

beat Susannah of the Mounties (#3313 → #3316)

beat Bright Lights (#3312 → #3313)

A Real Pain (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Mismatched cousins reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother, but their old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.

Directed by Jesse Eisenberg. Stars Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg, and Olha Bosova.

A Real Pain is directed by Jesse Eisenberg and stars Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as cousins who go on a heritage tour to Poland, where their grandmother lived before escaping as a Jewish refugee. The two cousins are very different in personality and in how they absorb the  exploration of their family's history, with Eisenberg being solemn and restrained and Culkin being effusive and prone to emotional outbursts. This felt like the kind of movie that I haven't seen in a long time, although I'm sure I have and just can't bring anything to mind. It's such a simple setup for these characters to explore their identities and their relationship to pain and suffering. The dialogue is beautifully crafted, and the two lead actors in particular do a marvelous job bringing their characters to life. Watching them interact, or even watching them watch each other interact with others, is  so engrossing, and while I'm still processing the big overall ideas of the movie or what the ending means about the characters, I really loved getting to be a fly on the wall as these two characters work through their relationship. It's the kind of movie I compare in the most complimentary way to a really great piece of theater. Even with the big set pieces of touristy Poland, the stakes and the characters are small and intimate, and it pays off emotionally.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 A Real Pain (2024)

📊 Ranked #563/4040 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 86

beat I and You (#2015 → #2019)

beat Child's Play (#1006 → #1095)

lost to VeggieTales: King George and the Ducky (#502 → #484)

beat 5 Centimeters per Second (#754 → #757)

beat GoodFellas (#627 → #632)

lost to Happy Death Day (held at #564)

beat L.A. Without a Map (#595 → #599)

beat Paddington 2 (#579 → #581)

lost to The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (#571 → #554)

beat Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (held at #575)

beat Anatomy of a Murder (held at #573)

beat The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (#572 → #653)

Cool As Ice (1991)

IMDb plot summary: A rapper gets stuck in a small town and falls for a local girl whose family is in witness protection.

Directed by David Kellogg. Stars Vanilla Ice, Kristin Minter, and Naomi Campbell.

Cool As Ice was a film vehicle for rapper Vanilla Ice and is often named as one of the worst films of the '90s. Vanilla Ice plays a cool biker kid who falls in love with a straight A high school graduate, and then has to not only bridge the gap between their two worlds but also save her family from being kidnapped. Yeah, this is a pretty stupid film. It rests entirely on trying to make Vanilla Ice seem cool, and from the ratings that got it seems like that was not an easy task even back in 1991, but now he just seems incredibly laughably silly. He gets several opportunities to perform, and none of them are interesting or particularly useful in setting the tone to the story. The kidnapping subplot is truly bizarre and seems to belong in an entirely different film, as if they wrote a whole story about worlds colliding in romance and then realized that it was only a 30 minute film, so they tossed in some musical numbers and added some gangsters. As I was watching this, I kept pausing to complain to my family about how ridiculous this all sounded. Fortunately it moves pretty quickly so the silliness of it is over fast, but this is not a good movie.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Cool as Ice (1991)

📊 Ranked #3755/4039 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 7

lost to Coraline (#2015 → #2007)

lost to Chungking Express (#3023 → #3021)

lost to The Last Temptation of Christ (#3531 → #3407)

beat Live a Little, Love a Little (#3783 → #3786)

lost to There's Something About Mary (#3657 → #3580)

lost to Candleshoe (#3720 → #3656)

lost to Pride & Prejudice (#3751 → #3747)

beat Thr3e (#3767 → #3776)

beat Black Sheep (#3759 → #3765)

beat The Lone Ranger (#3755 → #3760)

lost to Martyrs (#3753 → #3750)

beat Black and White (#3754 → #3757)