Godzilla Minus One (2023)

IMDb plot summary: Post-war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb.

Directed by Takashi Yamazaki. Starring Minami Hamabe, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, and Sakura Andô.

Godzilla Minus One is set just after the end of World War II, focusing on a disgraced Japanese former pilot who is struggling to make ends meet. When Godzilla appears as a threat to the country, the pilot is brought in to help as one of the few people who have encountered the monster before. This is the second Godzilla movie I watched as part of my 40 to 4K challenge, and it isn't nearly as interesting to me as Shin Godzilla was. I was not as drawn in by the characters and their quests to take down the monster. I did like the monster design -- some of those giant battles in the sea were very striking visually. And on paper, I really appreciate how much it centered around the aftermath of World War 2 in Japan, and how the appearance of a giant sea monster in that moment is just... spectacularly bad timing. Overall, it's a fine movie that is well put together but, as with so many franchise films for me, it all blends together with others telling basically the same story.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Godzilla Minus One > A Silent Voice

Godzilla Minus One < Elf

Godzilla Minus One > Flight of the Navigator

Godzilla Minus One > Saving Private Ryan

Godzilla Minus One < Last Action Hero

Godzilla Minus One > Nick of Time

Godzilla Minus One < The River Wild

Godzilla Minus One < The Rose

Godzilla Minus One < It (2017)

Godzilla Minus One > Doctor Strange

Godzilla Minus One < High Strung

Godzilla Minus One > Cool Runnings

Final spot: #1185 out of 4011, or 70%.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

IMDb plot summary: An exploration of the life, lessons, and legacy of iconic children's television host Fred Rogers.

Directed by Morgan Neville.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? is a documentary about Fred Rogers and his career, primarily his children's show Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, but also the other things he did throughout his life to try to achieve his goal of spreading kindness and conveying love. This was exactly the movie I needed to watch this year. I didn't even watch much Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood as a child, but this was so wholesome and hopeful that I teared up more than once. I loved seeing all the people who'd worked with him throughout the years talking about how deeply he cared about kids and the lessons they were learning about themselves. I expected any celebrity documentary to be more focused on trying to dig into the darker side of someone, but this really doesn't do that much at all, focusing more on his impact and heart for helping people than anything. As an educator myself, although for older ages, it really made me more hopeful about my place in the world. I may not have a reach like Fred Rogers, but I think our hearts are in a similar place, and on some level I have to trust that that is going to make a difference for someone. This was the movie I needed to watch right now, and documentaries rarely affect me that way. I'm glad I finally made space to watch it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Won't You Be My Neighbor? > The Call

Won't You Be My Neighbor? > Key Largo

Won't You Be My Neighbor? > Network

Won't You Be My Neighbor? < Parasite

Won't You Be My Neighbor? < Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Won't You Be My Neighbor? > Tarzan

Won't You Be My Neighbor? < Once

Won't You Be My Neighbor? > Field of Dreams

Won't You Be My Neighbor? < I.Q.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? < Half a Sixpence

Won't You Be My Neighbor? > Shall We Dance? (1996)

Won't You Be My Neighbor? > Trust

Final spot: #419 out of 4014, or 90%.

Oliver and Company (1988)

IMDb plot summary: A lost and alone kitten joins a gang of dogs engaged in petty larceny in New York City.

Directed by George Scribner. Starring Joey Lawrence, Billy Joel, and Cheech Marin.

Oliver and Company is a Disney animated film that is a loose adaptation of Oliver Twist, with animals. Oliver is an abandoned kitten who gets taken in by a pack of thieving dogs. But then a human child finds Oliver and takes him in, and he finds his loyalty tested between his two groups of new friends. The songs are by far the best part of this weirdly short movie. The primary narrative arc, of Oliver having to choose between his two sets of new friends, would make a lot more sense if we spent more than the length of a single song showing Oliver bonding with his animal friends. As it is, it seems absolutely ludicrous that they would feel in any way betrayed by his wanting to be adopted by a rich girl and live in a mansion. That being said, the musical numbers in this are great -- not only written well but also animated very dynamically, so that the visuals really highlight the musical strengths. This is a fun series of animated music videos but sloppy as a full movie.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Oliver and Company < Can't Hardly Wait

Oliver and Company < On the Waterfront

Oliver and Company > The Internship

Oliver and Company > Charlie Wilson's War

Oliver and Company > Au bonheur des dames

Oliver and Company < Ivan the Terrible, Part One

Oliver and Company > You Only Live Once

Oliver and Company > What's Up, Tiger Lily?

Oliver and Company > Who's That Knocking At My Door

Oliver and Company > She's All That

Oliver and Company > Queen Margot

Final spot: #3076 out of 4016, or 23%.

The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)

IMDb plot summary: Kermit and his friends go to New York City to get their musical on Broadway only to find it's a more difficult task than they anticipated.

Directed by Frank Oz. Starring Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Dave Goelz.

The Muppets Take Manhattan follows Kermit and company in New York City as they try to get their school play produced on Broadway. It turns out to be tougher than they thought, though, and the group goes through quite a few ups and downs trying to get their show on stage. I always prefer non-literary adaptations of Muppet stories, but this one feels a little flat. The story feels rushed, partly because it sets aside a whole bunch of time at the end of the film to watch a huge chunk of their stage musical, and so the build-up to get to that moment has to move quickly. There's an abrupt amnesia subplot that is by far the most enjoyable piece of the movie, and I wish that had come up a little earlier and been a more substantial plot point. Definitely a hit-and-miss film with a few fun moments, but the final results doesn't quite reach the mark for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Muppets Take Manhattan < The Call

The Muppets Take Manhattan > I Am Number Four

The Muppets Take Manhattan > Legends of the Fall

The Muppets Take Manhattan < Infinity Pool

The Muppets Take Manhattan > Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library

The Muppets Take Manhattan < The Kids Are All Right

The Muppets Take Manhattan > Thank You For Smoking

The Muppets Take Manhattan < Crank

The Muppets Take Manhattan > Phantom of the Paradise

The Muppets Take Manhattan > Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

The Muppets Take Manhattan > In the Heat of the Night

Final spot: #2334 out of 4010, or 42%.

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

IMDb summary: This contemporary romantic comedy based on a global bestseller follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's family.

Directed by Jon M. Chu. Starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, and Michelle Yeoh.

Crazy Rich Asians stars Constance Wu as a woman who goes with her boyfriend to a family wedding, only to discover his family is obscenely rich and are deeply unimpressed with her. After loving Jon M. Chu's musical films, I realized I should probably go back and give this one a try, and I'm so glad I did. It's a charming rom com, not to mention the endless appearances of all my favorite East Asian actors. The pacing of the story is a bit strange -- very episodic and occasionally almost stakesless -- but once I relaxed into the vibe, it was a great watch. It's glitzy and glamorous in all the right ways while still keeping its heart. Is it a life-changing movie? No, definitely not for me. But I had a great time watching it and am glad I finally got around to it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Crazy Rich Asians > A Silent Voice

Crazy Rich Asians < Elf

Crazy Rich Asians < Family Business

Crazy Rich Asians > Saving Private Ryan

Crazy Rich Asians > Auntie Mame

Crazy Rich Asians > Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

Crazy Rich Asians > Whip It

Crazy Rich Asians > Tower

Crazy Rich Asians > La La Land

Crazy Rich Asians < Safe

Crazy Rich Asians > Anna Karenina

Final spot: #1006 out of 4004, or 75%.

Paddington 2 (2017)

IMDb plot summary: Paddington, now happily settled with the Brown family and a popular member of the local community, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy's 100th birthday, only for the gift to be stolen.

Directed by Paul King. Starring Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant, and Hugh Bonneville.

Paddington 2 is the sequel to 2014's Paddington, and in this installment of Paddington's life with the Browns, he finds himself framed for an antique store theft, so he works to transform the jail from within while the Brown family searches for the real thief on the outside. This is definitely more fun than the first film, with more fun characters and adventures, better jokes, and one surprisingly wonderful musical number. Watching this and Dungeons & Dragons back to back, I am fully on board with Hugh Grant entering his villain era as an actor. The supporting cast as a whole is just much stronger than it is in the first, and I find it much easier to be charmed by the adventures than I did previously. This is a weird analogy maybe, but it reminds me of the best Muppets movies in its vibe and how it structures its story. I'm still anti-franchises and I'd still rather have only one film in the Paddington franchise, I'd just rather it be this one.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Paddington 2 > A Silent Voice

Paddington 2 > Key Largo

Paddington 2 < The People Under the Stairs

Paddington 2 > Spencer

Paddington 2 > Down With Love

Paddington 2 < Pink Floyd the Wall

Paddington 2 > Regarding Henry

Paddington 2 > I've Loved You So Long

Paddington 2 < In the Loop

Paddington 2 > Lawrence of Arabia

Paddington 2 < Tomboy

Paddington 2 > Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Final spot: #572 out of 4005, or 86%.

Paddington (2014)

IMDb plot summary: A young Peruvian bear travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he meets the kindly Brown family, who offer him a temporary haven.

Directed by Paul King. Starring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, and Julie Walters.

Paddington is based on the children's book about a young bear from Peru who comes to live with a family in London. In the film version, Paddington is staying with a family called the Browns as he searches for the British explorer who first made contact with his bear family. This has been on my to-watch list for a very long time, particularly on the strength of my friends' recommendations. While I didn't love it quite as much as many of them did, it is a charming little movie. Ben Whishaw as Paddington captures the perfect amount of innocent formal politeness, and it makes his character immediately endearing. The supporting cast of Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, and the rest of the Browns is also pretty sweet, although I don't feel as much of an immediate affinity with them. And I'm much less interested in the subplot with Nicole Kidman as a villain -- her story feels like a bland distraction to the core of the story. Overall, though, it's a pleasant movie and a nice way to spend an afternoon, if not life-changing.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Paddington > The Call

Paddington < Elf

Paddington > Flight of the Navigator

Paddington > Seven Chances

Paddington > Florence Foster Jenkins

Paddington < Creature from the Black Lagoon

Paddington > How to Train Your Dragon

Paddington > Borrowed Wives

Paddington < Wolf

Paddington > Carefree

Paddington < The Song of Lunch

Paddington > The Pirate Movie

Final spot: #1323 out of 4006, or 67%.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

IMDb plot summary: The story involves Maverick confronting his past while training a group of younger Top Gun graduates, including the son of his deceased best friend, for a dangerous mission.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski. Starring Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, and Miles Teller.

Top Gun: Maverick is a sequel to the 1980s war drama Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise as a hotshot fighter pilot. Here, it's decades later, and Cruise is brought back to teach the next generation of fighter pilots and get them through a near-impossible mission. When I got this movie assigned to me in my 40 to 4K challenge, I think I literally said out loud, "Ugh, I can't believe they're going to make me watch this one." Probably an overreaction, but I wasn't a fan of the original Top Gun and have an aversion to sequels, so chances are this wasn't going to fare well. It went about as well as it possible could, which is... it was fine. As is the case with most franchises, it leans too heavily on the emotional beats of the original for me to be fully invested when I didn't remember the original. The flying scenes look good, for sure, and were probably the most interesting thing about the film overall. Most of the emotional beats don't land for me, but it is a fun high-energy action movie for a good chunk of the film, and that's interesting enough to watch. Like most sequels, it's a challenge to review because even during good moments, it just feels unnecessary, but at least I can say I've seen this now!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Top Gun: Maverick < The Call

Top Gun: Maverick > I Am Number Four

Top Gun: Maverick > Legends of the Fall

Top Gun: Maverick > You'll Never Get Rich

Top Gun: Maverick > Strawberry and Chocolate

Top Gun: Maverick < Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Top Gun: Maverick < Nine Queens

Top Gun: Maverick < To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Top Gun: Maverick > A Delicate Balance

Top Gun: Maverick > The Trial

Top Gun: Maverick < Malignant

Top Gun: Maverick > Fatherhood

Final spot: #2117 out of 4009, or 47%.

Blink Twice (2024)

IMDb plot summary: When tech billionaire Slater King meets cocktail waitress Frida at his fundraising gala, he invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. As strange things start to happen, Frida questions her reality.

Directed by Zoë Kravitz. Starring Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, and Alia Shawkat.

Blink Twice stars Zoe Kravitz as a food service waiter who finds herself somehow invited to party with a billionaire and his friends at their remote private island retreat. Everything is great, until she starts to realize that maybe it isn't. I'm a big fan of this emerging horror genre that is basically "rich white jerks get what's coming to them" -- it's very satisfying, and this one is a fun addition to the genre. The mystery is paced well, so even though I knew something was wrong, I couldn't figure out exactly what it was until it was actually revealed, which was nice. Channing Tatum is often more interesting than I think he's going to be -- I should start remembering I like him -- and that's definitely the case here, as his rich playboy philanthropist character starts unraveling. And it was, as expected, a very satisfying ending that has a great sense of poetic justice. Definitely worth watching.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Blink Twice > A Silent Voice

Blink Twice < Key Largo

Blink Twice > Flight of the Navigator

Blink Twice > Seven Chances

Blink Twice > Auntie Mame

Blink Twice > Zoolander

Blink Twice > The Game

Blink Twice < The Menu

Blink Twice > Barbie

Blink Twice < Pariah

Blink Twice < Leaving Las Vegas

Blink Twice < Teen Beach Movie

Final spot: #1026 out of 4013, or 74%.

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A coming of RAGE love story about a teenager and her crush, who happens to be a corpse. After a set of horrific circumstances bring him back to life, the two embark on a journey to find love, happiness - and a few missing body parts.

Directed by Zelda Williams. Starring Kathryn Newton, Liza Soberano, and Jenna Davis.

Lisa Frankenstein tells the story of a teenage girl in the 80s who finds herself unexpectedly resurrecting a dead body, and then doing whatever it takes to supply him with fresh body parts so he can be as good as new. I wanted this to be so much better than it was. The concept is delightfully weird, but it's not as deliberately funny or as over-the-top as I'd like it to be until the very end. Our lead character is self-centered in a very unpleasant way -- I actually found myself most intrigued by the character of her stepsister, who has good intentions but is usually insensitive by accident. The last quarter of the movie finally finds the right combination of macabre and humor, and it is by far the most enjoyable piece, but it's a really uneven ride up to that point. It's a fun concept that I wanted to like a lot more than I ultimately did.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Lisa Frankenstein < The Call

Lisa Frankenstein < On the Waterfront

Lisa Frankenstein > Julia

Lisa Frankenstein > Meet the Parents

Lisa Frankenstein > The Cheap Detective

Lisa Frankenstein > Queen Margot

Lisa Frankenstein > The Killing

Lisa Frankenstein > Purple Hearts

Lisa Frankenstein > Zorba the Greek

Lisa Frankenstein < The Third Man

Lisa Frankenstein > Definitely, Maybe

Final spot: #3014 out of 4012, or 25%.

MaXXXine (2024)

IMDb plot summary: In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.

Directed by Ti West. Starring Charley Rowan McCain, Simon Prast, and Mia Goth.

MaXXXine is the third in Ti West's horror trilogy, which also includes X and Pearl. We follow one of the actresses from the first film trying to break into Hollywood, distance herself from her past, and avoid the serial killer that's taking down women. I have only seen X, but was under the impression that the three mostly stood alone, though this one definitely doesn't. It's a narrative and emotional throughline from X, and since I didn't really care for or remember it, a lot of this fell flat. Mia Goth is a very engaging actress, but this is the least interesting performance I've seen from her in a long time. I've heard that Pearl is the best of the three, so I suppose I'll have actually watch that one at some point, but this was a disappointment. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

MaXXXine < Can't Hardly Wait

MaXXXine > I Am Number Four

MaXXXine < Wordplay

MaXXXine > The High and the Mighty

MaXXXine > Red Notice

MaXXXine > I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

MaXXXine < Mongol

MaXXXine > Dr. No

MaXXXine < Fun and Fancy Free

MaXXXine < For Your Consideration

MaXXXine > Adam

MaXXXine > Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Final spot: #2548 out of 4008, or 36%.

Erin Brockovich (2000)

IMDb plot summary: A flamboyant law firm secretary works tirelessly to gain justice for a small town wrecked by a utility company's pollution.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, and David Brisbin.

Erin Brockovich is based on a true story about an administrative assistant for a legal firm who discovers that all the residents of a particular neighborhood might be suffering from decades-long chemical contamination... and their utilities company knew about it and lied to them. This is a film I absolutely should have seen long before now, and after watching it I think it does deserve the attention it got, particularly in Julia Roberts' leading performance. The character is seriously flawed -- impulsive, defensive, and always unnecessarily escalating conflict -- but that is also exactly what makes her a good advocate for the people seeking compensation for what was done to them. The pacing of the mystery is well-done. It's impressive that Soderbergh was able to set up so much tension around something as mundane as getting the right amount of signatures. The scenes with Aaron Eckhart as the next-door neighbor she starts dating are helpful for fleshing out the character as a whole, but I did find them to be the least interesting part of the movie by far. Overall, this was a good watch that hits basically all the right emotional beats, and Roberts is fantastic. Glad I finally watched it!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Erin Brockovich > The Call

Erin Brockovich > Elf

Erin Brockovich < The People Under the Stairs

Erin Brockovich < Spencer

Erin Brockovich < Kismet

Erin Brockovich < The African Queen

Erin Brockovich > Finian's Rainbow

Erin Brockovich > Sherlock Jr.

Erin Brockovich > Hannah and Her Sisters

Erin Brockovich > Children of Men

Erin Brockovich > The Paper

Erin Brockovich > Mixed Nuts

Final spot: #940 out of 4007, or 77%.

Oddity (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A psychic medium attempts to uncover the truth behind her sister's murder at the site of the crime.

Directed by Damian McCarthy. Starring Carolyn Bracken, Johnny French, and Steve Wall.

Oddity is a horror movie about a woman who is murdered alone in her house when her husband is at work. They catch the culprit, but a year later the murdered woman's psychic sister discovers the murder wasn't what it seems, and she becomes determined to figure it out. This film feels like a weirdly difficult one to quantify, because it just seems like such a *small* film. The stakes seem weirdly small, the locations claustrophobic, the acting performances so quiet they could be mistaken for a one-room drama. That being said, I think it is put together fairly well. There are a few beautifully creepy moments with the large wooden doll at the center of the marketing, and I enjoy how the mystery of the woman's death unravels piece by piece. Perhaps some of the disjointedness comes from the film not giving us the inside view of any of our protagonists, leaving us as the audience very much on the outside looking in. The individual pieces definitely are more than the sum of its part, at least in my book, although the "homegrown" feel of it is going to be part of the draw to many, I suspect.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Oddity > Wide Awake

Oddity < Elf

Oddity < Family Business

Oddity > The Gold Rush

Oddity < Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Oddity < The Majestic

Oddity > Rabbit Hole

Oddity < Three Men and a Baby

Oddity < Peter Pan (1960)

Oddity < Splice

Oddity < The Exorcist

Oddity > Knight and Day

Final spot: #1718 out of 4003, or 57%.

Companion (2025)

IMDb plot summary: A weekend getaway with friends at a remote cabin turns into chaos after it's revealed that one of the guests is not what they seem.

Directed by Drew Hancock. Starring Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, and Lukas Gage.

Companion follows a young woman who goes to spend the weekend with her boyfriend's friends at a remote cabin, but everything starts going wrong. The trailers for this movie were extremely cagey about some of the plot points you discover pretty early on in the film, so I think I'm going to keep my synopsis cagey too. But I had a really good time with this. There are some really enjoyable twists and turns that I didn't see coming, and the pacing of the movie is smart and kept me engaged the whole time. I was a little disappointed by Sophie Thatcher's performance in this film, although I have liked her in other things, but the supporting cast of Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, and Harvey Guillen really bring the whole experience home in a very satisfying way. It also is smart about knowing when to make the audience laugh versus jump, and it deflates the tension exactly the right way every time. A really solid thriller/comedy, if not groundbreaking.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Companion > Wide Awake

Companion > Key Largo

Companion < Cam

Companion < Spencer

Companion > Shiva Baby

Companion < CODA

Companion > Tell It to the Bees

Companion < Sanjuro

Companion > The Fantasticks

Companion < Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Companion > A Haunting in Venice

Companion < Roxanne

Final spot: #833 out of 4002, or 79%.

Love Me (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A postapocalyptic romance in which a buoy and a satellite meet online and fall in love after the end of human civilization.

Directed by Andrew Zuchero and Sam Zuchero. Stars Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun.

Love Me is a sci-fi romance set in the future, when humanity has collapsed, and two remaining robots -- one smart buoy in the ocean and one satellite in the atmosphere -- fall in love and explore what it might mean to be human. This movie was everything I wanted it to be, and more. The creativity of the way this romance was portrayed and how these characters began to discover each other and themselves was so engaging and funny and sweet, and I was there for it the whole way. Steven Yeun and Kristen Stewart are so engaging, even when they're just voices, and their romance is strange and totally charming. This does that thing that great sci-fi does in which it demonstrates marvelous insight into humanity and human relationships by highlighting characters who are NOT human, and it's a ton of fun along the way, as well as being creative and thoughtful. Looking up reviews for this movie, I'm a little startled that not everybody loved it as much as I did, but I'd definitely recommend it. A surprising and wonderful watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Love Me > The Girl on a Motorcycle

Love Me > Dark Passage

Love Me > The People Under the Stairs

Love Me > Parasite

Love Me < The Lives of Others

Love Me < Dial M for Murder

Love Me > Beasts of No Nation

Love Me < Scaramouche

Love Me < Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Love Me > All About Eve

Love Me < Seven Samurai

Love Me < Double Indemnity

Final spot: #214 out of 4001, or 95%.

Kinds of Kindness (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A man seeks to break free from his predetermined path, a cop questions his wife's demeanor after her return from a supposed drowning, and a woman searches for an extraordinary individual prophesied to become a renowned spiritual guide.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, and Willem Dafoe.

Kinds of Kindness is an anthology film my Yorgos Lanthimos, in which Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, and Willem Defoe, among others, play different characters in each of the three stories. I made a social media post after watching this noting that between this and Poor Things, I need to pay more attention to how much I like Yorgos Lanthimos as a director. This was like a series of wonderfully bizarre Black Mirror episodes with an absolutely stellar cast. Jesse Plemons is almost always criminally underutilized as an actor, and he shines here, alongside performances from his also-excellent co-stars. There are obviously a lot of instances of thematic symbolism and potentially bigger meanings here, but I'll be honest, I cared about very few of those -- I was just enjoying the tremendously wild ride. Each one of these stories sticks the landing for me too, closing out with some intense emotional image or scene that puts the perfect button on the strange little story it's telling. This is absolutely not a movie for everyone, but I was thoroughly delighted by it and am so glad I watched it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Kinds of Kindness > The Girl on a Motorcycle

Kinds of Kindness > Dark Passage

Kinds of Kindness < The People Under the Stairs

Kinds of Kindness > Onward

Kinds of Kindness > The Jungle Book (1967)

Kinds of Kindness > Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Kinds of Kindness > 56 Up

Kinds of Kindness < Women Talking

Kinds of Kindness > M. Butterfly

Kinds of Kindness > Detroit

Kinds of Kindness < Glengarry Glen Ross

Kinds of Kindness > The Basketball Diaries

Final spot: #518 out of 4000, or 87%.

Hell or High Water (2016)

IMDb plot summary: Toby is a divorced father who's trying to make a better life. His brother is an ex-con with a short temper and a loose trigger finger. Together, they plan a series of heists against the bank that's about to foreclose on their family ranch.

Directed by David Mackenzie. Starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Jeff Bridges.

Hell or High Water follows two brothers robbing banks and the cop who is trying to catch them. The plot's about as simple as that, though the movie does delve into a lot of depth for all these characters. This is a movie where I appreciated individual scenes and moments but when I step back to look at it as a whole, it doesn't quite gel into place for me. On the positive side, Chris Pine is especially good as the bank robber with altruistic motives: to buy back his mother's mortgaged land and leave something to his mostly-estranged children. Jeff Bridges is interesting but unlikable as the cranky about-to-retire police officer chasing them down, who tries to bond with his Native American partner officer by making racist jokes about him. While the film is styled like a western, visually, the ending scenes land it more firmly in the crime genre, with a familiar "who can tell who's the good guy and who's the bad guy?" theme in its closing. It's honestly hard to come up with something to say about this movie that's cohesive. I'm glad I watched it, because there are some good performances, but overall it didn't fully resonate with me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hell or High Water > VeggieTales: Madame Blueberry

Hell or High Water < Dark Passage

Hell or High Water < Rachel Getting Married

Hell or High Water > 8-Bit Christmas

Hell or High Water > The Big Chill

Hell or High Water > Charlie St. Cloud

Hell or High Water < The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Hell or High Water < The Green Mile

Hell or High Water < A Star Is Born (1954)

Hell or High Water < Starship Troopers

Hell or High Water < The Age of Adaline

Hell or High Water > National Treasure

Final spot: #1561 out of 3999, or 61%.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

IMDb plot summary: The British military recruits a small group of highly skilled soldiers to strike against German forces behind enemy lines during World War II.

Directed by Guy Ritchie. Starring Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, and Alex Pettyfer.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a Guy Ritchie World War II action comedy telling the true story of a group of British rogues hired by Ian Fleming and Prime Minister Winston Churchill to sink the boat that provides necessary resources to all the German U boats. With those resources gone, British troops will be able to sail through the seas unscathed. This is an interesting story, one of the few examples for me where it being a true story actually does enhance the story, and I find it less twisty and more engaging than a lot of Ritchie’s action work sometimes is. As always, I wish the ensemble of mostly white men were easier to tell apart from each other, but there are some good fun heist-style sequences, and seeing how they respond to the various obstacles thrown in their way is a fun ride. Overall an enjoyable but forgettable ride that is going to be some people's absolute cup of tea.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare < The Girl on a Motorcycle

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare > The Third Man

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare > Hello, Dolly!

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare > Lost in America

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare > Rogue One

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare > Finding Vivian Maier

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare > The Anderson Tapes

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare < Skyfall

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare > Sherlock Holmes

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare < The Blues Brothers

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare > Triangle of Sadness

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare < Kin-Dza-Dza

Final spot: #2020 out of 3998, or 49%.

Happy Death Day (2017)

IMDb plot summary: A college student must relive the day of her murder over and over again, in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer's identity.

Directed by Christopher Landon. Starring Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, and Ruby Modine.

Happy Death Day is a horror film in which a college student finds herself reliving the same day over and over again: the day in which she is murdered. She realizes the only way to stop the time loop is to solve her own murder so she can survive the day. This one took me a little while to get into. The first 20 minutes or so, I was put off by the unpleasantness of the character and the amateurish acting. But then the time loop plot really started coming together, and I found myself totally drawn into watching her solve the murder. Like any good time loop movie, it did a great job of portraying the range of emotions our lead feels as she goes through the trauma of dying every day, and she generally makes smart (or at least relatable) decisions about how to use her fresh lives. I am pleased that I was able to figure out the answer to the mystery as early as I did -- it was very satisfying when it all came together. It's not a perfect movie by any means, but it was a pretty good ride when it got going.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Happy Death Day > VeggieTales: Madame Blueberry

Happy Death Day > The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Happy Death Day < The People Under the Stairs

Happy Death Day < Theater Camp

Happy Death Day > Wizards

Happy Death Day > Au Revoir les Enfants

Happy Death Day > Rise of the Guardians

Happy Death Day > The Muppet Movie

Happy Death Day > The Bumblebee Flies Anyway

Happy Death Day < Raya and the Last Dragon

Happy Death Day > Big Trouble in Little China

Final spot: #754 out of 3997, or 81%. That feels too high, but TCDNL.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)

IMDb plot summary: After splitting with the Joker, Harley Quinn joins superheroines Black Canary, Huntress, and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord.

Directed by Cathy Yan. Starring Margot Robbie, Rosie Perez, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Birds of Prey is a movie in the DC Cinematic Universe which follows the Joker's now-ex-girlfriend Harley Quinn, as she tries to regain her footing and her identity now that she's on her own. Problem is, now that she's not under the Joker's protection, everyone is out to get her. When I had friends recommend movies for me to watch for this challenge, I allowed them to include franchise films, despite having sworn off of them in my own personal viewing. This film reminded me why I don't watch them. It's so hard for me to process this as its own story. It feels like a footnote in some bigger story, a quick tangent to set up a future series, or like watching the middle third of a movie and then leaving, and so none of the arcs land for me or feel like they have any staying power. I can definitely find some moments of fun -- Margot Robbie brings a lot of charisma to this character, and Ewan MacGregor chews an entertaining amount of scenery as the villain, but it all feels like an empty half-story. It's going to be hard figuring out how to rank this one, but here we go.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Birds of Prey < The Girl on a Motorcycle

Birds of Prey > The Third Man

Birds of Prey > The Big Trail

Birds of Prey < Lost in America

Birds of Prey < Miss Rose White

Birds of Prey < Extraordinary Measures

Birds of Prey > Once Upon a Time in America

Birds of Prey < The Browning Version (1994)

Birds of Prey > Peter Pan Live!

Birds of Prey < The Commitments

Birds of Prey < Horror of Dracula

Birds of Prey < Frosty the Snowman

Final spot: #2457 out of 3996, or 39%.

Midsommar (2019)

IMDb plot summary: A couple travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

Directed by Ari Aster. Starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, and Vilhelm Blomgren.

Midsommar is an Ari Aster horror movie starring Florence Pugh as a woman who just lost her whole family under horrific circumstances, and finds herself tagging along with her boyfriend and his college friends to a remote Swedish commune to celebrate midsummer. I wasn't as taken with Aster's previous film Hereditary as many were, so my efforts to watch his follow-up just kept taking a backseat, and I'm glad to have finally gotten around to this, because this is *great*. For the first time I fully understand the Florence Pugh hype, because she is truly incredible in this film, just overflowing with grief she's trying not to express. There's a scene near the end of the film where she's finally able to let it out and not be alone, and it's one of the most powerful film moments I've seen in awhile. The more overtly horror elements of the movie are terrifyingly done -- I felt so keenly the entire time just how flimsy and easy-to-destroy the human body is. And the ending works for me on just about every level. This movie is fantastic, I'm definitely going to be thinking about it for a long time, and I'm glad I got the nudge to finally watch it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Midsommar > VeggieTales: Madame Blueberry

Midsommar > The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Midsommar > Network

Midsommar > Gravity

Midsommar < The Lives of Others

Midsommar < Gaslight

Midsommar < All of Us Strangers

Midsommar < Everything Everywhere All at Once

Midsommar > Fright Night (1985)

Midsommar < Tick, Tick... Boom!

Midsommar > 28 Days Later

Midsommar < Two Lovers and a Bear

Final spot: #239 out of 3995, or 94%.

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

IMDb plot summary: A strange prehistoric beast lurks in the depths of the Amazonian jungle. A group of scientists try to capture the animal and bring it back to civilization for study.

Directed by Jack Arnold. Starring Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, and Richard Denning.

Creature from the Black Lagoon follows a group of archaeologists and marine biologists who discover a fossil unlike anything they've ever found and set out into the remote lagoon to try and find the rest of it. Of course, it turns out that some of those creatures still exist and that our adventuring party could be in danger from them. I'd never actually gotten around to seeing this monster classic, and it's a pretty solid one. The creature design is definitely a little "human in a monster suit"-ish, but it sells it well, and the many scenes of just a shadow on the wall or just one webbed hand poking out of the water do a good job of building the tension. I also appreciate how short it is, just long enough to play around with the creepy premise and then move on its way. I do wish there had been more interesting characterization for our humans. There was opportunity for some much more compelling examples of in-fighting or working toward opposite means of capture, but it mostly teased that possible and just went right back to showing creatures. Still, it was a fun watch, and I had a good time with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Creature From the Black Lagoon > VeggieTales: Madame Blueberry

Creature From the Black Lagoon < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Creature From the Black Lagoon > Rachel Getting Married

Creature From the Black Lagoon < Waking Ned Devine

Creature From the Black Lagoon > American Teen

Creature From the Black Lagoon > Everybody's Talking About Jamie

Creature From the Black Lagoon < Just Imagine

Creature From the Black Lagoon < Cake

Creature From the Black Lagoon < The Happening

Creature From the Black Lagoon < The Hustler

Creature From the Black Lagoon > Hulchul

Creature From the Black Lagoon < Trick 'r Treat

Final spot: #1307 out of 3994, or 67%.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

IMDb plot summary: On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.

Directed by Céline Sciamma. Starring Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenal, and Luàna Bajrami.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire tells the story of a female painter in 1770s France who is commissioned to paint a wealthy woman. Her subject, however, does not want to be painted, as it is to be a wedding portrait for her marriage, which she opposes, so the painter is asked to pose as her companion and observe her covertly to complete the painting. I was a huge fan of Celine Sciamma’s film Tomboy, and how immediately likable and relatable those characters were. I feel the same way about this one. Even with so much subtext obscured beneath propriety and reserve in the first half of the film, the characters pop, and watching their relationship grow becomes both heartwarming and thrilling. The slow burn here is perfectly paced, and I was with these characters every second of the way. I love how much it explores the idea of *looking* -- as an artist, as a lover, as someone jealous of a freedom they'll never have. The camera plays with this even more than the script does, and it all comes together. This is definitely one that I think is going to stick with me for awhile, and I'm absolutely looking up our two lead actresses in everything else they've been in, because they were so charismatic here.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Portrait of a Lady on Fire > For Pete's Sake

Portrait of a Lady on Fire > Safe

Portrait of a Lady on Fire < The People Under the Stairs

Portrait of a Lady on Fire > Onward

Portrait of a Lady on Fire > The Fabelmans

Portrait of a Lady on Fire > Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Portrait of a Lady on Fire < 56 Up

Portrait of a Lady on Fire > It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown

Portrait of a Lady on Fire < Edge of Tomorrow

Portrait of a Lady on Fire > Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Portrait of a Lady on Fire > Ex Machina

Final spot: #539 out of 3993, or 87%.

Three Men and a Baby (1987)

IMDb plot summary: Jack Holden and his friends, Peter and Michael, spend most of their time having flings with several women in their apartment. Their life changes when a mysterious baby appears at their doorstep.

Directed by Leonard Nimoy. Starring Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson.

Three Men and a Baby is exactly what the title promises: three bachelor roommates, played by Tom Selleck, Steve Gutenberg, and Ted Danson, find a baby left on their doorstep from one of their short love affairs, and they have to figure out what to do about that. There's also a subplot involving a mistaken drug delivery. This is generally a charming but deeply forgettable little comedy. Extremely watchable. A lot of this comes down to very relatable performances from our three leads, who absolutely could ham it up to the level of a cartoon villain, but they all just seem like regular self-absorbed career guys, which makes their fumbling both more realistic and more sympathetic. The slow development of compassion for the helpless baby thrust in their lives plays out in a plausible way, so it's easy to believe the emotional arcs. The pacing of the story is a little strange toward the end -- what was set up as the primary subplot is suddenly resolved with a half hour left to go, and the final scene creates a brand new obstacle that is then wrapped up much more neatly than makes sense, structurally -- but that's a minor gripe. None of this breaks new ground or does anything *exciting* with its material, but it does it all quite well, and that made for a satisfying watch, even if I don't need to rewatch it any time soon.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Three Men and a Baby > For Pete's Sake

Three Men and a Baby < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Three Men and a Baby < Stargate

Three Men and a Baby > Footlight Parade

Three Men and a Baby < Suddenly, Last Summer

Three Men and a Baby < Clueless

Three Men and a Baby > The Dawn Patrol (1938)

Three Men and a Baby > Green Room

Three Men and a Baby < Rachel, Rachel

Three Men and a Baby < Lo

Three Men and a Baby > Dark Shadows

Three Men and a Baby < Strictly Ballroom

Final spot: #1696 out of 3992, or 58%.

The Triplets of Belleville (2003)

IMDb plot summary: When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters--an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire--to rescue him.

Directed by Sylvain Chomet. Starring Michèle Caucheteux, Jean-Claude Donda, and Michel Robin.

The Triplets of Belleville is a mostly-silent French animated film about a woman whose grandson is kidnapped on the Tour de France, and she has to figure out how to find him. This was my second wordless European animation film watched in the same day, and this probably suffered a bit in comparison to Flow, which I absolutely adored. The animation in this is a very deliberate style, but it happens to be one that I find ugly and hard to track. I genuinely thought for the first third of the movie that the grandson was dying, because his character design made him look deeply unwell, but nope, all the bikers looked like that, it was just a stylistic choice. The pacing is also a little strange for me -- about halfway through the film I looked at the plot synopsis for the story and none of it had even happened yet. I had high hopes for this one because so many people whose opinions I respect and often share have praised it, but ultimately I found myself bored for much of the movie, and I couldn't even enjoy the animation during those slower parts, because of how much I disliked its visuals. This one was not for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Triplets of Belleville < For Pete's Sake

The Triplets of Belleville > The Day of the Triffids

The Triplets of Belleville < No Country for Old Men

The Triplets of Belleville > Shane

The Triplets of Belleville > Marry Me

The Triplets of Belleville < Kindergarten Cop

The Triplets of Belleville < Batman: Under the Red Hood

The Triplets of Belleville < Coraline

The Triplets of Belleville > Run Lola Run

The Triplets of Belleville > My Favorite Wife

The Triplets of Belleville < The Man Who Came to Dinner

The Triplets of Belleville > Night Falls on Manhattan

Final spot: #2606 out of 3991, or 35%.

Flow (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences.

Directed by Gints Zilbalodis.

Flow is a Latvian animation film about a group of animals trying to survive in a human-less, rapidly flooding world. This movie is one I feel like I'm going to be thinking about for a long time. The animation style is simple and effective against the wordless meandering narrative, making it feel more like a moving painting than a typical film. The animals behave like animals, not humans with animal bodies, and it makes the whole story feel otherworldly. Is this post-apocalyptic? Do humans exist in this world? Did they recently? No clue, and really it doesn't matter, because the animals aren't seeking the answer, they just want to survive. There are some strangely supernatural elements that seem to appear partway through the story, and they seem to not feel out of place at all. There are so many great little moments of personality and character and friendship being built throughout this film, all without words, and creating a fascinating balance of slow meditative journeying and almost existential tension in an inexplicable world. It's a beautiful, unique film that I'm glad I got to experience.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Flow > For Pete's Sake

Flow > Safe

Flow > Network

Flow < Parasite

Flow > Cape Fear (1962)

Flow < The Guilty

Flow < Aftersun

Flow > Primal Fear

Flow > Nosferatu (1922)

Flow < The Young Girls of Rochefort

Flow < Together Together

Flow < Mommy

Final spot: #350 out of 3990, or 91%.

Fools Rush In (1997)

IMDb plot summary: After a one-night stand with Alex, Isabel realizes that she is pregnant and they decide to get married. However, along with the marriage comes compromise of one's own cultural traditions.

Directed by Andy Tennant. Starring Matthew Perry, Salma Hayek, and Jon Tenney.

Fools Rush In is a 1997 romance starring Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek as a couple who get pregnant after a one-night stand, and they decide to risk it all on an impulsive marriage, despite their very different backgrounds. My general reaction to almost everything that happened in this movie was, "Oh, those poor sweet dumb kids." Our two leads come across as so deeply unequipped for any kind of relationship but so well-intentioned, and they make such bad decisions and then make even weirder decisions trying to fix them, but you kinda hope it'll work out because they just seem like college kids with no clue how to communicate. There's a sincerity to both their performances that transfers what would have been an irritating relationship dynamic to just... a cheerfully incompetent one. Perry's character has no ability to have difficult conversations, so he just constantly lies to avoid them, even if the lie will ABSOLUTELY INEVITABLY be discovered in the next 10 minutes, and Hayek's character acts so heavily on impulse while claiming she doesn't. Should they be having a baby together? Absolutely not. Do I kind of hope it works out because I feel bad for them like they're clueless teenagers? Absolutely. I kind of feel the same way about the movie. Does it work as a romance? Mostly not. Do I kind of root for it anyway because I feel bad for how sincere everything in this feels? Absolutely.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Fools Rush In < For Pete's Sake

Fools Rush In > The Day of the Triffids

Fools Rush In > The Conversation

Fools Rush In < The Tempest (2010)

Fools Rush In < The Rescuers

Fools Rush In > Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

Fools Rush In > Superman

Fools Rush In > The Secret War of Harry Frigg

Fools Rush In > Till the Stars Come Down

Fools Rush In > National Theatre Live: Everyman

Fools Rush In < Camelot

Final spot: #2372 out of 3989, or 41%.

A Christmas Carol (1984)

IMDb plot summary: A bitter old miser who rationalizes his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three spirits visit him on Christmas Eve.

Directed by Clive Donner. Starring George C. Scott, Frank Finlay, and Angela Pleasance.

This version of Charles Dickens' classic stars George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge, the wealthy miser who is visited by a collection of ghosts to convince him to change his ways. A Christmas Carol has never fully won me over, and I couldn't tell you why, it leaves me a little cold. This version mixes in some unexpected moments of humor, but overall it isn't the one to change my mind. Scott is often a pretty good actor, but here he can't quite sell the slow transformation, and it's easy to get the sense that the first two ghosts were unnecessary. The most compelling actor is Scrooge's nephew Fred, played by Roger Rees with the perfect amount of optimism before it spills over into making him seem like someone who just... doesn't read people very well. Other than that, however, it feels like a pretty middle-of-the-road interpretation of the story, and it was fine but not particularly exciting.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Christmas Carol < VeggieTales: Madame Blueberry

A Christmas Carol > The Day of the Triffids

A Christmas Carol > The Conversation

A Christmas Carol < Lost in America

A Christmas Carol < Miss Rose White

A Christmas Carol > Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

A Christmas Carol > Superman

A Christmas Carol > The Secret War of Harry Frigg

A Christmas Carol > Till the Stars Come Down

A Christmas Carol < Funny Girl

A Christmas Carol < National Theatre Live: Everyman

A Christmas Carol > Ladies of Leisure

Final spot: #2373 out of 3988, or 40%.

Nosferatu (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.

Directed by Robert Eggers. Starring Lily-Rose Depp, Nicolas Hoult, and Bill Skarsgård.

Nosferatu is Robert Eggers's newest film, a remake of the classic from the 1920s. It tells the story of a young newlywed couple who find themselves enmeshed with a centuries-old vampire named Count Orlock who has nefarious plans for the bride. I have not been a huge fan of Egger's work in the past. I found both The Lighthouse and The Northman more interesting in theory than an execution. But this one really stepped it up for me. This is a slow looming horror story that does a really great job of painting a terrifying atmosphere without relying on jump scares. Bill Skarsgard as Orlock is especially fascinating, both in the vocal acting decisions he makes and how they adjust his voice in post to give him some terrifying bass resonance. There are a lot of really fascinating scenes in here that keep the film from ever really feeling its 2 hour length. Aaron Taylor-Johnson makes some spectacularly strange acting decisions that pulled me out of the movie, but he's a small enough part there's still plenty for me to enjoy. There were also scenes that were incredibly difficult to watch as somebody who is super grossed out by spit (although blood and other gore like that doesn't bother me at all, and there's also plenty of that). But it's a well done movie overall and I had a good time watching it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Nosferatu > For Pete's Sake

Nosferatu > Safe

Nosferatu < Network

Nosferatu < Onward

Nosferatu > Barbarian

Nosferatu < Red Carpet

Nosferatu < The Hunger Games

Nosferatu < Hidden Figures

Nosferatu > Little Children

Nosferatu < The Hateful Eight

Nosferatu > The Road Warrior

Nosferatu > The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

Final spot: #861 out of 3987, or 78%.

Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

IMDb plot summary: The filming of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) is hampered by the fact that its star Max Schreck is taking the role of a vampire far more seriously than seems humanly possible.

Directed by E. Elias Merhige. Starring John Malkovich, Willem Defoe, and Udo Kier.

Shadow of the Vampire is a horror movie focused on the filming of the real life 1920s horror film Nosferatu, an adaptation of Dracula (without the rights to film Dracula). In this version of the story, actor Max Schreck, who plays Nosferatu, insists on staying in character and makeup at all times, leading some on the crew to believe he is in fact not an actor but a real life vampire. When I started watching this, I knew it was about the filming of Nosferatu, but I thought it was a pretty straightforward biopic. It was a delight to discover that it was in fact a supernatural horror story that painted filmmaker F.W. Murnau as being more than willing to make a pact with a vampire to sacrifice his lead actress in order to get the perfect movie. Despite the absolutely ludicrous premise of this movie, it takes itself so very seriously, but fortunately it's in a way where it becomes delightfully silly rather than irritatingly pretentious. Willem Defoe as Schreck is particularly fun, although John Malkovich's Murnau is also a wonderful caricature of the obsessed artist. This is not the beautifully tragic deep art that it sets itself up as, but it's a ton of fun, especially since I had no idea what i was actually getting into.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Shadow of the Vampire > For Pete's Sake

Shadow of the Vampire < Safe

Shadow of the Vampire > Stargate

Shadow of the Vampire < Waking Ned Devine

Shadow of the Vampire > The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Shadow of the Vampire > Evita

Shadow of the Vampire < Serial Mom

Shadow of the Vampire > Death by Hanging

Shadow of the Vampire > VeggieTales: Rack, Shack & Benny

Shadow of the Vampire > The Descendants

Shadow of the Vampire > Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Shadow of the Vampire > Decision to Leave

Final spot: #1277 out of 3986, or 68%.

Repo Man (1984)

IMDb plot summary: A young punk, recruited by a car repo agency, finds himself in pursuit of a Chevrolet Malibu with a huge, $20,000 bounty--and something otherworldly stashed in its trunk.

Directed by Alex Cox. Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, and Tracey Walter.

Repo Man Stars Emilio Estevez as a teenager who is a punk but gets a job as a Repo Man.  He and his company are sent out on the lookout for a particular car with a huge bounty on it, which turns out to maybe be part of a giant conspiracy to cover up aliens. When I was recommended this, I assumed it was a typical 1980s action movie, maybe with some coming of age elements sprinkled in. But it's so much weirder than that and that was a delightful surprise. Once I was able to lean into it as a full-fledged bizarre comedy story, it suddenly started to click for me. Unfortunately that wasn't until later in the film, and I spent the beginning of the film perplexed by the film's tone. It's one that i would like to revisit at some point in the future after I've let the details of the plot slip away from my memory but still remember the overall vibe it brought. It's a wacky, wild movie that I had a good amount of fun with once I figured out how to take it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Repo Man > Dodsworth

Repo Man > Anna Karenina

Repo Man < The People Under the Stairs

Repo Man < Onward

Repo Man < Destroy All Neighbors

Repo Man < The Blue Angel

Repo Man < Shallow Grave

Repo Man < Fruitvale Station

Repo Man < The Quick and the Dead

Repo Man > Elf

Repo Man > Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Repo Man > My Life as a Dog

Final spot: #989 out of 3985, or 75%.

Society of the Snow (2023)

 

IMDb plot summary: The flight of a rugby team crashes on a glacier in the Andes. The few passengers who survive the crash find themselves in one of the world's toughest environments to survive.

Directed by J.A. Bayona. Starring Enzo Vogrincic, Augustín Pardella, and Matías Recalt.

Society of the Snow is a Spanish-language film telling the true story of the Uruguayan soccer team that crash-landed in the Andes, and the few who survived there for months. This was directed by J. A. Bayona, who has done a few of my absolute favorite movies, and in comparison this is a little bit lower, but still a very solid and interesting movie. I thought the pacing of the movie was beautifully done -- showed the duration of their survival while staying on the edge of the tension the whole way, which is not easy to do. I do wish I was good enough with faces to have made more of a connection to the individual characters. Especially after a few weeks had passed, I really struggled to differentiate them from each other, which limits the impact any individual character's life or death can have. The film is good, however, at showing this horror on a wider scale and painting it as horrific not just because we care about character X or character Y, but because this is an awful thing for any human being to have to go through, and as a result, my lack of connection with individual characters didn't really hurt it very much. Overall, a very well-made film that tells a fascinating story from a very human perspective.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Society of the Snow > Dodsworth

Society of the Snow > Anna Karenina

Society of the Snow < The People Under the Stairs

Society of the Snow < Onward

Society of the Snow > Barbarian

Society of the Snow > Red Carpet

Society of the Snow < Mildred Pierce (1945)

Society of the Snow < Encanto

Society of the Snow > Sleight

Society of the Snow < Bubba Ho-tep

Society of the Snow > Take This Waltz

Society of the Snow < Margin Call

Final spot: #799 out of 3984, or 80%.

The Creator (2023)

IMDb plot summary: Against the backdrop of a war between humans and robots with artificial intelligence, a former soldier finds the robots' secret weapon to end the conflict, an AI in the form of a child.

Directed by Gareth Edwards. Starring John David Washington, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, and Gemma Chan.

The Creator is a sci-fi story that follows a man who lost his wife while working undercover to crush an artificial intelligence army. Now, years later, he has the option to finish the work he began. I had medium-high hopes for this, and it was a good third of the way through the movie before I finally gave up on them and realized I just wasn't going to like this film. I was hoping for something positing interesting questions on technology and the future of humanity, but it is just a war movie in space focused more on the secret missions and the combat than anything else. It feels like it's relying on tropes established in previous "are robots people" stories to make me feel something without bothering to actually establish something that works in *this* film. On top of that, it leans into ALL of the "cranky hard-hearted man is softened by having to take care of a child" cliches, which are maybe my least favorite out there. This tackled interesting concepts in the least interesting way possible, at least for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Creator < Dodsworth

The Creator > Zorba the Greek

The Creator < Fun Size

The Creator < Less Than Zero

The Creator < The Disappearance of Alice Creed

The Creator > Inherent Vice

The Creator > Snakes on a Plane

The Creator < Andrei Rublev

The Creator > Love in the Rough

The Creator < Luther

The Creator > Borderline

The Creator > The Spiderwick Chronicles

Final spot: #2883 out of 3983, or 28%.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

IMDb plot summary: A young woman discovers her destiny as an heiress of intergalactic nobility and must fight to protect the inhabitants of Earth from an ancient and destructive industry.

Directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowksi. Starring Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, and Eddie Redmayne.

Jupiter Ascending is a sci-fi epic from the Wachowskis, starring Mia Kunis as a woman who discovers she is a reincarnated space queen and is now being hunted by people who want her throne. I had high hopes for this one after I really enjoyed Valerian and the Thousand Planets, another 2010s epic sci-fi space opera that got absolutely panned by critics, but... wow, this one didn't work for me at all. The plot feels like a lazy mishmash of every 2000s YA fantasy book, but written to rush through all the world building as quickly as possible to get to the werewolf romance. The dialogue is so poorly written, alternately too expository and not expository enough. I really like a lot of this cast, but their performances are so flat and lifeless here, with the exception of Eddie Redmayne, who is delivering a delightfully unhinged villain performance that almost saves the movie a couple times. Overall, this movie needed more attention paid to its worldbuilding and its dialogue. It feels like a first draft rushed into production relying on cool visuals, and it's just not good enough to justify that.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Jupiter Ascending < For Pete's Sake

Jupiter Ascending > Zorba the Greek

Jupiter Ascending < The Conversation

Jupiter Ascending < Water for Elephants

Jupiter Ascending < The Preacher's Wife

Jupiter Ascending < A Mighty Wind

Jupiter Ascending > Falling In Love

Jupiter Ascending < The Spanish Prisoner

Jupiter Ascending < The Fundamentals of Caring

Jupiter Ascending < The 5th Wave

Jupiter Ascending > A Month by the Lake

Final spot: #2955 out of 3982, or 26%.

Thumbelina (1994)

IMDb plot summary: This retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen classic fairy tale has the digit-sized heroine evading the clutches of various toads, moles, and beetles before she can proceed with her courtship with her dream lover, Prince Cornelius.

Directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. Starring Jodi Benson, Gary Imhoff, and Gino Conforti.

Thumbelina is a Don Bluth animated film based on the classic fairy tale about a tiny girl born from a flower. In this version of the story, she falls in love with the prince of the fairies, but is kidnapped by various other creatures trying to marry her, and she has to fight her way back to her home. This is an animated film I missed out on as a kid, and it definitely is one that I think would have benefited from me seeing when I was younger. As an adult, I find Thumbelina's absolute inability to make decisions frustrating, and none of the whimsical creatures she meets on her journey are interesting to me. Learning that the music is by Barry Manilow was mildly interesting, as I could definitely hear his influence in it, but none of the actual renditions were enjoyable. Some of the character design is kind of cool, but overall there's very little in this movie that would make me want to watch it again at any point.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Thumbelina < For Pete's Sake

Thumbelina < Army of the Dead

Thumbelina > Psych-Out

Thumbelina > A Decade Under the Influence

Thumbelina > Waiting...

Thumbelina < Who's That Knocking At My Door

Thumbelina < Gladiator

Thumbelina > Find Me Guilty

Thumbelina < Play It Again, Sam

Thumbelina < Firewall

Thumbelina < Deliverance

Thumbelina > As Good As It Gets

Final spot: #3093 out of 3981, or 22%.