Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

IMDb plot summary: A television actress encounters a variety of eccentric characters after embarking on a journey to discover why her lover abruptly left her.

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Stars Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, and Julieta Serrano.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a film by Pedro Almodóvar about a woman who discovers that her lover is going on a romantic vacation with another woman. In trying to deal with this, she ends up getting involved in some unexpectedly wacky ways with the lover's wife, son, and new mistress, as well as a model friend who is on the run from the police for accidentally helping a terrorist group. Almodóvar doesn't always work for me as a director, but one thing that he always does beautifully is create these rich, fully fleshed-out female characters, and that is absolutely visible here in this film. Each one of these women is so distinct, but not in a way that feels overly broad. You get the sense that each one of them has a full life beyond what we're seeing in this film. I love how the colors of this film are bright and exciting and vivid -- it's just great to look at. The tone of the film also works more than I thought it might for me. I fully got on board with the silly melodrama of all these characters hiding from the police and covering up their accidental drugging of each other and trying to figure out how to exact revenge from the lover. This is probably my favorite from this director, and I think the lighter tone has a lot to do with it. I enjoy this kind of over-the-top emotion more when played for comedy. (It does make me wonder if I should go back and rewatch some of his others with more of an eye out for comedic moments.) This is definitely a good one. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

📊 Ranked #356/4007 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 91

beat Jeff, Who Lives at Home (#2000 → #2003)

beat The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (#1003 → #1004)

beat What If (#504 → #503)

lost to Babe (#249 → #247)

beat Adaptation. (#373 → #375)

lost to Star Wars: The Last Jedi (held at #311)

lost to Nativity! (held at #342)

beat Contagion (#357 → #368)

lost to Beginners (#349 → #347)

lost to Stranger Than Fiction (#353 → #352)

beat Wings of Desire (held at #355)

lost to Dick Tracy (#354 → #353)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

IMDb plot summary: When both he and a colleague are about to lose their job, Walter takes action by embarking on an adventure more extraordinary than anything he ever imagined.

Directed by Ben Stiller. Stars Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, and Jon Daly.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a film starring Ben Stiller as the titular Walter Mitty, a photograph developer for Life Magazine who spends much of his time daydreaming about being a more exciting adventurous person, despite not even having the courage to talk in person to his work crush. But when he discovers that an essential photograph has gone missing, he must go on series of real life adventures to try to track down the elusive photographer and find out what happened to that negative. I was familiar with the 1947 film, as well as the short story, and neither one of those fully grabbed me, but this one does a better job of getting me on board. There are moments where I can feel it being just a tad too deliberate in its messaging, but Ben Stiller grounds it fairly well, playing a relatable character in unrelatable circumstances and making it easy to root for him. There are not necessarily a lot of laughs I got out of this despite being built as a comedy, but there's a lot of warmth in this movie. It was satisfying to watch Mitty pursue his dreams even when he didn't mean to. It's a sweet movie that was worth a watch. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

📊 Ranked #501/4006 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 87

beat The Dissident (#2000 → #2001)

beat Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (#999 → #1005)

lost to The Basketball Diaries (#498 → #500)

lost to Black Christmas (#750 → #727)

lost to American Psycho (#874 → #420)

beat Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (#936 → #949)

lost to Flight (#905 → #437)

beat Ghostbusters II (#920 → #1074)

beat Twins (#912 → #917)

beat SubUrbia (#908 → #1015)

beat Anna Karenina (#906 → #980)

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)

IMDb plot summary: Bill struggles to put together his shattered psyche, in this new feature film version of Don Hertzfeldt's animated short film trilogy.

Directed by Don Hertzfeldt. Stars Don Hertzfeldt and Sara Cushman.

It's Such a Beautiful Day is a short experimental animated film following a stick figure character named Bill as he goes about his life dealing with some sort of unexplained neurological symptoms that cause seizures and memory loss, among other things. This is truly a fascinating film that does some very unique things, not only in its simplistic visuals, but also in the way that it chooses to tell the story of this character, with an omniscient narrator telling Bill's story from a third person perspective, rather than giving dialogue to individual characters. Its unique format hit me on a strange emotional level. I found it deeply unsettling, to the point that I think I maybe had a mini panic attack during the movie. Given that, it's a little bit hard for me to evaluate this on any kind of objective level, at least not without a little bit more distance between me and the film. It's certainly very effective at putting the pieces together to evoke an emotional response and provoke deep thought and questions about life and death and purpose. I did find the shaky camera focus on the animations to be a little tough on my eyes over the course of an hour, but fortunately it is only an hour so it was workable. This is definitely one that should be seen, but it's going to be a while before I can articulate exactly why or what about it was so powerful.

How it entered my Flickchart:

It's Such a Beautiful Day (2011)

beat Be Kind Rewind (#2000 → #2002)

lost to Widows' Peak (#998 → #999)

beat Hook, Line and Sinker (#1498 → #1514)

beat Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (#1247 → #1262)

lost to A Midsummer Night's Dream (#1122 → #773)

beat Suspicion (#1184 → #1185)

beat Whip It (#1153 → #1159)

beat The Railway Man (#1137 → #1211)

beat It (#1129 → #1137)

beat The Last Seduction (#1125 → #1128)

beat Gone Girl (#1123 → #1126)

📊 Ranked #774/4005 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 81

Such is Life (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Realistic portrait of a poor working family in late 20s Prague: the washerwoman mother whose burial is held after she scalds herself; the alcoholic father; the manicurist daughter who becomes pregnant.

Directed by Carl Junghans. Stars Vera Baranovskaya, Theodor Pistek, and Mána Zenísková.

Such is Life is a silent 1930 Russian drama about a poor woman, her lazy husband, and her adult daughter, and how difficult their lives are. This one did not have any dialogue title cards, only chapter titles, and I did not have translations for those title cards, so it's possible that some of this literally got lost in translation, but I didn't get much out of this one. There is one interesting sequence where the woman gets burned by some boiling water that I think is edited extremely well with some unique techniques to show the danger and the pain of the situation, but that is really the only thing I remember about this. Silent movies can be tough for me to process, so I'm happy to believe that this was a "me" problem, but there just didn't seem to be a lot going on in the story other than just seeing these characters be miserable over and over again. Maybe that's the purpose of this, but it didn't work for me very well.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Such Is Life (1930)

lost to Air Force One (#1997 → #1993)

lost to Avanti! (#2997 → #2990)

beat For Love of the Game (#3500 → #3501)

lost to What Lies Beneath (#3236 → #3222)

beat Life with Father (#3372 → #3375)

lost to On the Town (#3308 → #3226)

beat Petulia (#3339 → #3342)

lost to Superman Returns (#3324 → #3310)

lost to From Here to Eternity (#3331 → #3258)

beat The Blue Dahlia (#3335 → #3338)

beat Bad Teacher (#3333 → #3335)

beat All Dogs Go to Heaven (#3332 → #3334)

📊 Ranked #3333/4004 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 17

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

IMDb plot summary: A spaceship arrives in 1873 Arizona to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. All that stands in their way: a posse of cowboys and natives.

Directed by Jon Favreau. Stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde.

Cowboys and Aliens is a western sci-fi that features a group of feuding townspeople and criminals in the old west, including Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, who suddenly must band together to save themselves from an invading alien horde. This is a mix of one genre I really don't like and one genre I really do, so I was curious to see where this would land. I wish it was a little bit more playful in how it approached the combination of genres. This is far more western than sci-fi, and it gets very serious with its western tropes and characters approaching the incoming threat. The sci-fi element is truly just tacked on as a small twist -- this could be any western movies about fighting off unknown invaders. It's fine, but it feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity. Because they're taking the western part so seriously, any of the fun or creativity that I wanted to see in matching these two together gets lost. Overall, I like the idea much more than I like the actual execution. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

lost to Swingers (#1999 → #1955)

beat The Doorway to Hell (#2996 → #2999)

beat The Boston Strangler (#2498 → #2508)

lost to Dunkirk (#2248 → #2236)

lost to The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (#2373 → #2195)

lost to Anna Christie (#2435 → #2383)

beat Fast Times at Ridgemont High (#2466 → #2465)

beat Marathon (#2450 → #2463)

beat Once Upon a Time in America (#2442 → #2475)

lost to The Party (#2438 → #2403)

lost to Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (#2440 → #2430)

beat Ice Princess (#2441 → #2445)

📊 Ranked #2517/4003 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 37

Hundreds of Beavers (2024)

IMDb plot summary: In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America's greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.

Directed by Mike Cheslik. Stars Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, Olivia Graves, and Doug Mancheski.

Hundreds of Beavers is... maybe a little difficult to explain. The plot is about a man in Old West trapper territory who learns how to sustain himself through the winter by hunting, trading, and working toward his goal of winning over the woman he loves. In structure, it is very much like a Looney Tunes cartoon, with sound effects and zany impossible physics moments and broad slapstick. There's almost no speaking in the entire film, as it uses sound effects and visual gags to communicate everything that's going on. I had so much fun with this. I kept waiting to see if the gimmick was going to get old, but they kept finding new and creative ways to play with the story and to amp up the stakes in a really engaging way. I laughed out loud more than I have in any movie that I can think of in recent history. It just kept surprising me with its ridiculous visual gags. This is either going to be something that you're going to love or hate, but you will absolutely know which within the first 15 minutes. Personally, I had a blast with it. There's nothing else like this out there right now and it is a ridiculous delight and I'm so glad I watched it. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hundreds of Beavers (2024)

beat Gothika (#2004 → #2006)

beat Stage Door (#941 → #942)

beat Star Wars: The Force Awakens (#510 → #512)

lost to Ruby Sparks (#252 → #251)

lost to Umberto D. (#375 → #374)

lost to Best in Show (#443 → #435)

lost to Christmas in Connecticut (#482 → #481)

beat Clerks (#416 → #418)

beat Grease (#497 → #495)

lost to Edge of Tomorrow (#486 → #485)

beat Short Term 12 (held at #488)

beat Portrait of a Lady on Fire (#487 → #503)

📊 Ranked #502/4002 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 87

Argylle (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A reclusive author who writes espionage novels about a secret agent and a global spy syndicate realizes that the plot of the new book she's writing starts to mirror real-world events in real time.

Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Stars Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Sam Rockwell.

Argyle is a spy action thriller featuring Bryce Dallas Howard as a woman who writes a series of spy novels that turn out to be a little too good at research -- to the point where she's predicting actual espionage conflicts in the real world. As a result, she is kidnapped by some of the real life counterparts of the organizations she writes about in her book. This film started off silly but enjoyable, and then devolved into silly but unenjoyable, at least for me. There are a couple of big twists throughout the film that are clearly supposed to be fun mind-blowing moments but they just strike me as goofy in a way that fights the suspension of disbelief I had already agreed to. As it went on and we learned the true backstory of so many different characters, I was less and less invested. By far the most engaging moments were the ones where we see simultaneous presentation of her interacting with her imaginary characters and their real-life counterparts. There was some really engaging and fun editing employed in those scenes. But overall what started with a great idea became kind of a dull movie that went on far too long.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Argylle (2024)

lost to The Sparks Brothers (#1998 → #1973)

beat Where Eagles Dare (#2994 → #2989)

lost to Rebecca (#2497 → #2494)

lost to Hamlet (#2745 → #2669)

beat The Limey (#2869 → #2860)

lost to Happy Christmas (#2807 → #2651)

lost to The Unsinkable Molly Brown (#2838 → #2702)

beat Whatever Works (#2853 → #3012)

beat Those Who Wish Me Dead (#2845 → #2846)

beat Grace of Monaco (#2841 → #2835)

beat Resident Evil (#2839 → #2833)

📊 Ranked #2706/4001 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 33

Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)

IMDb plot summary: In the old west, a man becomes a Sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough. In the end, he uses ingenuity instead.

Directed by Burt Kennedy. Stars James Garner, Joan Hackett, and Walter Brennan.

Support Your Local Sheriff is a comedy western about a town that has suddenly had a huge boom in population and as such finds itself in desperate need of a sheriff. James Garner comes along and proves to be the only person who can stand up to the town's resident bullies, so he takes on the job. Westerns are usually not a genre that I am connected to, but this one was a pleasant surprise. There is a beautifully dry humor here among the dialogue that really brings out the characters in a fresh way, especially compared to a lot of other westerns. It's not like the story leaves you in doubt that Garner IS going to subdue the wild hordes by the end of the story, but the film does a good job of making you curious as to HOW he's going to do it and making that journey worth the watch. It has an enjoyable cast of side characters as well with their own unique personalities that, again, are a little out of the ordinary for the genre and bring something new to it. This film didn't change my life or anything, but I had a good time with it and I'm glad I got to see it. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)

beat True Romance (#1997 → #2000)

beat Little Women (#997 → #998)

lost to Ex Machina (#499 → #497)

lost to Sanjuro (#748 → #746)

lost to Moana (#872 → #565)

beat The Impostors (#934 → #932)

beat Bolt (#903 → #901)

beat Stage Door (#887 → #943)

lost to The Land Before Time (#879 → #854)

beat Censor (#883 → #948)

beat Primer (#881 → #939)

beat Spellbound (#880 → #882)

📊 Ranked #857/4000 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 79

The Red Balloon (1956)

IMDb plot summary: A red balloon with a mind of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.

Directed by Albert Lamorisse. Stars Pascal Lamorisse, Sabine Lamorisse, and Georges Sellier.

The Red Balloon is a French fantasy short film about a young boy with a red balloon that turns out to have some sentience of its own, and the two wander around the city together. This was a family favorite that I had somehow never seen, so I was excited to finally have the nudge to see it. Like most short films, I had trouble processing it as a full story, even when the narrative does build in intensity toward the end. As a sweet little series of scenes of a boy and his magical balloon, it's charming but did not fully grab me. I was most engaged by the final moments of the film when the story became a little bit less episodic and a little bit more narratively linear. For being only a half hour, it felt very slow. For some people that is definitely a point in its favor, but it worked against it a little bit. So this one falls right in the middle: a sweet little film that doesn't really reach me. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Red Balloon (1956)

beat Anonymous (#1997 → #1999)

lost to South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (#997 → #988)

beat Prometheus (#1496 → #1498)

lost to The Birds (#1245 → #1239)

beat Moonstruck (#1371 → #1396)

beat The General (#1307 → #1448)

lost to 21 Up (held at #1276)

lost to Barbie (#1291 → #1014)

beat A Man Called Otto (#1299 → #1310)

lost to The Spy Who Loved Me (#1295 → #1292)

beat Seven Chances (#1297 → #1314)

beat The Abyss (#1296 → #1298)

📊 Ranked #1214/3999 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 70

The Greatest Showman (2017)

IMDb plot summary: Celebrates the birth of show business and tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.

Directed by Michael Gracey. Stars Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, and Zac Efron.

The Greatest Showman is a musical retelling of the life of P.T. Barnum, most famous for his circus. Hugh Jackman plays Barnum, and we follow him from his earliest conceptions of the idea through his ups and downs as he carries it out. I was not looking forward to watching this movie because it did not feel like something that I would enjoy, and I was extremely correct. The music is done by current musical darlings Pasek and Paul whom I have almost never enjoyed (with the exception of their work in the film Spirited). So none of the music does it for me. But on top of that, the script is extremely strange. Barnum is curiously unexplored as a character. It is never clear what it is he actually wants or likes about the circus business. The clearest objective we get for him is simply "making money and being respected," but if that was his whole goal, show business is obviously the worst place to make that happen. The film is full of vague metaphor about working in the circus being a form of "breaking free" and "opening the cages," but we never once see any kind of actual reasoning or passionate love for the circus, or any of the people in it, until the very very end of the movie, when it pretends it's been there all along. This film could either have approached this from the point of view of Barnum loving people and therefore wanting to highlight them or Barnum loving show business and therefore getting a high from the performance aspect, but it does neither, and as such it rings incredibly hollow and unintentionally paints Barnum as the real-life monster he was while shoving him through story beats written for a much more likable character. I do wish I had been wrong about this one, but it is absolutely not for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Greatest Showman (2017)

lost to The Sparks Brothers (held at #1996)

lost to The Doorway to Hell (held at #2992)

lost to Stepsister from Planet Weird (#3492 → #3484)

beat The Collective (#3743 → #3744)

lost to No Reservations (#3617 → #3616)

lost to The Music Man (#3680 → #3665)

lost to To Kill a King (held at #3711)

lost to The Lodger (#3727 → #3714)

beat Kingpin (#3735 → #3737)

beat Super Troopers (#3731 → #3732)

beat Live a Little, Love a Little (#3729 → #3730)

lost to VeggieTales: Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler (held at #3728)

📊 Ranked #3727/3998 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 7.

The Pelican Brief (1993)

IMDb plot summary: A law student uncovers a conspiracy, putting herself and others in danger.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Stars Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, and Sam Shepard.

The Pelican Brief is a legal thriller based on a John Grisham novel in which a young law student, played here by Julia Roberts, unwittingly writers up a plausible theory to solve the assassination of two judges, a theory that implicates not only an enormous corporation but also the White House. Suddenly she finds herself being hunted down, seemingly to eliminate her and any of the suggestions that she put forth in her brief. This is a generally enjoyable but also pretty forgettable story. Following the different threads from moment to moment was fairly enjoyable, but the overall arching story is not one that I think I'm going to remember much past this particular viewing. I do think the film does a good job of playing up the tension and bringing us along in the moment, which is what a thriller should do. The moments of not feeling like she can trust anybody were genuinely unsettling without feeling over the top. It's a well-constructed story and if this is a genre that you are interested in, this is definitely one that's worth watching.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Pelican Brief (1993)

lost to Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (#1996 → #1993)

beat The Doorway to Hell (#2991 → #2992)

beat Blow Out (#2494 → #2506)

beat Dhamaal (#2244 → #2274)

lost to Mad God (#2120 → #2014)

beat Safety Not Guaranteed (#2182 → #2186)

beat Real Genius (#2151 → #2314)

beat Wreck-It Ralph (#2135 → #2161)

lost to Cropsey (#2127 → #2122)

lost to Beverly Hills Cop (#2131 → #1983)

beat Ford v Ferrari (#2133 → #2144)

beat Being the Ricardos (#2132 → #2136)

📊 Ranked #2020/3997 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 49

Daughters (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy/Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C. jail.

Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae.

Daughters is a documentary about a program that facilitates dances for young girls with incarcerated fathers. The prison sets up a dance event on site, fathers go through a series of parenting classes to be eligible to participate, and then the fathers and daughters spend the evening together, some of them for the very first time. The documentary follows a few specific groups of father-daughter pairings, some of whom were very close before the father was incarcerated, and others who have barely ever met each other. We do also get a brief epilogue afterwards looking at how this program has impacted the fathers and daughters a few years later. This program has very impressive results in terms of reducing recidivism, and watching these families reunite or unite for the first time makes a very strong case for how vehemently anti-family our current prison system is and how much better we could (and should) be doing. The program set up to prepare these fathers for their evenings with their daughters are fascinating to watch, as these men work through what got them in their current situation and how they can break that cycle to be a good father to their children. It feels maybe a little scummy to talk about the emotional impact of these individual characters because they're not characters, they're real people, but watching this absolutely speaks to the desperate need for prison reform if we are going to see actual rehabilitation in our society. Watching people trying to fight for these men and their return to society brings me a little bit more hope.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Daughters (2024

beat Mrs. Miniver (#1996 → #2099)

lost to My Life as a Dog (#996 → #976)

lost to Watchmen (#1495 → #1267)

beat The Suburbans (held at #1743)

lost to Spider-Man 2 (#1619 → #1617)

beat The Virtuous Sin (#1681 → #1686)

lost to Strictly Ballroom (#1650 → #1647)

lost to Martian Child (#1665 → #1645)

lost to Lord of War (#1673 → #1662)

beat The Majestic (#1677 → #1680)

beat Intolerable Cruelty (#1675 → #1677)

beat A Notorious Affair (#1674 → #1675)

📊 Ranked #1687/3996 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 58

A Man Called Otto (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Otto is a grump who's given up on life following the loss of his wife and wants to end it all. When a young family moves in nearby, he meets his match in quick-witted Marisol, leading to a friendship that will turn his world around.

Directed by Marc Forster. Stars Tom Hanks, Mariana Treviño, and Rachel Keller.

A Man Called Otto is an American remake of a Swedish film, which was in turn based on a book. This version stars Tom Hanks as a lonely widower named Otto who has determined to end his own life but continuously gets distracted by the people around him who need his help. As he begrudgingly helps them, he finds himself forming community that gives him a reason to live again. I am extremely curious about the original version of this. There is a very overt sentimentality in this one that doesn't always work for me. And it hit my introversion in a weird way, especially in the first third of the film, where there is a large part of me that is deeply irritated at the people around Otto forcing themselves into his life, even though I know that ultimately it would be good for him to have more connections. I'm just not convinced that the way for that to happen is for people to forcefully push themselves into your home and demand that you unburden your soul to them. And because of this, for much of the movie I felt claustrophobic and irritated rather than heartwarmed. It pulls off the story enough toward the end that it demonstrates that the community was genuine, so I was able to find sit better with the ending. So overall it was fine, and Tom Hanks is an excellent actor, but it made me extremely curious to see the story told from the point of view of a culture that is not as relentlessly extroverted as the United States. I wonder if I would resonate with that more. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Man Called Otto (2022)

beat Mr. Nice Guy (#1995 → #1999)

lost to La La Land (#995 → #992)

beat Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (#1494 → #1499)

lost to The Shoes of the Fisherman (#1241 → #1239)

beat The Theory of Everything (#1369 → #1370)

beat Mary Poppins Returns (#1306 → #1312)

lost to Akira (#1274 → #1273)

lost to 21 Up (#1287 → #1286)

lost to The French Dispatch (#1299 → #1281)

lost to The Harvey Girls (#1302 → #1268)

beat Borrowed Wives (#1303 → #1313)

lost to Wolf (#1301 → #1302)

Ranked #1295/3995 on my Flickchart. Flickscore™: 68.

The Green Goddess (1930)

IMDb plot summary: An airplane carrying three Brits--Major Crespin, his wife Lucille, and Dr. Trahern--crash lands in the kingdom of Rukh, where the Rajah holds them prisoner.

Directed by Alfred E. Green. Stars George Arliss, Ralph Forbes, and H.B. Warner.

The Green Goddess is a 1930 adventure movie set in a fictional South Asian kingdom. We follow a group of white travelers who end up getting stuck there, while the woman is ordered to marry the ruler and become the empress of the country. This is just a weird racist mess of movie. It's centered all around how the evil foreigners are kidnapping white women with evil mysticism and we have to protect them, and there's just not a lot of value to be gotten out of that. Most of the film is either tedious conversations repeating the same things over and over again, or ominous looking rituals meant to be terrifying solely in their unfamiliarity. I'm sure there are other aspects of this film that are slightly more noteworthy, given that the film had some popularity and won some awards, but the story was so unlikable that it all kind of melded together into an ugly mess for me. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Green Goddess (1930)

lost to All Quiet on the Western Front (#1999 → #1994)

lost to Cry-Baby (#2984 → #2985)

beat End of Days (#3489 → #3701)

lost to Copying Beethoven (#3238 → #3215)

beat The Bone Collector (#3353 → #3415)

beat Petulia (#3300 → #3303)

lost to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (#3268 → #3247)

beat Danger: Diabolik (#3283 → #3286)

beat Africa Speaks! (#3275 → #3277)

lost to The Internship (#3271 → #3267)

lost to Annie Get Your Gun (#3273 → #3255)

beat When I Walk (#3274 → #3527)

📊 Ranked #3256/3994 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 19

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (2023)

IMDb plot summary: Bullied by his boss, worked around the clock, he's nothing more than a corporate drone. All it takes is a zombie outbreak for him to finally feel alive.

Directed by Yûsuke Ishida. Stars Eiji Akaso, Mai Shiraishi, and Shuntarô Yanagi.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is a live action adaptation of a manga and anime of the same name. It follows a young people-pleasing man who gets caught in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Instead of letting it lead him to despair, it invigorates him to create a list of things he wants to do with his life before he becomes a zombie. Along the way, he makes friends with other people on the run and they form a little family trying to live their best life in the zombie world. A lot of the joy of this comes from how cheerful and optimistic our protagonist is. He's a delight to watch as he engages with the world -- a very easy protagonist to root for. I also really like the production design of the zombies. There's a truly upsetting visceral bone-cracking piece of the sound design that is effective and terrifying. There's also a point in the latter half of the story in which the characters encounter a zombie shark who then inexplicably grows legs and chases them on land, and that is absolutely one of the most horrifying monsters I've seen on film. But all this darkness is in the middle of a light-hearted, humanistic, hopeful story. This is a lesser known horror film that is definitely worth checking out.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (2023)

beat Can't Hardly Wait (#1994 → #1997)

lost to Fear of a Black Hat (#995 → #988)

beat She's Having a Baby (#1493 → #1494)

beat Nick of Time (#1243 → #1255)

beat Le Samouraï (#1119 → #1234)

beat Call Me Madam (#1057 → #1058)

lost to A Haunting in Venice (#1026 → #823)

lost to The Shallows (#1041 → #1037)

beat The Jungle Book (#1049 → #1069)

beat Re-Animator (#1045 → #1048)

beat Jesus Christ Superstar (#1043 → #1046)

beat Blink Twice (#1042 → #1045)

📊 Ranked #1097/3993 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 72

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

IMDb plot summary: When it becomes clear that his solo album is a failure, a former boy band member does everything in his power to maintain his celebrity status.

Directed by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. Stars Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is a mockumentary made by the musical group The Lonely Island, featuring Andy Samberg as a self-centered pop icon who has lost his way from when he was part of a trio of musical performers. We follow his poor solo performance on the charts and his desperate attempts to bring his audience back to him. Given how much I enjoy the Lonely Island, it's surprising I haven't seen this already and completely unsurprising how much I liked it. The humor is zany and silly but  seldom punches down. Instead it plays satirically with some of the expectations on the music industry. The amount of cameos they got in this movie is great, and the way they use them is very smart and frequently led to me laughing out loud. There's a decent amount of heart behind the story as well, even in the midst of the goofiness of it all. I think that's what really ties this whole thing together for me -- it feels genuinely like a group of friends just making themselves laugh, and it's done in a way that makes the audience feel  invited in. Had a great time with this one. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

beat Can't Hardly Wait (held at #1994)

beat Pariah (#995 → #998)

beat E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (#498 → #504)

lost to Mass (held at #248)

lost to Belle (held at #372)

lost to Shutter Island (#436 → #440)

lost to Bottoms (held at #467)

lost to Cam (#482 → #481)

lost to The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (#490 → #487)

beat 56 Up (#494 → #511)

lost to A Face in the Crowd (#492 → #489)

beat Short Term 12 (held at #493)

📊 Ranked #490/3992 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 87

Will & Harper (2024)

IMDb plot summary: In this intimate portrayal of friendship, transition and America, Will Ferrell and his close friend of thirty years decide to go on a cross-country road trip to explore a new chapter in their relationship.

Directed by Josh Greenbaum.

Will and Harper is a documentary following actor Will Ferrell and his friendship with an SNL writer who came out as transgender after the pandemic. Now Will and his old friend Harper are going on a road trip together, partly so Harper can explore her love of traveling from her new perspective as a trans woman, and partly so that Will can learn about her experience and whether this is going to change anything about their friendship. This is a really sweet movie. It doesn't try to sensationalize anything, it doesn't try to set Harper up as some sort of melodramatic martyr. She's just a woman trying to live her regular life, and sometimes she ends up in situations where people don't want her to do that. Will asks the well-meaning questions that many folks who are not close to transgender people might have in their brains, and she gives her an answer from her experience, although obviously that isn't going to apply to every trans woman, but the film does a great job of trying to explain this perspective. Seeing the love and support of Harper's old friends rallying around her now that they know her under a new name and a new identity is really beautiful. Sometimes, maybe especially today, we really just need to see stories of people being treated kindly, and this is one of those.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Will & Harper (2024)

beat The Perks of Being a Wallflower (#1993 → #1997)

lost to Take This Waltz (#994 → #850)

beat The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (#1492 → #1528)

beat Ran (#1242 → #1258)

beat Nina Wu (#1118 → #1136)

beat Minority Report (#1056 → #1078)

beat Apollo 13 (#1025 → #1028)

lost to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (held at #1009)

lost to The Ten Commandments (#1017 → #1016)

beat Match Point (#1021 → #1048)

lost to 42 Up (#1019 → #1018)

lost to Summer Holiday (#1020 → #851)

📊 Ranked #1047/3991 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 73.

King of Jazz (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A rotund bandleader leads a series of theatrical sketches, dance numbers, special effects, and animated segments.

Directed by John Murray Anderson and Walter Lantz. Stars Paul Whiteman, John Boles, and Laura La Plante.

King of Jazz is a 1930 musical... documentary? Mostly it's just musical performances curated by the "king of jazz," who is apparently a band leader named Paul Whiteman. The film is a series of various musical performances, comedy sketches, and occasionally information on the origins of jazz or Whiteman himself. This is one of those films that is more interesting historically than actually watching it. Many of these performances are extremely dated in their presentation, almost unwatchably so-- and, of course, watching it in 2025 it's glaringly obvious how white this movie is for a movie about jazz music. That being said, there are some really cool camera effects used to enhance the music. It reminds me a bit of a live action Fantasia. It also does a good job of keeping the selection of songs varied from moment to moment-- despite featuring the same genre throughout, it didn't feel repetitive. So an interesting concept with a moment or two of creative execution, but overall too dated to really hold up.

How it entered my Flickchart:

King of Jazz (1930)

lost to Sinbad of the Seven Seas (#1987 → #1890)

lost to The Three Faces of Eve (#2976 → #2972)

beat Stage Door Canteen (#3486 → #3489)

lost to Wuthering Heights (#3236 → #3232)

beat Nobel Son (#3359 → #3363)

beat 101 Dalmatians (#3298 → #3301)

beat The Toy That Saved Christmas (#3257 → #3278)

beat Annie Live! (#3249 → #3252)

lost to Sarah and Son (#3243 → #3233)

beat Red Christmas (#3246 → #3439)

lost to Shrek 2 (#3230 → #3231)

lost to Napoleon (#3217 → #3201)

📊 Ranked #3235/3990 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 19.

The Father (2020)

IMDb plot summary: A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages. When he tries to understand what is happening around him, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.

Directed by Florian Zeller. Stars Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, and Mark Gatiss.

The Father is a 2020 movie starring Anthony Hopkins as an aging man being cared for by his daughter, played by Olivia Colman-- or, at least played by her most of the time. Hopkins is dealing with dementia and frequently finds himself confused by the time and place he is in. This is represented by having different actors play the people around him, and the narrative hops around in linear time to show how difficult it is for him to track the world that he is living in. This film is heartbreaking. It's beautifully acted by everyone involved and does such an excellent job of putting you inside the mind of someone trying so hard to hold on to their memory while it seems to be slipping away from them. The frustration Hopkins shows to people around him is so easily understood as frustration with his situation and the impossibility of trying to hold it together. This is a gut punch of a movie, but it is done extremely well and if this is the kind of story that is appealing to you, this is definitely a really well told version of it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Father (2020)

beat Dressed to Kill (#1992 → #1999)

beat Zoolander (#994 → #1017)

lost to A Man for All Seasons (held at #498)

beat Megamind (#746 → #752)

lost to Buried (#622 → #620)

beat 5 Centimeters per Second (#684 → #686)

beat Scream (#653 → #654)

lost to The Bay (#637 → #636)

beat What About Bob? (#645 → #684)

lost to Dawn of the Dead (#641 → #639)

beat Naked (#643 → #644)

beat The Player (#642 → #643)

Ranked #661/3989 on my Flickchart. Flickscore™: 83.

One Night at Susie's (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A woman who owns a boarding house winds up being the "mother hen" to the assorted mobsters and racketeers who live there. Her foster son takes the blame for a murder that was actually committed by his girlfriend. When he's released, her boarding-house pals decide to try to help her out in order to keep his girlfriend's reputation isn't spoiled.

Directed by John Francis Dillon. Stars Billie Dove, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Helen Ware.

One Night at Susie's tells the story of an older woman who runs a hotel and keeps friendly relations with all the local gangsters, in exchange for them not trying to lure her adopted son into the crime business. He falls in love with a young actress she disapproves of, however, and that disapproval gets even worse when the son is sent to jail for a crime the actress committed. This was a fairly interesting idea, although I wish there had been a little bit more focus on the relationship between Susie and her adopted son more than the crime gang schemings. I wasn't sure how the story was going to end but I did find the final scene very satisfying  from a storytelling standpoint. It's a slightly different twist on the crime stories that are so prevalent in this era in filmmaking. Pretty decent! 

How it entered my Flickchart:

One Night at Susie's (1930)

lost to Anonymous (#1992 → #1990)

beat A Girl of the Limberlost (#2985 → #2989)

lost to The Secret War of Harry Frigg (#2489 → #2429)

lost to Marvin's Room (#2737 → #2722)

lost to In the Mood for Love (#2861 → #2857)

beat Despicable Me (held at #2923)

beat A Prairie Home Companion (#2892 → #2896)

beat The Disappearance of Alice Creed (#2876 → #2883)

beat The White Ribbon (#2868 → #2869)

lost to Biloxi Blues (#2864 → #2863)

beat Frida (#2866 → #2867)

lost to Kiki's Delivery Service (#2865 → #2864)

Ranked #2865/3988 on my Flickchart. Flickscore™: 29. This is definitely off, I'd expect this to be around the 40% mark, so there are some things out of place on my chart. But this is where it sits for now.

The Love Parade (1929)

IMDb plot summary: The queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying.

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Stars Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, and Lupino Lane.

The Love Parade is a musical rom com starring Maurice Chevalier as a womanizing soldier and Jeanette MacDonald as the princess who finally gets him to settle down, although their relationship is far from easy. This is a pretty fun one! The musical numbers are unique and creative, and both our leads bring an enthusiasm to their roles that makes this story pop. It tackles from an interesting perspective the question of relationships when the woman has the power and what that needs to look like. Obviously, this being from 1930, it has a slightly old- fashioned take on it, but even addressing the question at all was interesting. The side characters are pretty unmemorable, but the leads are enjoyable enough that they can easily carry the film. After some less exciting musicals from this era, this was a nice refreshing change. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Love Parade (1930)

beat Gothika (#1991 → #1998)

lost to The Thing (#993 → #989)

lost to Die Hard (#1491 → #1488)

lost to The Trouble with Harry (#1739 → #1731)

beat Tangled (#1865 → #1859)

beat Ratatouille (#1801 → #1814)

lost to An American Tail (#1770 → #1703)

beat Serpico (#1785 → #1757)

beat Dakota Skye (#1777 → #1817)

beat The Little Things (#1773 → #1812)

lost to The Bishop's Wife (#1771 → #1769)

lost to The Fall (#1772 → #1770)

Ranked #1811/3987 on my Flickchart. Flickscore™: 54.

Immaculate (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Cecilia, a woman of devout faith, is warmly welcomed to the picture-perfect Italian countryside where she is offered a new role at an illustrious convent. But it becomes clear to Cecilia that her new home harbors dark and horrifying secrets.

Directed by Michael Mohan. Stars Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, and Simona Tabasco.

Immaculate is a horror movie starring Sydney Sweeney as a nun in an Italian convent who discovers that she is miraculously pregnant, and her convent begins to take this as a sign of Christ's return. This is a pretty bad film. It's pretty easy to see the general shape of how the story ends, and the few surprises it throws in feel silly rather than refreshing. Sweeney may be an adequate actor -- I liked her in White Lotus -- but she's given absolutely nothing to do here other than wander around looking scared and innocent, which gets old fast. There are a few good moments of body horror but they are extremely drowned out by the execution, which is by turns tedious and nonsensical. Not a great watch. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

Immaculate (2024)

lost to John and Mary (#1991 → #1993)

lost to A Girl of the Limberlost (#2983 → #2982)

beat Johnny Tremain (#3482 → #3483)

lost to Wuthering Heights (held at #3231)

lost to The Internship (#3355 → #3340)

beat DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (#3418 → #3570)

lost to Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (#3387 → #3372)

lost to Spaceballs (#3402 → #3375)

beat Captive State (#3410 → #3411)

beat The Formula (#3406 → #3407)

beat Pretty Poison (#3404 → #3406)

lost to Scarface (#3403 → #3402)

Ranked #3470/3986 on my Flickchart. Flickscore™: 13.

The Dawn Patrol (1930)

IMDb plot summary: World War I ace Dick Courtney derides the leadership of his superior officer, but Courtney is soon promoted to squadron commander and learns harsh lessons about sending subordinates to their deaths.

Directed by Howard Hawks. Stars Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Neil Hamilton.

The Dawn Patrol follows a group of military pilots at the very edge of the front during World War I, flying dangerous missions daily, and we see the toll this takes on the company, in particular the commanders. I mistakenly watched the remake of this film earlier this year, thinking I was watching this, and was unimpressed, but seeing this story again, I think there's more to it than I gave it credit for -- or maybe this version is better. It does a really good job of showing how emotionally devastating it is to send people to near-certain death without being able to do anything about it. The plane battle scenes are simple this early in film history, but they are effective at telling the story. There are less recognizable actors in this version of the story but I think they're acting as quite excellent and brings out the story just as effectively as the later version, if not more so. This one is worth checking out. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Dawn Patrol (1930)

lost to How I Live Now (#1990 → #1984)

beat My Six Loves (#2982 → #2984)

beat Revolutionary Road (#2486 → #2572)

beat Son of Rambow (#2237 → #2264)

beat Ford v Ferrari (#2113 → #2133)

beat Selma (#2051 → #2058)

lost to The Girl on a Motorcycle (#2020 → #2017)

lost to True Romance (#2035 → #2030)

beat Beverly Hills Cop (#2043 → #2045)

beat Horton Hears a Who! (#2039 → #2043)

beat Dazed and Confused (#2037 → #2072)

beat A Lady to Love (#2036 → #2146)

Ranked #2145/3985 on my Flickchart. Flickscore™: 46.

A Different Man (2024)

IMDb plot summary: An aspiring actor undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance, but his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare.

Directed by Aaron Schimberg. Stars Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, and Adam Pearson.

A Different Man follows the story of an actor with significant facial deformity who is given the chance to take an experimental treatment to make him look "normal," and he decides to go for it and then build himself an entirely new life once it's successful. What a strange and fascinating movie this is. It's well-written and intriguing on a narrative level alone, but as an exploration of disability and disfiguration and identity, it's even better. The writer/director has a bilateral cleft palate and casts disfigured actor Adam Pearson in this (as well as apparently a previous film of his I'll have to check out), and that totally tracks -- it FEELS like a story about visible disability from someone who's lived it. There's also a great amount of psychological horror in here, but in a very unexpected way. Overall, it's well worth seeing, and I'm definitely going to have to look up this writer/director's other films.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Different Man (2024)

beat Blackmail Is My Life (#1990 → #1992)

beat Dreams (#993 → #998)

lost to Short Term 12 (#497 → #499)

lost to Theater Camp (#745 → #743)

lost to Sisters (#869 → #866)

beat Robin Hood (#931 → #964)

beat The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (#900 → #902)

beat The Farewell (#884 → #897)

beat The Graduate (#876 → #882)

lost to Evil (#872 → #742)

beat The Hateful Eight (#874 → #879)

beat Spellbound (#873 → #877)

Ranked #864/3984 on my Flickchart. Flickscore™: 78.

Salt for Svanetia (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Story of distant mountainous region in Georgia that depicts folklore, lifestyle and daily routines of Svani people, focuses on the scarcity of salt in Svaneti region. Rich with documentary value, the movie also served for Soviet propaganda.

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.

Salt for Svanetia is a documentary about a remote village in the Georgian Soviet Republic. The film follows their daily lives, including how they get along in the many months of the year during which the snow cuts them off from society and they have no salt. While any documentary from this era purporting to capture life among an exotic people should probably be taken with a grain of salt (pardon the pun), I did find this fascinating. The title cards did a great job of making it easy to understand what we were watching, which can be a challenge with such old footage. I also appreciate how it doesn't feel like it's forcing a specific narrative out of the footage, but it still manages to make the day-in-the-life scenes compelling. I'd like to do some more digging to find out how much of this film is an accurate reflection of these people, but the fact that it made me want to research them is probably a good sign. Interesting watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Salt for Svanetia (1930)

beat Broken Blossoms (#1989 → #1997)

lost to La La Land (#992 → #990)

beat The Edge of Heaven (#1489 → #1495)

lost to Show Me Love (#1239 → #1236)

beat Prometheus (#1365 → #1414)

lost to Nine to Five (#1302 → #1299)

lost to The Great Outdoors (#1334 → #1330)

lost to The Matador (#1349 → #1353)

lost to The Major and the Minor (#1357 → #1359)

lost to Lethal Weapon (#1361 → #1360)

lost to Loins of Punjab Presents (#1363 → #1362)

beat Cargo (#1364 → #1373)

Ranked #1317/3983 on my Flickchart. Flickscore™: 67.

We Live In Time (2024)

IMDb plot summary: After an unusual encounter, a talented chef and a recently divorcée fall in love and build the home and family they've always dreamed of, until a painful truth puts their love story to the test.

Directed by John Crowley. Stars Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, and Grace Delaney.

We Live in Time stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as a romantic couple, and we follow their story non-linearly from the beginning of their relationship through the very end. I'm a huge fan of writer Nick Payne's play Constellations, another non-linear examination of a couple's relationship (not to mention that my all-time favorite musical The Last 5 Years also fits into that category) and while this doesn't hit me as hard emotionally as Constellations does, I really love how rich Pugh and Garfield's relationship feels throughout. The scenes Payne chose to highlight really do an incredible job of showing why these two work, and seeing them at different points in time help highlight that dynamic even further. This is also full of very smart film choices showing time frame to help us locate where in their history this couple is. I appreciate the time the story takes to get to know this couple, their journey, and how their story ends. Overall, a really lovely film that is well worth checking out.

How it entered my Flickchart:

We Live in Time (2024)

beat Sarah, Plain and Tall (#1989 → #1986)

beat Luca (#994 → #1012)

lost to Network (#496 → #493)

lost to Synecdoche, New York (#744 → #739)

lost to They Came Together (#868 → #865)

lost to Shallow Grave (#930 → #928)

beat Walk Don't Run (#961 → #962)

lost to The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (#945 → #942)

beat The Other Boleyn Girl (#952 → #953)

beat Upside Down (#948 → #959)

beat My Life as a Dog (#947 → #980)

beat Blackbeard's Ghost (#946 → #948)

Ranked #956/3982 on my Flickchart. Flickscore™: 76.

Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Albert is smitten for Pola but ends up wrongly committed in jail, in the meantime her affections are sought after by his friend, and on his release both love and friendship must be tested.

Directed by René Clair. Stars Albert Préjean, Pola Illéry, and Edmond T. Gréville.

Under the Roofs of Paris is an early French musical romcom, about a woman who has several men chasing her, including a gangster and a street performer. There are some enjoyable musical numbers in here, but the plot is overfull and ends up leading to some confusion about what the woman in question actually wants. My favorite scene by far is a very cool shot that pans down the various floors in an apartment building, showing them all idly singing the same tune from the street singer. But that is early on in the movie, and then we get a lot of dramatic back-and-forth between the woman and her plausible love interests, and none of that is very engaging. More interesting for its historical significance, as it may have been the first filmed musical-comedy in France. Not bad, but not my favorite of this year.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)

lost to 2046 (#1988 → #1990)

beat Ice Station Zebra (#2979 → #3069)

lost to Kindergarten Cop (#2484 → #2480)

beat The Lords of Salem (#2731 → #2733)

beat They Made Me a Fugitive (#2607 → #2609)

beat Buffalo Soldiers (#2545 → #2635)

beat Five Feet Apart (#2514 → #2518)

lost to Gypsy (#2499 → #2447)

lost to Trap (#2506 → #2508)

lost to The Resurrection of Gavin Stone (#2510 → #2500)

lost to Revolutionary Road (#2512 → #2501)

lost to The Year of Living Dangerously (#2513 → #2503)

Ranked #2494/3981 on my Flickchart

Flickscore™: 38.

A Propos de Nice (1930)

IMDb plot summary: What starts off as a conventional travelogue turns into a satirical portrait of the town of Nice on the French Cote d'Azur, especially its wealthy inhabitants.

Directed by Boris Kaufman and Jean Vigo.

A Propos de Nice is a short documentary featuring life among various groups of people in the town of Nice. This is so not my kind of movie, and I almost didn't watch it for my 1930 project because it was a short and I rarely count those, but it was on so many lists I had to get around to it after all. I'm sure there is a throughline to this in terms of what the filmmaker chose to show and when and in which order, but I just couldn't care less and it all appeared arbitrary to me. Somebody else who is a big fan of this should sit down with me and explain what works about it, and maybe I'll be able to see a different take. But in the meantime, this is less of a review and more of just saying "this wasn't for me," and now I don't have to watch it again.

How it entered my Flickchart:

À propos de Nice (1930)

lost to Gothika (#1988 → #1990)

lost to Miss Congeniality (#2979 → #2980)

beat Dumb and Dumber (#3477 → #3483)

beat Danger: Diabolik (#3226 → #3230)

beat The Thomas Crown Affair (#3102 → #3105)

lost to Captain America: The Winter Soldier (#3040 → #3041)

lost to The Little Drummer Boy (#3071 → #3072)

beat Spirits of the Dead (#3086 → #3191)

lost to The Little Princess (#3078 → #3064)

lost to You Only Live Once (#3082 → #3083)

lost to What Women Want (held at #3084)

lost to Love in the Afternoon (#3085 → #3081)

Ranked #3190/3980 on my Flickchart. Flickscore: 20.

Seven Days Leave (1930)

IMDb plot summary: About a young Canadian soldier (Gary Cooper) wounded while fighting in World War I. While recovering from his wounds in London, a YMCA worker tells him that a Scottish widow (Beryl Mercer) without a son believes that he is in fact her son. To comfort the widow, the soldier agrees to pretend to be her Scottish son.

Directed by Richard Wallace. Stars Gary Cooper, Beryl Mercer, and Daisy Belmore.

Seven Days Leave tells the story of an unmarried older lady who lies about having a soldier son, so she can have some manner of social status. But when the soldier whose name she took for her imaginary son's name shows up, he's less than pleased that she's pretending to be his mother. This is a strange little movie, but it works as a story, primarily because both the leads here are doing a great job. Beryl Mercer plays the older woman with great vulnerability so we feel for her even as she's entangled in her own lies, and Gary Cooper's cold grumpiness works well as a foil for her. This was apparently based on a play, and I feel that, in how much of the relationship is built through conversation. Once Cooper appears, it's all about their interactions, and most of the other characters all but disappear, and it works. It's a sweet little film with likable performances that is different from the other films of the time period in the story it tells.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Seven Days Leave (1930)

beat Burning (#1987 → #2032)

lost to The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (#991 → #989)

lost to Murder by Death (#1488 → #1412)

beat Winnie the Pooh (#1735 → #1740)

beat The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (#1611 → #1629)

beat Hell's Angels (#1549 → #1560)

beat Rachel Getting Married (#1518 → #1520)

lost to Cinderella (#1503 → #1499)

lost to Say Anything... (#1510 → #1442)

beat The Tragedy of Macbeth (#1514 → #1516)

lost to The Green Mile (#1512 → #1508)

beat Forbidden Planet (#1513 → #1515)

Final spot: Ranked #1537/3979 on my Flickchart, 61%.

My Old Ass (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A mushroom trip brings free-spirited Elliott face-to-face with her 39-year-old self. But when Elliott's "old ass" delivers warnings to her younger self, Elliott realizes she has to rethink everything about her family, life and love.

Directed by Megan Park. Stars Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, and Percy Hynes White.

My Old Ass follows a high school girl who, on a mushroom trip with her friends, is visited by her future self. The future self is able to maintain contact with the younger one and gives her a cryptic warning about a boy who has just entered her life. This one took a little while for me to fully engage with, but once it gripped me -- particularly in the latter half as the more emotional component of the story started to come to light -- I was hooked. There's a good balance of snarky sarcasm and heartfelt moments to make the characters relatable. The marketing and title of the movie, as well as the inclusion of Aubrey Plaza, made me initially think we were leaning wacky comedy, but that's not ultimately the note this lands on, and I enjoyed that unexpected turn. It's a fascinating and well-crafted film that I ultimately had a good time with.

How it entered my Flickchart:

My Old Ass (2024)

beat Eyes Wide Shut (#1987 → #1991)

beat Hoop Dreams (#991 → #989)

beat Chariots of Fire (#496 → #497)

lost to The Bridge on the River Kwai (held at #247)

beat Contagion (#372 → #378)

beat VeggieTales: Dave and the Giant Pickle (#309 → #315)

beat Throne of Blood (#278 → #288)

lost to Ed Wood (#263 → #261)

lost to Halloween (#270 → #267)

lost to 10 Cloverfield Lane (#274 → #271)

beat Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (#276 → #273)

beat Hamilton (#275 → #277)

Final spot: Ranked #276/3978 on my Flickchart, 93%. That is almost certainly too high but TCDNL.

Thelma (2024)

IMDb plot summary: When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her.

Directed by Josh Margolin. Stars June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, and Richard Roundtree.

Thelma follows an elderly woman who is taken advantage of by a scammer. Not content to let the situation lie, she decides to go after the scammer herself when the police can't do anything. This is a delightful movie, equally enjoyable as an action thriller, a comedy, and a drama about coming to terms with mortality. June Squibb is truly fantastic here, I'm not convinced there's anything the woman can't do as an actress. Usually action comedies aren't my jam, but this one is written so cleverly that I couldn't help but be pulled in by it. I enjoyed every minute of it, and that's an impressive feat. Definitely worth a watch!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Thelma (2024)

beat Gothika (#1986 → #1990)

beat Feet First (#991 → #997)

beat Chariots of Fire (held at #496)

lost to Army of Darkness (#247 → #246)

lost to Contagion (held at #372)

beat Hook (held at #434)

lost to (500) Days of Summer (held at #403)

beat Field of Dreams (#418 → #419)

lost to Welcome to Dongmakgol (#410 → #409)

beat Citizen Kane (#414 → #416)

lost to Sita Sings the Blues (held at #412)

lost to Much Ado About Nothing (#413 → #410)

Ranked #413/3977 on my Flickchart, or 89%.

Renegades (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Four one-for-all and all-for-one privates in the French Foreign Legion are all in jail for disorderly conduct, but they break out and rejoin their regiment and fight off a band of marauding Arabs, and are soon in Casablanca getting decorated by the French Minister of War.

Directed by Victor Fleming. Stars Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, and Noah Beery.

Renegades tells the story of four French Legionnaires who desert and form a renegade army in the deserts of Morocco. To be honest, though, I had to go to Wikipedia to discover that much about it because this movie was such a snooze. None of these characters set themselves apart enough to have any stakes in what they go through. It was fun to see a young Myrna Loy again -- the second time I've seen her in my 1930 project -- but her character isn't very exciting either. There may be some aspects of this that other viewers may find interesting, but the film lost me entirely by about the 1/3 mark and never regained my interest.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Renegades (1930)

lost to Triangle of Sadness (#1986 → #1982)

beat A Month by the Lake (#2976 → #2978)

lost to Harry and the Hendersons (#2481 → #2472)

beat Happy Christmas (#2728 → #2733)

lost to V/H/S (#2604 → #2605)

beat The Dirty Dozen (#2666 → #2710)

lost to The Ascent (#2635 → #2623)

beat The Dark Knight Rises (#2650 → #2655)

lost to A Time to Kill (#2642 → #2639)

beat National Velvet (#2646 → #2647)

beat Red Notice (#2644 → #2648)

lost to The Hot Rock (#2643 → #2640)

Final spot: Ranked #2645/3976 on my Flickchart, 34%.

The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930)

IMDb plot summary: The villainous master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu sets out to destroy the people he holds responsible for the death of his family.

Directed by Rowland V. Lee. Stars Warner Oland, O.P. Heggie, and Jean Arthur.

The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu begins with the evil Dr. Fu Manchu's funeral, only for it to turn out he faked his death and is still bent on getting revenge against his enemies. I have never seen anything else in this series, so I have no concept of the story. It could be a pretty fun one if it wasn't so horrifically racist! Swedish actor Warner Oland plays Fu Manchu here (by far not the only yellow face acting he did), and the story is rife with upsetting stereotypes about Asian mysticism. It's too bad, because the pacing of the story is a lot more exciting than most of the 1930 adventure films have been, and it was fun to see a young Jean Arthur as the damsel in distress. There are quite a few of these I've come across in this project, where it'd be a perfectly fine movie if it didn't age so very badly.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930)

lost to Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (#1983 → #1987)

lost to Falling in Love (#2972 → #2970)

lost to The Proposal (#3471 → #3468)

beat VeggieTales: Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler (#3720 → #3721)

beat Captain January (#3595 → #3598)

beat Wilde (#3533 → #3534)

beat Class Reunion (#3501 → #3503)

beat Baby Mama (#3488 → #3495)

lost to North (#3479 → #3476)

lost to Miracle on 34th Street (held at #3482)

beat A Thief in the Night (#3485 → #3491)

beat Fist of Legend (#3484 → #3490)

Final spot: Ranked #3485/3975 on my Flickchart, 13%.

Trap (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A father and his teen daughter attend a pop concert only to realize they've entered the center of a dark and sinister event.

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, and Saleka Shyamalan.

Trap stars Josh Hartnett as a devoted father taking his tween daughter to see her favorite artist in concert, but their calm dad-daughter night out ends up overlapping with an enormous sting operation to catch a serial killer at large. I was a big fan of Shyamalan's previous film, Knock at the Cabin, but wow, did this one NOT work for me. Its fascination with criminal profiling tries too hard to be deep and instead just spits out a bunch of stereotypes and psychobabble that are already wildly overdone. It takes a fun premise and weighs it down with bland moralizing, the kind that was extremely common in the early 2000s and late 90s, but this is significantly less interesting. The one positive in here is Josh Hartnett, who truly is giving his all in this movie when it doesn't deserve it. The level of fun he's having with his role at least brings some measure of enjoyability to what is otherwise a tedious slog.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Trap (2024)

lost to Cypher (#1987 → #1976)

beat A Month by the Lake (#2974 → #2977)

lost to My Blueberry Nights (#2480 → #2479)

beat The Exorcism of Emily Rose (#2729 → #2764)

beat Flypaper (#2603 → #2604)

beat Liz & Dick (#2540 → #2547)

beat Chimes at Midnight (#2514 → #2513)

lost to La Condesa (#2494 → #2486)

lost to Guarding Tess (#2502 → #2500)

lost to Pacific Rim (#2507 → #2497)

beat No Country for Old Men (#2504 → #2510)

beat Streets of Fire (#2508 → #2509)

Final spot: Ranked #2504/3974 on my Flickchart, 37%.