Total Eclipse (1995)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Total Eclipse (1995)

📊 Ranked #2804/4054 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 31

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

beat Funny Face (#3037 → #3105)

lost to Internet Famous (#2530 → #2534)

lost to First Blood (#2782 → #2680)

beat The Conjuring (#2908 → #3020)

lost to Argylle (#2845 → #2851)

lost to Holiday (#2876 → #2526)

beat American Hustle (#2892 → #2926)

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

lost to Avalon (#2888 → #2497)

lost to Finding Forrester (#2890 → #2453)

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

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

📊 Ranked #993/4053 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 77

beat The Phoenician Scheme (#2023 → #2027)

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

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

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

beat Morning Glory (#1136 → #1139)

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

beat Life as a House (held at #1041)

beat Draft Day (#1025 → #1110)

lost to Gremlins (#1017 → #991)

beat Wizards (#1021 → #1023)

beat City Lights (#1019 → #1021)

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

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

📊 Ranked #1146/4052 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 73

beat The Commitments (#2022 → #2227)

lost to Re-Animator (#1010 → #1011)

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

lost to Hoodwinked! (#1262 → #1145)

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

beat Corrina, Corrina (#1325 → #1372)

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

beat Maine Pyar Kiya (#1277 → #1276)

beat Punch-Drunk Love (#1269 → #1334)

beat Logan's Run (#1265 → #1296)

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

How to Survive a Plague (2012)

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

Directed by David France.

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 How to Survive a Plague (2012)

📊 Ranked #1515/4051 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 64

beat Spider Baby (#2022 → #2029)

lost to Widows' Peak (#1010 → #1012)

lost to Jurassic Park (#1516 → #299)

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

beat Hustle (#1642 → #1645)

beat Evita (#1579 → #1575)

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

lost to Hollywood Homicide (#1531 → #1485)

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

beat Godzilla (#1543 → #1574)

lost to Kajaki (#1541 → #1512)

beat Spider-Man 2 (#1542 → #1583)

Body of Lies (2009)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Body of Lies (2008)

📊 Ranked #2532/4050 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 37

lost to Spider Baby (#2021 → #2011)

beat The Number 23 (#3034 → #3037)

lost to Genius (#2527 → #2523)

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

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

beat Hiroshima Mon Amour (#2968 → #2972)

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

beat Incredibles 2 (#2920 → #2924)

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

lost to Carol (#2916 → #2459)

beat The War (#2918 → #2922)

beat Sixteen Candles (#2917 → #2931)

Overboard (2018)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Overboard (2018)

📊 Ranked #1584/4049 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 62

lost to Away We Go (#2021 → #1958)

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

beat Cold Mountain (#2527 → #3325)

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

beat Metropolis (#2148 → #2152)

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

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

beat Arthur Christmas (#2132 → #2214)

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

beat Pat and Mike (#2128 → #2129)

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

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

Only Yesterday (1991)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Only Yesterday (1991)

📊 Ranked #521/4048 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 87

beat Ender's Game (#2019 → #2023)

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

beat I ♥ Huckabees (#503 → #555)

lost to Fright Night (#251 → #249)

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

beat Conspiracy Theory (#440 → #435)

lost to Strange Days (#408 → #407)

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

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

lost to Black Narcissus (#436 → #430)

beat Hero (#438 → #469)

beat Hearts Beat Loud (#437 → #462)

Morning Glory (2010)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Morning Glory (2010)

📊 Ranked #1105/4047 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 73

beat The Fighter (#2018 → #2542)

lost to Wizards (#1008 → #990)

beat Pushing Tin (#1514 → #1516)

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

beat Godzilla Minus One (#1133 → #1207)

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

lost to Laurence Anyways (#1101 → #1100)

lost to It (#1117 → #1112)

beat Cats Don't Dance (#1125 → #1123)

beat Family Business (#1121 → #1454)

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

beat Ghostbusters II (#1118 → #1136)

Dogfight (1991)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Dogfight (1991)

📊 Ranked #679/4046 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 83

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

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

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

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

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

beat Summer Wars (#692 → #713)

lost to Shiva Baby (#660 → #647)

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

lost to Yojimbo (#684 → #656)

lost to Black Christmas (#688 → #690)

lost to Enchanted (#690 → #677)

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

State of Play (2009)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 State of Play (2009)

📊 Ranked #1916/4045 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 53

lost to Malignant (#2017 → #2008)

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

beat Her Man (held at #2523)

beat Selma (#2271 → #2272)

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

beat The Firm (#2081 → #2080)

beat Gothika (#2048 → #2066)

beat The Perfumier (#2032 → #2533)

beat The Trial (#2024 → #2065)

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

lost to John Wick (#2022 → #1915)

beat Chain Reaction (#2023 → #2024)

A Simple Favor (2018)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 A Simple Favor (2018)

📊 Ranked #1032/4044 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 75

beat Ender's Game (#2017 → #2021)

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

lost to The Fallen Idol (held at #503)

lost to Point Break (held at #754)

lost to Sleight (#881 → #853)

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

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

lost to The Impostors (#991 → #927)

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

lost to Re-Animator (#995 → #984)

lost to Trick 'r Treat (#997 → #995)

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

Paper Man (2009)

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

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

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

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Paper Man (2009)

📊 Ranked #2118/4043 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 48

lost to Rock of Ages (#2017 → #1294)

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

beat Chocolat (#2523 → #2526)

beat Pitch Perfect 2 (#2271 → #2279)

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

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

lost to Marvin's Room (#2175 → #2166)

beat Sneakerella (#2191 → #2201)

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

lost to Mrs Brown (#2187 → #1740)

beat David Copperfield (#2189 → #2205)

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