Sisters (2015)

IMDb plot summary: Two sisters decide to throw one last house party before their parents sell their family home.
Directed by Jason Moore. Starring Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, and Ike Barinholtz.

When this movie succeeds, it succeeds on the strength of its two lead actresses. The script is pretty weak, but there is a reality and a believability to their performances that makes their funny moments funnier and their dramatic moments more touching. They're helped by an enormous cast of usually funny folks, though some of them are misused here (Maya Rudolph's Brinda feels like a constant "character" in a way that most of the rest don't). Ike Barinholtz is especially good as a charming and down-to-earth love interest, and the scenes where he and Poehler interact are perhaps my favorite in the entire movie.

This is basically one big party movie, and that goes on a little long -- one only really wants to watch Bobby Moynihan running around screaming and using his ink-covered body part to draw crude symbols on the walls for a limited amount of time, and I reached my limit about 45 minutes before the filmmakers did. But there are some funny moments, and Fey and Poehler ground the film as a whole in genuinely likable and genuinely funny characters.

2.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Sisters < The Circus
Sisters > Dinner for Schmucks
Sisters > Mystic Pizza
Sisters > Milk
Sisters > The Whistleblower
Sisters > Hysteria
Sisters > The Lady from Shanghai
Sisters < Biloxi Blues
Sisters > Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Sisters < Last Holiday
Sisters < Yankee Doodle Dandy
Final spot: #1214 out of 2401.

Liz & Dick (2012)

IMDb plot summary: The torrid relationship between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Directed by Lloyd Kramer. Starring Lindsay Lohan, Grant Bowler, Theresa Russell, and David Hunt.

Let me make this clear right up front: This is not a very *good* movie. Its structure is lopsided, its acting erratic, its script is uneven. But there's something kind of weirdly fascinating about it. Maybe it's because it's so frequently wobbling on the edge of being a total mess (mirroring the lives of its characters) and it taps into the same vein as terrible reality TV shows where we can't quite look away. Maybe it's simply that the story is actually an interesting one, at least enough to keep its viewers paying attention for the short runtime. Lindsay Lohan is a mostly-adequate Elizabeth Taylor and Grant Bowler is pretty good at impersonating Burton. Of course, that doesn't mean that the acting itself is good, but the impressions are decent enough that I seldom found myself thinking, "There's Lindsay Lohan made up to look like Elizabeth Taylor."

So... not a great piece of art, but I was drawn in for reasons I can't quite articulate. I just wish it had been better executed.

2 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Liz & Dick < Melinda and Melinda
Liz & Dick > Dinner for Schmucks
Liz & Dick > Mystic Pizza
Liz & Dick < The Man With One Red Shoe
Liz & Dick < The Perfect Score
Liz & Dick < 10 Things I Hate About You
Liz & Dick < Dear Frankie
Liz & Dick < Love's Labour's Lost
Liz & Dick > Deja Vu
Liz & Dick > Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Liz & Dick > A Christmas Carol (2004)
Final spot: #1491 out of 2399.

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

IMDb plot summary: A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.
Directed by Sergio Leone. Starring Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Gian Maria Volontè, and Wolfgang Lukschy.

This was the second critically-acclaimed movie this week that I had high hopes for based on other movies I'd seen and enjoyed from the director... only to be seriously let down. Oddly, A Fistful of Dollars feels significantly longer than The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, despite being about half its length and actually a pretty short film. But while TGTB&TU had some great character development and interactions to pull me into the story, this one is all surface. None of the characters are interesting to watch and it all seems so run-of-the-mill -- though maybe none of these characters or scenarios were tropes just yet. Comparing it to not only TGTB&TU but also to this film's source material Yojimbo, and it's clear that this movie just doesn't have the personal element that helps it hold up to those two. I had trouble even staying awake through this film's short run.

1 star.

How it entered my Flickchart:
A Fistful of Dollars < The Fortune Cookie
A Fistful of Dollars < Chinatown
A Fistful of Dollars > The Long Goodbye
A Fistful of Dollars < Road to Morocco
A Fistful of Dollars < Roberta
A Fistful of Dollars < The Chocolate War
A Fistful of Dollars < Easter Parade
A Fistful of Dollars > Aquamarine
A Fistful of Dollars > Out of the Past
A Fistful of Dollars < Men of Honor
A Fistful of Dollars > Dragon Lee vs. Five Brothers
Final spot: #2083 out of 2398.

La Dolce Vita (1960)

IMDb plot summary: A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering paparazzo journalist living in Rome.
Directed by Federico Fellini. Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimee, and Yvonne Furneaux.

I've liked the other Fellini flicks that I've seen, but wow, this one did nothing for me at all. There were glimpses of really interesting moments, but there was a LOT of nothing in between. I'm assuming the length and meaninglessness of most of it was about showing the vacuity of the character's life, but I tired of it long before the three hours were up and it never really came back to me. Marcello is also not a terribly interesting character to follow around -- until the final 15 minutes or so of the movie, he does and shows us very little. Overall, this does not make me terribly hopeful for 8 1/2, which I know I have to watch at some point, but is another 3-hour Fellini flick about a male character (as opposed to La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, two shorter films centered around women that I absolutely loved).

2 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
La Dolce Vita < The Fortune Cookie
La Dolce Vita > Chinatown
La Dolce Vita > Mystic Pizza
La Dolce Vita < Swing Kids
La Dolce Vita < The Score
La Dolce Vita > I, Robot
La Dolce Vita < The Room
La Dolce Vita < Over the Hedge
La Dolce Vita < The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
La Dolce Vita < Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
La Dolce Vita > Play Misty for Me
Final spot: #1458 out of 2397.

The Peanuts Movie (2015)

IMDb plot summary: Snoopy embarks upon his greatest mission as he and his team take to the skies to pursue their arch-nemesis, while his best pal Charlie Brown begins his own epic quest back home.
Directed by Steve Martino. Starring Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez, Alexander Garfin, and Mariel Sheets.

(Spoilers ahead.)

I was so worried when I heard this movie was going to exist, but it turns out all that worry was for nothing. This is a really solid movie and a worthwhile continuation of the Charlie Brown movie saga. Or perhaps I shouldn't say "continuation" so much as "reboot," as part of the reason the movie stays so faithful is that, like its most well-liked predecessors, it takes good chunks of its dialogue and its action directly from the comic strip. There is an original narrative in here too, but it's stitched together with familiar lines and situations. Even the new bits, however, manage to stick to the spirit of the classic Peanuts gang, so on the whole it's a very nicely done flick.

My one complaint, however, is a small one but not a particularly minor one for me. The ending of the film doesn't work for me at all. One of the reasons I (and so many others) connect with Charlie Brown is precisely his inability to win -- at least on the full spectrum he does here. He *is* a good person, and people *do* like him (sometimes), but nobody except for maybe Linus would tell him that to his face. The final scenes where the Little Red Haired Girl practically gives a whole speech affirming the Charlie Browns of the world was sweet, and all the kids swarming him with love and affection was heartwarming, but it all felt *off* to me. The Peanuts comics and older cartoons all played heavily on Charlie Brown's attempt to stay compassionate and stable even when no one around him was affirming him as doing the right thing, his determination to keep trying even when he knew, deep down, he was probably going to fail. Seeing him succeed wildly in the eyes of his peers was just never going to happen -- nor should it. Charlie Brown's successes come mostly when he is happy with himself or when he is *allowed* into the inner circle, if not invited with open arms.

As that bit of lengthy rambling, I was unconvinced by the ending of the film, but that didn't meant that everything before it wasn't pretty darn delightful. It's absolutely worth a watch, even if it slips up in its final moments.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Peanuts Movie > The Fortune Cookie
The Peanuts Movie > Pretty Woman
The Peanuts Movie < Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Peanuts Movie > Kiss Me, Stupid!
The Peanuts Movie < Fail-Safe
The Peanuts Movie < Beetlejuice
The Peanuts Movie < M. Butterfly
The Peanuts Movie > The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Peanuts Movie < Philadelphia
The Peanuts Movie > Man on the Moon
Final spot: #436 out of 2396, which is possibly a bit too high.

The Girl King (2015)

IMDB plot summary: THE GIRL KING paints a portrait of the brilliant, extravagant Kristina of Sweden, queen from age six, who fights the conservative forces that are against her ideas to modernize Sweden and who have no tolerance for her awakening sexuality.
Directed by Mika Kaurismäki. Starring Malina Buska, Sarah Gadon, Michael Nyqvist, and Lucas Bryant.

This odd little movie was playing at an independent theater in my area, and I had to say, it did make me want to learn about the historical character being portrayed here -- but mostly because the movie itself gave a very confusing portrayal of her rather than because it did her justice. The movie is awkwardly edited, woodenly acted, and bafflingly scripted almost to the point where it becomes kind of charmingly bizarre... but not quite. It's a shame, because I knew very little about Queen Kristina, and she seems to have been a fascinating character, despite the uncomfortable hodgepodge we're given here in this film.

1.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Girl King < Melinda and Melinda
The Girl King < Chinatown
The Girl King > Hollywoodland
The Girl King < Road to Morocco
The Girl King < Roberta
The Girl King > The Chocolate War
The Girl King > Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
The Girl King > Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
The Girl King < Gunga Din
The Girl King > The Little Princess (1939)
Final spot: #2031 out of 2400.

Mad Max (1979)

IMDb plot summary: In a self-destructing world, a vengeful Australian policeman sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang.
Directed by George Miller. Starring Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, and Steve Bisley.

One of the things I found so fascinating about Fury Road when I saw it this summer was how little it explained about the world we were in. No quick recap of what the situation was like, no expository dialogue on who most of these characters were and how they got to be there. You were left just kind of watching and taking everything as it came.

That is even truer of Mad Max. All we know about it is that it is set a few years in the future, but there's really hardly any hint of post-apocalyptic future in this movie. For all I know, it could be just about 1979 Australia... except for these little hints that something's a little off. Granted, I would have liked *more* of those hints to keep it feeling more futuristic and less vigilante action flick, but I've got to give it kudos for its restrained vision of the story.

The movie is pretty slow-moving, though. The titular Max is not mad at all until the last 20 minutes or so, while the rest of it slooooowly builds up. Lots and lots of shots of people just driving across the wasteland, and that gets pretty tiring. Nevertheless, now that I've seen the first and the last, I definitely want to see the in-between ones. From what I've heard, they may be a bit more up my alley than this.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Mad Max > Melinda and Melinda
Mad Max < Pretty Woman
Mad Max < A Separation
Mad Max > Broken Arrow
Mad Max > Clueless
Mad Max < Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
Mad Max < The Man Who Wasn't There
Mad Max > John Dies at the End
Mad Max < Marooned
Mad Max > Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Final spot: #960 out of 2395.