Tea With the Dames (2018)

IMDb plot summary: Dames Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Joan Plowright, and Maggie Smith get together for tea to reminisce and discuss their acting careers.
Directed by Roger Michell.

This is the kind of documentary that I typically have the least interest in, taking a celebrity and just having them share their experiences and thoughts on whatever in front of the camera. The lack of a narrative journey ultimately leaves me dissatisfied. The four women here are charming and fairly interesting, and it's nice to see their interactions with each other, and it was extremely cool seeing their discussions juxtaposed with footage of their roles as younger actresses. But you never get the sense of true intimacy here. There's a definite guard up, an awareness of being on camera and of carefully phrasing everything. Maybe they phrase these things just as carefully in their everyday interactions, but in the end, it feels simply like a long celebrity interview, and less like a film that has anything to actually say, which makes it a slightly dull watch for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Tea With the Dames < Outbreak
Tea With the Dames > American Made
Tea With the Dames < The Preacher's Wife
Tea With the Dames > Zero Charisma
Tea With the Dames < Stand and Deliver
Tea With the Dames < A Girl of the Limberlost
Tea With the Dames > The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Tea With the Dames > Our Paradise
Tea With the Dames > Star Wars Uncut
Tea With the Dames > Destry Rides Again
Tea With the Dames > Django Unchained

Final spot: #1966 out of 2925.

Hereditary (2018)

IMDb plot summary: After the family matriarch passes away, a grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences, and begin to unravel dark secrets.
Directed by Ari Aster. Starring Alex Wolff, Gabriel Byrne, Toni Collette, and Milly Shapiro.

(Spoilers ahead.) Maybe my expectations for this were too high, but I found myself slightly disappointed with this one. Some great performances from Toni Collette and Alex Wolff, but the story as a whole lacks the cohesion and the thoughtfulness I ached for in a movie with this title and this premise. It's got some good scares, but the performances are too good to be used on a final narrative with such lack of nuance. And it's too outright depressing to function solely as a great horror movie. Maybe I've been spoiled by the last few years of really intriguing and deep horror hits. I just wanted... more.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Hereditary > Iron Eagle
Hereditary < Evil Dead II
Hereditary < The Help
Hereditary > Seven Chances
Hereditary > Finding Vivian Maier
Hereditary > Hamlet (2009)
Hereditary > Undercover Blues
Hereditary < Bridge of Spies
Hereditary < The Slipper and the Rose
Hereditary < Thor
Hereditary < Josie and the Pussycats
Hereditary > Hamlet (1990)
Final spot: #1117 out of 2924.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

IMDb plot summary: When Lee Israel falls out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception.
Directed by Marielle Heller. Starring Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells, and Ben Falcone.

Melissa McCarthy is definitely the shining star of this film. The script is mostly solid, though it seems to be missing a few beats in the latter half, but it is an academically interesting story to follow, and McCarthy imbues humanity into her character in a very engaging manner.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Can You Ever Forgive Me? > I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore
Can You Ever Forgive Me? < Evil Dead II
Can You Ever Forgive Me? > John Carter
Can You Ever Forgive Me? > Mean Girls
Can You Ever Forgive Me? < La jetee
Can You Ever Forgive Me? > Taxi Driver
Can You Ever Forgive Me? < Au Revoir Les Enfants
Can You Ever Forgive Me? > The Pianist
Can You Ever Forgive Me? < Laurence Anyways
Can You Ever Forgive Me? > Pushing Tin
Can You Ever Forgive Me? > The Long Day Closes
Final spot: #851 out of 2923.

If... (1968)

IMDb plot summary: In this allegorical story, a revolution led by pupil Mick Travis takes place at an old established private school in England.
Directed by Lindsay Anderson. Starring Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, and Christine Noonan.

There's a part of me that can understand and even appreciate what this film is doing... but it doesn't really work for me on any kind of emotional level. I spent most of my time just trying to make sense of specific artistic choices. But it's fun to see Malcolm McDowell in his first screen role -- and you can definitely see how this performance connected to his performance just a few years later as A Clockwork Orange's Alex.

How it entered my Flickchart:
If... < Star Trek Into Darkness
If... > The Proposal
If... < Love's Labour's Lost
If... > Luther
If... < X2
If... > Tombstone
If... < The Baby-Sitters Club
If... < Zero Dark Thirty
If... > Arlington Road
If... < Last of the Red Hot Lovers
If... < Con Air
If... < The Librarian: Quest for the Spear

Final spot: #1957 out of 2922.

The Sandlot (1993)

IMDb plot summary: In the summer of 1962, a new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his rowdy team, resulting in many adventures.
Directed by David Mickey Evans. Starring Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, and Chauncey Leopardi.

I always associated The Sandlot with The Goonies in my mind. A lot of people I know seemed to love both of them, and for similar reasons, as far as I could tell. Given my distaste for Goonies, I worried The Sandlot would feel similarly unenjoyable, but this is actually pretty well-done. It walks the line of being slightly too precious about childhood at times, but overall it's a solidly built story. I wish we'd gotten a bit more insight into the individual kids, especially given how much the movie is about that bond. But, yeah, this was all right overall.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Sandlot > I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore
The Sandlot < Evil Dead II
The Sandlot < The Thing
The Sandlot > Sleepers
The Sandlot < The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
The Sandlot < Judgment at Nuremberg
The Sandlot < The Horse's Mouth
The Sandlot > Finding Forrester
The Sandlot < A Bug's Life
The Sandlot < Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Sandlot > Focus

Final spot: #1264 out of 2921.

The Cruise (1998)

IMDb plot summary: Affectionate portrait of Tim "Speed" Levitch, a tour guide for Manhattan's Gray Line double-decker buses.
Directed by Bennett Miller.

This is an incredibly straightforward documentary, following our central character around New York City and letting him talk about whatever he wants to talk about. I don't think most of what he's saying is nearly as profound as either he or the documentarian thinks it is, but I have no doubt he believes deeply in all he's saying and that makes him kind of a fascinating figure. He takes this somewhat dreary job of being a tour bus guide and imbues it with meaning that clearly makes it worth it for himself, which is possibly more interesting than if it was meaningful for the rest of us. It's not something I have a desire to rewatch (an hour and 16 minutes is quite enough time to spend with this guy, who I find ultimately a little exhausting), but it was interesting for a single viewing.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Cruise < Star Trek Into Darkness
The Cruise > The Proposal
The Cruise > The Visitor
The Cruise > Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
The Cruise > Happy Christmas
The Cruise < Stepmom
The Cruise > The Dresser
The Cruise < Real Genius
The Cruise > A Time to Kill
The Cruise < The Wailing
The Cruise < Cool Hand Luke
The Cruise < The Paperboy

Final spot: #1522 out of 2920.

Shoplifters (2018)

IMDb plot summary: A family of small-time crooks take in a child they find outside in the cold.
Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. Starring Lily Franky, Sakura Andô, Kirin Kiki, and Mayu Matsuoka.

This movie reminds me a bit of The Florida Project, in that it's a movie about poverty that focuses heavily on complex relationships between family members -- or, in this case, chosen family members. The young girl in both movies is also probably the most compelling character. Shoplifters also has an equally uneasy ending, one that makes me yearn for another five minutes, something to give me resolution, but that's not what this movie is about. It's such a lonely film, but so well done.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Shoplifters > Natural Born Killer
Shoplifters > Evil Dead II
Shoplifters < Boyhood
Shoplifters > The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
Shoplifters < Caddyshack
Shoplifters < Bride of Frankenstein
Shoplifters < Ninotchka
Shoplifters < Six Degrees of Separation
Shoplifters < The Land Before Time
Shoplifters < Beetlejuice
Shoplifters < Grave of the Fireflies
Shoplifters < What We Do in the Shadows

Final spot: #547 out of 2919.