Devil's Knot (2013)

IMDb plot summary: The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a Satanic ritual.
Directed by Atom Egoyan. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, Alessandro Nivola, and James Hamrick.

Oof, this is a messy movie. It is a dramatized account of the West Memphis Three trials, but it seems more interested in providing factual information than in providing an actual emotional narrative base to the story. The characters' emotional arcs are handled in such a clumsy manner. It makes Reese Witherspoon look extremely untalented, which she is not. It did spark my interest in the case itself and in the series of documentaries about it, so that's a good thing, but this is a pretty sloppy flick.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Devil's Knot < Ramona and Beezus
Devil's Knot < The Life of David Gale
Devil's Knot > Never Been Kissed
Devil's Knot < Dracula (1931)
Devil's Knot > The Omega Code
Devil's Knot < Dr. Seuss on the Loose
Devil's Knot > My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
Devil's Knot > Gangs of New York
Devil's Knot < Analyze This
Devil's Knot < The Matrix Revolutions
Devil's Knot > The Searchers
Final spot: #2452 out of 2950.

The Mummy (1999)

IMDb plot summary: At an archaeological dig in the ancient city of Hamunaptra, an American serving in the French Foreign Legion accidentally awakens a mummy who begins to wreck havoc as he searches for the reincarnation of his long-lost love.
Directed by Stephen Sommers. Starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, and Arnold Vosloo.

I have seen the old classic monster movie version of this and had a pretty good time with it. I had probably the same amount of fun with this remake, though I had hoped to enjoy it more. It just always teeters on the edge of really leaning into its place as a campy action movie, and never quite seems to be enjoying itself enough. The effects have also definitely not aged well, though their design is creative and interesting. (I do love the opening scene when Brendan Fraser runs away from the sand that then turns into a giant face. That's pretty eerie.) Overall it's pretty fun, which is less than I'd expected but much better than it could have been.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Mummy < Ramona and Beezus
The Mummy > The Life of David Gale
The Mummy > To Have and Have Not
The Mummy > The Women
The Mummy < Batman Forever
The Mummy > The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Mummy > She Loves Me
The Mummy < Birdman of Alcatraz
The Mummy > Wild
The Mummy > Marie Antoinette
The Mummy > The English Patient
Final spot: #1580 out of 2949.

The Emperor Waltz (1948)

IMDb plot summary: A brash American gramophone salesman tries to get Emperor Franz Joseph's endorsement in turn-of-the-century Austria.
Directed by Billy Wilder. Starring Bing Crosby, Joan Fontaine, Roland Culver, and Lucile Watson.

There's something kind of refreshing in today's age of nitpicky "plot hole" criticism to watch a romantic comedy that's just so overtly ridiculous. This movie pretends to be loosely set in the real world, but the plot devices involving the dogs are just so silly that they make me smile. But in no way does it acknowledge the silliness of it -- it just asks us to live in this goofy world, and I was quite happy to do so. It reminded me a bit of the Rogers/Astaire vehicle Carefree I watched earlier this year in its cheerful disregard for accuracy. This isn't stellar but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Emperor Waltz > Ramona and Beezus
The Emperor Waltz < A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit
The Emperor Waltz > Marjorie Prime
The Emperor Waltz > The Exterminating Angel
The Emperor Waltz > Flushed Away
The Emperor Waltz > M
The Emperor Waltz < The Dictator
The Emperor Waltz < What's Eating Gilbert Grape
The Emperor Waltz > Under the Skin
The Emperor Waltz < Frankenweenie
The Emperor Waltz > The Happening
Final spot: #775 out of 2948.

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

IMDb plot summary: A woman in Harlem embraces her pregnancy while she and her family struggle to prove her fiancé innocent of a crime.
Directed by Barry Jenkins. Starring KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, and Teyonah Parris.

I've been trying to sort out for a day now what I want to say about this -- not because it's so complex, but because my response is so simple: "Yeah, that was pretty good." I feel a little guilty for not really having the words for what made this good, or for having a bigger emotional response to what is clearly a well-made film. Solid writing, solid acting, solid camera work. I like that it ends on a note of hope even while allowing things to play out badly. It didn't blow me away the way I hoped it might, but it's well worth watching.

How it entered my Flickchart:
If Beale Street Could Talk > Mad Max
If Beale Street Could Talk < A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit
If Beale Street Could Talk > Lord of the Flies
If Beale Street Could Talk < The Exterminating Angel
If Beale Street Could Talk > The Horse's Mouth
If Beale Street Could Talk > You Can't Take It With You
If Beale Street Could Talk > The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
If Beale Street Could Talk < The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
If Beale Street Could Talk > The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
If Beale Street Could Talk > Idiocracy
If Beale Street Could Talk > Young Frankenstein
Final spot: #934 out of 2947.

My Name Is Joe (1998)

IMDb plot summary: Two thirtysomethings, unemployed former alcoholic Joe and community health worker Sarah, start a romantic relationship in the one of the toughest Glasgow neighbourhoods.
Directed by Ken Loach. Starring Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall, David McKay, and Anne-Marie Kennedy.

I sought out this movie because earlier this year I fell in love with Kes, also from director Ken Loach. I'd never seen any of Loach's films before, so I hunted up this one, the next-ranked on Flickchart. While I'm less invested in this central character than I was in our young protagonist from Kes, it does an extraordinary job of humanizing the person at the center of all the drama -- in this case, crime and drugs drama. My complaint about crime movies is so often that they are all the same, but this one really manages to dig into its main character's personality, life, and heart, and it ends up much the better for it. And, much like Kes, the movie ends before I'm quite ready for it to, but in hindsight feels like the only ending it could have had. It's overall quite a good movie, even if I wasn't as emotionally connected to it as I was with the previous Loach film I'd seen.

How it entered my Flickchart:
My Name Is Joe > Mad Max
My Name Is Joe > A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit
My Name Is Joe < Big Hero 6
My Name Is Joe < Beetlejuice
My Name Is Joe > National Lampoon's Vacation
My Name Is Joe < The Sting
My Name Is Joe < Bernie
My Name Is Joe < The Great Race
My Name Is Joe < The African Queen
My Name Is Joe > Dust
My Name Is Joe < Jack Goes Boating
Final spot: #641 out of 2946.

Wuthering Heights (1939)

IMDb plot summary: A servant in the house of Wuthering Heights tells a traveller the unfortunate tale of lovers Cathy and Heathcliff.
Directed by William Wyler. Starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, and Flora Robson.

Ah! Maybe this is the movie that is to blame for painting Wuthering Heights as a romantic story. Because it truly, truly isn't. I read the book for the first time in full last year and found myself horrified by how toxic and abusive the characters were to each other. This film comes down heavily on the other side. It sides with Heathcliff here, who never does anything too bad apart from marrying someone he doesn't love, and even then she herself vindicates him by claiming he's not evil, he's just "full of pain." Multiple times Heathcliff chides Cathy for being "childish" and "vain" in refusing to marry him, as if everything would have gone just fine if she had gone to him like he deserved. It's a very unsettling attitude for our romantic hero to have, and since this film, unlike the book, DOES paint him as the romantic hero, it's an unsettling watch.

The bookended scenes are probably the best -- they both attain a creepy gothic tone that gets lost in the middle of the movie but are fun to watch. I want to say something else good about it -- the cinematography or something -- but even that doesn't do much. It all looks kind of stagey and drab and most of the shots of the moors are pretty uncompelling. It's not necessarily a bad movie, but when its entire premise is something you can't get on board with from the start, it's not going to fare that well.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Wuthering Heights < Liz & Dick
Wuthering Heights < Rebel Without a Cause
Wuthering Heights > Never Been Kissed
Wuthering Heights < Dracula
Wuthering Heights > Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus
Wuthering Heights > Raid on Rommel
Wuthering Heights > Gomorrah
Wuthering Heights > 27 Dresses
Wuthering Heights < The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Wuthering Heights > The Star of Christmas
Wuthering Heights > Deliverance

Final spot: #2401 out of 2946.

Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

IMDb plot summary: A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.
Directed by Louis Malle. Starring Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, and Yori Bertin.

(Spoilers ahead.)

It's kind of interesting how this film sets up one character as our protagonist, only to abandon him in a trapped elevator for most of the movie and focus on what's happening while he's incapacitated. Like many noir-ish crime films, this one comes around full circle and ends in the criminals being punished for their crimes, and this is somewhat satisfying, but the in between is varying levels of satisfying. Mrs. Carala's wandering through the streets of Paris is much less interesting to me than the accidental Bonnie and Clyde couple (particularly the woman -- I was intrigued with how she responded to her boyfriend's increasingly criminal and antisocial behavior). I'm not sure it does much overall that any other crime movie doesn't do, but it's got enough bright spots that I'm glad I saw it.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Elevator to the Gallows < Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Elevator to the Gallows > Sands of Iwo Jima
Elevator to the Gallows > The Shaggy Dog (1959)
Elevator to the Gallows > Whisper of the Heart
Elevator to the Gallows > The Avengers
Elevator to the Gallows < South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Elevator to the Gallows < Cool Hand Luke
Elevator to the Gallows > Gypsy (1962)
Elevator to the Gallows > The Double Life of Veronique
Elevator to the Gallows < A Time to Kill

Final spot: #1546 out of 2945.