Cocktail (1988)

IMDb plot summary: A talented New York City bartender takes a job at a bar in Jamaica and falls in love.
Directed by Roger Donaldson. Starring Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown, Elisabeth Shue, and Lisa Banes.

I'm not sure what this movie is actually *about*. Pursuing your dreams? Settling down? Trying to be about both but then kind of half-heartedly mashing it together into an abrupt ending where nobody appears to be on any kind of actual arc? Yeah, probably that one. Tom Cruise is a strange choice for the lead, too. This character is weird and mysterious in his motivation, but I don't think he's *supposed* to be that way, I feel like there are things that were written poorly and then got even more lost in translation in the hands of the wrong actor. I told one person I was watching this and they made a comment about Tom Cruise flipping bottles and glasses around and, yeah, that's basically the height of it. I think it wants to be more but doesn't know what "more" it actually wants to be.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Cocktail < Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
Cocktail > The Cocoanuts
Cocktail > Vera Drake
Cocktail > Ray
Cocktail < The French Connection
Cocktail > Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Cocktail > Harold and Maude
Cocktail < Green Lantern
Cocktail > Play It Again, Sam
Cocktail > Nicholas Nickleby
Cocktail < Bright Young Things
Final spot: #2338 out of 2974.

Shame (1968)

IMDb plot summary: In the midst of a civil war, former violinists Jan and Eva Rosenberg, who have a tempestuous marriage, run a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.
Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Starring Liv Ullmann, Max von Sydow, Sigge Fürst, and Gunnar Björnstrand.

One of two Ingmar Bergman films made in 1968. I definitely prefer this to Hour of the Wolf, if only because I can better sense what Bergman's getting at here. The sense of the chaos of war coming right to your house is captured so well. The interactions between Jan and Eva and the strain this outside stress puts on their already-wobbly marriage is also very interesting. It doesn't intrigue me as much as I want it to, but I appreciate where it's going.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Shame > Call Me by Your Name
Shame < Henry V
Shame < You Can Count on Me
Shame < Last Holiday
Shame < Star Trek: First Contact
Shame > Tokyo Story
Shame < Splice
Shame < Yellowbeard
Shame < Lord of War
Shame < Five Graves to Cairo
Shame > Air Force One
Final spot: #1438 out of 2973.

The Fixer (1968)

IMDb plot summary: In Czarist Russia, around 1911, a Russian-Jewish handyman, Yakov Bok, is wrongly imprisoned for a most unlikely crime.
Directed by John Frankenheimer. Starring Alan Bates, Dirk Bogarde, Georgia Brown, and Hugh Griffith.

There's a lot to enjoy aesthetically about this movie. There are some really lovely shots and some especially effective uses of lighting. I found myself always interested by the images I wa watching, if seldom by the words I was hearing. I feel like I simultaneously get too much and too little context for this story. There are plenty of moralizing speeches about anti-Semitism, so it makes it very clear what this movie is "about," but at the same time I can't quite figure out how the story fits into its specific place and time, how the history is being told, why this particular time and place and situation is the story being used to convey the message. I think it's a very well-made movie but I struggle to grasp it fully.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Fixer > Call Me by Your Name
The Fixer < It (2017)
The Fixer < Rabbit Hole
The Fixer > Molly's Game
The Fixer > The Majestic
The Fixer > The Lair of the White Worm
The Fixer < The Thing
The Fixer < Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Fixer < Good Time
The Fixer > 1408
The Fixer < Hamlet (1990)
Final spot: #1157 out of 2972.

The Subject Was Roses (1968)

IMDb plot summary: A young man returning home from World War II finds himself caught up in his parents' turbulent relationship.
Directed by Ulu Grosbard. Starring Patricia Neal, Jack Albertson, and Martin Sheen.

This is one of the most based-on-a-play movies I've seen awhile. This FEELS like a play, but not in a way I particularly like. The best plays (and filmed plays) have a sort of electricity to them. Even these one-room character dramas can have an exciting momentum to them. This... just kind of sits. Apparently both the male actors were brought over from the Broadway production of the play, which makes sense -- something about the mismatch in energy between them and Patricia Neal makes it feel flatter than if they were all big or all subtle. The script itself is subtle, but the theater actors play it big (as is needed on stage), and the camera doesn't temper it, so Neal is clearly the best part of it. This is one I'd be fascinated to see on stage, to see if the magic I was hoping for is present in a way it was not here.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Subject Was Roses < Call Me by Your Name
The Subject Was Roses > Brother Bear
The Subject Was Roses > 13 Going on 30
The Subject Was Roses < King Kong (2005)
The Subject Was Roses > Beach Party
The Subject Was Roses < The Lost Weekend
The Subject Was Roses > Jack Strong
The Subject Was Roses < Marvin's Room
The Subject Was Roses < The Robe
The Subject Was Roses > Blue's Big Musical Movie
The Subject Was Roses > Monsters University
The Subject Was Roses < The Whistleblower
Final spot: #1736 out of 2971.

Arctic (2018)

IMDb plot summary: A man stranded in the Arctic after a helicopter crash must decide whether to remain in the relative safety of his makeshift camp or to embark on a deadly trek through the unknown.
Directed by Joe Penna. Starring Mads Mikkelsen and Maria Thelma Smáradóttir.

This film takes a little while to get going. It's like a virtually silent Cast Away/127 Hours mashup. I often have trouble staying interested in one-person survival stories, but this one is all right. It's structured pretty well, and it manages to really latch onto that sense of "this is my last chance" toward the end. Pretty decent adventure drama, if a little slow moving at times.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Arctic > Call Me by Your Name
Arctic < It (2017)
Arctic < Total Recall (1990)
Arctic > The Gift
Arctic < Fury (2014)
Arctic > Le Week-End
Arctic < Munich
Arctic < The Birds
Arctic > The Trojan Women
Arctic < Frank
Arctic > A Chorus of Disapproval
Final spot: #1244 out of 2970.

Serenity (2005)

IMDb plot summary: The crew of the ship Serenity try to evade an assassin sent to recapture one of their members who is telepathic.
Directed by Joss Whedon. Starring Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, and Morena Baccarin.

I am a pretty devout Whedonite -- the one major exception being Firefly. Maybe it was too western-y, maybe it built the characters too slowly and didn't give them time to really blossom, I don't know. I enjoyed a couple of the individual episodes, but it never really gripped my heart the way so much of Whedon's work has. I am far, far in the minority on this one, as most folks I know cite Firefly as their favorite thing Whedon's done.

So I was not particularly excited for Serenity. I figured I'd mildly enjoy it but that it wouldn't have any deeper impact on me. And that's exactly what it felt like, like it just... slid off of my brain. Like all sequels, it's almost impossible for me to assess them apart from the whole franchise, and that's definitely the case here. I feel incomplete here, not because it wasn't a satisfactory ending for the series, but because I feel like I was asked to watch a TV season finale and judge it as somehow separate from the episodes building up to it. I think I've been partly avoiding this movie not because I thought it would be unpleasant, but because trying to find a framework for it is kind of exhausting.

The movie itself? Um, it was fine, I think. I knew about the most significant twists already, so they didn't hit me. There were some cool shots, particularly River-centric ones. Kaylee is delightful as always.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Serenity > No Highway in the Sky
Serenity < It (2017)
Serenity > Josh and the Big Wall
Serenity < Australia
Serenity < Ant-Man
Serenity < Foolproof
Serenity < Gentleman's Agremeent
Serenity > Kind Hearts and Coronets
Serenity < Brothers
Serenity < Winnie the Pooh
Serenity > The Descendants
Final spot: #1099 out of 2969.

Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

IMDb plot summary: Six years after the events of "Wreck-It Ralph," Ralph and Vanellope, now friends, discover a wi-fi router in their arcade, leading them into a new adventure.
Directed by Phil Johnston & Rich Moore. Starring John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, and Taraji P. Henson.

*shrug* As is the case with most sequels, and as was the case with the first Wreck-It Ralph movie, this just doesn't do much that's interesting or creative. It's serviceable. It's not, like, WRONG in any way. Well, maybe a little too choatic and dependent on Internet and pop culture references. But that's not new to Disney or children's animation in general. This is at least tethered to an emotional character arc. It just always sits in the exact middle of the spectrum between good and bad, making it almost impossible to evaluate except to shrug and toss it into the center somewhere.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Ralph Breaks the Internet < Call Me by Your Name
Ralph Breaks the Internet > Brother Bear
Ralph Breaks the Internet > Top Hat
Ralph Breaks the Internet > 17 Again
Ralph Breaks the Internet > Ever After
Ralph Breaks the Internet < Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
Ralph Breaks the Internet > V/H/S
Ralph Breaks the Internet < Bully
Ralph Breaks the Internet < Fish Tank
Ralph Breaks the Internet < Batman: Under the Red Hood
Ralph Breaks the Internet > The Whole Nine Yards
Final spot: #1551 out of 2968.