Annihilation (2018)

IMDb plot summary: A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.
Directed by Alex Garland. Starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Oscar Isaac, and Tessa Thompson.

This is an astonishingly great movie. Alex Garland’s previously film Ex Machina was a clever and thoughtful piece as well, but this one is a little less explained and relies a little more heavily on psychological and emotional cinematic language, and the result is incredible. It’s full of haunting imagery and sounds/music, as well as some dramatic choreography that is simultaneously terrifying and beautiful. And I love how many great, fleshed out female characters there are. Sci fi has such a sad lack of them, and here all our five protagonists are all women and passing the heck out of the Bechdel test and it’s great. The themes of depression and self-destruction are conveyed in such a compelling, powerful way -- I’m still thinking about this film several days after having seen it.

How it entered my chart:
Annihilation > Avengers: Age of Ultron
Annihilation > An American Werewolf in London
Annihilation > Vertigo
Annihilation < Amahl and the Night Visitors
Annihilation > Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Annihilation > The Kindergarten Teacher
Annihilation < The Lego Movie
Annihilation > A Simple Plan
Annihilation > (500) Days of Summer
Annihilation > Once
Annihilation > Pirate Radio
Annihilation > Stranger Than Fiction
Final spot: #310 out of 3049.

The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

IMDb plot summary: Zak runs away from his care home to make his dream of becoming a wrestler come true.
Directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz. Starring Zack Gottsagen, Dakota Johnson, Shia LaBeouf, and Thomas Haden Church.

I love the story behind this movie. The young actor playing Zak in the movie met the writer/director and expressed his desire to be in a movie someday, and voila, this movie was written for him. I just wish that that actor had gotten a better project from it. It definitely centers his character and gives him some agency -- something a lot of movies about folks with disabilities do not do -- but the emotional and narrative arcs of this movie go *nowhere*, and the movie can’t figure out how to end, so it just abruptly jumps from a climactic moment (that complicates things rather than smooths them) to the happy ending. It’s so abrupt and so unexplained that I genuinely found myself wondering if it was a dream sequence. Additionally, this type of movie usually ends with the characters having learned or grown or… something. I’m not convinced any of them did? They all just did things. Especially Eleanor -- why is she even in this movie? It’s a strange, messy movie with a good heart.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Peanut Butter Falcon < Lazer Team
The Peanut Butter Falcon > Rancho Notorious
The Peanut Butter Falcon < Closer to the Moon
The Peanut Butter Falcon < 101 Dalmatians (1961)
The Peanut Butter Falcon > Nine
The Peanut Butter Falcon > Arlington Road
The Peanut Butter Falcon > Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?
The Peanut Butter Falcon > The Birth of a Nation
The Peanut Butter Falcon < The Aristocats
The Peanut Butter Falcon < 12 Days of Terror
The Peanut Butter Falcon > Petulia
Final spot: #2104 out of 3048.

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

IMDb plot summary: During World War II, a rebellious U.S. Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers.
Directed by Robert Aldrich. Starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, and Jim Brown.

What a strangely paced movie. In two and a half hours it barely has time to introduce any of characters and doesn't have time for any kind of denouement, leaving me genuinely confused about whether it thinks these characters were worth exploring or saving. I guess we're just supposed to be rooting for the Major and everyone else's story is expendable, which I'd say feels weirdly incongruous with the tone of the movie, but I suppose it isn't. While this plot should have an obviously arc of redemption through heroism, these men are only really ever seen as war fodder, even by our protagonist, it's just a question of whether or not they're going to be GOOD war fodder. It turns out they are, so... yay?

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Dirty Dozen < The Sasquatch Gang
The Dirty Dozen > Stardust Memories
The Dirty Dozen < The Giver
The Dirty Dozen > X2
The Dirty Dozen < The Lorax (1972)
The Dirty Dozen < Into the Wild
The Dirty Dozen < An Ideal Husband
The Dirty Dozen < Martha Marcy May Marlene
The Dirty Dozen > Cracks
The Dirty Dozen < The General
The Dirty Dozen < Syrup
The Dirty Dozen < A Christmas Carol (2004)
Final spot: #2089 out of 3047.

The Lighthouse (2019)

IMDb plot summary: Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
Directed by Robert Eggers. Starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe.

While I admire the many decisions that clearly went into this and the boldness of Willem Defoe and Robert Pattinson's performances, it fails to land for me. I mostly found myself frustrated with its refusal to separate reality from insanity for the viewer. I know that it's mirroring the messy mental states of its characters, but it's got to have an especially spellbinding emotional center to hold onto me through that, and this wasn't that for me. At the end of the day, I look at this and think, "What am I supposed to get out of this?" I admire the viewing experience it clearly brought to others, but I found it empty.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Lighthouse > The Sasquatch Gang
The Lighthouse < The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
The Lighthouse < The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lighthouse < Going My Way
The Lighthouse < Hulk
The Lighthouse > Muppet Treasure Island
The Lighthouse < Kagemusha
The Lighthouse < It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
The Lighthouse < Don Jon
The Lighthouse < Star Trek: First Contact
The Lighthouse < Love's Labour's Lost
The Lighthouse < The Wiz
Final spot: #1475 out of 3046.

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

IMDb plot summary: Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of three people, with the culprit being the legendary apparition, The Headless Horseman.
Directed by Tim Burton. Starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, and Michael Gabon.

This is exceptionally silly but manages to be just campy enough to be an enjoyable ride, even if it's not necessarily something I'd recommend to anyone. Christina Ricci's accent alone, however, loses this movie probably half a star.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Sleepy Hollow > Struck by Lightning
Sleepy Hollow < The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Sleepy Hollow < The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sleepy Hollow > Invictus
Sleepy Hollow > Griff the Invisible
Sleepy Hollow < John Carter
Sleepy Hollow > The Fixer
Sleepy Hollow < Punch-Drunk Love
Sleepy Hollow < The Slipper and the Rose
Sleepy Hollow < Hereditary
Sleepy Hollow < Josie and the Pussycats
Final spot: #1213 out of 3045.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982)

IMDb plot summary: Sweeney Todd returns to London to uncover the past, along the way meeting Mrs. Lovett, and begins to start his life of crime.
Directed by Terry Hughes and Harold Prince. Starring Angela Lansbury, George Hearn, Cris Groenendaal, and Sara Woods.

This is now my third version of Sweeney Todd I've seen, and they all have slightly different flavors, from the gritty quasi-realism of the 2001 concert to the gloomy goth vibes of the 2007 Tim Burton adaptation. This one is opera and melodrama. The enormous, over-the-top reactions, the slapsticky comedy-- it's all Big and Dramatic and Presentational. Sometimes that works. "Epiphany" was pretty thrilling, and the final "Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is electrifying. I like George Hearn here more than I've EVER liked him, and that includes when he played the exact same character in the '01 concert. Angela Lansbury is delightful, of course. However, it does in the end come down to the fact that Sweeney is my least favorite of Sondheim's big musicals, and I don't think I'm ever going to see a version of it that I love. Like all productions, it has its pros and cons (Johanna and Anthony being major cons here), and I'm not sold on the show as a whole yet. Glad I finally saw this one though!

How it entered my Flickchart:
Sweeney Todd > Struck by Lightning
Sweeney Todd < 22 Jump Street
Sweeney Todd < Gentleman's Agreement
Sweeney Todd > Invictus
Sweeney Todd > Griff the Invisible
Sweeney Todd > EDtv
Sweeney Todd > Total Recall (1990)
Sweeney Todd < The Descendants
Sweeney Todd > Marnie
Sweeney Todd > Kind Hearts and Coronets
Sweeney Todd > Draft Day
Final spot: #1154 out of 3044, or 62%.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

IMDb plot summary: A young blade runner's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former blade runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve. Starring Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Ana de Armas, and Harrison Ford.

It should probably be noted I was never a huge fan of the original Blade Runner -- it dug hard into its noir inspiration, and, as with most noir, I found it to be emotionally predictable while pretending not to be. This sequel has the same problem for me. I just didn't care about anything in this world or this set up, I didn't care about Ryan Gosling, I didn't care about the evil corporation trying to make baby robots, I didn't care about the infinite chain of clues being followed to the end... It's hard to know if I would have cared more if this was an original movie and not a sequel. Probably not much, given how little I care about its predecessor, but I'm sure it didn't help.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Blade Runner 2049 < Struck by Lightning
Blade Runner 2049 < Simone
Blade Runner 2049 > Roger Dodger
Blade Runner 2049 > The Net
Blade Runner 2049 > Top Gun
Blade Runner 2049 < Albatross
Blade Runner 2049 > Facing the Giants
Blade Runner 2049 < The Great Train Robbery
Blade Runner 2049 > Analyze This
Blade Runner 2049 > Jane Eyre (1997)
Blade Runner 2049 < Rebel Without a Cause
Final spot: #2345 out of 3043.