Wolf (1994)

IMDb plot summary: Publisher Will Randall becomes a demon wolf and has to fight to keep his job.

Directed by Mike Nichols. Starring Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, and Kate Nelligan.

This is delightfully ridiculous. While the movie hardly ever winks at the camera too overtly, the premise and the way it plays out are both rife with comedy, largely because the music and the actors play it so straight, but then abruptly James Spader sniffs a woman's crotch in public or Jack Nicholson starts jumping around on all fours, and the ludicrousness of it all just set me giggling. It reminds me so much of a dramatic 1950s horror B-movie, something like the original The Fly. There weren't nearly enough of these in my trek through 100 movies from 1994, so it was delightful to watch this, particularly in the second half as it just got sillier and sillier.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Wolf > Hustle & Flow

Wolf < Jack Goes Boating

Wolf > About Elly

Wolf < The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

Wolf > Sling Blade

Wolf > Porco Rosso

Wolf < The Hustler

Wolf > The Matador

Wolf > Monsters Vs. Aliens

Wolf < Evita

Wolf < A Little Night Music

Wolf > Carefree

Final spot: #1124 out of 3496, or 68%.

Once Were Warriors (1994)

IMDb plot summary: A family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts.

Directed by Lee Tamahori. Starring Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison, Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell, and Julian Arahanga.

Once Were Warriors follows a New Zealand family with five children, an abusive father, and a mother who's at the end of her rope and determined to care for her children. We see the various family members react to the father's control in different ways, as well as deal with their indigenous heritage and what that means for who they are now. This is a raw, no-holds-barred story that at times is very uncomfortable to sit through because of that -- an early violent scene in particular is brutal to watch -- but it really drives home the difficult situation this family is in. We root for them HARD to find stability, from the older boys who find themselves really working to set themselves apart from their father's violent behavior but not being sure how, to the younger two who have absorbed this as just a normal fact of life, to the mother and middle daughter who see a way out as an almost impossible dream. This film drew me into it and didn't let me go until the credits rolled, and it's definitely one I'm adding to my list to rewatch sometime.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Once Were Warriors > Hustle & Flow

Once Were Warriors > My Name Is Joe

Once Were Warriors < Crimes and Misdemeanors

Once Were Warriors < Clue

Once Were Warriors < Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Once Were Warriors > Mr. Brooks

Once Were Warriors < Cyrano (2021)

Once Were Warriors < The Beauty Inside

Once Were Warriors > This Boy's Life

Once Were Warriors > Identity

Once Were Warriors > VeggieTales: A Snoodle's Tale

Once Were Warriors > Hairspray Live!

Final spot: #805 out of 3492, or 77%.

Titane (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for 10 years.

Directed by Julia Ducournau. Starring Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle, Garance Marillier, and Laïs Salameh.

Titane is a strange, unsettling crime/horror movie that is very difficult to describe the plot of. It follows a woman, Alexia, who had a steel plate put in her head after a near-fatal car accident as a child. Now she is pregnant and a serial killer, and then she changes her appearance to pass herself off as a missing boy ten years later returning to his family. I have no idea what it is about the French cinema culture, but I so frequently feel that French dramas fly over my head, that they're doing something but I can't grasp it at all, and that's certainly the case here. It's a very visceral movie, with several moments I had to actually cover my eyes because the level of violence was overwhelmingly unpleasant -- and I'm not particularly squeamish. There are certainly some striking visual choices and memorable moments, but I'm not sure any of them are things I want to remember. I didn't come away from this film with a net positive of things I liked about it in comparison to things I hated. This is probably a movie some folks will love, but definitely not me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Titane < Sunday in the Park with George

Titane < A Prairie Home Companion

Titane < Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

Titane > Thr3e

Titane < Playtime

Titane > The Child

Titane > The Green Berets

Titane > The Wolfman

Titane < Saw

Titane < Bye Bye Birdie

Titane < Fist Fight

Titane < The Host (2013)

Final spot: #3170 out of 3482, or 9%.

The Harder They Fall (2021)

IMDb plot summary: When an outlaw discovers his enemy is being released from prison, he reunites his gang to seek revenge in this Western.

Directed by Jeymes Samuel. Starring Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, RJ Cyler, and Edi Gathegi.

This film is notable for being a western story with an all-Black lead cast, and that alone would make it something worth checking out, but it's also a tremendously stylish film. It uses its editing and music and blocking and cinematography in such creative ways that capture the attention. It reminds me a bit of Tarantino's recent westerns, but way better and more engaging. The story is pretty standard, but it brings some unique characters and some truly astonishing visuals into it and makes the whole thing pop. I think I let out an audible gasp at a few of the shots and set pieces. I'm most likely going to forget the story shortly, but I'm not going to forget how great the movie looked.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Harder They Fall < Hustle & Flow

The Harder They Fall > Cassandra's Dream

The Harder They Fall > Batman: Under the Red Hood

The Harder They Fall > Planes, Trains & Automobiles

The Harder They Fall > Stagecoach

The Harder They Fall > Letters from Iwo Jima

The Harder They Fall > Raising Cain

The Harder They Fall > Zelig

The Harder They Fall > The Misfits

The Harder They Fall > The Keep

The Harder They Fall > Gas, Food, Lodging

The Harder They Fall < Monsters

Final spot: #1751 out of 3498, or 50%.

Fresh (1994)

IMDb plot summary: Death and violence anger a twelve-year-old drug courier, who sets his employers against each other.

Directed by Boaz Yakin. Starring Sean Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, and N'Bushe Wright.

One of the things I find fascinating about this is how pragmatic a protagonist we have in Michael (or "Fresh" as he's known on the street). He's a smart, ambitious kid making a path for himself the best way he knows how. This is a potential career for him -- his primary dealer boss even gives him advice on what drugs are best to sell if you want to grow old and retire with your money. I found myself most struck by his interactions with his best friend, who thinks he'd be a great runner and likes to talk tough but doesn't have the maturity Michael does to succeed, and even though Michael clearly wants his friend to do well along with him, he knows he's going to get them both into trouble someday. It's a heartbreaking story that the writer drew on his own experiences for, and the actors playing these young kids are all capable enough to carry a challenging movie.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Fresh > The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle

Fresh < Jack Goes Boating

Fresh > Charlie St. Cloud

Fresh > A Serious Man

Fresh < The Shallows

Fresh > Last Year at Marienbad

Fresh < Hell in the Pacific

Fresh > Nick of Time

Fresh > It (2017)

Fresh < 1917

Fresh > Logan's Run

Final spot: #1007 out of 3474, or 71%.

PCU (1994)

IMDb plot summary: A high school senior visits college for the weekend, and stays at the wildest house on campus.

Directed by Hart Bochner. Starring Jeremy Piven, Chris Young, Megan Ward, and Jon Favreau.

PCU is a comedy about a hard-partying frat house that's come under criticism from the ever-more politically correct student body. The dean gives them an ultimatum: raise enough money to cover the damage they've done to the house, or they'll get kicked out. So they decide to throw a massive party and get all the "woke" students to put their differences aside and join them. So full disclosure, there's no part of me that is going to be won over by a movie whose core message is "social justice is stupid and we'd all get along better if we just didn't care about things so much." It's just such a lazy message that relies on not listening to anybody who's affected by anything being protested against. As such, I find these characters pretty obnoxious in their sense of moral superiority to everyone around them. Raunchy drugs-and-sex-party comedies seldom work for me regardless, but toss in the underlying message and it just became something I hated. It's just so weirdly mean-spirited and none of it lands for me, so I'm happy to let this one just disappear from my radar.

How it entered my Flickchart:

PCU < Sunday in the Park With George

PCU < Our Idiot Brother

PCU < Drive Me Crazy

PCU > Thr3e

PCU < Thor: The Dark World

PCU < The Child

PCU < Watership Down

PCU < Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

PCU < The Beastmaster

PCU > Rescue Me

PCU > Murder a la Mod

PCU < Reefer Madness (1936)

Final spot: #3265 out of 3487, or 6%.

The Card Counter (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Redemption is the long game in Paul Schrader's THE CARD COUNTER. Told with Schrader's trademark cinematic intensity, the revenge thriller tells the story of an ex-military interrogator turned gambler haunted by the ghosts of his past.

Directed by Paul Schrader. Starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, and Tye Sheridan.

This film has two separate movies in it -- a poker heist movie and a movie about military trauma -- and they don't blend as well as I hoped they might, instead just sort of awkwardly ping-ponging back and forth. Isaac, unsurprisingly, does a great job here, conveying the same type of controlled mystery he brings to so many of his parts. But the relationships between characters unfold in confusing ways that hold the audience at arm's length, so when the film's final resolution comes around, I can't tell where the movie's trying to go anymore -- and that wouldn't necessarily be a problem, except by that point I don't care. It's a disappointing watch that never fully feels like it gets off the ground.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Card Counter < Hustle & Flow

The Card Counter < Our Idiot Brother

The Card Counter > Drive Me Crazy

The Card Counter > Hush (1998)

The Card Counter < Syrup

The Card Counter > Superman Returns

The Card Counter > Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?

The Card Counter > The Rainmaker

The Card Counter < Tallulah

The Card Counter < Wuthering Heights

The Card Counter < Swiss Family Robinson

The Card Counter < Make Mine Music

Final spot: #2735 out of 3483, or 21%.