Mosaic (2007)

IMDb plot summary: When he finds an ancient artifact at a crime scene, Interpol Agent Nathan Nelson takes it home to conduct more research. A freakish combination of a lightning storm, a pet chameleon and the rune stone gives his daughter, Maggie, mystical powers. Now Maggie must utilize her new-found super powers to solve the mysterious kidnapping of her father and to learn the secrets of an ancient, long-forgotten race of people.

Directed by Roy Allen Smith. Starring Anna Paquin, Kirby Morrow, and Cam Clarke.

Mosaic is an animated superhero movie about a young woman who gains unexpected superpowers and must use them to rescue her father from the clutches of a villain with similar powers. This is a short, simple story that feels less like a feature film and more like a pilot for a TV show. It's barely feature-length and is clearly structured to create interest in this particular character for future stories. The word that comes to mind most strongly for me is "cute." It feels sweet and simplistic and meant for young kids, even if it isn't. It doesn't bother with exploring deeper themes or posing audience questions, just a quick adventure story. There's nothing wrong with that -- I found its brevity to be a breath of fresh air in the era of bloated superhero films -- but it may not recommend itself to a lot of people. The superhero origin story is also one of the more ludicrous ones I've heard, so it does take a little more suspension of disbelief even than "boy gets bitten by radioactive spider." Overall, fun but unremarkable.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Mosaic > Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Mosaic < Kuroneko

Mosaic < Joker

Mosaic > Happy-Go-Lucky

Mosaic > Five Graves to Cairo

Mosaic < The Imposter

Mosaic < Mother Night

Mosaic > Martian Child

Mosaic > Hotel Rwanda

Mosaic > The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Mosaic > Prince of the City

Mosaic < Spider-Man 2

Final spot: #1458 out of 3658, or 60%.

Don't Look Up (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.

Directed by Adam McKay. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Meryl Streep.

Don't Look Up is... well, let's call it a satire from Adam McKay about a pair of scientists who discover a comet is en route to hit the Earth and obliterate all life, but when they call it to the higher-ups' attention, nobody seems to be taking it very seriously. I was hesitant to call this a satire because it *doesn't* feel like it's trying to actually make any points, it seems to just be screaming in frustration. And while it may be primarily a climate change metaphor, I felt it in my SOUL about the pandemic and found myself just screaming right along with him and going, "YES, that's EXACTLY what it feels like." If I'm going to compare it to anything, it weirdly might be in the same category as like... super angsty music for teens, in that it doesn't necessarily hold together on an artistic level but it's the unfiltered cry of a furious soul and is going to connect with other furious souls. Should it have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar? Absolutely not. Did I find it a cathartic viewing experience? Absolutely.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Don't Look Up > Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Don't Look Up < Anna Karenina

Don't Look Up > The Green Mile

Don't Look Up < Cargo

Don't Look Up < Man on Wire

Don't Look Up < Panic Room

Don't Look Up < Gone in 60 Seconds

Don't Look Up > The Family Man

Don't Look Up < The Impossible

Don't Look Up > Nobody's Fool

Don't Look Up < All That Jazz

Final spot: #1352 out of 3655, or 63%.

The Northman (2022)

IMDb plot summary: From visionary director Robert Eggers comes The Northman, an action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father's murder.

Directed by Robert Eggers. Starring Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, and Claes Bang.

The Northman is a Viking retelling of Hamlet. A young boy sees his Viking leader father murdered by his uncle and returns years later for revenge. (Embarrassingly, it took me half the movie to realize our main character is named "Amleth" -- Hamlet with the H moved to the end.) I haven't seen The Witch, but this reminds me very much of director Robert Eggers' previous film The Lighthouse, in that it is stylized out the wazoo and I just don't care. I blame it partly on Hamlet being a story that just doesn't grip me in almost any form and partly on historical period pieces about Vikings not gripping me either. It does look fascinating though, this combination of dreary and too-bright light that was interesting to me even when I was bored out of my mind by the story, and the acting is, I think, entirely in the vein of what this film is going for. So, like The Lighthouse, I found Eggers' style impressive but it didn't connected with me in any way, although it certainly makes me want to keep an eye on him and see if at some point we'll click.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Northman < Port of Shadows

The Northman > 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The Northman > Iron Eagle

The Northman < Life of Pi

The Northman > Flightplan

The Northman > The Subject Was Roses

The Northman < The Lost Boys

The Northman < The Core

The Northman < Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

The Northman > Enemy of the State

The Northman < Almost Famous

The Northman < Mad Dog and Glory

Final spot: #2109 out of 3656, or 42%.

It's a Gift (1934)

IMDb plot summary: A henpecked New Jersey grocer makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife.

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Starring W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, and Jean Rouverol.

It's a Gift stars W.C. Fields as a henpecked grocery store owner with a dream of owning an orange ranch someday, and when the chance for his dream comes true, he decides to go for it and make it a reality. Watching this, I realize I've maybe never seen a Fields film before -- certainly not one where it was his vehicle. I like him more than I like the movie. He's got some more subtlety to his delivery than a lot of other comedians of the same time, and while that doesn't make him better than them, it does make him stand out. His aimless bumbling is quiet enough that it makes space for a lot of other jokes to land. Where it doesn't work is that every character in this film is deeply unlikable, and I don't really want to root for any of them to do well, I just want them off my screen as soon as I can get them off. But despite the miserable cast of characters, Fields' work is creative enough that I do want to check out more of his films. Maybe there will be another one that works for me more fully.

How it entered my Flickchart:

It's a Gift < Beauty and the Beast (1946)

It's a Gift < Anna Karenina

It's a Gift < Joker

It's a Gift > Happy-Go-Lucky

It's a Gift > Five Graves to Cairo

It's a Gift > Velvet Buzzsaw

It's a Gift > Kiss Me Kate

It's a Gift < Blue Sky

It's a Gift < Timecop

It's a Gift > Furlough

It's a Gift > Poltergeist

It's a Gift > I Saw the Devil

Final spot: #1392 out of 3654, or 62%.

Session 9 (2001)

IMDb plot summary: Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.

Directed by Brad Anderson. Starring David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon, and Paul Guilfoyle.

Session 9 is a creepy, low budget horror about an asbestos cleaning crew who are working on an old abandoned mental institution. Along the way, we get flashes of the creepy stories of the horrors that this place once housed, as well as hints that maybe some of the former inmates are now just walking around out there (not my favorite trope, that setting up a fear of the mentally unstable). Despite teasing that, the way that the story ultimately lands works fairly well for me. The twist is one that you can see coming if you're paying attention, but it does make sense and I think it's filmed and revealed in a very satisfying way, in which even if you could see it coming, even if you knew what you were going to find out, the reveal is actually done in a pretty chilling way. That being said, the low budget absolutely shows, and some of the dialogue is pretty clunky, but it's a valiant effort that works on quite a few levels, if not all of them.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Session 9 > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Session 9 < Anna Karenina

Session 9 > The Green Mile

Session 9 > Cargo

Session 9 < 13th

Session 9 > sex, lies, and videotape

Session 9 > The Hudsucker Proxy

Session 9 < How to Steal a Million

Session 9 > Kursk

Session 9 < Willy's Wonderland

Session 9 < The River Wild

Session 9 > Gandhi

Final spot: #1047 out of 3652, or 71%.

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

IMDb plot summary: After leaving prison, master thief Corey crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot an elaborate heist.

Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. Starring Alain Delon, Bourvil, and Gian Maria Volonte.

Le Cercle Rouge follows a newly released prisoner who finds himself meeting to take on another job even though they put him at risk of heading back to prison. I have really liked other films by this same director, but this one just didn't gel for me, not even with Alain Delon as our protagonist. It just seems to tread so many of the same old tropes of crime movies, and I'm just tired of hearing about them. I don't know that this brought anything new to the table, although if you're only going to watch one movies focusing on these themes, this isn't a bad one. It's just not one that I was going to get much out of. The cinematography and acting and scripting are all fine. If this is your kind of movie, it's definitely worth the watch. If it's not, it doesn't step beyond its boxes.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Le Cercle Rouge < Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Le Cercle Rouge > Fast Food Nation

Le Cercle Rouge < The Christmas Toy

Le Cercle Rouge < Treasures of the Snow

Le Cercle Rouge > A Mighty Wind

Le Cercle Rouge < The Dinner Game

Le Cercle Rouge > Gozu

Le Cercle Rouge > Monsters University

Le Cercle Rouge < Sliding Doors

Le Cercle Rouge < The Big House

Le Cercle Rouge < Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Le Cercle Rouge > The Accidental Tourist

Final spot: #2580 out of 3651, or 29%.

Men (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A young woman goes on a solo vacation to the English countryside following the death of her ex-husband.

Directed by Alex Garland. Starring Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, and Paapa Essiedu.

Men is the newest Alex Garland film, about a woman renting a house alone in the country to rest and recover after the traumatic death of her abusive husband. But as strange things begin to happen around her, she begins to realize her vacation won't be as restful as she expected. That's about all the details I want to get into, because the rest of the movie is a strange and surreal experience and probably best appreciated going in mostly blind as I did. This movie isn't getting nearly as much critical love as Garland's two previous features, but it worked for me as well, if not slightly better, than those two. The metaphor may be a little bit clumsy in its meaning but I found it extremely effective in its tone -- the *emotion* I got from this movie was, I think, exactly the emotion I was meant to get from it. It reminded me a bit of Titane in that it incorporated lots of strange visceral body horror, but here I knew what emotional state I was supposed to be in for it and the horror sustained me rather than turned me off. Garland is solidifying himself as one of my favorite filmmakers, and I can't wait to see what he does next.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Men > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Men > Woman in the Dunes

Men < Castle in the Sky

Men > The Pawnbroker

Men > The Jungle Book (1967)

Men > The Holiday

Men > Moonrise Kingdom

Men < Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Men > Argo

Men > Glengarry Glen Ross

Men > Grease

Men > A Man for All Seasons

Final spot: #470 out of 3646, or 87%.