Liliom (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Liliom, a merry-go-round barker at a Budapest amusement park, becomes enamored of Julie, a servant girl, and though under the influence of Madame Muskat, a sideshow entrepreneur, he marries the girl. 

Directed by Frank Borzage. Starring Charles Farrell, Rose Hobart, and Estelle Taylor.

Liliom is a 1930 movie that I recognized partway through as being based on the same story as the musical Carousel. A young naive woman marries a carnival barker who is abusive and irresponsible, and when he dies committing a crime he asks to come back to earth to see the daughter he never met. Carousel at least has some pretty tunes, but this plot is just straight up garbage, happily defending physical violence as some sort of misappropriated form of affection, and it's horrifying. You can't garner any sympathy for these characters at all. The most interesting part of this was the strange afterlife section in the final twenty minutes, which has some suddenly creative cinematic choices, from the visualization of the train to the afterlife to the introduction of the various characters and how they passed away. I'd much rather have seen a whole movie of that than the domestic abuse apologetics taking up most of the film.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Liliom < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

Liliom < The Man with One Red Shoe

Liliom < Table 19

Liliom > Agent Cody Banks

Liliom < Maurice

Liliom > Made of Honor

Liliom < Insomnia (2002)

Liliom > Get Carter

Liliom < Titane

Liliom < Flywheel

Liliom < The Ant Bully

Liliom < Stand Up and Cheer!

Final spot: #3410 out of 3715, or 8%.

The Lost City (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A reclusive romance novelist on a book tour with her cover model gets swept up in a kidnapping attempt that lands them both in a cutthroat jungle adventure.

Directed by Aaron and Adam Nee. Starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Daniel Radcliffe.

The Lost City is a rom com adventure starring Sandra Bullock as a romance novelist and Channing Tatum as the cover model for her most popular series. When Bullock's research for her latest novel turns out to be a little too thorough and potentially uncovers a clue to a lost treasure, she is kidnapped to help complete the puzzle and Tatum has to rescue her. This movie isn't incredible, isn't groundbreaking, but it felt a little bit like a warm fuzzy hug. It reminded me why Sandra Bullock rose to fame in the first place, as she is so quietly funny in this while still feeling like a fully grounded character, and Channing Tatum is absolutely charming as her well-intentioned but completely clueless romantic lead. There are definitely jokes that don't land here, but more do than I expected, and despite the big lavish location and plot points, the humor itself is actually relatively quiet and rooted in character traits. It's certainly a stronger, funnier, more interesting action comedy than recent efforts like Jungle Cruise or Red Notice, and I had a good time with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Lost City > Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

The Lost City < Safe

The Lost City > Incendies

The Lost City > Show Me Love

The Lost City < The Last Seduction

The Lost City < Suspicion

The Lost City > Undercover Blues

The Lost City < Finder's Fee

The Lost City < Zootopia

The Lost City > New York Stories

The Lost City > Wonder Man

The Lost City < Le samourai

Final spot: #1124 out of 3710, or 70%.

Hand Rolled Cigarette (2020)

IMDb plot summary: A story of how a retired British-Chinese soldier and a marginalized young South Asian man face the plight of being abandoned by society.

Directed by Kin Long Chan. Starring Ka-Tung Lam, Bipin Karma, and Singh Hartihan Bitto.

Hand Rolled Cigarette tells the story of a retired soldier who finds himself sheltering a young man on the run from some vengeful drug dealers, and the two form a reluctant bond. The introduction of this movie focuses on a group of soldiers needing to find new paths in life after the Hong Kong Military Service Corps is dissolved, and that was an interesting intro, as it was something I had very little knowledge of and was interested to learn about. But the movie doesn't explore that aspect very much and just turns the story into a typical neo-noir crime thriller, which was a disappointing downturn. The movie leans heavily into the grungy neo-noir visuals I find not only unappealing but difficult to parse, and I had trouble tracking the many different characters crossing paths in the story. The beginning and the end hold together as individually strong moments, but I was less than enthused with most of the middle. May be worth a watch for those inclined to enjoy the genre, but otherwise you can skip it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hand Rolled Cigarette < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

Hand Rolled Cigarette < The Man with One Red Shoe

Hand Rolled Cigarette > Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

Hand Rolled Cigarette > 101 Dalmatians (1996)

Hand Rolled Cigarette < Mother (2009)

Hand Rolled Cigarette > The Final Countdown

Hand Rolled Cigarette > Passion

Hand Rolled Cigarette < Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Hand Rolled Cigarette > The Jazz Singer (1927)

Hand Rolled Cigarette > Copying Beethoven

Hand Rolled Cigarette > Morocco

Final spot: #2914 out of 3709, or 21%.

Robbery (1967)

IMDb plot summary: A group of British criminals plans the robbery of the Royal Mail train on the Glasgow-London route.

Directed by Peter Yates. Starring Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet, and James Booth.

Robbery is a pretty straightforward crime drama that follows both a set of criminals planning a bank robbery and the law enforcement officers who are trying to bring them down. This is the third film directed by Peter Yates, and, wow, he wanted to try out all the genres, didn't he? From the sentimental musical Summer Holiday to the absurdist comedy One Way Pendulum to this realistic crime story, he didn't seem to want to tie himself down to one style. While that's interesting to me, this movie isn't particularly. There's one scene that stands out, where the leader planning the robbery has a confrontation with his wife, and that scene snaps into focus, with some really captivating use of color and staging, but all the rest is very typical of everyday crime dramas without much of a unique stamp on it. For some folks, that's going to draw them right into it. For me, it's going to push me away. I continue to be intrigued by Yates as a director, but this is my least favorite of his films thus far.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Robbery < Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

Robbery > The Man with One Red Shoe

Robbery < Satantango

Robbery > Crumb

Robbery < Rigoletto

Robbery > A Week Away

Robbery < Ghost

Robbery < Bedtime for Bonzo

Robbery < Rebecca

Robbery > Mud

Robbery < The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Robbery < Suspiria (1977)

Final spot: #2491 out of 3713, or 33%.

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

IMDb plot summary: A young man, falsely imprisoned by his jealous "friend", escapes and uses a hidden treasure to exact his revenge.

Directed by Kevin Reynolds. Starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, and Christopher Adamson.

The Count of Monte Cristo stars Jim Caviezel as Edmond Dantes, the poor but ambitious sailor who finds himself betrayed by his best friend, played here by Guy Pierce. Dantes spends over a decade locked away in prison for a crime he didn't commit before managing to escape and vowing revenge on the people who put him there in the first place. While there is a lot I enjoy about this movie, there are two rather gaping flaws that keep it from rising too high on my chart. One is that Caviezel is a tremendously bland actor, and even while playing three distinct characters here -- the naive innocent, the jaded inmate, and the dashing cavalier -- he remains very uncompelling. The second is that the movie is uncertain what it's actually about. It keeps throwing in these halfhearted attempts at an anti-vengeance message, including at the very end, but that's undercut by the fact that, according to what actually happens in this movie, vengeance fricking rules and gets you everything you want. The conflicting messages keep the film from ever landing on a deeper level and keep it pretty shallow. It is a fun shallow, and the side characters in particular shine even if our lead does not, but it all feels a little disappointing.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Count of Monte Cristo > Pi

The Count of Monte Cristo < Safe

The Count of Monte Cristo > Incendies

The Count of Monte Cristo < Show Me Love

The Count of Monte Cristo < Man on Wire

The Count of Monte Cristo < Panic Room

The Count of Monte Cristo < Family Business

The Count of Monte Cristo < Don't Look Up

The Count of Monte Cristo > Cafe Society

The Count of Monte Cristo < Koyaanisqatsi

The Count of Monte Cristo < The Family Man

The Count of Monte Cristo > Juno and the Paycock

Final spot: #1383 out of 3712, or 63%.

The Dawn Patrol (1938)

IMDb plot summary: British flying aces in World War I contend with the harsh realities of war.

Directed by Edmund Goulding. Starring Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, and David Niven.

The Dawn Patrol stars Errol Flynn, David Niven, and Basil Rathbone as a group of British flying aces very near the front during World War I. Rathbone is the officer in charge while Niven and Flynn are his ace pilots. We watch the group struggle with their relationships with each other while having to bear the weight of sending young men to die in perilous missions. I watched this for my 1930 film project, mistakenly thinking it was the 1930 version instead of the remake, and now I'm hesitant to go back and watch the original because I'm not convinced it will do as well without this stacked cast, as there isn't much to set it apart from other anti-war films of the same era. I do enjoy the sense of playfulness in the first half, which does a lot to bring out the contrasting devastation in the second half. I also enjoyed Rathbone's character, an officer miserable at having to send soldier after soldier on suicide missions while not being able to do any of the work himself, and it makes him bitter and mean. But overall I don't think this one will stick with me, though it was an adequate watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Dawn Patrol > Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)

The Dawn Patrol < Safe

The Dawn Patrol < Incendies

The Dawn Patrol > The Ladykillers (1955)

The Dawn Patrol < The Great Gatsby (1974)

The Dawn Patrol > Dot the I

The Dawn Patrol < Lo

The Dawn Patrol < Knight and Day

The Dawn Patrol > Jackie

The Dawn Patrol > Anna and the King

The Dawn Patrol < Exotica

Final spot: #1555 out of 3711, or 58%.

H.M.S. Defiant (1962)

IMDb plot summary: On the H.M.S. Defiant, during the French Revolutionary War, fair Captain Crawford is locked in a battle of wills against his cruel second-in-command Lieutenant Scott-Padget, whose heavy-handed command style pushes the crew to mutiny.

Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Starring Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, and Maurice Denham.

H.M.S. Defiant, or Damn the Defiant as it is alternately known, stars Alec Guinness as a Royal Navy captain during the French Revolutionary Wars and Dirk Bogarde as his first lieutenant. The two men have very different views of governing a ship, and they enter into a tense battle of wills that also happens to be bumping up against a planned mutiny from the non-officered soldiers. Guinness and Bogarde are really wonderful to watch here, exuding very different *kinds* of power but seeming very evenly matched, and watching how their ethics play out in their treatment of others is the most engaging part of the movie. I do also appreciate how much time was spent focusing on the pending mutiny -- it humanized the sailors Guinness and Bogarde were fighting over and showcased them and their needs in a compelling way. The ending is a satisfying one that lands exactly where I wanted it to. The only points where my interest flagged were the battle sequences, but even those held my attention a bit more than usual, as the movie did a good job of tying the fate of the battle to the fate of the characters in a way I cared about. A solid watch!

How it entered my Flickchart:

H.M.S. Defiant > Pi

H.M.S. Defiant < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

H.M.S. Defiant > The Romantics

H.M.S. Defiant > Show Me Love

H.M.S. Defiant > The Last Seduction

H.M.S. Defiant > Minority Report

H.M.S. Defiant > Luca

H.M.S. Defiant > Munich

H.M.S. Defiant < Jack Goes Boating

H.M.S. Defiant < Hoop Dreams

H.M.S. Defiant < Till Death

H.M.S. Defiant > The Palm Beach Story

Final spot: #939 out of 3706, or 75%.