John and Mary (1969)

IMDb plot summary: John and Mary meet in a singles bar, sleep together, and spend the next day getting to know each other.

Directed by Peter Yates. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Mia Farrow, and Michael Tolan.

John and Mary tells the story of a couple the morning after their one-night fling. The two are played by Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow, and we see them interacting with each other, interspersed with voiceover telling us what they're actually thinking and flashbacks highlighting past relationships that shaped who they are today. The more I watch of Peter Yates' directorial filmography, the more I'm intrigued by how many genres he jumps around in his early years, hardly ever seeming to tackle the same one twice. This is his first talky romantic drama, and there is something interesting about the formatting of it. It really captures the intimacy of the characters' bedroom and how they alternatingly want to hold onto and let go of that intimacy. That formatting is probably the most interesting thing about it, however, as the subjects themselves are not very interesting, and I'm not sold on Hoffman and Farrow's performances. It's maybe worth watching for those involved but it doesn't stand out in any special way.

How it entered my Flickchart:

John and Mary > Vampyr

John and Mary < Anna Karenina

John and Mary < Die Hard

John and Mary < Fanboys

John and Mary < Jeff, Who Lives At Home

John and Mary > It Had to Be You

John and Mary > Space Pirate Captain Harlock

John and Mary < Cabaret

John and Mary < Ambulance

John and Mary < The Forbidden Kingdom

John and Mary < The Chalk Garden

John and Mary > The Lost Skeleton Returns Again

Final spot: #1779 out of 3735, or 52%.

Mad God (2021)

IMDb plot summary: The Assassin travels through a nightmare underworld of tortured souls, ruined cities and wretched monstrosities forged from the primordial horrors of the unconscious mind of Phil Tippett, the world's preeminent stop-motion animator.

Directed by Phil Tippett. Starring Alex Cox, Niketa Roman, and Satish Ratakonda.

Mad God is a terrifying stop-motion experimental film with a vague plot about a nameless character descending into the depths of a post-apocalyptic hellscape to plant a bomb. We follow him as he encounters all kinds of upsetting horrors. This is a deeply unsettling movie that I really, really wanted to love, but amid all these super-compelling and terrifying images, I found myself irritated that I couldn't follow even a loose narrative. About 20 minutes in, I began to realize that we were never going to learn much about this world and, rather than that drawing me in more, I lost interest. The film brings me around a bit at the end but still isn't ever quite my thing. That being said, I do think it is well-made and I can see it being incredibly powerful for people who are especially drawn to strong visuals. It's very conceptually exciting and very cinematically arresting, even if I found my own interest wavering. It feels more like walking though an gallery of art installations than watching a film, so if that sounds amazing to you, you should definitely check this out.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Mad God > Vampyr

Mad God < Anna Karenina

Mad God < The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

Mad God < You Can Count on Me

Mad God < Summer of Soul

Mad God > It Had to Be You

Mad God < The Lost Skeleton Returns Again

Mad God < Phantom Thread

Mad God < Cypher

Mad God < Eyes Wide Shut

Mad God > Hans Chistian Andersen

Mad God < Memphis Belle

Final spot: #1806 out of 3734, or 52%.

Radio Flyer (1992)

IMDb plot summary: A father recounts a dark period of his childhood when he and his little brother lived in the suburbs.

Directed by Richard Donner. Starring Lorraine Bracco, Elijah Wood, and Joseph Mazzello.

Radio Flyer tells the story of two little boys whose mother marries an abusive man, and the oldest boy, played by Elijah Wood, contrives a plan to save his younger brother from their stepfather's cruelty. What a strange, confusing tone this is going for, mixing the serious issue of child abuse with an imaginative fantasy in a way that never quite lands. While I won't spoil the details of the ending, it is deeply unsatisfying given how badly we want our characters to get a concrete happy ending, and while the film clearly attempts to end on a positive note, it doesn't really work at all. The two young actors playing the boys are good -- maybe too good in that they sell the narrative of childhood trauma so realistically that it's hard to let it go when the movie wants us to. And the choice to rarely show the abuser's face and keep him as an ominous otherworldly villain would have been effective in a different movie where that was taken more seriously. It's, I think, a well-intentioned film, but it ends up feeling clumsy at best and exploitative at worst.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Radio Flyer < Vampyr

Radio Flyer < 13 Going on 30

Radio Flyer < Table 19

Radio Flyer > Bhoot

Radio Flyer > Courageous

Radio Flyer > The Yellow Handkerchief

Radio Flyer < Sharknado

Radio Flyer > Live Free or Die Hard

Radio Flyer < The Hiding Place

Radio Flyer > Min and Bill

Radio Flyer > Madagascar

Radio Flyer < They Were Expendable

Final spot: #3305 out of 3733, or 11%.

Tower (2016)

IMDb plot summary: Animation, testimony, and archival footage combine to relate the events of August 1, 1966 when a gunman opened fire from the University of Texas clock tower, killing 16 people.

Directed by Keith Maitland.

Tower is a mostly-animated documentary about the 1966 shootings at the University of Texas in Austin, with a mix of real-life survivors of the attacks and actors playing younger animated versions of the same characters. It's an interesting look at a mass shooting that rocked the country before mass shootings became an everyday occurrence. The combined use of animation and occasional live footage does a great job of capturing the surreal nature of finding yourself in this kind of situation while also grounding it in these being real people. About halfway through when the animated characters are mostly replaced by their 2016 actual counterparts, it's a surprisingly powerful artistic choice. I do wish there had been a tiny bit more reflection on how this was an uncommon phenomenon in 1966 and is now something frequent enough that we regularly drill students on how to deal with it, but I think the choice to leave those connections up to the viewer was deliberate and I respect that choice. I usually find documentaries educational and interesting but not narratively powerful, but this is one of those rare exceptions.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Tower > Vampyr

Tower < Safe

Tower > The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

Tower > Show Me Love

Tower > 13th

Tower > Shall We Dance? (2004)

Tower > Baby Driver

Tower > A Room With a View

Tower < Chronicle

Tower < Till Death

Tower > The Palm Beach Story

Tower > H.M.S. Defiant

Final spot: #944 out of 3732, or 75%.

The Perfumier (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A police detective tries to get back his girlfriend as well as his sense of smell, as he gets help from a perfume maker who uses deadly methods to find the perfect perfume.

Directed by Nils Willbrandt. Starring Sólveig Arnarsdóttir, August Diehl, and Robert Finster.

The Perfumier is a 2022 German crime drama very, very loosely based on the book "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" by Patrick Suskind. There's already a film of the same name that follows the book more closely, but this feels more like a fan fiction story inspired by the original. Both stories include a gifted perfume maker who becomes obsessed with creating the perfect love potion, even if it means killing young women and extracting their scent from them to do it. This one focuses on a police officer with no sense of smell who finds herself on the killer's track. So I love the movie and just recently read and loved the book, so there's a part of me that disliked how very different this one was, but if I think of it as just a regular crime movie, the central conceit does add a slightly more interesting extra layer to what would otherwise be a bland story. It takes a lot of the sort of melodramatically fantastical elements of the book and makes it fit in surprisingly well to a more stereotypical lurid crime thriller. Would I recommend it? Well, not really, not when the originals are right there, but if you're a big fan of the new genre, you might have fun with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Perfumier < Vampyr

The Perfumier > The Little Princess (1939)

The Perfumier < Satantango

The Perfumier > Patriots Day

The Perfumier < Birdman of Alcatraz

The Perfumier > Genius

The Perfumier > The Dirty Dozen

The Perfumier > Lolita (1997)

The Perfumier < Pal Joey

The Perfumier < Innocence Unprotected

The Perfumier < High Society

The Perfumier > August: Osage County

Final spot: #2461 out of 3731, or 34%.

The Half of It (2020)

IMDb plot summary: When smart but cash-strapped teen Ellie Chu agrees to write a love letter for a jock, she doesn't expect to become his friend - or fall for his crush.

Directed by Alice Wu. Starring Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, and Alexxis Lemire.

The Half of It is a modern YA retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac, centering on a teenager named Ellie who has a crush on the pastor's daughter but is too shy to say anything, so she helps a friendly classmate who's not good with words woo her instead. Cyrano is one of my all-time favorite stories. Unrequited crushes were the story of my teenage years, and I always connect so hard with the longing sense of "maybe you'd like me if you really knew me but probably not." I instantly rooted for Ellie. She's such a beautifully crafted character, and Leah Lewis plays her with such love. The drama and sweetness of this movie absolutely kept me hooked the whole way through. The main complaint I have is that, sadly, the mutual love interest seems super underdeveloped as a character, so much so that I kept half-wondering if the movie was going to end with Ellie getting together with the boy who also loved that character, since their friendship got much more compelling scenes. Ultimately, I think the movie *is* about their friendship more than about Ellie's love life, which I do think lands, even if it minimizes the romance a little bit more than I wanted it to. But that's a small complaint. Overall it's a charming movie and well worth a watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Half of It > Vampyr

The Half of It > Anna Karenina

The Half of It < Secretary

The Half of It > The Farewell

The Half of It > Clerks.

The Half of It < Pink Floyd The Wall

The Half of It < The Royal Tenenbaums

The Half of It < 21 Jump Street

The Half of It > Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Half of It > Deadpool

The Half of It < The Sessions

Final spot: #571 out of 3730, or 85%.

Scaramouche (1952)

IMDb plot summary: In France during the late 18th Century, a man sets out to avenge the death of his friend at the hands of a master swordsman.

Directed by George Sidney. Starring Stewart Granger, Janet Leigh, and Eleanor Parker.

Scaramouche is a 1952 film about a young Frenchman who embarks on a quest to avenge his friend's death, along the way finding his lost family, joining a theater troupe, and becoming a master swordsman. I am kind of astonished that this movie isn't better known, because it is delightful. It jumps full-on into swashbuckling adventure, creating a rogueish protagonist who certainly has his flaws but nevertheless is easy to root for, and the various settings it puts in place for his adventures are so much fun. I particularly loved the eight-minute final swordfight that takes place all over a theater, including on top of the opera box railings (with audience members sitting right next to them). I also appreciated how much time this movie spent just showing off commedia dell'arte and the various characters and tropes that made it so successful. There are definitely some dated elements to this movie, but it seems so thoroughly of its time that they didn't strike me as out of place, and the good definitely outweighs the bad. This is definitely one I plan to revisit someday!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Scaramouche > Vampyr

Scaramouche > Anna Karenina

Scaramouche > The White Tiger

Scaramouche > Deathtrap

Scaramouche < The Producers (1968)

Scaramouche < Sleepless in Seattle

Scaramouche > Paths of Glory

Scaramouche < Schindler's List

Scaramouche < Repulsion

Scaramouche > Chicken Run

Scaramouche < Breaking the Waves

Scaramouche < Strangers on a Train

Final spot: #199 out of 3728, or 95%.