The War Zone (1999)

IMDb plot summary: An alienated teenager, saddened that he has moved away from London, must find a way to deal with a dark family secret.

Directed by Tim Roth. Starring Ray Winstone, Lara Belmont, and Freddie Cunliffe.i

The War Zone is a British drama focusing on a teenage boy who finds out that his older sister is in an incestuous relationship with their father, and how this knowledge begins to tear the family apart. This is a very difficult movie to watch, unsurprisingly with that plot. The core three actors, Lara Belmont, Ray Winstone, and Freddie Cunliffe, turn in some really tremendous performances that make this an even tougher watch because they feel like such real fleshed-out characters. The script doesn't quite stick the landing, and I can't actually imagine wanting to watch it again due to the unpleasant subject matter, but I think it's mostly pretty well done.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The War Zone > The Gray Man

The War Zone < Key Largo

The War Zone < The Family Man

The War Zone < The Trouble with Harry

The War Zone < 12 Angry Men (1997)

The War Zone > Happythankyoumoreplease

The War Zone > Bonnie and Clyde

The War Zone > The Wrestler

The War Zone > Patsy & Loretta

The War Zone < The Last Castle

The War Zone > John Carter

Final spot: #1793 out of 3816, or 53%. This feels low but TCDNL.

Band of Brothers (2001)

IMDb plot summary: The story of Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and their mission in World War II Europe, from Operation Overlord to V-J Day.

Starring Scott Grimes, Damian Lewis, and Ron Livingston.

Band of Brothers was a ten-episode miniseries following one real-life World War II army platoon throughout the war. The miniseries is impeccably well-made, with clearly a ton of preparation and effort going in to bringing these men's stories to the screen, and following them over the course of the war, seeing who stays, who moves, who lives, and who dies, brings it home in a way it's harder to do in a 90-minute movie. As a result, it was easier for me to get to know the characters than it is in a typical war film. I especially found the final episode very moving, as the soldiers struggle to adjust to life after the war ends. It is definitely an undertaking to watch this, and I don't see myself doing it again any time soon, but I'm glad I made it happen at some point.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Band of Brothers > The Anderson Tapes

Band of Brothers < Safe

Band of Brothers < Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997)

Band of Brothers > Liberal Arts

Band of Brothers > Blazing Saddles

Band of Brothers > Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Band of Brothers > The Age of Adaline

Band of Brothers > Creation

Band of Brothers < Die Hard

Band of Brothers > The Romantics

Band of Brothers < The Night Before

Final spot: #1440 out of 3811, or 62%.

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

IMDb plot summary: When a group of rich 20-somethings plan a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, a party game turns deadly in this fresh and funny look at backstabbing, fake friends, and one party gone very, very wrong.

Directed by Halina Reijn. Starring Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, and Myha'la Herrold.

Bodies Bodies Bodies is a horror comedy about a group of friends spending a weekend at their cabin in the woods who begin to be murdered one by one. This movie got a lot of attention for being EXTREMELY gen Z, and it absolutely is, from the slang to the ever present social media to the constant clarification that people are on the right side of social issues, and while it's lampooning all that, it doesn't feel like it's doing it in a mean-spirited way. Instead, it just ends up being a funny, dark horror comedy, and some of the final climactic scenes where characters learn the truth about each other are truly hilarious. And I'm quite pleased with the way that it ended -- it all just made sense. A fun ride, if one that sometimes feels "a little much," but it wouldn't at all be the same movie if you toned it down.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Bodies Bodies Bodies > Sherlock Holmes

Bodies Bodies Bodies > Dark Passage

Bodies Bodies Bodies < Secretary

Bodies Bodies Bodies < The Pawnbroker

Bodies Bodies Bodies > Kismet

Bodies Bodies Bodies > Au Revoir Les Enfants

Bodies Bodies Bodies < Come From Away

Bodies Bodies Bodies < The Joy Luck Club

Bodies Bodies Bodies > Take This Waltz

Bodies Bodies Bodies > Back to the Future Part III

Bodies Bodies Bodies < Encanto

Final spot: #762 out of 3814, or 80%.

The Seagull (2022)

IMDb plot summary: The Seagull is a filmed performance of the play by Anton Chekhov, in a new version by Anya Reiss, in which a woman leaves Moscow to visit her terminally ill brother.

Directed by Jamie Lloyd. Starring Jason Barnett, Katie Buchholtz, and Emilia Clarke.

The Seagull is an Anton Chekov play considered a classic, and this version I watched was the filmed version of a production at the National Theatre in the UK. The story centers around a lake home in the country, showing us the artists who live there and visit and form connections with each other. I've never really fallen in love with the original, and I'm more interested in the artistic choices here in the abstract than I am to any of the personal aspects of the play. This production focuses entirely on the text, with the actors sitting in chairs in an empty beige box through most of the play. I've also seen Sidney Lumet's more realism-based version of this play, and neither one has really captured my interest. There are so many different things going on and so many threads to follow that I never feel like I can hold onto one of them long enough to care. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Seagull > Sherlock Holmes

The Seagull < Key Largo

The Seagull < The Family Man

The Seagull < The Trouble with Harry

The Seagull < 12 Angry Men (1997)

The Seagull > Broken Blossoms

The Seagull < Bonnie and Clyde

The Seagull < Beverly Hills Cop

The Seagull < The Matrix Reloaded

The Seagull > The Score

The Seagull > Mr. Nice Guy

The Seagull < Drunken Master

Final spot: #1842 out of 3815, or 52%.

Men Without Women (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Navy divers clear the torpedo tube of a sunken submarine.

Directed by John Ford. Starring Kenneth MacKenna, Frank Albertson, and J. Farrell MacDonald.

Men Without Women is a curious title for this film, because the women-less-ness of these men has no bearing on their plight. These men are, in fact, trapped in a submarine that is running out of oxygen, trying to communicate with the outside world. This is an early John Ford and while it's not as smooth as some of his later films, it definitely captures the claustrophobia of these men and how easy it is for their panic to lead them to make terrible decisions. It's been rare so far for my 1930 films to really capture much of a sense of tension, but this one is pretty effective at that, as well as helping us get to know some of the individual men trapped down here so we can be rooting for them on a personal level.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Men Without Women > Solaris (1968)

Men Without Women < Dark Passage

Men Without Women > The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

Men Without Women > Corrina, Corrina

Men Without Women < Nerve

Men Without Women < Marjorie Prime

Men Without Women > Wonder Man

Men Without Women > Friday the 13th

Men Without Women < Leave No Trace

Men Without Women > Superlopez

Men Without Women > The Post

Final spot: #1140 out of 3813, or 70%.

Cairo Station (1958)

IMDb plot summary: A newspaper salesman at the train station in Cairo develops an unhealthy obsession with a woman who sells refreshments.

Directed by Youssef Chahine. Starring Farid Shaqi, Hind Rustum, and Youssef Chahine.

Cairo Station is set at a busy train station in Egypt in the 1950s, where we follow the lives of a few vendors at the station, most notably a newspaper seller and the beautiful drink vendor he becomes obsessed with, even though she is engaged to another man. This is, to my knowledge, my first Egyptian film I've ever seen, and I found it really captivating. It digs into the characters' darker motivations in a beautifully nuanced way that we don't always see in 1950s cinema. It's a lot more interesting than I've found a lot of similar crime-drama films to be.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Cairo Station > The Anderson Tapes

Cairo Station < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Cairo Station < Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997)

Cairo Station > Liberal Arts

Cairo Station < Aliens

Cairo Station > Rabbit Hole

Cairo Station > The Majestic

Cairo Station > Captains Courageous

Cairo Station > Albert Nobbs

Cairo Station < The Informer

Cairo Station > Sundown

Final spot: #1552 out of 3809, or 59%.

The Trial (1962)

IMDb plot summary: An unassuming office worker is arrested and stands trial, but he is never made aware of his charges.

Directed by Orson Welles. Starring Anthony Perkins, Arnoldo Foà, and Jess Hahn.

The Trial is a film adaptation of Franz Kafka's story of a man who abruptly finds himself on trial for a crime, but nobody will tell him what he's accused of. This version is directed by Orson Welles and stars Anthony Perkins as the condemned man, although Welles plays an important supporting character. While typically surreal movies aren't my jam, this one definitely evokes a dreamlike sense of terror, at least throughout the first half. It always teases just enough clear answers that it does feel jarring and disorienting when they all just disappear, and I found that effective. The second half got deeper into the philosophy of the story and started losing my interest. But I did find myself more interested in the first portion than I anticipated, so that was a nice surprise.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Trial < The Last Dragon

The Trial > Frantic

The Trial > For Your Consideration

The Trial > Love Me Tonight

The Trial > Kate

The Trial < The Last Castle

The Trial > A Lady to Love

The Trial < To Be or Not to Be (1942)

The Trial > The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993)

The Trial > My Girl

The Trial < Malignant

Final spot: #1982 out of 3808, or 48%.