Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

IMDb plot summary: Haunted by the patients he failed to save, a monumentally burned-out Manhattan ambulance paramedic fights to maintain his sanity over three increasingly turbulent nights.

Directed by Martin Scorsese. Starring Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, and John Goodman.

Bringing out the Dead is a 1999 Martin Scorsese movie starring Nicolas Cage as an ambulance driver and paramedic. We follow him over the course of three nights and see how he is perpetually burned out and absolutely not in a state of being able to function as an effective first responder. Throughout his various trips with various partners, he also spend some time getting to know the adult daughter of a man he brings in to the hospital, played by Patricia Arquette. This is such a sad, difficult movie, and it is especially adept at its use of lighting  to lean into Cage's exhausted mental state. As we follow him around and hear his musing on death and life and meaning, we're also seeing a truly broken medical system. Many of the people he picks up along the way need a social worker or a mental health advocate more than they do a trip to the ER, but this is all we have to offer them. The mood of the movie sat with me long after the credits rolled. It's a tough watch but it is an impactful one.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Bringing Out the Dead > The Blues Brothers

Bringing Out the Dead > Dark Passage

Bringing Out the Dead > The White Tiger

Bringing Out the Dead < Dead Ringers

Bringing Out the Dead < Dick Tracy

Bringing Out the Dead < Romancing the Stone

Bringing Out the Dead < The Bride Wore Black

Bringing Out the Dead > Revengers Tragedy

Bringing Out the Dead < The Fallout

Bringing Out the Dead < Big Hero 6

Bringing Out the Dead < Leap of Faith

Bringing Out the Dead < The Great Muppet Caper

Final spot: #465 out of 3839, or 88%.

The Salesman (2016)

IMDb plot summary: While Ranaa and Emad, a married couple, are participating in a production of "Death of a Salesman," she is assaulted in their new home, which leaves him determined to find the perpetrator over his wife's traumatized objections.

Directed by Asghar Farhadi. Starring Taraneh Alidoosti, Shahab Hosseini, and Mina Sadati.

The Salesman is an Iranian film about a couple who are involved in a local production of Death of a Salesman, thus the title. But after the couple moves into a new home abruptly, the wife is attacked by an intruder, and the rest of the film follows her and her husband's attempts to deal with the aftermath. Like other films by the same director, this is a slow moving film that rests heavily on just watching characters interact in very human ways. The catalyst of this story, the actual attack, is never actually seen to my recollection, but we see the after effects of it so clearly that it feels just as vivid as anything in the rest of the film. I also love that we see the difference between the two ways that the husband and the wife respond to this, whether it's by seeking revenge or just trying to go on as normal, and watching the tension escalate is a lot more thrilling than I would have expected from the pace of this movie. It's well made, it's worth watching.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Salesman > The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Salesman < Dark Passage

The Salesman < Don’t Look Up

The Salesman > Is It Fall Yet?

The Salesman > Spider-Man 2

The Salesman > Event Horizon

The Salesman > Space Sweepers

The Salesman < Die Hard

The Salesman > A Scanner Darkly

The Salesman > The Romantics

The Salesman < The Night Before

Final spot: #1459 out of 3841, or 62%.

Two Lovers and a Bear (2016)

IMDb plot summary: Set in a small town near the North Pole where roads lead to nowhere, the story follows Roman and Lucy, two burning souls who come together to make a leap for life and inner peace.

Directed by Kim Nguyen. Starring Tatiana Maslany, Dane DeHaan, and Gordon Pinsent.

Two Lovers and a Bear is a romance set up in a small Arctic village, where two young adults -- sometimes seeming so young as to make me wonder if they're actual teenagers -- attempt to face their trauma together. Dane DeHaan and Tatiana Maslany are the leads here, and they make this whole film and its very narrow claustrophobic atmosphere work. You sense right from the beginning that these lovers are basically doomed but can't help rooting for them as they try to (sometimes very literally) run from the ghosts that haunt them. If the film were any longer it would feel too aimless and meandering, but as it stands it gives us just enough time to care about these characters and just enough action for us to stay connected. I also appreciate how casually it incorporates a fantastical element (or perhaps it isn't intended to be taken literally -- I chose to do so). This is definitely one that I think will sit with me for a long time after this viewing. It had that kind of weighty effect on me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Two Lovers and a Bear > The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Two Lovers and a Bear > The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Two Lovers and a Bear > The White Tiger

Two Lovers and a Bear > Fatal Attraction

Two Lovers and a Bear < A Night at the Opera

Two Lovers and a Bear < Mirai

Two Lovers and a Bear < Hot Fuzz

Two Lovers and a Bear < Moxie

Two Lovers and a Bear < Everything Everywhere All at Once

Two Lovers and a Bear > 28 Days Later...

Two Lovers and a Bear < Equus

Two Lovers and a Bear > Tick, Tick... Boom!

Final spot: #236 out of 3850, or 94%.

OMG!: Oh My God (2012)

IMDb plot summary: A shopkeeper takes God to court when his shop is destroyed by an earthquake.

Directed by Umesh Shukla. Starring Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, and Mithun Chakraborty.

OMG: Oh My God is an Indian movie about an atheist storekeeper who loudly denounces his faith in God, only for his shop to be destroyed in an earthquake. The insurance company won't pay out since it's considered an act of God, so he goes to court to argue that either the insurance company or God himself should pay to replace his shop. (And along the way, God actually shows up.) This is actually kind of a fascinating look at a very religious society that is not the one I grew up in but certainly shares some similarities, and it examines how easy it is for those in power to use religion as a way to take advantage of people in need. It's easy to root for our main character as he fights against the greedy leaders, and every win he gets *feels* like a win. Even when the supernatural actually makes its way into the story, it's very much reinforcing the idea that the best aspects of religious groups are about helping those in need, which is very close to my own personal faith beliefs. I say all this as if the movie is some kind of deep treatise on faith and religion, when mostly it's just a fun lighthearted courtroom comedy -- which it does pretty well. But there's also some deeper food for thought in here.

How it entered my Flickchart:

OMG: Oh My God > The Gray Man

OMG: Oh My God < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

OMG: Oh My God > Dan in Real Life

OMG: Oh My God < Batman Returns

OMG: Oh My God > Logan

OMG: Oh My God > Joe Versus the Volcano

OMG: Oh My God < Up in the Air

OMG: Oh My God < Under the Skin

OMG: Oh My God < Evita

OMG: Oh My God < The Pirate Movie

OMG: Oh My God < There Will Be Blood

OMG: Oh My God < Nine to Five

Final spot: #1259 out of 3837, or 67%.

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

IMDb plot summary: In post-World War II Venice, Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Starring Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Yeoh, and Jamie Dornan.

A Haunting in Venice is the newest Hercule Poirot story from Kenneth Branagh. In this one, he's invited to a palazzo to observe a famous medium attempt to speak with the owner's deceased daughter. Poirot attends to debunk the medium's performance but finds himself doubting his skepticism when a murderer strikes and he begins seeing strange visions. I enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express and was deeply disappointed with Death on the Nile in comparison, but this is a fun return to form. And by form, I mean "not worrying too much about the story, just pouring all the energy into the atmosphere." It does do that irritating thing Branagh likes where it insists on shoehorning in a Poirot tragic back story, when really a Christie mystery is all about the one-off side characters and Poirot's just there to tie them together. (Benoit Blanc gets this right in modern times, by the way.) But the eerie supernatural undertones and moody haunted castle imagery works for me almost entirely, even when the plot falls short.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Haunting in Venice > Arthur Christmas

A Haunting in Venice > Dark Passage

A Haunting in Venice < Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

A Haunting in Venice < Spencer

A Haunting in Venice > Kismet

A Haunting in Venice < Judgment at Nuremberg

A Haunting in Venice > Flee

A Haunting in Venice < The Red Shoes

A Haunting in Venice > Holiday (1930)

A Haunting in Venice < Roxanne

A Haunting in Venice > Last Night in Soho

Final spot: #800 out of 3842, or 79%.

A Jazzman's Blues (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Follows an investigation into an unsolved murder unveiling a story full of forbidden love, deceit and a secret.

Directed by Tyler Perry. Starring Joshua Boone, Amirah Vann, and Solea Pfeiffer.

A Jazzman's Blues tells the story of an African American man in the South in the 40s who flees the vengeful white lawmen of his town and ends up becoming an acclaimed jazz performer in a nightclub. I'm pretty sure this is my first Tyler Perry movie, and it's definitely got a distinctive feel that reminds me of a cross between presentational theater and schlocky CW dramas. While I love my fair share of those, I couldn't quite settle into this vibe, though. I kept being put off by the soap opera-style dramatic revelations and how expository all the dialogue was. It does have some really enjoyable musical numbers, though, and I kept feeling myself *just* on the edge of enjoying it for real in its own unique flavor. It definitely makes me want to watch more Perry films and see if a little more exposure can help me settle into it and have a good time with it, even if this one didn't quite do the trick for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Jazzman's Blues < Arthur Christmas

A Jazzman's Blues < Goldfinger

A Jazzman's Blues > Cocktail

A Jazzman's Blues > The Blue Dahlia

A Jazzman's Blues > The Cocoanuts

A Jazzman's Blues < BASEketball

A Jazzman's Blues > Find Me Guilty

A Jazzman's Blues < The Shaggy Dog (1959)

A Jazzman's Blues > The Lorax (1972)

A Jazzman's Blues > Man of the Year

A Jazzman's Blues > Jane Eyre (1996)

A Jazzman's Blues < Gladiator

Final spot: #2960 out of 3843, or 23%.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

IMDb plot summary: Alexander's day begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by more calamities. However, he finds little sympathy from his family and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him.

Directed by Miguel Arteta. Starring Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, and Ed Oxenbould.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day is a full length children's feature film based extremely loosely on the picture book of the same name. To expand this story out to an hour and a half, we tell the story of how Alexander is having struggles and is irritated with his family's optimism, so he makes a birthday wish that they all have terrible days. Then the whole family has a terrible day, and he has to be the one to be optimistic for them. I just watched a string of pretty decent kids films that were entertaining even if clearly not made for me. This is not one of those. This one is for kids and only for kids. The jokes are juvenile and the relationships are unrelatable for adults. It does have a nice message about balancing positivity with acknowledging that sometimes things are just difficult, and that's a good message to send to children. But it's absolutely not made with anyone beyond its target audience in mind and never really reaches beyond that. So since I'm not a child and do not have children, all I can say is it's not for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Goldfinger

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day > Cocktail

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day > The Blue Dahlia

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < The Westing Game

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Toys

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Robots

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day > Life With Father

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day < Predator

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day > X-Men: The Last Stand

Final spot: #3115 out of 3846, or 19%.