Look Back (2024)

IMDb plot summary: The overly confident Fujino and the shut-in Kyomoto couldn't be more different, but a love of drawing manga brings these two small-town girls together.

Directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama. Stars Yumi Kawai, Mizuki Yoshida, and Yôichirô Saitô.

Look Back is a Japanese animated film about a young girl who loves drawing manga and ends up befriending another painfully shy girl who shares the same interest. We follow their friendship through their school years. This is a gorgeous movie. These characters are so relatable, and I feel like we rarely get stories about middle school-aged girls. It also manages to work through what feels like a very long arc in a very short amount of time and still make it land. It ends on such a wonderful narrative note, despite the darkness of the story in the latter half. I'm very glad I found this one. I knew nothing about it but it was well worth the watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Look Back (2024)

📊 Ranked #533/4164 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 87

beat Phantom Thread (#2079 → #2080)

beat Guilty as Sin (#1039 → #1040)

lost to Crimes and Misdemeanors (held at #519)

beat Stowaway (#779 → #780)

beat Mad Max: Fury Road (#649 → #650)

beat American Splendor (#584 → #585)

beat Argo (#551 → #552)

beat Short Term 12 (#535 → #536)

lost to Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (held at #527)

lost to Cam (held at #531)

beat Network (#533 → #534)

lost to The People Under the Stairs (held at #532)

Wake Up Dead Man (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Detective Benoit Blanc teams up with an earnest young priest to investigate a perfectly impossible crime at a small-town church with a dark history.

Directed by Rian Johnson. Stars Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, and Glenn Close.

Wake Up Dead Man is the third in Rian Johnson's Benoit Blanc mystery series, and this time it centers on a priest played by Josh O'Connor who is assigned to a new church where he has serious concerns about the way things are going. And then, of course, there's a murder.

another really incredible entry into the Benoit Blanc mysteries... turns out Rian Johnson is really great at this. This one in particular hits home for me as a Christian myself, as this is asking some great questions about faith and justice and community, and I think it handles them really beautifully. It was also the first of the Blanc films where I was truly lured in by the mystery itself. My husband and I could NOT figure out how it happened, and the journey of figuring out the answer was wonderful. I wish Andrew Scott had had a bit more to do -- he's too talented an actor to be pushed into the background the way he was here. But overall, this is an excellent film. The series continues to be a treasure trove of "let's show good people getting good things in the face of evil" and I'm here for it forever.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

📊 Ranked #305/4167 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 93

beat Fahrenheit 451 (#2081 → #2082)

beat Guilty as Sin (#1040 → #1041)

beat The Mummy (#520 → #521)

lost to That Thing You Do! (held at #260)

beat Hero (#390 → #391)

beat August Rush (#325 → #326)

lost to Two Lovers and a Bear (held at #292)

beat Leap of Faith (#308 → #309)

lost to Parasite (held at #300)

lost to Mass (held at #304)

beat Sabrina (#306 → #307)

beat Beginners (#305 → #306)

Zardoz (1974)

IMDb plot summary: In the late 23rd century, a savage trained only to kill finds a way into the community of bored immortals that alone preserves humanity's achievements.

Directed by John Boorman. Stars Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, and Sara Kestelman.

Zardoz is set in a far future when mankind is split into two groups: one lives in a utopia of immortality, the other fending for themselves in brutal wilderness tribes worshiping a god named Zardoz. Sean Connery begins in the second group and finds himself transported to living among the first. What a strange, enormously ambitious weirdo mess of a movie this is. It clearly has a vision, and I'd much rather watch a film with a vision than one without, but it sure is a messy confusing vision! There are a lot of vague points being made about evolving "past" feelings and desire, and how those things are ultimately what make life worth living, or something like that, but mostly we're just watching people in futuristic robes order around scantily-clad Sean Connery, and...well, that's definitely more sleazy fetish territory than deep sociological point. Ambitious, and I would be mildly interested in a coherent version of this concept, but this isn't it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Zardoz (1974)

📊 Ranked #3581/4150 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 14

lost to Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (held at #2073)

lost to Two for the Money (held at #3111)

beat Courage Under Fire (#3629 → #3630)

lost to The Secret of My Success (held at #3370)

lost to All Dogs Go to Heaven (held at #3499)

lost to Marathon Man (held at #3564)

beat Maid in Manhattan (#3596 → #3597)

lost to Stardust Memories (held at #3580)

beat Mystic Pizza (#3588 → #3589)

beat S1m0ne (#3584 → #3585)

beat Pretty Poison (#3582 → #3583)

beat White Comanche (#3581 → #3582)

Uncle Buck (1989)

IMDb plot summary: Laid back commitment-phobe Buck babysits his brother's rebellious teenage daughter and her cute younger brother and sister.

Directed by John Hughes. Stars John Candy, Macaulay Culkin, and Jean Louisa Kelly.

Uncle Buck is a John Hughes movie about a carefree, well-intentioned but frequently chaotic man who is tasked with watching his brother's kids while their parents are dealing with family emergencies in another state. Buck's methods are unorthodox, but he does his best to keep things going smoothly while parents are gone. This is a sweet, well intentioned movie. The more I see John Candy in films, the more I like him. There's more gentle chuckling than full-on laughs here, which is very on brand for Hughes, and that sense of gentle fondness helps smooth over the parts that don't fully work. Not one of Hughes' best films, but I get why people like it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Uncle Buck (1989)

📊 Ranked #1852/4163 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 56

beat Connie and Carla (#2080 → #2081)

lost to 20th Century Women (held at #1038)

lost to The Virtuous Sin (held at #1557)

lost to The Exorcist (held at #1817)

beat Bridge of Spies (#1949 → #1950)

beat Union Pacific (#1882 → #1883)

lost to White Heat (held at #1849)

beat Secret in Their Eyes (#1865 → #1866)

beat Bowling for Columbine (#1857 → #1858)

beat A Warm Corner (#1853 → #1854)

lost to Trading Places (held at #1851)

beat The Love Parade (#1852 → #1853)

Eddington (2025)

IMDb plot summary: In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

Directed by Ari Aster. Stars Joaquin Phoenix, Deirdre O'Connell, and Emma Stone.

Eddington is Ari Aster’s newest film starring Joaquin Phoenix as a small-town sheriff who finds himself at odds with the mayor and the restrictions being placed on him during COVID, so he decides to run for mayor himself. What a strange movie this is. It starts off feeling very dreadcore but then that peters out, and it feels likes a more straightforward Coen Brothers crime film. Joaquin Phoenix absolutely nails the unsettling vibes of someone who has been pushed to their limit and is now terrifyingly unpredictable. Overall though, the film doesn't manage to stick the landing. It somehow becomes less and less upsetting the more it goes on and lands in more bland territory. It's lower on my Ari Aster list for sure, but we don't get a lot of films deliberately portraying this time in recent history, and that alone makes it an interesting watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Eddington (2025)

📊 Ranked #2085/4162 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 50

lost to Phantom Thread (held at #2078)

beat The Big House (#3118 → #3119)

beat Raging Bull (#2598 → #2599)

beat Selma (#2338 → #2339)

beat Napoleon (#2207 → #2208)

beat Splash (#2142 → #2143)

beat What Women Want (#2110 → #2111)

beat Pride and Prejudice (#2094 → #2095)

beat Cypher (#2086 → #2087)

lost to Raising Arizona (held at #2082)

lost to Blackadder: Back & Forth (held at #2084)

beat Blackmail Is My Life (#2085 → #2086)

Merrily We Roll Along (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Spanning three decades, the turbulent relationship between a composer and his two lifelong friends, a writer and a lyricist and playwright.

Directed by Maria Friedman. Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez.

Merrily We Roll Along is a pro shot of the 2025 Stephen Sondheim musical following a group of artist friends who hit fame and begin to drift apart as a result. The gimmick here is that it is told in reverse chronological order, with the first scene showing that the friends have already fully severed ties and the final scene showing the night they first meet. I have only recently fallen in love with the show's cast album, and this clinches the deal, Merrily is SO GOOD. All three primary actors in this are incredible (easily my favorite thing Jonathan Groff's ever done). The decision to do multiple extremely close-up shots is very unusual for theatrical proshot, but it works great for small numbers. It feels out of place on the ensemble numbers, but Merrily is mostly an intimate show so it works more than it doesn't. I watched this at a time in my year when I was mourning a friend break-up, and looking at someone else's failing friendship in reverse order was surprisingly cathartic for me. It felt like I was being guided backward through my own friendship and learning how to let go of it while still remembering the good parts. This has become one of my favorite Sondheim scores, and I'm very glad that this particular cast has been captured on film, as I think they knock it out of the park.

How this entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Merrily We Roll Along (2025)

📊 Ranked #60/4161 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 99

beat Frances Ha (#2078 → #2079)

beat What Maisie Knew (#1039 → #1040)

beat The Mummy (#519 → #520)

beat That Thing You Do! (#259 → #260)

beat The Ring (#129 → #130)

beat Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (#64 → #65)

lost to WALL·E (held at #32)

lost to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (held at #48)

lost to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (held at #56)

beat Before Sunrise (#60 → #61)

lost to The Prince of Egypt (held at #58)

lost to The Cabin in the Woods (held at #59)

Last Breath (2025)

IMDb plot summary: A true story that follows seasoned deep-sea divers as they battle the raging elements to rescue their crew mate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean's surface.

Directed by Alex Parkinson. Stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole.

Last Breath follows a team of mechanic divers who work on ocean bottom pipes. One day on the job, something goes horribly wrong and one of the mechanics gets stuck below, while his coworkers try to retrieve him. This is a pretty solid little thriller. I like the small ways in which it breaks from genre tropes -- for example, there's nobody here seriously arguing that it's too expensive to save the man's life. They just don't know how to bring him back. It also does a good job of bringing out the terrifying enormousness of the ocean. It's the exact right length for this kind of single-purpose single-location horror film, it keeps the tension going without wearing thin. Overall, not the best in its genre but fully watchable.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Last Breath (2025)

📊 Ranked #1238/4160 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 70

beat Frances Ha (#2077 → #2078)

lost to Guilty as Sin (held at #1038)

beat Loose Ankles (#1557 → #1558)

beat Sophie's Choice (#1297 → #1298)

lost to The Color Purple (held at #1167)

lost to Airheads (held at #1232)

beat The Post (#1264 → #1265)

beat The Hunt for Red October (#1248 → #1249)

beat Crimson Tide (#1240 → #1241)

lost to Logan's Run (held at #1236)

beat Bride & Prejudice (#1238 → #1239)

lost to Studio 666 (held at #1237)