No One Will Save You (2023)

IMDb plot summary: An exiled anxiety-ridden homebody must battle an alien who's found its way into her home.

Directed by Brian Duffield. Stars Kaitlyn Dever, Elizabeth Kaluev, and Zack Duhame.

No One Will Save You stars Kaitlyn Dever as a young woman who is a social pariah because of something she did when she was a child. She lives alone on the outskirts of her town, and one night, she finds she needs to fight off alien invaders, with no help. The most notable thing about this film is about how there's almost no dialogue in it, but it's still a fully coherent story. The lack of dialogue doesn't even feel like a gimmick, so much as a fully natural consequence of the story being told, and that's a nice touch. The alien design is genuinely creepy, and the film does a great job of building the tension Without giving anything away, I am going to have to sit with the ending for awhile... it's either the most depressing or the most surprisingly positive finale to a story, and I can't figure out which one. Definitely worth a watch as a more unique entry in this genre.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 No One Will Save You (2023)

📊 Ranked #1044/4172 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 75

beat Raising Arizona (#2089 → #2090)

lost to Robin Hood (held at #1039)

beat The Brood (#1561 → #1562)

beat The Judge (#1298 → #1299)

beat Billy Liar (#1168 → #1169)

beat Robot & Frank (#1103 → #1104)

beat Jack Goes Boating (#1071 → #1072)

beat The Quick and the Dead (#1055 → #1056)

beat Fruitvale Station (#1047 → #1048)

lost to Thelma (held at #1043)

beat Kiss Me, Stupid (#1045 → #1046)

beat What Maisie Knew (#1044 → #1045)

Pavements (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Documentary about the American indie band Pavement, which combines scripts with documentary images of the band and a musical mise-en-scene composed of songs from their discography.

Directed by Alex Ross Perry.

Pavements is a pseudo-documentary about the 90s rock band Pavement, composed of interviews and footage of the band alongside the filming of a spoof biopic, a jukebox musical of the band's work, and a museum exhibition. Even after reading through the Wikipedia I'm still not entirely confident I could tell you how much of this was real and how much is not. I knew nothing at all about this band, and this was definitely a unique way of learning more about them... if not a particularly helpful one. As I said, so much of this is apparently not true that I kind of lost interest in tracking it. The made-up movie is presented as too realistic, to the point where it doesn't have the plot or throughline I'd expect for something made up. It's not informative enough as a doc nor entertaining enough as fiction, and so it kind of sits in between for me. The most enjoyable parts were the ones that WERE in fact accurate, or commentary on what made Pavement special to people. It was the only piece where I felt like I actually got to know something about the band. The vibe I get is that that deliberate distance and (something of an) "F you" to the audience is very much a part of the band's branding, in which case, well, they nailed it, but it wasn't appealing to me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Pavements (2025)

📊 Ranked #2889/4175 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 31

lost to The Sparks Brothers (held at #2090)

beat Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#3132 → #3133)

lost to The Inspector General (held at #2613)

lost to Mr. Right (held at #2872)

beat Braveheart (#3002 → #3003)

beat Another Thin Man (#2937 → #2938)

beat Double Jeopardy (#2904 → #2905)

lost to Run Lola Run (held at #2888)

beat Marry Me (#2896 → #2897)

beat Captain Fantastic (#2892 → #2893)

beat Red Notice (#2890 → #2891)

beat Hal King (#2889 → #2890)

Dicks: The Musical (2023)

IMDb plot summary: A pair of business rivals discover that they're identical twins and decide to swap places in an attempt to trick their divorced parents to get back together.

Directed by Larry Charles. Stars Josh Sharp, Aaron Jackson, and Nathan Lane.

Dicks: The Musical is basically an ultra-ridiculous, ultra-raunchy adaptation of The Parent Trap: two adult businessmen find out they are twins separated at birth and decide to try and reunite their parents. I had the most mixed reaction to this one -- the first 3/4 are the funniest thing I've ever seen, and then it takes a steep left turn. The humor throughout comes so out of left field that it kept catching me off guard and getting genuine belly laughs from me, and that's pretty rare in a film. I thought for the first hour and 15 minutes that this might be in my top 5 of the year. But the final portion takes one single joke that isn't super funny to begin with and then goes for it over... and over... and over... in a way that feels very stale for a film that was finding new and creative ways to do things every 10 seconds up until that point. It was SUCH a deep disappointment after how much I loved most of it, and I don't quite know how to process the whiplash of that. I will probably rewatch that first section and just turn it off after what feels like the obvious conclusion to the story, before it goes off the rails.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Dicks: The Musical (2023)

📊 Ranked #1168/4174 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 72

beat Raising Arizona (#2090 → #2091)

lost to The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (held at #1038)

beat Single White Female (#1559 → #1560)

beat New York Stories (#1297 → #1298)

lost to Center Stage (held at #1167)

beat Dangerous Liaisons (#1232 → #1233)

beat Cats (#1199 → #1200)

beat Song of the Sea (#1183 → #1184)

beat The Color Purple (#1175 → #1176)

beat Wonder Boys (#1171 → #1172)

beat Billy Liar (#1169 → #1170)

beat The Hill (#1168 → #1169)

Green Street Hooligans (2005)

IMDb plot summary: A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent underworld of football hooliganism.

Directed by Lexi Alexander. Stars Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, and Claire Forlani.

Green Street Hooligans stars Elijah Wood as a college dropout who visits his sister in England to try to get back on his feet. While there, he befriends her tough brother-in-law and his gang of soccer-obsessed friends. This is sort of a strange little bro-y movie that finds the joy and friendship in... group violence, I guess. There are some fun moments in here but it's neither as heartwarming nor as hard-hitting as it alternately tries to be. The whiplash between those two vibes is hard to navigate, and overall they sort of even each other out so there's just nothing notable about the film at all. Not worth checking out.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Green Street Hooligans (2005)

📊 Ranked #2187/4171 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 48

lost to The Sparks Brothers (held at #2088)

beat Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (#3127 → #3128)

beat Tab Hunter Confidential (#2608 → #2609)

beat Captain Phillips (#2348 → #2349)

beat Sarah and Son (#2217 → #2218)

lost to The Good Dinosaur (held at #2152)

lost to Miracle on 34th Street (held at #2184)

beat Captain America: The Winter Soldier (#2200 → #2201)

beat A Time to Kill (#2192 → #2193)

beat North (#2188 → #2189)

lost to Harry and the Hendersons (held at #2186)

beat Mad Max (#2187 → #2188)

Weapons (2025)

IMDb plot summary: When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.

Directed by Zach Cregger. Stars Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, and Alden Ehrenreich.

Weapons is a horror film set in a small town shortly after all but one students in an elementary school class ran out of their homes in the middle of the night and haven't come back. We follow the various people who may be involved, including the father of one of the students, the teacher of the missing class, and the only child who didn't go. I was only mid on Barbarian, so I went into this uncertain that it would work, but it turned out to be a great ride, with each section of the story engaging so thoroughly with its character that I never felt like I wanted to say goodbye to them to follow someone else. It's a weird, twisty blend of mystery and horror that balances both modes beautifully. The ending is unexpectedly comedic in a way that’s totally unhinged, a wild tonal shift that lands even though it REALLY shouldn't. Easily better than Barbarian, in my opinion, in both story and horror aspects. Now I'm officially interested in what Zach Cregger does next.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Weapons (2025)

📊 Ranked #823/4168 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 80

beat Hamlet (#2081 → #2082)

beat 20th Century Women (#1040 → #1041)

lost to Crimes and Misdemeanors (held at #520)

lost to Colossal (held at #780)

beat Hidden Figures (#910 → #911)

beat Society of the Snow (#845 → #846)

lost to A Midsummer Night's Dream (held at #812)

beat The Cutting Edge (#828 → #829)

lost to Rise of the Guardians (held at #820)

beat Picnic at Hanging Rock (#824 → #825)

lost to The Holdovers (held at #822)

beat Them! (#823 → #824)

Joyeux Noel (2005)

IMDb plot summary: In December 1914, an unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front allows soldiers from opposing sides of the First World War to gain insight into each other's way of life.

Directed by Christian Carion. Stars Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann, and Guillaume Canet.

Joyeux Noel dramatizes the true story of the Christmas truce between French, Scottish, and German soldiers in the trenches during World War I. A friend really loved this and recommended it, which reminded me I've been meaning to watch it for forever. I'm glad I finally did.  It's a very meaningful story of humanity in the midst of chaos, told simply. I was especially struck by the latter third of the film, where it dealt with how these men were viewed as traitors for daring to see the enemy as human. It's maybe a little slow to put on as a regular holiday film, but I'm very glad I saw it, and I may revisit it next year when I need some additional optimism about humanity.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Joyeux Noel (2005)

📊 Ranked #1078/4166 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 74

beat Fahrenheit 451 (#2080 → #2081)

lost to 20th Century Women (held at #1039)

beat The Virtuous Sin (#1559 → #1560)

beat Kind Hearts and Coronets (#1299 → #1300)

beat Shakespeare Behind Bars (#1169 → #1170)

beat Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (#1104 → #1105)

lost to Chronicle (held at #1071)

beat The Nice Guys (#1087 → #1088)

beat H.M.S. Defiant (#1079 → #1080)

lost to The Menu (held at #1075)

lost to Tremors (held at #1077)

beat Pariah (#1078 → #1079)

The Surfer (2025)

IMDb plot summary: A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. When he is humiliated by a group of locals, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising and pushes him to his breaking point.

Directed by Lorcan Finnegan. Stars Nicolas Cage, Finn Little, and Rahel Romahn.

The Surfer stars Nicolas Cage as a divorced man who has his heart set on buying his Australian childhood beach home, only to run up against multiple problems, primarily a territorial beach gang. What a weird strange movie this is. I truly never knew where it was going. The film it reminded me most of was The Swimmer, another surreal water-based story of someone just trying to get home, and this similarly starts taking on a larger-than-life almost Greek tragedy-style horror -- all in a very enjoyable way. I truly never knew where this was ever going to go. Like many Cage movies, I can't quite tell if this is a *good* movie or not. But it's definitely an interesting one.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Surfer (2025)

📊 Ranked #1086/4165 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 74

beat Phantom Thread (#2080 → #2081)

lost to 20th Century Women (held at #1039)

beat Laurence Anyways (#1559 → #1560)

beat Guys and Dolls (#1299 → #1300)

beat The Color Purple (#1169 → #1170)

beat Brave (#1104 → #1105)

lost to Chronicle (held at #1071)

beat The Palm Beach Story (#1087 → #1088)

lost to H.M.S. Defiant (held at #1079)

lost to Barbie (held at #1083)

lost to Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (held at #1085)

beat The Nice Guys (#1086 → #1087)