A Knight's Tale (2001)

IMDb plot summary: After his master dies, a peasant squire, fueled by his desire for food and glory, creates a new identity for himself as a knight.
Directed by Brian Helgeland. Starring Heath Ledger, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon, and Paul Bettany.

I was 15 when this came out, and a LOT of my peers saw it and really loved it, but somehow I missed that train and never actually sat down to watch it until today. And... eh. It's fine. It's a cute little story, but it's definitely a little long for the amount of substance it has, and the romantic plot is not even a little bit interesting. By far the most interesting/entertaining part of this whole movie is Paul Bettany as Chaucer. His charismatic character far overpowers everyone else, with the possible exception of Rufus Sewell as an almost hilariously villainous villain. I would watch those two in their own movies. Overall, it's not a *bad* movie, just an unimpressive one.

2.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
A Knight's Tale < No Highway in the Sky
A Knight's Tale > How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
A Knight's Tale > Side Effects
A Knight's Tale > Milk
A Knight's Tale > A Dangerous Method
A Knight's Tale > House of Flying Daggers
A Knight's Tale < Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
A Knight's Tale < North by Northwest
A Knight's Tale > Deceiver
A Knight's Tale > Where the Wild Things Are
A Knight's Tale > Apocalypto
Final spot: #1217 out of 2378.

Swing Time (1936)

IMDb plot summary: A performer and gambler travels to New York City to raise the $25,000 he needs to marry his fiancée, only to become entangled with a beautiful aspiring dancer.
Directed by George Stevens. Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, and Helen Broderick.

(Spoilers.)

I watched this for week 2 of the Letterboxd season challenge, for 30s musicals week. Overall, this movie was pretty entertaining, though, as with all Astaire/Rogers pics (and most musicals from this time period), the story winds up being pretty thin and really only serves to provide great dancing scenes -- which are lovely and really spectacularly done. And, really, the first 2/3 of the film has a pretty decent script too, with some very funny moments and clever set-ups for dances. But the motivations of Astaire's character are REALLY unclear until the final moments. Has he fallen for Rogers? Is he just playing with her? Does he realize how much she cares? Does he intend to leave his previous fiancee? We really have no idea until he casually announces it toward the end of the third act, at which point, the movie pretty much falls apart anyway. With both Astaire and Rogers engaged to the wrong people, the movie frantically tries to finagle them back together, but the pacing is weird and we get about 10 minutes of characters giggling madly at nothing in particular before cheerfully announcing new relationship statuses. It's strange and abrupt and unsatisfying given the previous buildup. Most of this movie would earn 4 stars from me, but the incredibly odd ending would get a 2, given how sloppy it feels. So let's land it in the middle.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Swing Time > The Sunshine Boys (1996)
Swing Time < Rurouni Kenshin
Swing Time < Nothing in Common
Swing Time > To Rome With Love
Swing Time > Splash
Swing Time < Suspicion
Swing Time > Nine Lives
Swing Time < Seven Chances
Swing Time > Adam
Swing Time > A Separation
Swing Time < Lyle, the Kindly Viking
Final spot: #939 out of 2377.

Westworld (1973)

IMDb plot summary: A robot malfunction creates havoc and terror for unsuspecting vacationers at a futuristic, adult-themed amusement park.
Directed by Michael Crichton. Starring Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, and Alan Oppenheimer.

I do have a pretty strong fondness for cheesy sci-fi, and this fits that perfectly. It's a pretty short film that spends a LOT of time on build-up before getting to a place where anything happens, but the world of realistic robots is interesting enough that I didn't mind exploring it for awhile. The menacing character of the Gunslinger is cited on IMDb as being an inspiration for both Michael Myers and the Terminator, and you can definitely see that. There's no real reason that he's hunting the protagonist down, even in the early stages of the film, and that makes his unending determination to get to him all the more unsettling. This film definitely looks and sounds pretty dated, and there's not really any character development to speak of, but the story is still a fun one, and it certainly doesn't overstay its welcome.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Westworld > The Sunshine Boys (1996)
Westworld < Planet of the Apes
Westworld > Hugo
Westworld > Synecdoche, New York
Westworld < Girl Shy
Westworld > Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997)
Westworld > A Chorus Line
Westworld > Happy Feet
Westworld > Evita
Westworld > Bridesmaids
Westworld < Primer
Final spot: #670 out of 2376.

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

IMDb plot summary: A distant poor relative of the Duke of D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.
Directed by Robert Hamer. Starring Dennis Price, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, and Alec Guinness.

I didn't even realize when I began watching it that it's based on the same story as the musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, along with the same gimmick that every member of the rich family is played by a single actor. Overall, this is a really entertaining movie. The juxtaposition of the dry, understated British humor with the morbid and absurd murders is frequently hilarious, and the protagonist is delightfully void of ethics. It does move a little slowly, and because the character is a bit too much of a sociopath for me to care about how he does, the more dramatic moments are lost on me and go on a little long. But overall this was an enjoyable watch, and I'm glad we picked this for the first movie of the Letterboxd season challenge.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Kind Hearts and Coronets > Monsters University
Kind Hearts and Coronets < Rurouni Kenshin
Kind Hearts and Coronets > Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Kind Hearts and Coronets < Synecdoche, New York
Kind Hearts and Coronets < The Devil's Backbone
Kind Hearts and Coronets > Dan in Real Life
Kind Hearts and Coronets > Secret Window
Kind Hearts and Coronets < The Minus Man
Kind Hearts and Coronets > Don Jon
Kind Hearts and Coronets < The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
Kind Hearts and Coronets > Stage Fright (2014)
Final spot: #828 out of 2375.

Oliver Twist (1948)

IMDb plot summary: Based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London.
Directed by David Lean. Starring Robert Newton, Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, and John Howard Davies.

This is an extremely straightforward adaptation of the story with pretty good acting and scripting, but where it really stands out is the cinematography. The movie looks gorgeous, playing with shadow and light and composition in a way that really brings out both the beauty and the darkness of the world. Unfortunately, the one person's acting that stood out to me is Kay Walsh's, which I didn't like much -- she plays Nancy as an uncomfortably shrill character, and her big emotional moments didn't work for me at all. The rest of the cast is solid, though, with enough depth to really sell them. It's not going to top the musical for me, but if you're looking for just a simple book-to-film version of Oliver Twist, this is a pretty good one.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Oliver Twist > Monsters University
Oliver Twist < Rurouni Kenshin
Oliver Twist < Hugo
Oliver Twist > The Nanny Diaries
Oliver Twist < Splash
Oliver Twist > Star Trek Into Darkness
Oliver Twist < The Hangover
Oliver Twist > In & Out
Oliver Twist > Badlands
Oliver Twist > Fanboys
Final spot: #984 out of 2374.

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

IMDb plot summary: Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are vampires who are finding that modern life has them struggling with the mundane - like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts.
Directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. Starring Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonny Brugh, and Cori Gonzalez-Macuer.

Mockumentaries are pretty tough to do well, but this is one of the most creative ones I've seen, playing beautifully on the conventions of the genre. The characters are interesting to watch, the dialogue is funny, and the movie as a whole does new and different things in both the mockumentary AND the vampire film genres. There's very little wasted time in this comedy -- every scene is funny -- and I anticipate will just keep getting better with each rewatch, so it's definitely one to add to my collection at some point.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
What We Do in the Shadows > As It Is in Heaven
What We Do in the Shadows > Pretty Woman
What We Do in the Shadows < Heathers
What We Do in the Shadows < The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
What We Do in the Shadows > Roxanne
What We Do in the Shadows > Take This Waltz
What We Do in the Shadows > Robot and Frank
What We Do in the Shadows > The Bicycle Thief
What We Do in the Shadows > Nightcrawler
What We Do in the Shadows > Schindler's List
What We Do in the Shadows > Nativity!
Final spot: #445 out of 2373.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

IMDb plot summary: In a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, two rebels just might be able to restore order: Max, a man of action and of few words, and Furiosa, a woman of action who is looking to make it back to her childhood homeland.
Directed by George Miller. Starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, and Hugh Keays-Byrne.

This is a pretty phenomenal summer blockbuster. It stands out from a lot of the other action movies, thanks to its abundance of awesome female characters (seriously, this is Furiosa's story, Max is just kinda there) and its really gorgeous visual aesthetic. This movie makes everything LOOK good, and I'm glad I got to see it in theaters instead of waiting for it to come out as a rental.

The Mad Max saga is brand new to me -- I've never seen any of the originals, despite my love for dystopian stories -- so one thing I particularly liked about this movie was that it showed off the world without endless exposition and long details about why things are the way they are, or how these people have the power they do, or any of that. It kept a good deal of it mysterious, where we see that's how it is but don't have a sense as to why. It puts us as audience members in a similar place as most of the characters in this movie, who have only a vague knowledge of what the world was like "before," since they're primarily too busy trying to survive now.

Overall, really interesting and well-made movie.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Mad Max: Fury Road > As It Is In Heaven

Mad Max: Fury Road > Pretty Woman

Mad Max: Fury Road < Heathers

Mad Max: Fury Road < The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall

Mad Max: Fury Road < Roxanne

Mad Max: Fury Road > Quartet

Mad Max: Fury Road > The Karate Kid

Mad Max: Fury Road < Waking Ned Devine

Mad Max: Fury Road < Leap of Faith

Mad Max: Fury Road > Crossing Delancey

Mad Max: Fury Road > Notting Hill

Final spot: #532 out of 2372.