Eddie the Eagle (2016)

IMDb plot summary: The story of Eddie Edwards, the notoriously tenacious British underdog ski jumper who charmed the world at the 1988 Winter Olympics.
Directed by Dexter Fletcher. Starring Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Edvin Endre, and Jo Hartley.

(Mild spoilers.)

This is a very strange movie. In most ways, it is unrelentingly conventional. Every cliche you can think of, happens, and it happens in a way that is eye-rollingly designed to manipulate the audience into caring. But then every so often, that manipulation goes a little too far and we get these bizarre, almost cartoonish over-the-top sequences that are by far more interesting than anything else we see in the film. I'm thinking of Hugh Jackman's hilarious "LOOK I'M SO COOL" ski jump while smoking, the amazingly melodramatic responses to Eddie's final jump, and the goofily menacing evil of the advanced ski jumpers in the spa. These moments are ridiculous and really do feel like they'd be more at home in a Nickelodeon cartoon than in a live action feel-good sports movie, but they're a breath of fresh air given the by-the-book mundanity of the rest of the movie. As a whole, the flick's pretty harmless if you like that sort of thing, but it's certainly not anything compelling or different... aside from those occasional bits of complete nonsense that made me laugh harder than any of the actual jokes.

1.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Eddie the Eagle < 13 Going on 30
Eddie the Eagle > Mr. Holland's Opus
Eddie the Eagle > Deja Vu
Eddie the Eagle < Larry-Boy and the Fib From Outer Space
Eddie the Eagle < Ghostbusters
Eddie the Eagle < Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Eddie the Eagle < Syrup
Eddie the Eagle > The Toy That Saved Christmas
Eddie the Eagle < Dear Frankie
Eddie the Eagle < The Imitation Game
Eddie the Eagle > Fun Size
Final spot: #1511 out of 2437.

Where to Invade Next (2015)

IMDb plot summary: To learn what the USA can learn from other nations, Michael Moore playfully "invades" them to see what they have to offer.
Directed by Michael Moore.

The various individual topics this documentary covers are good ones. There are interviews with various other first world country leaders, workers, and job creators about how they are improving their social systems, and those are all interesting. Where this movie falls apart, however, is whenever Moore makes himself the focus of the picture instead of letting the comparisons between countries speak for themselves. The gimmicky nature of the "We're conquering you" premise isn't nearly as funny as he thinks it is, and every so often he interrupts the interviews to go on a long tirade about his own political opinions and theories. While some of the things he states may be important or true, he'd have done better to put these together through interviews with others. Coming from him, they end up getting shrouded in such a thick layer of smug confidence that it's hard to take any of them as seriously as he wants us to.

The most compelling moments are in the interviews with the overseas citizens, where we get a solid sense of just how silly and selfish they think some of our policies are, especially those that put individual rights above the common societal good. Those are the moments that can make the viewers think. There's definitely enough in the movie to keep it interesting, but if Moore had cut the gimmick and shortened or excised entirely his own soapboxes, it would be a much stronger film.

2.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Where to Invade Next < The Slipper and the Rose
Where to Invade Next > Mr. Holland's Opus
Where to Invade Next > Deja Vu
Where to Invade Next > Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space!
Where to Invade Next > The Ramen Girl
Where to Invade Next > Bunraku
Where to Invade Next < Talk Radio
Where to Invade Next > Holiday
Where to Invade Next < The Lost Weekend
Where to Invade Next > The Year Without a Santa Claus
Final spot: #1243 out of 2436.

Twin Sisters (2002)

IMDb plot summary: Twin Sisters is an epic love story based on the Dutch bestseller by Tessa de Loo that has been read by more than 3.5 million readers in Holland and Germany.
Directed by Ben Sombogaart. Starring Ellen Vogel, Gudrun Okras, Thekla Reuten, and Nadja Uhl.

(Spoilers.)

This is such a great premise for a movie, and I wish it was more engaging. The primary problem here is that the timeline seems off. More time is spent on their lives as very small children than their re-encounter as old women, and the latter is much more interesting. Once the story of the sisters as young women has been told, the film wraps up somewhat abruptly, never quite dealing with the emotions brought to the forefront. A more successful option would have been to split the time more evenly, perhaps 2/3 of it devoted to the flashback and 1/3 devoted to burying the hatchet in the present, but as it was, the 10 minutes of modern-day scenes seem purposeless since they don't resolve in any believable way. A great idea that stumbles in its execution.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Twin Sisters > 13 Going on 30
Twin Sisters < Argo
Twin Sisters < A Matter of Life and Death
Twin Sisters < Foolproof
Twin Sisters > Alice (1990)
Twin Sisters > Kiki's Delivery Service
Twin Sisters < Away From Her
Twin Sisters < Tarzan
Twin Sisters > The Women
Twin Sisters < Shall We Dance? (2004)
Final spot: #1098 out of 2435.

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

IMDb plot summary: A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio's stars in line.
Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Aiden Ehrenreich, and Channing Tatum.

I have often preferred the Coens' broader comedies to their dramas, but not always (Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski do nothing for me). This is less an overt comedy and more a lighthearted love letter to 1950s Hollywood. That is when the film is at its best, showing us glimpses of all the different kinds of pictures that are so recognizably not-of-our-time, from Noel Coward-esque play adaptations to singing cowboy pictures to, of course, the titular religious epic.

The story as a whole is funny and engaging but my biggest problem with it is that, like most Coen movies, the ending seems like they just ran out of things to say more than like any kind of thoughtful conclusion. The tiny bits of resolution we do get are tacked on as apparent afterthoughts. I can never help feeling like the Coens always lose the final page of the script and don't end up shooting it, and even though this one tries a bit harder to wrap up the story, it doesn't quite work for me. Not a bad movie, just one that fizzles out.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Hail, Caesar! > The Kids Are All Right
Hail, Caesar! < Argo
Hail, Caesar! > Strictly Ballroom
Hail, Caesar! > Signs
Hail, Caesar! < Bend It Like Beckham (due a rewatch)
Hail, Caesar! < The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Hail, Caesar! < The Help
Hail, Caesar! > Frances Ha
Hail, Caesar! < Shaolin Soccer
Hail, Caesar! < Collateral
Hail, Caesar! > Liberal Arts
Final spot: #748 out of 2433.

Deadpool (2016)

IMDb plot summary: A former Special Forces operative turned mercenary is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopting the alter ego Deadpool.
Directed by Tim Miller. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, and Ed Skrein.

(Spoilers.)

I have written and rewritten and rewritten this review several times now because I'm pretty conflicted about this movie and have trouble putting it into words. Every so often I come across a movie that I really enjoy but feel uneasy about enjoying. Deadpool is one of them. It's funny, smart, well-written, and perfectly cast. Ryan Reynolds is great in this, even when all you hear is his voice yelling out snarky bon mots. Right from the opening credits, the movie gets in the fourth-wall-breaking spirit, and it doesn't let up. It's a wonderfully fun ride, but it also frequently makes me uncomfortable.

It's not the gore or the nudity that gives me pause, but the gleeful disregard for human life. Deadpool tells you over and over again that he's not a hero, not a good guy, and yet he makes killing his enemies look so fun and it's hard not to enjoy his witty murder banter. This would probably hit me differently if I didn't already feel that our current cultural climate is one of viewing enemies with an unsettling lack of mercy. Deadpool is a smarter, funnier version of the folks I've had actual real-life conversations with who make numerous jokes about how awesome we are for bombing the Middle East or who casually toss out violent solutions for personal conflict and you sense they're not quite joking. (The moment that made me most uneasy in Deadpool was the scene where he cheerfully applauds someone kidnapping and murdering a romantic rival. That's not even some grand tale of revenge the way Deadpool's quest is framed. That's just a petty tantrum because life didn't go your way. At least he didn't suggest he kidnap and murder the woman, but... this is not much of a step up.)

Is the movie in the wrong for its artistic choices it made here? Eh, I can't say that. At another time it might have been much easier for me to separate it out as "Pffft, it's just a movie" and enjoy the story. And at least Deadpool himself is VERY clear throughout the movie he's not doing the right thing. He's just a selfish jerk, and he knows it. But I can't help worrying as the credits roll what kind of happily ever after could possibly lie in store for him and his newfound love.

So... It was fun. It was interesting. But the more I think about it, it was also kind of terrifying.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Deadpool > The Kids Are All Right
Deadpool < Eat Pray Love
Deadpool > A Separation
Deadpool > Hamlet (2009)
Deadpool < Bend It Like Beckham
Deadpool > Creed
Deadpool < 28 Up
Deadpool > State and Main
Deadpool > Hannah and Her Sisters
Deadpool > A Few Good Men
Deadpool < Gentleman's Agreement

Final spot: #705 out of 2432.

Interstellar (2014)

IMDb plot summary: A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival.
Directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine.

(Spoilers.)

Interstellar has been on my radar since its release, so my husband and I finally sat down to watch it together tonight. I admire many aspects of the movie - it looks great, the post-apocalyptic dust-filled world it sets up is interesting, Matt Damon's appearance was marvelous all the way through, the way they dealt with relativity stuff was sensitive and touching - but I found the end deeply unsatisfying. It took what was set up as a serious sci-fi story and turned it into, as my husband put it, "time magic." I can suspend disbelief for time travel, but not time travel powered by love. That is just going to make me roll my eyes alllll the way back. The score, which was nominated for an Oscar, was also just *wrong* the whole way through, escalating several serious moments into accidentally hilarious melodrama.

In short, I wanted to like this and I did like parts of it a lot, but it falls apart at the end and isn't nearly as deep as it thinks it is. What happened, Christopher Nolan?

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Interstellar > Happythankyoumoreplease
Interstellar < Eat Pray Love
Interstellar < A Separation
Interstellar > Cast Away
Interstellar > Bee Movie
Interstellar < Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
Interstellar < The Man Who Wasn't There
Interstellar < The Revenant
Interstellar > Marathon
Interstellar < Jurassic World
Final spot: #983 out of 2431.

Anomalisa (2015)

IMDb plot summary: A man crippled by the mundanity of his life experiences something out of the ordinary.
Directed by Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman. Starring David Thewlis, Tom Noonan, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

(Definite spoilers ahead.)

When I heard Charlie Kafuman was doing an animated film I was intrigued and prepared for something delightfully weird. And what I got was... weird, but certainly not Being John Malkovich-level weird. This is more like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- one unusual gimmick to tell a very human story that so creatively integrates with the themes that you almost forget it's unusual by the end.

Here, the primary gimmick is that everyone our main character meets shared the same bland almost-monotone voice (Tom Noonan). Everyone he encounters, from the taxi driver to the hotel concierge to the wife and child he calls on the phone, respond in the same quiet, soothing tones, and it isn't until he meets someone who sounds different (played by non-Tom-Noonan Jennifer Jason Leigh) that he thinks maybe he's found a way out of the drudgery he's lived in.

It's a fascinating movie and a fascinating way to tell the story, and I found it especially relevant as someone who is both extremely introverted and deals with occasional depression, two very different angles for being uninterested in people. There are so many ways you could interpret this story and why Michael hears things the way he does, and the fact that it's never delved into very deeply makes it ambiguous in the best way.

Ultimately, I found myself a little more wrapped up in intellectual analyzing of the gimmicks and themes than I did experiencing the emotional arc of the movie. Kaufman's movies are always interesting but often leave me a little cold emotionally (aside from Synecdoche, New York, which filled me with an almost overwhelming sadness). Here I'm not even sure I tried to respond to the emotional side of it, and I'm not sure how it would hold up, but I admired the movie a lot and would definitely like to rewatch it someday.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Anomalisa > Happythankyoumoreplease
Anomalisa > Argo
Anomalisa < High School Musical
Anomalisa > Kiss Me, Stupid!
Anomalisa < Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Anomalisa < The Parent Trap
Anomalisa < Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Anomalisa > The Talented Mr. Ripley
Anomalisa > The Peanuts Movie
Anomalisa > Trainspotting
Anomalisa > The Graduate

Final spot: #437 out of 2430.