Manchester by the Sea (2016)

IMDb plot summary: An uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Starring Casey Affleck, Lucas Hedges, Michelle Williams, and Kyle Chandler.

This is the sort of quiet relational indie movie I may admire greatly but can't quite fall in love with. In recent years I've had to admit I have a fondness for the grandiose and the theatrical in my dramas. This is certainly far from theatrical. This is only a negative if you're me; for many moviegoers, that might be a word in its praise. The film does play out very realistic and very naturally, and all involved do a great job in their respective roles. Casey Affleck somehow manages to convey great depth of character beneath his never-changing facade of beaten-down cynicism. It's a good movie, and if this sounds even a little bit like something you might like, I'd highly recommend you check it out.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Manchester by the Sea > Checking Out
Manchester by the Sea > The Abyss
Manchester by the Sea < Breakfast at Tiffany's
Manchester by the Sea < What We Do in the Shadows
Manchester by the Sea < What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Manchester by the Sea < Southside with You
Manchester by the Sea > My Life as a Dog
Manchester by the Sea < Moonrise Kingdom
Manchester by the Sea < Inherit the Wind
Manchester by the Sea > Reservoir Dogs

Final spot: #623 out of 2585.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

IMDb plot summary: WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people, and becomes the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.
Directed by Mel Gibson. Starring Andrew Garfield, Hugo Weaving, Sam Worthington, and Luke Bracey.

(Spoilers ahead.)

Two years ago, American Sniper was up for Best Picture, and I was greatly disappointed because it kept positioning itself as if it was trying to ask questions about the morality of war, only to retcon all of that with no justification in the last 10 minutes of the movie. It was a frustrating choice. Hacksaw Ridge, fortunately, does not make the same mistake. Its themes are consistent throughout -- not so much about the morality or immorality of war itself, but about how one man reconciled his pact of nonviolence and his desire to serve his country. As someone drifting more and more toward a worldview of total nonviolence, it was refreshing to see a story like this, with someone stepping into this kind of brutal violence to heal without passing judgment on those around him who have different convictions on how to stand up to evil.

It would be easy to turn this review solely into a discussion of its political meanings, but it's also excellent in cinematic terms. Andrew Garfield as Doss imbues the character with personality (often a challenge for characters based on existing people) and carries the film easily on his shoulders. The climactic scene of him transporting as many wounded as he could down to safety successfully conveys the bravery and "epicness" of that undertaking just as much, if not more, than the dramatic battle scenes surrounding it. It's a gripping watch that does everything I hoped it would do.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Hacksaw Ridge > Born Yesterday
Hacksaw Ridge > Atonement
Hacksaw Ridge < Benny & Joon
Hacksaw Ridge > Bernie
Hacksaw Ridge < Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Hacksaw Ridge > The Impostors
Hacksaw Ridge > Cats and Dogs
Hacksaw Ridge > The Joy Luck Club
Hacksaw Ridge > The Grey
Hacksaw Ridge < Les Miserables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary

Final spot: #408 out of 2584.

The Pajama Game (1957)

IMDb plot summary: An Iowa pajama factory worker falls in love with an affable superintendent who had been hired by the factory's boss to help oppose the workers' demand for a pay rise.
Directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen. Starring Doris Day, John Raitt, Carol Haney, and Eddie Foy Jr.

I was completely unfamiliar with the movie/show's plot going into this, but I knew a few of the songs already. And this movie has a LOT of songs. 15 minutes or so in, we'd already had three songs an were starting on a fourth. There really were only about 2-3 minutes between each number, which ended up being a good thing. The songs are fun, particularly "There Once Was a Man," "Hey There," and a lot of the Fosse-choreographed dances.

When it comes to story... Well, that definitely isn't this movie's strong suit. The characters are thin caricatures set in weak stories. There's a particularly icky subplot in which a man's rampant jealous streak culminates in him chasing his girlfriend around the building, throwing knives at her while she literally screams and begs for her life. That is incredibly disturbing. Fortunately, there's not *that* much plot, and the movie's a lot easier to enjoy as just a string of musical numbers. It ends up in the lower middle of my chart. The tunes by themselves make it a fun watch, but they're propped up by a *really* flimsy book.

2.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Pajama Game < Born Yesterday
The Pajama Game > The Rescuers
The Pajama Game > La Dolce Vita
The Pajama Game > 'Master Harold'...And the Boys
The Pajama Game > Aladdin
The Pajama Game < Scrooge
The Pajama Game < The Fortune Cookie
The Pajama Game < As It Is in Heaven
The Pajama Game > Talladega Nights
The Pajama Game < Yankee Doodle Dandy
The Pajama Game > Sisters

Final spot: #1368 out of 2583.

Lion (2016)

IMDb plot summary: A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.
Directed by Garth Davis. Starring Sunny Pawar, Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, and Nicole Kidman.

Oh, this is truly a lovely movie. There are a lot of awkward or cliched traps it could have fallen into but it managed to avoid all of them and bring depth and meaning to a story that deserves to have that. The first half of the movie, focusing on Saroo as a young child, brings us perfectly into his mindset, making the world seem big and scary. When we transition to the second half, that sense of enormity is still there, even though it's reined in a little. Nicole Kidman very nearly steals the show even with only a few scenes, and Dev Patel brings wonderful personality to a character whose internal thoughts mostly stay internal. I'm glad this is up for Best Picture. I doubt it'll take the win over La La Land or Moonlight, but I'm glad to see recognition for a simple story told very beautifully.

4.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Lion > Born Yesterday
Lion > Australia
Lion > Garden State
Lion < Bullets Over Broadway
Lion > Horrible Bosses
Lion < Big Fish
Lion < Frozen
Lion < High School Musical 2
Lion < Hot Fuzz
Lion > Dead Again
Lion < The Matrix

Final spot: #238 out of 2582.

The Blue Room (2014)

IMDb plot summary: A man and a woman, secretly in love, alone in a room. They desire each other, want each other, and even bite each other. In the afterglow, they share a few sweet nothings. At least the man seemed to believe they were nothing. Now under investigation by the police and the courts, what is he accused of?
Directed by Mathieu Amalric. Starring Mathieu Amalric, Léa Drucker, Stéphanie Cléau, and Laurent Poitrenaux.

For such a short movie, this dragged on FOREVER. It is slow and blah and doesn't have any kind of interesting narrative and isn't told interestingly and there's really nothing to recommend it. When it takes you days to watch a 75-minute movie because it's so dull you keep falling asleep in the middle of it, that's not a good sign. I really don't have anything else to say about it. I'm going to move on to talking about better movies.

0.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Blue Room < Born Yesterday
The Blue Room < Special
The Blue Room < Reefer Madness (1936)
The Blue Room < The World Is Not Enough
The Blue Room < American Gangster
The Blue Room > The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
The Blue Room < Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog
The Blue Room > The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
The Blue Room > Don't Touch If You Ain't Prayed
The Blue Room < Bee Season
Final spot: #2526 out of 2581.

The Awful Truth (1937)

IMDb plot summary: Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.
Directed by Leo McCarey. Starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, and Alexander D'Arcy.

I've always enjoyed Cary Grant and Irene Dunne and screwball rom coms, so I'm a little disappointed that I didn't LOVE this. Don't get me wrong, I had a good time with it, and it's going to rank high on my chart, but I had higher hopes for this than I got. I'm trying to figure out exactly what it is that went a little flat for me, but I know it has to do with the emotional beats rather than the comedic ones, because there was nothing wrong on that level. It was funny and I laughed a lot, but the romantic tension that I was hoping for never quite got there, even in the final moments of the movie. I do think it's one that might benefit from multiple viewings, though, so after I've let it sit for a little while I intend to go back and check it out again to see how that works out.

This is an unusually negative review for a movie I liked, so let me clarify that I really *did* like this movie a lot. My expectations were just too high so that's what's sticking with me.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Awful Truth > The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
The Awful Truth > Australia
The Awful Truth < Smashed
The Awful Truth < Garden State
The Awful Truth < Bernie
The Awful Truth > Face/Off
The Awful Truth < Pom Poko
The Awful Truth > Corrina, Corrina
The Awful Truth < Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Awful Truth > Megamind
The Awful Truth > Cold Comfort Farm
The Awful Truth < Big Man Japan

Final spot: #536 out of 2580, or 79%.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)

IMDb plot summary: A town's sheriff and regular patron of a historical whorehouse fights to keep it running when a TV reporter targets it as the Devil's playhouse.
Directed by Colin Higgins. Starring Burt Reynolds, Dolly Parton, Dom DeLuise, and Charles Durning.

Well, this movie is pretty much what I hoped it would be: a sweet, charming movie about an unconventional subject. What I like most about it, though, is watching the two lead characters. Mona and Ed Earl have an easy chemistry both as lovers and as friends, and any scene where they're interacting is really delightful to watch. I knew some of the music here, and it's pretty good, aside from the ridiculous choice to add in "I Will Always Love You," a great song in its own right that is completely wasted in how it's been shoehorned into the movie. I'm not sure this is a movie I'll remember for a long time -- it's casual low-key tone does make it pretty forgettable in the end -- but it's one that I'm sure I'd have just as good a time with if I revisited it later.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas > Chasing Amy
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas > The Reader
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas < Smashed
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas < Bernie
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas > GoodFellas
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas < Pom Poko
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas > Rock of Ages
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas < Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas < Megamind
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas > Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas < 22 Jump Street

Final spot: #540 out of 2579.