The Beach (2000)

IMDb plot summary: Vicenarian Richard travels to Thailand and finds himself in possession of a strange map. Rumours state that it leads to a solitary beach paradise, a tropical bliss. Excited and intrigued, he sets out to find it.
Directed by Danny Boyle. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Virgine Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet, and Tilda Swinton.

So this is my third of three Danny Boyle movies I've watched lately in preparation for a Danny Boyle rank-a-thon in my Flickcharters Facebook group. Two Boyle movies ago I said of Shallow Grave, "What a strange and fascinating movie," and I wanted to open this review the exact same way before realizing I'd already said it. But it's true of this as well. It's this bizarre movie about... tourism and cults and maybe toxic masculinity (but that might not be on purpose) and while it doesn't always quite hit the lofty heights it's aiming for, it's definitely ambitious. This is the most unlikable I've ever seen Leonardo DiCaprio, and that includes his turn as a racist slave owner in Django Unchained. He's just a monstrous human being here, and watching him get sucked into this weird beach cult is... so interesting. I'm not sure it holds together from beginning to end, but it's sure fun to watch it try.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Beach > The Commitments
The Beach < Husbands and Wives
The Beach < An American Tail
The Beach < The Major and the Minor
The Beach > Blackmail Is My Life
The Beach > The Madness of King George
The Beach > A Separation
The Beach > Going My Way
The Beach < Single White Female
The Beach > Duck Soup
The Beach > To Be or Not to Be (1942)
The Beach > One, Two, Three
Final spot: #1355 out of 3082.

Steve Jobs (2015)

IMDb plot summary: Steve Jobs takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution, to paint a portrait of the man at its epicenter. The story unfolds backstage at three iconic product launches, ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac.
Directed by Danny Boyle. Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels.

While The Social Network certainly wasn't the FIRST "difficult genius" movie, I think of it as being an important piece in a trend that led to 2014's The Year of Difficult Men and Longsuffering Women in which every single movie was about that, and I got BURNED OUT. I could happily go the rest of my life without watching another movie about a brilliant businessman/tech guy/scientist/soldier who treats people around him badly but at least his female companion is there to pick up the pieces. Kate Winslet's character here gets especially short shrift, as the third act leads to an abrupt attempt from her to solve Jobs' family problems, solely because SOMEBODY needs to make him solve his problems. And is Danny Boyle trying to redeem Jobs' character at the end by saying, "And once he was nice to his daughter?" when he still treats literally everyone else he interacts with like they're beneath him? I obviously didn't know the real Steve Jobs or how accurate this is, but I hate this character, I don't like seeing him get away with being a turd to people, and this type of character is just like... the least interesting person to center your story around. How much more interesting would this have been from the point of view of literally anyone else in this story? ALL OF IT. ALL THE MORE INTERESTING.

Anyway. Diversify your narratives, people.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Steve Jobs < The Commitments
Steve Jobs > Brokeback Mountain
Steve Jobs < About Last Night...
Steve Jobs < Stormy Weather
Steve Jobs > McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Steve Jobs > Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?
Steve Jobs < I Remember Mama
Steve Jobs > The Birth of a Nation
Steve Jobs < 12 Days of Terror
Steve Jobs < Talk to Her
Steve Jobs < Teacher's Pet
Steve Jobs > Annie Get Your Gun
Final spot: #2153 out of 3081.

Shallow Grave (1994)

IMDb plot summary: Three friends discover their new flatmate dead but loaded with cash.
Directed by Danny Boyle. Starring Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor, and Ken Stott.

What a strange and fascinating movie. Certainly more interesting than a lot of crime movies, thanks to the fascinating dynamics of our trio of lead characters, who start off almost uncomfortably close friends and then find themselves distrusting each other after they commit a crime together. Christopher Eccleston is particularly interesting here, especially with Danny Boyle's excellent directorial choices which put us very much in the heads of his fractured characters.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Shallow Grave > The Commitments
Shallow Grave > Husbands and Wives
Shallow Grave < Chariots of Fire
Shallow Grave < Lovely & Amazing
Shallow Grave < Contagion
Shallow Grave > Sleeping with Other People
Shallow Grave > Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
Shallow Grave > The Graduate
Shallow Grave < Key Largo
Shallow Grave < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Shallow Grave < The Great Race
Shallow Grave > Kuroneko
Final spot: #684 out of 3080.

Can't Hardly Wait (1998)

IMDb plot summary: Multicharacter teenage comedy about high school graduates with different agenda of life on graduation night.
Directed by Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan. Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, and Lauren Ambrose.

I didn't realize until starting this movie that I apparently thought it was She's All That, another 1990s teen comedy I never saw. But once I started watching it, what it really reminded me of was Dazed and Confused -- an ensemble piece about a bunch of teens graduating high school. It doesn't hit the sincere moments particularly well, but there are lots of little minor moments and characters that are fun. I particularly liked the band that breaks up and reunites over the course of the night. It's an enjoyable but pretty forgettable flick.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Can't Hardly Wait > Frosty the Snowman
Can't Hardly Wait < Husbands and Wives
Can't Hardly Wait < Real Life
Can't Hardly Wait > Absolute Power
Can't Hardly Wait < The Terminal
Can't Hardly Wait > My Week With Marilyn
Can't Hardly Wait < The Stepford Wives (1975)
Can't Hardly Wait > We Need to Talk About Kevin
Can't Hardly Wait > Wide Awake
Can't Hardly Wait > The Call
Can't Hardly Wait > The Wicker Man (1973)
Can't Hardly Wait < The Last Unicorn
Final spot: #1277 out of 3079.

The Outsiders (1983)

IMDb plot summary: The rivalry between two gangs, the poor Greasers and the rich Socs, only heats up when one gang member kills a member of the other.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Starring C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, and Patrick Swayze.

This movie is almost astonishingly faithful to the source material, which I know extremely well since I've taught it multiple times. That sometimes makes this land in an almost uncanny valley area for me, feeling like it's almost the book but not quite. The performances hit both some impressive highs (Matt Dillon) and some unfortunate lows (Rob Lowe). It's a solid adaptation that occasionally falls prey to cheesy moralizing - but the book did too a bit, so it's understandable.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Outsiders > Frosty the Snowman
The Outsiders < Husbands and Wives
The Outsiders > Real Life
The Outsiders < The Pianist
The Outsiders > You Can't Take It With You
The Outsiders < The Exterminating Angel
The Outsiders > Lady Bird
The Outsiders < The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
The Outsiders > The Return of Captain Invincible
The Outsiders < Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
The Outsiders < They Came Together
The Outsiders < The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
Final spot: #1027 out of 3078.

Stolen Kisses (1968)

IMDb plot summary: After being discharged from the army, Antoine Doinel centers a screwball comedy where he applies for different jobs and tries to make sense of his relationships with women.
Directed by François Truffaut. Starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Delphine Seyrig, Claude Jade, and Michael Lonsdale.

It's been some time since I watched The 400 Blows, and I have not watched Antoine and Colette. It took me a little bit to even realize this was the same character, but it did make me want to go back and watch/rewatch those two. Antoine vacillates for me between being outright unpleasant and being just young and impetuous but not malicious. There are a lot of little moments in this movie that are just perfect -- I absolutely loved the moment where he accidentally called his boss' wife (whom he secretly loves) "sir" by accident and then literally runs away in panicked embarrassment. Such a relatable moment. It definitely feels like a center piece of a story, and usually that's very uninteresting, but this has enough going for it that I didn't mind so much it being a piece of a larger story.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Stolen Kisses > Nothing in Common
Stolen Kisses < Husbands and Wives
Stolen Kisses < Real Life
Stolen Kisses > Kinky Boots the Musical
Stolen Kisses > I Saw the Devil
Stolen Kisses > Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Stolen Kisses > Draft Day
Stolen Kisses > Primal Fear
Stolen Kisses < Away We Go
Stolen Kisses < Gentleman's Agreement
Stolen Kisses > The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Final spot: #1164 out of 3077.

Spirits of the Dead (1968)

IMDb plot summary: Anthology film from three European directors based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe: a cruel princess haunted by a ghostly horse, a sadistic young man haunted by his double, and an alcoholic actor haunted by the Devil.
Directed by Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, and Roger Vadim. Starring Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Jane Fonda, and Terence Stamp.

This is a pretty uneven little anthology, though it does make me want to read the original Poe inspirations for these stories -- it feels like at the heart of each of these films there's a more interesting story being told. The movies lean most heavily into moody gothic atmosphere, which sometimes works but starts wearing thin. While the Fellini segment apparently has the most critical acclaim, I prefer Malle's, though it would have benefited from an even shorter runtime. The gambling scene runs almost painfully long and detracts from a much more interesting bookended plot.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Spirits of the Dead < Nothing in Common
Spirits of the Dead < State Fair
Spirits of the Dead > Giant
Spirits of the Dead > Pinocchio
Spirits of the Dead > The Lizzie McGuire Movie
Spirits of the Dead > Antz
Spirits of the Dead > Deja Vu
Spirits of the Dead < Call Northside 777
Spirits of the Dead > Stardust Memories
Spirits of the Dead > Start the Revolution Without Me
Spirits of the Dead < The Black Stallion
Final spot: #2322 out of 3076.