Witchfinder General (1968)

IMDb plot summary: A young soldier seeks to put an end to the evils caused by a vicious witch-hunter when the latter terrorizes his fiancée and kills her uncle.
Directed by Michael Reeves. Starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, Rupert Davies, and Hilary Heath.

I had absolutely zero idea what this was about when I started watching it, and it turns out to be a really engaging little movie, if a little cheesy in its execution at times. It's refreshingly *different* from most of the other 1968 movies I've been watching. Vincent Price is surprisingly subtle as the villain. The film is very darkly lit throughout, which is probably mostly a flaw, but I found it to work very well as immersion into the 1600s setting of the story. I had a good time with this one.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Witchfinder General > A Scanner Darkly
Witchfinder General > Hoodwinked!
Witchfinder General < Chariots of Fire
Witchfinder General < The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Witchfinder General < Man on the Moon
Witchfinder General > Hawking
Witchfinder General < Elf
Witchfinder General < Jack Goes Boating
Witchfinder General < Queen of Katwe
Witchfinder General < Black Narcissus
Witchfinder General < Crocodile Dundee
Witchfinder General < The Bells of St. Mary's
Final spot: #731 out of 3120.

The Sea Gull (1968)

IMDb plot summary: An aging actress named Irina Arkidana pays summer visits to her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin and her son Konstantin on a country estate. On one occasion, she brings Trigorin, a successful novelist, with her. Nina, a free and innocent girl on a neighboring estate, falls in love with Boris Trigorin. As Trigorin lightly consumes and rejects Nina, so the actress all her life has consumed and rejected her son, who loves Nina. The victims are destroyed while the sophisticates continue on their way.
Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring James Mason, Vanessa Redgrave, Simone Signoret, and David Warner.

I've never quite gotten into the swing of things with Chekhov's plays. I find his individual scenes compelling and intriguing but fail to track their connection to each other in a complete arc. This production falls very much in that camp for me as well. There are some really fascinating moments and scenes -- this is an actor's scene study dream come true -- but it somehow doesn't all pull together for me the way I wish it would.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Sea Gull > The Crazies (2010)
The Sea Gull < Hoodwinked!
The Sea Gull > My Date With Drew
The Sea Gull < Tekkonkinkreet
The Sea Gull < Nothing in Common
The Sea Gull < The Hateful Eight
The Sea Gull < Anna and the King
The Sea Gull < The Horse's Mouth
The Sea Gull > The Wedding Singer
The Sea Gull > The Hidden Fortress
The Sea Gull < The Three Musketeers (1993)
Final spot: #1160 out of 3119.

Dot the I (2003)

IMDb plot summary: Young lovers in London are wrapped up in a love triangle that may not be exactly what it seems.
Directed by Matthew Parkhill. Starring Gael García Bernal, Natalie Verbeke, James D'Arcy, and Tom Hardy.

(Mild spoilers ahead.)

This is such a goofy, gimmicky movie, and I had so much fun with it. From early on it leans into a sort of pulpy psychological thriller feel, and then toward the end of the movie it just embraces the madness head-on. None of it works if you think too hard about it, but if you're willing to just let each silly twist take its course, I found it to be pretty fun. And apparently there's a Bollywood film based on it, so I'll HAVE to watch that too!

How it entered my Flickchart:
Dot the I > Near Dark
Dot the I < The Pirates of Penzance
Dot the I > I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal
Dot the I < Wonder Boys
Dot the I < Mr. Holmes
Dot the I < Forgiving Dr. Mengele
Dot the I < Hamlet (1990)
Dot the I > The Hidden Fortress
Dot the I < The Bad Sleep Well
Dot the I > The Horse's Mouth
Dot the I > Jackie
Dot the I < Wet Hot American Summer
Final spot: #1152 out of 3118.

The Astro-Zombies (1968)

IMDb plot summary: The Plan - to build a super human; How? - by murdering innocent convenient victims and using various bits of them; The Result - Creatures on the rampage.
Directed by Ted V. Mikels. Starring Wendell Corey, John Carradine, Tom Pace, and Joan Patrick.

This movie is almost charmingly incomprehensible, with all the elements of an awful 1960s B-movie. Inconsistent lighting, overly technical but still nonsensical dialogue, terrible effects, random and way-too-long scene of a woman dancing naked... It's all here. There are parts of this that are definitely entertainingly awful, but more of it is dull.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Astro-Zombies < Plan 9 from Outer Space
The Astro-Zombies < It Could Happen to You
The Astro-Zombies < Bang the Drum Slowly
The Astro-Zombies < Oklahoma! (1999)
The Astro-Zombies > Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion
The Astro-Zombies > The Prince & Me
The Astro-Zombies > The Wedding Planner
The Astro-Zombies < The Book Thief
The Astro-Zombies > My Dog Skip
The Astro-Zombies < Charlie Chan at the Opera
The Astro-Zombies > The Notebook
Final spot: #2939 out of 3117, which feels far too low, but looking at what it went up against, those matches are all correct.

Little Women (2019)

IMDb plot summary: Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.
Directed by Greta Gerwig. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen.

I am very much out of the loop on this whole adoration for Greta Gerwig thing. I found her very off-putting as an actress, and my reaction to Lady Bird was not negative so much as just completely neutral. I feel similarly about Little Women. There's nothing overtly wrong with it, but none of the characters connect with me at all, and I just... can't feel anything about it. It's like Gerwig takes all these concepts and themes that I should be VERY enthusiastic about and then flattens them out so that I don't care about any of it anymore. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to pinpoint what it is about her work that makes me feel this wild disconnect, but I don't know what it is yet. Ah well. I did need to watch this and I'm glad I did.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Little Women < Plan 9 from Outer Space
Little Women > 10 Items or Less
Little Women < Mulholland Dr.
Little Women > The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
Little Women > The Little Princess (1939)
Little Women > Sex Tape
Little Women > The Spanish Prisoner
Little Women < No Country for Old Men
Little Women < Chasing Amy
Little Women > The Big Lebowski
Little Women > Charly
Little Women < Biloxi Blues
Final spot: #1967 out of 3116.

Army of Shadows (1969)

IMDb plot summary: An account of underground resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France.
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. Starring Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Simone Signoret.

This one took a loooooong time to get going for me, but once it did it paid off in a fairly emotionally devastating way. The ending in particular lands in such a difficult but interesting way, telling us that none of the people whose stories we're watching survived. I don't have a lot of words to say about it, but it's a good movie and I'm glad I stuck with it long enough to appreciate it.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Army of Shadows > Waxwork
Army of Shadows < The Pirates of Penzance
Army of Shadows > Crimson Tide
Army of Shadows > Manchester by the Sea
Army of Shadows < Peggy Sue Got Married
Army of Shadows < City of God
Army of Shadows > Murder by Death
Army of Shadows < Oscar
Army of Shadows < Lethal Weapon
Army of Shadows > The Children's Hour
Army of Shadows > Split
Army of Shadows > Signs
Final spot: #943 out of 3115.

Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

IMDb plot summary: Set on the last day of camp, in the hot summer of 1981, a group of counselors try to complete their unfinished business before the day ends.
Directed by David Wain. Starring Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Michael Showalter, and Marguerite Moreau.

This was the one David Wain movie everyone seems to love most, but it was the least interesting to me of the ones I've seen. Some good jokes, but it only really got me laughing when it tipped into the bigger, more absurd moments. Its humor was weirdly quirky situational for much of the movie, punctuated with an occasional gigantic goofy punchline that made me wish more of the movie was like that. I think this is one that might sit better with me with time, though, and possibly a rewatch, so we'll see whether its chart location changes over time!

How it entered my Flickchart:
Wet Hot American Summer > Waxwork
Wet Hot American Summer < Brooklyn
Wet Hot American Summer > Battle of the Sexes (WHY is this so high on my chart?)
Wet Hot American Summer < Manchester by the Sea
Wet Hot American Summer < Brick
Wet Hot American Summer < The Return of the Living Dead
Wet Hot American Summer < The Light In Her Eyes
Wet Hot American Summer > Sin City
Wet Hot American Summer > The Three Musketeers
Wet Hot American Summer > Jackie
Wet Hot American Summer < The Bad Sleep Well
Final spot: #1145 out of 3114.