Shampoo (1975)

IMDb plot summary: On Election Day, 1968, a hairdresser and ladies' man is too busy cutting hair and dealing with his various girlfriends and his mistress, whose husband he meets and finds out is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend.

Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, and Lee Grant.

There really isn't one redeemable character in this story, I think, with just the constant cheating and objectifying, and I would assume that's on purpose, but it's hard for me to tell what this movie is actually attempting to say about relationship ethics. There's not really any thought put into any of the (many) female characters, they all just blend together into one perfectly-hairstyled jealous blob, and it makes it difficult to take the misogynistic statements made by the male characters at the end as something other than the actual writer's feelings about women. Director Hal Ashby and I don't ever see eye to eye on our comedy, either. There are a few almost slapsticky moments that I think are trying to be comedic, but most of them don't really work for me and feel out of place in the depressed aimlessness of the rest of the movie. And maybe that's the most apt description: "depressed." This movie feels exceptionally depressed about relationships and wants to make us all depressed about them too, and so we get... this.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Shampoo < Letters from Iwo Jima

Shampoo < Secondhand Lions

Shampoo > Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Shampoo > War Machine

Shampoo < The World Is Not Enough

Shampoo < Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Shampoo < Gilda

Shampoo > Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush

Shampoo < Premonition

Shampoo < Brokeback Mountain

Shampoo < King Kong (1933)

Shampoo < Frankenstein (1931)

Final spot: #2639 out of 3264, or 19%.

Europa '51 (1952)

IMDb plot summary: A wealthy woman becomes obsessed with humanitarianism when her young son dies after committing suicide.

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini, and Giulietta Masina.

I found this film unexpectedly captivating, and I'm sure I can attribute much of that to Ingrid Bergman herself, who often brings a fascinating combination of realism and ethereality to her roles, and both serve her well here, especially in the latter half of the film. Bergman's transition from sheltered socialite who takes no interest in anything outside her own four walls to someone willing to sacrifice everything to make one person's life better is transformative but believable, and I'm not at all surprised to see that Rossellini's inspiration was partly that of Catholic saints. I like that despite the movie being heavily about morality and philosophy, it doesn't actually feel preachy -- there's some real depth to the question of what she's doing and why and the effect it's having on the people around her. It's an interesting, thoughtful film that I think will stick with me for quite some time.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Europa '51 > Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

Europa '51 > Chronicle

Europa '51 < Marriage Story

Europa '51 > You Can't Take It With You

Europa '51 < Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Europa '51 > Cats and Dogs

Europa '51 < Jesus People: The Movie

Europa '51 > The Fallen Idol

Europa '51 > Evil Dead II

Europa '51 > Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead

Europa '51 > Looper

Final spot: #537 out of 3263, or 84%.

Perfect Blue (1997)

IMDb plot summary: A pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.

Directed by Satoshi Kon. Starring Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji, and Masaaki Ôkura.

The use of animation to tell this story REALLY works. It adds a level of unreality to the story that plays beautifully with the motif of the main character wondering if she's losing her mind as bad things keep happening around her. There's a moment toward the end where the villain literally floats after our main character during a chase, still making us question how much of what our protagonist sees is actually happening. I read some comparisons to Black Swan, and I can definitely see that, though with fewer themes of "obsession." And the way the plot ultimately falls into place genuinely surprised me -- it's not often that a film can completely take me by surprise, so that was a delight. It was also fascinating to see how the early days of the Internet played in the horror angle here -- even in 1997 it was pretty clear how the Internet could play a role in fandom in pretty ominous ways! Overall, this is definitely worth a watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Perfect Blue > Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

Perfect Blue > The Black Cat

Perfect Blue > Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Perfect Blue < Arrival

Perfect Blue < Ernest & Celestine

Perfect Blue < (500) Days of Summer

Perfect Blue > Naughty Marietta

Perfect Blue < Footloose (1984)

Perfect Blue > Romancing the Stone

Perfect Blue < American Psycho

Perfect Blue < Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Perfect Blue > Eyes Without a Face

Final spot: #373 out of 3261, or 89%.

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)

IMDb plot summary: A corpse has 24 hours to mastermind a good deed without leaving his crypt, to go "up there" and have his youth restored.

Directed by Don Weis. Starring Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Aron Kincaid, and Quinn O'Hara.

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is the last of the official Beach Party films, and it is a VERY silly one. The premise is that a group of heirs to a mysterious fortune end up spending the night in the dead man's house along with ghosts, murderers, a biker gang, a gorilla, an offensive Native American stereotype, and a bunch of people in bathing suits because, well, it IS a beach party film, even if there's no beach in sight. There are moments of this film that really work -- I recall Eric Von Zipper biker gang being the best part of the other beach party films I've seen, and that's definitely the case here. I enjoy the framing device where dead Boris Karloff sends a ghost to help his heirs (who, uh, don't know him so I don't know why he named them as heirs in the first place, but we're not here for plot). And some of the scenes with the nearsighted villainess are really enjoyable. There's also a lot of moments that fall flat. The final chase scene is too long, the primary villain sidekick is too prominent for not being at all funny, and, well, that "Native American" character exists. It's mostly a fun fluffy watch with a few cringey moments.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini < Letters from Iwo Jima

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Spinning Into Butter

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > The Deer Hunter

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Love Me Tonight

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Waterloo

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Stage Fright (2014)

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > The Dinner Guest

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Smokin' Aces

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Hopscotch

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > After the Wedding

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini < Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

Final spot: #1632 out of 3260, or 50%.

Out of Africa (1985)

IMDb plot summary: In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.

Directed by Sydney Pollack. Starring Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, and Michael Kitchen.

I just recently read the book this was based on and found it a little startling how very, very little of Africa comes through here in the film, compared to the book. The film is a romance, focused heavily on Karen and Denys' relationship, with the setting functioning as a common interest between the two of them. But it doesn't build that common interest with the viewer. Nearly everyone and everything coming FROM Africa is passed by to focus on the European transplants, and I found myself dearly missing that part of the narrative. It barely even needed to be Africa for the filmed version of this story -- they took so much of its core out, it could have been Australia or Canada or Poland or the American West. And for a story with Africa *in* the title, that seems like an oversight. All that being said, it's a fine story. Meryl Streep is good as always, and Robert Redford is charming. It just feels like a missed opportunity.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Out of Africa < Letters from Iwo Jima

Out of Africa > As Good As It Gets

Out of Africa > The Rescuers Down Under

Out of Africa > Dr. Seuss on the Loose

Out of Africa > Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Out of Africa < Waterloo

Out of Africa > Trumbo

Out of Africa > Ice Princess

Out of Africa < Waxwork

Out of Africa < Vanya on 42nd Street

Out of Africa < Melinda and Melinda

Out of Africa > Son of Rambow

Final spot: #1691 out of 3259, or 48%.

Hamilton (2020)

IMDb plot summary: The real life of one of America's foremost founding fathers and first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Captured live on Broadway from the Richard Rodgers Theater with the original Broadway cast.

Directed by Thomas Kail. Starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, and Phillipa Soo.

Hamilton is a show I admire on just about every level -- it's engaging and powerful and funny and sad and makes theater AND history more accessible and has just endlessly engaging lyrics. I'm quite comfortable saying Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius songwriter. While the show itself hasn't wormed its way into my heart quite as deeply as it has everyone else's, I still find myself moved by it every time I see it. In this production, the side character actors are the biggest standouts. As brilliant as Miranda is on the page, he's not as smooth on the stage, and I have a strong suspicion that Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr was under the weather on the night this was filmed. But Philippa Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Daveed Diggs absolutely steal the show as Hamilton's wife, sister-in-law, and colleagues. And like with any theatrical piece, seeing it with multiple casts brings out different nuances and highlights different pieces -- and Hamilton has LOTS to dig into. I'm not going to put the cast album on repeat any time soon, but I'm going to keep recommending it to people because this is a great show.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hamilton > Letters from Iwo Jima

Hamilton > The Black Cat

Hamilton > Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Hamilton < Arrival

Hamilton > The Florida Project

Hamilton < Blue Jasmine

Hamilton > The Lion in Winter

Hamilton > Spirited Away

Hamilton > August Rush

Hamilton < Waking Life

Hamilton < Ruby Sparks

Hamilton < The Virgin Spring

How it entered my Flickchart: #260 out of 3258, or 92%.

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

IMDb plot summary: In 1985 Dallas, electrician and hustler Ron Woodroof works around the system to help AIDS patients get the medication they need after he is diagnosed with the disease.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Starring Matthew McConnaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, and Denis O'Hare.

This is more focused than many biopics, but the focus is, for whatever reason, not as centered on the characters themselves as I was hoping and more on the logistics of their business. All that we learn about the characters we learn through those logistics. I kind of wonder what the purpose of this kind of movie is *now*, in 2013, when there have been so many other well-told stories about the AIDS epidemic. Not that you can only tell a story once, obviously, but what made *this* story one that inspired the director and the actors to bring it to life? And I just am not sure. That lack of focus shows itself in the broad strokes with which the non-McConnaughey characters are painted and the intense detail on the logistics of "how does one run a buyers' club in the 1980s?" I don't think it's a bad film, it just doesn't do much of ANYTHING, and I wish it was bolder in basically any sense of the word.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Dallas Buyers Club < Letters from Iwo Jima

Dallas Buyers Club > As Good As It Gets

Dallas Buyers Club < Spinning Into Butter

Dallas Buyers Club > Play Misty for Me

Dallas Buyers Club < Alice in Wonderland (1999)

Dallas Buyers Club > Two for the Money

Dallas Buyers Club > Peter Pan (2003)

Dallas Buyers Club < The Robe

Dallas Buyers Club > Mrs. Doubtfire

Dallas Buyers Club < Shrek Retold

Dallas Buyers Club > Millions

Final spot: #2153 out of 3257, or 34%.