Stillwater (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A father travels from Oklahoma to France to help his estranged daughter, who is in prison for a murder she claims she didn't commit.

Directed by Tom McCarthy. Starring Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Abigail Breslin, and Lilou Siauvaud.

This is in many ways a familiar tale, the father coming to the rescue of his daughter, and the one thing that does stand out in a good way is Damon's performance. He doesn't seem superhumanly heroic or intelligent or good at fighting the way the men in so many of these movies do. He just seems like an average person at the end of his rope, and when he takes steps to fix things, many of them are missteps. That being said, the film itself follows a lot of familiar beats, even down to the slightly twisty ending, and Damon's performance can only go so far to elevate it. It doesn't have much new to say and stays pretty middle-of-the-road.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Stillwater < Sunday in the Park with George

Stillwater > The Polar Express

Stillwater > Dead Man Walking

Stillwater > Three Amigos

Stillwater < The Shining

Stillwater > Love Me Tonight

Stillwater > Lost in America

Stillwater > The Sandlot

Stillwater < Vanya on 42nd Street

Stillwater > Out of Africa

Stillwater < Melinda and Melinda

Final spot: #1840 out of 3447, or 47%.

The Ref (1994)

IMDb plot summary: A cat burglar is forced to take a bickering, dysfunctional family hostage on Christmas Eve.

Directed by Ted Demme. Starring Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey, and Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.

The humor relies heavily on the charisma and dynamics of these actors to make the film work. And it does, for the most part. It's always RIGHT on the verge of being too obnoxious, especially when it comes to Spacey and Davis' inability to keep from poking each other's sore spots, but it always manages to rein itself back in just when it's about the cross that line. The film doesn't quite land its semi-heartfelt ending, but the banter became more enjoyable as Leary's plans kept unraveling, and by the final third of the movie I was really enjoying it. It's also weirdly delightful seeing Glynis Johns as a villain. This doesn't always work for me but it's a great Christmas movie for people who hate Christmas movies, and I had a good time with it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Ref > Sunday in the Park With George

The Ref < Woman in the Dunes

The Ref > Being John Malkovich

The Ref < Steven Universe: The Movie

The Ref < Serendipity

The Ref < His Girl Friday

The Ref > All That Jazz

The Ref > Flight of the Navigator

The Ref > Manhunter

The Ref > Backbeat

The Ref < Idiocracy

Final spot: #1241 out of 3446, or 64%.

Family Business (1989)

IMDb plot summary: An ex professor offers Adam $1,000,000 to "get" some plasma from a high tech company's lab. Adam asks his criminal grandpa for help. Can they convince Adam's now honest dad to join?

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, Matthew Broderick, and Rosanna DeSoto.

There are some interesting tonal shifts in this movie. For the first 2/3, it's heavily comedic, with the dynamic between the three characters played very much for laughs. And then in the final third, it shifts into something more poignant and sad and almost makes me feel a little bad for having had so much fun in the first place. It ultimately balances that shift really well. Crime movies are so not my genre, but if I've learned anything from watching through Sidney Lumet's filmography, it's that they can be really compelling if the characters are charismatic and given some stakes I can really sink my teeth into. This was an enjoyable one that I'm glad I checked out.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Family Business > Hustle & Flow

Family Business < Woman in the Dunes

Family Business > Charlie St. Cloud

Family Business < Steven Universe: The Movie

Family Business < Serendipity

Family Business < His Girl Friday

Family Business > Nobody's Fool

Family Business < Flight of the Navigator

Family Business > For a Few Dollars More

Family Business > Gone in 60 Seconds

Family Business > The Abyss

Final spot: #1253 out of 3445, or 64%.

Annette (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A stand-up comedian and his opera singer wife have a two-year-old daughter with a surprising gift.

Directed by Leos Carax. Starring Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg, and Devyn McDowell.

The only other Leos Carax film I've seen was Holy Mountain, which I hated, but this one just blew me away. I owe a lot of that to the amazing songwriting of the musical group Sparks, who I only learned about a few months ago thanks to the documentary The Sparks Brother. This is one of the least subtle, most operatic films I've seen in a long time, but it's so captivating. Between this and Marriage Story, I'm finding myself really drawn to Adam Driver as an acting singer, not because he has such an out-of-this-world voice, but because he REALLY connects the acting and singing in a way that perfectly accomplishes both. I feel like I don't have nearly enough words to talk about what I loved in this movie -- I just loved it overall so very, very much and have been listening to the soundtrack a ton ever since.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Annette > Hustle & Flow

Annette > Woman in the Dunes

Annette > The Disaster Artist

Annette > The Orphanage

Annette < All the President's Men

Annette < Pan's Labyrinth

Annette > The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Annette < Mirai

Annette > Gaslight

Annette < Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Annette > The Squid and the Whale

Final spot: #179 out of 3444, or 95%.

Trick 'r Treat (2007)

IMDb plot summary: Five interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: An everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a woman who loathes the night has to contend with her holiday-obsessed husband; and a mean old man meets his match with a demonic, supernatural trick-or-treater.

Directed by Michael Dougherty. Starring Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, and Rochelle Aytes.

None of these stories would necessarily stand up to their own 90-minute movie, but that's the beauty of an anthology, that you can see several short-form stories that are more effective in their limited timeframe. These are impeccably timed, all ending right before they run out of steam. They all have a sort of visual griminess to them that I don't love, feeling at times like some sort of more playful version of Rob Zombie, but the parts that work REALLY work. This is also one of those movies where I found myself digging into the lore afterward, particularly the little burlap sack pumpkin costume kid who pops up briefly in each of the stories. The lore about him was more interesting than his actual appearance in the movie, but it at least intrigued me enough to make me want to look it up. Pretty decent anthology!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Trick 'r Treat > Monsters

Trick 'r Treat < Woman in the Dunes

Trick 'r Treat > Fantasia 2000

Trick 'r Treat < Steven Universe: The Movie

Trick 'r Treat > Murder by Death

Trick 'r Treat > Porco Rosso

Trick 'r Treat < The Hustler

Trick 'r Treat > The Matador

Trick 'r Treat > Monsters Vs. Aliens

Trick 'r Treat > Evita

Trick 'r Treat > M

Final spot: #1104 out of 3443, or 68%.

Gas Food Lodging (1992)

IMDb plot summary: A waitress lives with her two teen daughters in a trailer park in New Mexico. They all want a boyfriend.

Directed by Allison Anders. Starring Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk, and James Brolin.

This is a slow episodic story that is very empathetic toward its characters. Even with the two who are constantly fighting, we see both sides and how they're feeling and hope they'll open up and talk to each other. But it's the younger daughter, Shade, whose story really captivated me. Watching her try to figure out her way through life with her mom and sister as role models is fascinating. The story doesn't always land, and there are stretches where I as a viewer was impatient for something to happen, but it perfectly captures small-town middle-of-nowhere life and the feeling of being trapped in your family's destructive habits. A good movie. Not great, but good.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Gas Food Lodging < Hustle & Flow

Gas Food Lodging > Man of the Year

Gas Food Lodging > Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Gas Food Lodging > The Jerk

Gas Food Lodging > Waxwork

Gas Food Lodging > The Librarian: Quest for the Spear

Gas Food Lodging > Safety Not Guaranteed

Gas Food Lodging > Zelig

Gas Food Lodging > Arctic

Gas Food Lodging > Dark and  Stormy Night

Gas Food Lodging > The Keep

Gas Food Lodging < Monsters

Final spot: #1723 out of 3442, or 50%.

The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)

IMDb plot summary: Two sisters leave their small seaside town of Rochefort in search of romance. Hired as carnival singers, one falls for an American musician, while the other must search for her ideal partner.

Directed by Jacques Demy. Starring Catherine Deneuve, George Chakiris, Françoise Dorléac, and Jacques Perrin.

While director Jacques Demy's previous musical, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, came across more like a sung-through drama, this is musical romantic comedy through and through, with clear delineations between songs, many of which don't further the plot at all. But that's not a negative in the least because these songs are MARVELOUS. Some incredibly striking dance sequences and such visually stunning colors and a sense of joy and play running through the whole film. Partway through we even get a sudden "there's a murderer on the loose" subplot out of nowhere and it still isn't nearly enough to make the film feel anything other than delightful. This has been on my "I really should have seen this" list for a long time, and it's easily on my shortlist for comfort films to watch next time I'm feeling down.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Young Girls of Rochefort > Monsters

The Young Girls of Rochefort > La La Land (what an appropos match-up!)

The Young Girls of Rochefort > The Disaster Artist

The Young Girls of Rochefort < The Orphanage

The Young Girls of Rochefort < And Now for Something Completely Different

The Young Girls of Rochefort > Rurouni Kenshin

The Young Girls of Rochefort > Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

The Young Girls of Rochefort > Dick Tracy

The Young Girls of Rochefort > Savannah Smiles

The Young Girls of Rochefort > Life of Brian

The Young Girls of Rochefort > 25th Hour

The Young Girls of Rochefort > Nosferatu

Final spot: #323 out of 3441, or 91%.