A Cure for Wellness (2016)

IMDb plot summary: An ambitious young executive is sent to retrieve his company's CEO from an idyllic but mysterious "wellness center" at a remote location in the Swiss Alps, but soon suspects that the spa's treatments are not what they seem.

Directed by Gore Verbinski. Starring Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, and Mia Goth.

A Cure for Wellness is a bizarre psychological thriller starring Dane DeHaan as an employee sent to a remote health resort to bring back the finance giant who abruptly checked himself in before a huge merger. The resort seems suspicious, though, with seemingly no residents ever leaving, and so as DeHaan tries to convince his particular target to return, he's also investigating what nefarious things might be happening here. This creates a very unsettling atmosphere of medical horror, which is mostly effective even when the plot itself just completely gives up on making any sense (which is most of the time). The film succeeds best when it leans on its creepy imagery to convey the sense that something is wrong, and it falls furthest when it tries to give us the details about what's going on at this resort. You can see the plot strings start to unravel pretty early, so it's not entirely a surprise when the whole story collapses on itself at the end, but it does make for a very disappointing second half knowing it's not likely to get better. Cut this film down to just its surreal unexplained horrors and this could be an effective 90-minute horror, but as it is, it's bloated with exposition that does nothing for it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Cure for Wellness < The Harder They Fall

A Cure for Wellness > Cassandra's Dream

A Cure for Wellness > Dark City

A Cure for Wellness > Venom

A Cure for Wellness > Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam

A Cure for Wellness > Poulenc; Dialogues des Carmelites

A Cure for Wellness > The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

A Cure for Wellness < Something to Sing About

A Cure for Wellness > Hellboy

A Cure for Wellness > Star Trek: Nemesis

A Cure for Wellness > Le Week-End

Final spot: #1772 out of 3514, or 50%.

Black Christmas (1973)

IMDb plot summary: During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.

Directed by Bob Clark. Starring Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, and Margot Kidder.

Black Christmas is a very early slasher movie about a sorority house that is getting obscene phone calls... and then its members start being murdered, one by one. This one took me a little bit to get into, but once it hooked me, WHOO did it hook me! Its exceptionally low budget is reflected in the audio and video quality of the film, but it's paced beautifully, and I love the fact that since various characters are leaving to go on holiday break, the murders mostly go unnoticed until nearly the end of the film. I also, without spoiling anything, absolutely adore the film's ending. It's handled so perfectly and is so unsettling but so well done. It's fascinating to see the moments that clearly went on to inspire others in the slasher genre, that became established tropes, and see how they could still be effective in this early film as well. It does take a little suspension of disbelief and a willingness to buy into the film despite its sketchy technical quality, but I absolutely get why this took off and I'm glad I finally got the push to watch it!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Black Christmas > Hustle & Flow

Black Christmas > Chronicle

Black Christmas < Crimes and Misdemeanors

Black Christmas > Evil

Black Christmas < A Streetcar Named Desire

Black Christmas < Days of Wine and Roses

Black Christmas < Philomena

Black Christmas > Hollywood Ending

Black Christmas < Casualties of War

Black Christmas > The Great Race

Black Christmas > Coherence

Black Christmas > Lolita (1962)

Final spot: #637 out of #3503, or 82%.

Meek's Cutoff (2010)

IMDb plot summary: Settlers traveling through the Oregon desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.

Directed by Kelly Reichardt. Starring Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Dano, and Will Patton.

This is a slow, suffocating movie. Never have I felt so much the isolation of being so far away from safety and comfort, with no idea when they'll find water or if it'll be enough to save them from death. That being said, I want to re-emphasize the SLOW part of "slow and suffocating." If you're a plot-driven movie watcher, you might find this plotless wandering agonizing. I usually would, but somehow I got into the rhythm and really connected to the characters' sort of desperate hopefulness. It ends up being a mood piece more than anything else, and I'm not sure watching it again would draw me in the same way, but I'm glad I saw it -- I got more out of it than I thought I might.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Meek's Cutoff > Hustle & Flow

Meek's Cutoff < Chronicle

Meek's Cutoff < Fantasia 2000

Meek's Cutoff < Real Life

Meek's Cutoff > The Diary of Anne Frank (2009)

Meek's Cutoff > Cast Away

Meek's Cutoff < Two Weeks Notice

Meek's Cutoff > Viva Zapata!

Meek's Cutoff > Man of La Mancha

Meek's Cutoff < Minority Report

Meek's Cutoff > Total Recall (1990)

Final spot: #1563 out of 3502, or 55%.

Till Death (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A woman is left handcuffed to her dead husband as part of a sick revenge plot. Unable to unshackle, she has to survive as two killers arrive to finish her off.

Directed by S.K. Dale. Starring Megan Fox, Eoin Macken, and Callan Mulvey.

Till Death is a horror movie starring Megan Fox as a woman cheating on her husband of over a decade. When he finds out, he concocts an elaborate revenge plot that leaves her fighting for her life in a remote location where no one is coming to help her. When I say elaborate, I do mean *elaborate*. To the point that it doesn't really make any sense after the halfway point because all the extra traps he adds it to basically negate the earlier traps? Like, you're not going to worry about starving to death and ALSO being framed for the murder and ALSO being killed by outside forces, so why bother making ALL of them part of the story? It's a ridiculous scheme. What it does do though is definitely keep things moving, and if you can suspend your disbelief a bit, it's a pretty solid little thriller. Megan Fox's blank-faced chilliness translates here into seething rage and determination, and they keep her moderately intelligent and don't have her take silly risks until she really HAS to. Really all you need of a thrill is for it to keep you anxious for how the main character's going to do, and this hit that mark for me!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Till Death > Monsters

Till Death < My Name Is Joe

Till Death > About Elly

Till Death > I and You

Till Death > The Bad Seed

Till Death > Hannah Arendt

Till Death > The Bells of St. Mary's

Till Death > Brave

Till Death > The Game

Till Death < Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)

Till Death > Munich

Final spot: #879 out of 3499, or 75%.

Sreekaram (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Karthik hails from a poor farmer's family in a village near Tirupati. He works at an IT company in Hyderabad. Chaitra is his colleague and tries her best to make him fall in love with her. But Karthik has a mission. He quits his high-salaried job and returns to his village with an aspiration to bring back the lost glory to the farmers and agriculture.

Directed by Kishor B. Starring Sharwanand, Priyanka Arulmohan, V.K. Naresh, and Sai Kumar.

This is one of the less engaging Bollywood movies I've seen -- I'm definitely drawn more toward the more comedic films in that genre, and didn't find myself connecting with any of the characters. The film feels like it's here more to convey a message than tell a story, though the message is actually a pretty interesting one, about a return to farming in a world of high-tech careers. I was also fascinated by how the second act of the film actually takes place at the beginning of the rise of COVID, but it doesn't ever become *about* COVID, it's just another wrinkle for the characters to deal with as they pursue their primary goals. But all that message-heavy story leaves the movie pretty dry, and the song and dance numbers aren't all that exciting to draw us back into the story. It's all right, but it's not one of my favorites.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Sreekaram < Hustle & Flow

Sreekaram > Cassandra's Dream

Sreekaram > Batman: Under the Red Hood

Sreekaram < Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Sreekaram < Deep Red

Sreekaram > Anything Else

Sreekaram < Legends of the Fall

Sreekaram > Tulpan

Sreekaram > In & Out

Sreekaram > No Country for Old Men

Sreekaram > Streets of Fire

Final spot: #2105 out of 3497, or 40%.

Timecop (1994)

IMDb plot summary: Max Walker, an officer for a security agency that regulates time travel, must fend for his life against a shady politician who's intent on changing the past to control the future.

Directed by Peter Hyams. Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mia Sara, and Ron Silver.

This was pretty fun. Some good fight sequences, and it allows the time travel rules to be present and active without ever feeling like too much of an expository infodump. (And, whoo, does that Chekov's gun pay off at the end, in an unexpectedly delightful and weird moment.) The film's pacing is also effective, getting right to the meat of the given situation and then moving on before it wears out its welcome. This doesn't break new ground or wow me, but it was an enjoyable way to spend an evening, and if you like fight-sequence-heavy action movies with a dash of sci-fi, this is probably one you should check out if you haven't!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Timecop > Sunday in the Park With George

Timecop < My Name Is Joe

Timecop < Fantasia 2000

Timecop > Real Life

Timecop > Ant-Man

Timecop > Chaos Theory (2008)

Timecop > Cool Hand Luke

Timecop > Cinema Paradiso

Timecop > Lifeforce

Timecop < Hereditary

Timecop > I Saw the Devil

Final spot: #1318 out of 3504, or 62%.

Arlo the Alligator Boy (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A young humanoid alligator travels to the big city in hopes of reuniting with his estranged father, meeting a colorful cast of characters along the way.

Directed by Ryan Crego. Starring Michael J. Woodard, Mary Lambert, and Tony Hale.

This is such a strange vibe, and it's definitely one that, if it clicks with you, will be consistent throughout. It never did fully click with me -- I could never quite grasp the rules of the world and how it felt about animal people or outcasts in general. The music is also, with one or two exceptions, the sort of droning electropop that is extremely popular currently and, at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old woman, I find its deliberately non-emotive style to be the opposite of everything I love in musicals. The characters' energy goes down every time they sing, which is a bummer, and often grinds the whole story to a halt. The soundtrack probably works fine on its own but I don't like them as supplementals to a narrative. There are definitely some good bits here, but overall this isn't my style.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Arlo the Alligator Boy < Sunday in the Park With George

Arlo the Alligator Boy > Dinner at Eight

Arlo the Alligator Boy < The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Arlo the Alligator Boy < Kiki's Delivery Service

Arlo the Alligator Boy > Checking Out

Arlo the Alligator Boy > The Fifth Element

Arlo the Alligator Boy < Marvin's Room

Arlo the Alligator Boy > 12 Days of Terror

Arlo the Alligator Boy < SpaceCamp

Arlo the Alligator Boy > The Deadly Affair

Arlo the Alligator Boy > Lovelace

Final spot: #2445 out of 3505, or 30%.