Nope (2022)

IMDb plot summary: The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.

Directed by Jordan Peele. Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Brandon Perea.

Nope is Jordan Peele's newest movie, focused on a family of Hollywood animal trainers whose business is quickly losing money after the patriarch is killed in a freak accident. But as weird things start happening, they start to wonder if their ranch is the site of some sort of extraterrestrial activity. Peele just keeps making it work -- this is another really solid entry in his filmography. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer are truly delightful as two siblings who could not be more different but band together to keep things going for their family business. I absolutely love the design of the creature they're chasing. It truly captures the terror of what we don't know or understand. I also love that so much of the horror happens in the middle of the day, under gorgeous bright blue skies and in wide open spaces. It brings a western sensibility to the horror genre which was a ton of fun. While I wasn't as taken with the underlying meaning as I have been with Peele's previous efforts, this one definitely delivers on scares and action and tension, and it's worth seeing!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Nope > Spellbond (1945)

Nope > Woman in the Dunes

Nope < Castle in the Sky

Nope < The Pawnbroker

Nope > Judas and the Black Messiah

Nope > Anomalisa

Nope > The Incredibles

Nope > Role Models

Nope > Jeepers Creepers

Nope > The Farewell

Nope < Spencer

Final spot: #687 out of 3644, or 81%.

The House (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house in this animated dark comedy.

Directed by Paloma Baeza, Emma De Swaef, and Niki Lindroth von Bahr. Starring Mia Goth, Matthew Goode, and Claudie Blakley.

The House is an animated anthology film based apparently on a book that I have not read, featuring a creepy house with three different stories about it, all featuring the house having some sort of unnatural pull over the people in it -- or the animals in it, as in the last two, they are not human. This is definitely a deeply creepy film. Something about the style of the animation is really unsettling. The stories themselves are very eerie, and none of them give a clear explanation about what's happening or why it's happening. We just know that this house is, for example, starting to eat these people, but we don't know why. It's a very whimsical kind of horror, which is really fascinating to me. I think the second film of the three was probably my favorite, even though I had the least idea of what it meant. It just hit me on such an unsettling, visceral level that I couldn't help but have a big reaction to it, and I think the reaction that I had to all three of these will stay with me. Definitely worth a watch, especially if you like weird animation or creepy animation or creepy kids stories, and I'm definitely interested in checking out the book at some point because I am curious as to how different that is.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The House > Ripley's Game

The House > La La Land

The House < The Goodbye Girl (1977)

The House < Booksmart

The House > City Lights

The House > The Man in the Iron Mask

The House < Sisters

The House > Boy A

The House > Little Women (1994)

The House < Twins

The House > Mirage

Final spot: #829 out of 3642, or 77%.

You Only Live Twice (1967)

IMDb plot summary: James Bond and the Japanese Secret Service must find and stop the true culprit of a series of space hijackings, before war is provoked between Russia and the United States.

Directed by Lewis Gilbert. Starring Sean Connery, Akiko Wakabayashi, and Mie Hama.

You Only Live Twice is a Sean Connery James Bond film, in which Bond is apparently killed in the first few minutes. Of course -- and I'd hardly consider this a spoiler -- his death has been faked so he can more easily track down a technological villain who has been capturing spacecraft in flight. I by far prefer my Bonds (and spy films in general) to be goofy and over-the-top, and for the most part, this one delivers. The early scene in which the giant evil spacecraft appears to literally eat the US ship made me laugh out loud. The set piece for this particular movie is Japan, and we do get an unfortunate, poorly-aged scene in which Bond disguises himself as a Japanese fisherman. But that is the worst moment of what is overall a decently fluffy and ridiculous action sequence. Am I going to remember it in contrast to every other Bond pic? Absolutely not. But I had a good time watching it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

You Only Live Twice > Ripley's Game

You Only Live Twice < Woman in the Dunes

You Only Live Twice < Battle Royale

You Only Live Twice < Drive My Car

You Only Live Twice > Bonnie and Clyde

You Only Live Twice < Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997)

You Only Live Twice > Limitless

You Only Live Twice > Critters

You Only Live Twice < A Separation

You Only Live Twice < The Revenant

You Only Live Twice < A Star Is Born (1954)

You Only Live Twice < Pather Panchali

Final spot: #1665 out of 3643, or 54%.

Sisters (1972)

IMDb plot summary: A small-time reporter tries to convince the police she saw a murder in the apartment across from hers.

Directed by Brian De Palma. Starring Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, and Charles Durning.

Sisters is a Brian De Palma movie about a woman whose one-night stand appears to be murdered by her mysterious twin sister. When a journalist across the way sees the murder victim, she sets out to figure out what happened, and things get real weird. The more I watch of De Palma, the more I realize how often he gels with me. Where so many 1970s films latch onto that sort of gritty, gross cinematography in a way that feels depressing, De Palma's work seems to be taking great joy in its scuzziness, leaning into the camp and ugliness with a sense of glee. This story, like so many of his others, feels wildly improbable but is just delightful to watch play out. His use of split-screen here is very effective in ramping up tension, as we're able to see how close our villain is to hiding the body as the police simultaneously approach their door. (It's so effective, in fact, I'm a little surprised we don't see that more often in horror!) The plot of this doesn't make a lot of sense but I just had so much fun with the style I have to recommend it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Sisters > Duel

Sisters > La La Land

Sisters < The Goodbye Girl (1977)

Sisters < Colossal

Sisters < Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Sisters > 2001: A Space Odyssey

Sisters < Cyrano (2021)

Sisters > Nebraska

Sisters > American Dreamz

Sisters > Twins

Sisters > The Tale of Princess Kaguuya

Final spot: #821 out of 3620, or 77%.

American Underdog (2021)

IMDb plot summary: The story of NFL MVP and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, who went from stocking shelves at a supermarket to becoming an American Football star.

Directed by Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin. Starring Zachary Levi, Anna Paquin, and Hayden Zaller.

American Underdog tells the true story of NFL player Kurt Warner, who took an unorthodox path to the professional leagues and had to fight extra hard along the way. Or, well, that's how the movie sets it up. It's the kind of movie that feels so fake and rose-colored that it's hard for me to believe any of this happened the way it did. I'm sure plenty of it did, I'm just so emotionally disconnected from it that I'm not invested in what did and didn't. About 20 minutes into this, I wondered if it was a Christian movie, and sure enough, it's a Christian production company. There's certainly better production quality and acting in this than you find in a lot of Christian films, but it still has the same glossy inspirational veneer that keeps me at an emotional distance from most of them. Of course, sports underdog biopics inherently have some of that inspirational feel to them, but this takes that and then strips away any personality from it. I am sure this movie is for someone, it's just absolutely not for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

American Underdog < Ripley's Game

American Underdog < Heidi (1937)

American Underdog > Penelope

American Underdog > Cinderella (2021)

American Underdog < Shadows and Fog

American Underdog < Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?

American Underdog > Maleficent

American Underdog > Robots

American Underdog < VeggieTales: Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space!

American Underdog > Without a Clue

American Underdog < Meet the Parents

Final spot: #2911 out of 3641, or 20%.

The Killers (1946)

IMDb plot summary: Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.

Directed by Robert Siodmak. Starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O'Brien.

The Killers begins with two men arriving in a small town announcing they're going to kill one of the local gas station clerks. They do and are gone before anything can be done about it, and the insurance investigator following up on his claim has to solve the mystery, interview by interview. I really enjoy how this film unravels the story a little at a time, with each relevant person the investigator speaks to giving us a little bit more information. The script does a great job of adding a new emotional layer with each piece as well, with every person having a different emotional attachment to the target. That gimmick keeps it far more interesting than the story would have been told in a strictly linear fashion. There are also some really stunning shots that help to bring out this atmosphere of intrigue and suspicion, which makes it all the more fun. This is what I wish most detective-centered noirs felt like -- I really had a good time with this and enjoyed following along with the story. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Killers > Ripley's Game

The Killers < Woman in the Dunes

The Killers > Space Sweepers

The Killers > Waitress

The Killers < 1917

The Killers > The Post

The Killers < The Lady Vanishes

The Killers > Cool Runnings

The Killers > Logan's Run

The Killers < Airheads

The Killers > The Magnificent Seven

Final spot: #1056 out of 3640, or 71%.

Darkness (2002)

IMDb plot summary: A teenage girl moves into a remote country house with her family, only to discover that their gloomy new home has a horrifying past that threatens to destroy the family.

Directed by Jaume Balagueró. Starring Anna Paquin, Lena Olin, and Iain Glen.

Darkness is a horror film about a family who moves into a new house, only for strange things to start happening, possibly centered around the father's strange illness that occasionally makes him unpredictably violent. The film this reminded me most of, although it was filmed several years later, was The Orphanage. Problem is, The Orphanage is beautifully filmed and scripted and acted, and this one is kind of sloppy. There is one actually-pretty-cool twist in the last 15 minutes of the movie that is fun enough that it almost makes me forget how lazy the rest is, but not quite. As much as I've enjoyed watching Anna Paquin's filmography, I don't enjoy her in thrillers -- her instincts are often to lean shrill, which is hard for me to engage with. The story kind of meanders around in an uninteresting way that keeps the tension from every truly climbing until the very end. If this is a genre or a cast you have special affinity for, it might still be worth the watch, but on its own it's pretty mediocre.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Darkness < Duel

Darkness > She's All That

Darkness < Matchstick Men

Darkness < Bridge to Terabithia

Darkness > My Six Loves

Darkness > The Big House

Darkness > Sweet and Lowdown

Darkness > The Rookie

Darkness < Charlotte's Web (1973)

Darkness > Millions

Darkness < Dallas Buyers Club

Final spot: #2498 out of 3619, or 31%.