The Forger (2012)

IMDb plot summary: A teenager wanders into Carmel, California, where he is soon introduced to the art-forgery community.

Directed by Lawrence Roeck. Starring Lauren Bacall, Josh Hutcherson, and Alfred Molina.

The Forger stars Josh Hutcherson as a troubled teenager whose mom has gone missing and Alfred Molina as the grumpy renowned artist who thinks Hutcherson shows some talent. Of course, as the title of the film implies, Molina doesn't actually want to mentor Hutcherson so much as put him to work on creating art forgeries. For such an interesting cast, that includes Molina and Lauren Bacall, this actually ends up being a very boring film. The stakes are extremely muddy throughout, and it offers neither insight into these characters' personal development nor a glimpse into the world of art forgery or even the world of being an artist. It's primarily a script problem, so even some very good actors cannot make this work. What we're left with is the most mediocre of mediocre movies that barely even attempts to do anything interesting. This one can be skipped.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Forger < The Last Dragon

The Forger > Susannah of the Mounties

The Forger < Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

The Forger < Paint Your Wagon

The Forger > Snakes on a Plane

The Forger < King Kong (1933)

The Forger < Two for the Money

The Forger < Lovelace

The Forger > Dear Evan Hansen

The Forger < Andrei Rublev

The Forger < The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach

The Forger > Luther

Final spot: #2723 out of 3801, or 28%.

The Black Pirate (1926)

IMDb plot summary: Seeking revenge, an athletic young man joins the pirate band responsible for his father's death.

Directed by Albert Parker. Starring Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove, and Tempe Pigott.

The Black Pirate is a silent action adventure film starring Douglas Fairbanks as a young man who joins a group of pirates to get revenge for them murdering his father. Silent adventure films are very much not my genre, as I often have difficulty tracking visual movement without any sound to help me process what's going on, but if I'm going to watch a silent adventure film, I absolutely want it to be one that stars Douglas Fairbanks. Everything I've ever seen him in, he is so dynamic and uses his physicality to its absolute maximum. He reminds me a little bit in an odd way of Toshiro Mifune, another actor who is very skilled at using his physical charisma to heighten the story in the character. Even if the story itself didn't do a lot for me, I'm always happy to spend an hour or two watching Fairbanks jump around. A worthwhile performance to watch, even if the movie as a whole didn't quite speak to me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Black Pirate < The Last Dragon

The Black Pirate > Susannah of the Mounties

The Black Pirate > Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

The Black Pirate > Wind River

The Black Pirate > The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

The Black Pirate < Star Trek: Nemesis

The Black Pirate > A Lady to Love

The Black Pirate < To Be Or Not to Be (1942)

The Black Pirate < A Delicate Balance

The Black Pirate < As It Is in Heaven

The Black Pirate > Spider-Man: Homecoming

The Black Pirate < Meet John Doe

Final spot: #1986 out of 3800, or 48%.

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

IMDb plot summary: Although wife and mother Mabel is loved by her husband Nick, her mental illness places a strain on the marriage.

Directed by John Cassavetes. Starring Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, and Fred Draper.

A Woman Under the Influence is a John Cassavetes film starring Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands as a working class couple with children. Rowlands clearly has some mental instability,  possibly something like bipolar disorder, given that we see what appear to be both manic and depressive episodes, but Falk has no idea how to deal with it. Worst of all, his big concern seems to be primarily how this will reflect on him in the workplace in the community. I have not yet found a Cassavetes film that I like... until this one. It's just as early mumblecore as all of his others, but for the first time I could track the characters and their frustrations and their motivations. Geina Rowlands is truly tremendous in this. Her character is clearly so unwell, but all of her husband's suggestions for dealing with it are so obviously going to make things worse, and it's impossible not to be on her side as she desperately tries to keep herself together so that she can stay with her children. There are a slew of other characters, doctors and coworkers and children, who fade in and out of the story, but the focus is always on the couple, and they are the ones who really captivate. Absolutely worth a watch. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Woman Under the Influence > The Anderson Tapes

A Woman Under the Influence > Dark Passage

A Woman Under the Influence > Six Degrees of Separation

A Woman Under the Influence < The Great Dictator

A Woman Under the Influence > The Gods Must Be Crazy

A Woman Under the Influence < Petite Maman

A Woman Under the Influence < It Follows

A Woman Under the Influence < Nosferatu

A Woman Under the Influence < The Producers (2005)

A Woman Under the Influence > Adaptation

A Woman Under the Influence < Nativity!

A Woman Under the Influence < Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar

Final spot: #352 out of 3799, or 91%.

The Deep (1977)

IMDb plot summary: In Bermuda, two amateur treasure-hunting divers have a run-in with local criminals when they inadvertently discover the secret cargo of a World War II shipwreck.

Directed by Peter Yates. Starring Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, and Dick Anthony Williams.

The Deep was next on my Peter Yates watchlist. It tells the story of a couple on a diving expedition on their vacation who discovered some mysterious artifacts that then get them entangled in the middle of a big dramatic smuggling plot.  There are definitely some nice tense scenes involving the efforts to find more artifacts under the water, but my enjoyment of the film was largely hampered by how unlikable a character our lead is. He's played by Nick Nolte, who I've never been a huge fan of, but here he really leans into the ygly American stereotypes in a way where I'm mostly just rooting for him to lose the artifact and get sent back home. I will admit that this is mostly a personal preference, that his character just entirely rubs me the wrong way and I can't quite get over it. It might be worth watching the rest of the movie for some of the action sequences, but the plot and the acting and the writing are not going to be what recommends it primarily. This one definitely lands lower on my list of films by Yates.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Deep < The Last Dragon

The Deep > Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex...

The Deep < Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

The Deep > Bandidas

The Deep < Doctor Zhivago

The Deep > Bronson

The Deep > August: Osage County

The Deep < Spinning Into Butter

The Deep < Prisoners

The Deep < Whoopee!

The Deep < And Then There Were None (1945)

The Deep > High Society

Final spot: #2520 out of 3798, or 34%.

The Ice Storm (1997)

IMDb plot summary: In suburban New Canaan, Connecticut, 1973, middle-class families experimenting with casual sex and substance abuse find their lives beyond their control.

Directed by Ang Lee. Starring Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, and Sigourney Weaver.

The Ice Storm is a talky family drama that feels very much like a Tennessee Williams kind of script, where all the characters are miserable and all of them are having affairs with everybody else... and I just don't care about any of them. This is despite a really solid cast, including Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline, and a young Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci. I did have medium-high hopes for this one but it just all sits in such a drudgery that I couldn't get into it. For this kind of thing to work I have to either really intellectually care about the themes or find a connection to the characters in some way or be given smart and thoughtful dialogue, and while I could see this attempting to do all three of those things, none of them ever really land. I'm not sure this is a bad movie so much is just one that is absolutely not for me. I would definitely be curious to hear from people who are big fans of this one because it feels like something that would have fans. I'm just not one of them.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Ice Storm < The Last Dragon

The Ice Storm > Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex...

The Ice Storm < Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

The Ice Storm > Bandidas

The Ice Storm > Doctor Zhivago

The Ice Storm > Ralph Breaks the Internet

The Ice Storm > Hitchcock

The Ice Storm < Withnail & I

The Ice Storm < Revolutionary Road

The Ice Storm < Kindergarten Cop

The Ice Storm < Matchstick Men

The Ice Storm > Sideways

Final spot: #2401 out of 3797, or 37%.

Paid (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Mary Turner goes up for three years on a crime she didn't commit. Once out she and former prison mates plan a scam in which old men can be sued for breach of promise - the "heart balm" racket.

Directed by Sam Wood. Starring Joan Crawford, Robert Armstrong, and Marie Prevost.

Paid stars a very young Joan Crawford as a woman who is sent away to prison for a crime she didn't commit. When she's finally let out, she vows to take her revenge on the male species as a whole by running a series of scams in which she romances older men and then sues them for breach of contract. While the plot for this one didn't really stand out among the (surprisingly large) number of women-in-prison stories from 1930 that I've seen so far, Joan Crawford is very good in it, unsurprisingly. She's definitely leaning into an earlier 1930 style of melodramatic film acting, but there is a genuineness to her portrayal that makes her character really relatable, and it's easy to root for her as she goes about her nefarious plans. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to those who aren't already Crawford fans, as it doesn't offer a whole lot else, but she's worth checking out in this.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Paid < Bad Education

Paid > Pepito and the Magic Lamp

Paid > Adam

Paid < Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Paid > The War

Paid > The Jerk

Paid > The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Paid < Skylark

Paid > Je t'aime, je t'aime

Paid < The Hoober-Bloob Highway

Paid > The English Patient

Final spot: #2154 out of 3795, or 43%.

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Fifteen years after the Tony-winning Broadway run of Spring Awakening, the original cast and creative team reunite for a spectacular, one night only concert.

Directed by Michael John Warren. Starring Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele, and John Gallagher Jr.

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known is a documentary focusing on a reunion of the original cast of the musical Spring Awakening for a concert performance fifteen years after its Broadway run. Virtually the entire original cast, down to the minor characters and ensemble, were available to reunite, so we get some really great interviews with all of these cast members, many of whom hadn't made a name for themselves when they were first in this show and are now regularly working actors. They reflect on the show's journey to Broadway and its impact on musical theater for teenage audiences. I've never actually been a fan of Spring Awakening but I appreciated the layout of the documentary, where we would get a good mix of information about the show, mixed with video footage of the original performance, mixed with footage of the concert, all of which did a really great job of selling the show and its themes and its importance. It almost made me want to go see the show, which is about as high a compliment as you could get for something like this. For those who are much bigger fans of either the show or the people involved I'm sure this is very much a love letter for them. As it is, I'm not sure it's an essential Broadway documentary but it certainly an earnest one, and I appreciate the enthusiasm with which all these characters view this work.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known > Bad Education

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known < Key Largo

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known < Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known > Liberal Arts

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known < Aliens

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known < Knight and Day

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known > The Wedding Singer

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known > Junebug

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known < Quiz Show

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known > The Act of Killing

Spring Awakening: Those You've Known > Jackie

Final spot: #1608 out of 3791, or 58%.