Young Man of Manhattan (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Toby McLean, a reckless sports writer on a New York City newspaper, covers the Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey heavyweight-championship fight in Philadelphia. There he meets Ann Vaughn, a feature writer for another newspaper, and they get married after a whirlwind romance.

Directed by Monta Bell. Starring Claudette Colbert, Norman Foster, and Ginger Rogers.

Young Man of Manhattan follows a husband-and-wife pair of newspaper writers trying to make it big, but things go wrong when she starts to gain fame and outearn him. He doesn't handle his jealousy well, and the two try to keep their relationship going despite all the stress her job brings. Look, it's 2024, I'm going to have a real hard time rooting for a couple to get back together when he's so deeply insecure about earning less than her, so I'm already uninvested in the key drama of the story, and he never proves me wrong. Claudette Colbert plays the woman and she's vastly more interesting on her own, and I'd rather the story was just her rocking the newspaper world. Any time her husband gets involved or their marriage is on the rocks, I lost interest real fast. Plus it's another one of those examples of 1930 movies I constantly had to look up the plot of to remind myself what it is, because the title bears almost no relation to the plot itself. Not one of the better rom-coms from this year, for sure.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Young Man of Manhattan < Love Exposure

Young Man of Manhattan < In the Line of Fire

Young Man of Manhattan > Mission to Mars

Young Man of Manhattan < The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Young Man of Manhattan < Simone

Young Man of Manhattan < The Killing of Sister George

Young Man of Manhattan > Jumper

Young Man of Manhattan > For Love of the Game

Young Man of Manhattan > Mr. Hulot's Holiday

Young Man of Manhattan > Run Fatboy Run

Young Man of Manhattan < Father Brown

Final spot: #3380 out of 3929, or 14%.

Musica (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A coming-of-age love story that follows an aspiring creator with synesthesia, who must come to terms with an uncertain future, while navigating the pressures of love, family, and his Brazilian culture in Newark, New Jersey.

Directed by Rudy Mancuso. Starring Rudy Mancuso, Camila Mendes, and Francesca Reale.

Musica is the story of a Brazilian college student struggling to figure out what he wants to do with his life, both professionally and romantically. His true passion is puppeteering, but that doesn't pay the bills, and he finds himself caught between the Brazilian woman his mom hopes he ends up with and his wealthy white college sweetheart. This is a very standard story on one level, but it has a few nice tricks up its sleeve that scoot it up a tiny bit from other lesser movies telling the same kind of story. One is that our main character is pretty likable. He's naive and wishy-washy and idealistic and a goofball who has conversations with his puppets, and even when he's making bad decisions you still want him to figure it out. The film also make some fun outside-the-box choices with its cinematography, particularly for the musical sequences, and its editing, particularly during the "dating two women at one" montage. Enough small sweet moments to turn the movie from watchable into enjoyable.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Música > Love Exposure

Música < Safe

Música < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

Música > Love Story

Música > Death at a Funeral (2007)

Música > Hereditary

Música < The Salesman

Música > Space Sweepers

Música > Something to Sing About

Música > Incendies

Música > The Romantics

Final spot: #1505 out of 3930, or 62%.

Hero (1992)

IMDb plot summary: A not-so-nice man rescues passengers from a crashed airliner, only to see someone else take credit.

Directed by Stephen Frears. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, and Andy Garcia.

Hero stars Dustin Hoffman as a deadbeat father constantly evading arrest who just happens to be in a nearby car when a passenger plane crashes in front of him. He ends up pulling several people from the plane and disappears. Before he realizes the media is looking for him, someone else has stepped up to claim they were the savior of the plane and are reaping all the benefits of it. This movie took me by surprise a bit -- I knew absolutely nothing going into it, and found myself absolutely wrapped up in the story. Hoffman gives an incredible performance, as do Geena Davis and Andy Garcia in their supporting roles. I like that the movie was willing to lean into Hoffman's character being unlikable and a master of bad decisions, even while we were also kind of rooting for him, but it didn't suddenly make him a model human. It manages to be heartwarming without being annoying. Definitely worth a watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hero > The Bat Whispers

Hero > Safe

Hero < Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Hero > Theater Camp

Hero > Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Hero > Animal Crackers

Hero > Moonrise Kingdom

Hero < Men

Hero > Detroit

Hero > Women Talking

Hero > A Man for All Seasons

Hero < Bottoms

Final spot: #507 out of 3926, or 87%.

Challengers (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach, turned her husband into a champion. But to overcome a losing streak, he needs to face his ex-best friend and Tashi's ex-boyfriend.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino. Starring Mike Faist, Josh O'Connor, and Zendaya.

Challengers is the story of a love triangle between three tennis players -- two men and one woman. The men are best friends until the woman gets in between them and their friendship breaks, and we see this play out both in past flashbacks and in the current day, where the three reunite for the first time in years and things are just as complicated. I was unenthused by the director's previous film Call Me By Your Name, and there's no denying I had a *better* time with this one, even if I don't think it tells a story of much depth. The trio's constant sparring, both on the court and off it, definitely made for an entertaining back-and-forth, in the vein of a "trashy" reality show where you keep tuning in to find out who's going to be mad at whom this week. Our three actors are all well matched to each other and do a nice job of demonstrating the changing dynamics they have with each of the other two members. Overall, an entertaining fast-paced love-and-sports story that I enjoyed but don't think I'd ever rewatch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Challengers > The Bat Whispers

Challengers < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Challengers < Kajaki

Challengers > Irma La Douce

Challengers < Walk on the Wild Side

Challengers < Once Upon a Mattress (2005)

Challengers > Jackie

Challengers > Roma

Challengers < Dark Shadows

Challengers > Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Challengers > The Recruit

Final spot: #1665 out of 3927, or 58%.

Climax (2018)

IMDb plot summary: French dancers gather in a remote, empty school building to rehearse on a wintry night. The all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD.

Directed by Gaspar Noé. Starring Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, and Souheila Yacoub.

Climax is a film by Gaspar Noé about a group of dancers at a party who inadvertently drink acid-spiked sangria and end up having a very, very, very bad collective trip. I had very low expectations for this film, given how much I disliked Enter the Void, but this one kind of worked for me. It is terrifying and claustrophobic and all the more unsettling from the audience vantage point as an outsider -- we're never put inside the minds of any of these characters, so all we see is their erratic behavior consistently escalating to nightmarish levels, without any ability to help them or for them to help each other. I think it benefits from its short runtime, at right around 90 minutes, which keeps the horror fresh instead of ever allowing it to settle. The first half, before the terror sets in, is also surprisingly engaging, setting the scene for all these characters' interactions and featuring really fantastic dance sequences. The film hired real dancers instead of actors, and while that may work against it sometimes, for the most part it works, as movement is such a core component of the horror of all of this. Not one I'd like to revisit any time soon or anything -- it's a lot -- but I was impressed by it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Climax > Love Exposure

Climax < Safe

Climax > Kajaki

Climax < All the Best: Fun Begins

Climax > Air

Climax < The Pirate Movie

Climax > Moonlight

Climax < Educating Rita

Climax > Prometheus

Climax < The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Climax > The Crying Game

Final spot: #1315 out of 3931, or 67%.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

IMDb plot summary: Samantha Caine lives in a small town with her daughter. Eight years ago she emerged, two months pregnant, from a nearby river with no memory of her past or who she is. However, she's getting closer to finding out about her past.

Directed by Renny Harlin. Starring Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, and Yvonne Zima.

The Long Kiss Goodnight stars Geena Davis as a woman who lost her memory several years ago and has re-invented her life since then. However, strange events start convincing her she might have a darker past than she at first thought, and she sets out to try to figure it out. This is a fluffy, fun female-led action thriller, and Geena Davis is a great lead for it, playing both the suburban mom and the ruthless assassin very well. Samuel L. Jackson works as a comedic foil, the everyman thrown into this situation without warning. The emotional arc of the film doesn't work particularly well, but it's mostly just trying to be a fun bombastic time, and it delivers on that for the most part. Not one I'm going to remember for long, but I had a good enough time watching it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Long Kiss Goodnight > Kodachrome

The Long Kiss Goodnight < Safe

The Long Kiss Goodnight < Kajaki

The Long Kiss Goodnight > Ender’s Game

The Long Kiss Goodnight > 12 Years a Slave

The Long Kiss Goodnight < Hereditary

The Long Kiss Goodnight < Cool Hand Luke

The Long Kiss Goodnight < Death to Smoochy

The Long Kiss Goodnight < Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

The Long Kiss Goodnight < Suddenly, Last Summer

The Long Kiss Goodnight > Ben-Hur (1959)

The Long Kiss Goodnight > Chaos Theory

Final spot: #1591 out of 3925, or 59%.

Late Spring (1949)

IMDb plot summary: Several people try to talk 27-year-old Noriko into marrying, but all she wants is to keep on caring for her widowed father.

Directed by Yasujirô Ozu. Starring Chishû Ryû, Setsuko Hara, and Yumeji Tsukioka.

Late Spring is a Japanese movie from the 40s by Yasujiro Ozu about a woman in her 20s who lives alone with her father taking care of him despite the pressure that's placed on her to marry. She is happy with the life that she has but keeps being pressured by everyone around her to do the adult responsible thing and get married, continue on with her life, and leave her father. Tokyo Story is the only other Ozu that I've watched and while it was interesting, it didn't capture my attention. Late Spring absolutely did. I felt myself so connected to this character who was working so hard to not disappoint the people around her but truly did not want to do what they wanted. There's something really heartbreaking about her just not being able to get what she wants. The movie is slow and quiet, and that adds to the sadness of the whole thing. Just like with Tokyo Story, I found a contrast between the cheery smiles these characters would put on and the discontent and the sadness that lay beneath that, and even though this sadness was a fairly mild form, it still felt very real and it felt very difficult and very sad and I really, really loved it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Late Spring > Sarah, Plain and Tall

Late Spring > Safe

Late Spring > The White Tiger

Late Spring > Dead Ringers

Late Spring < Tootsie

Late Spring < Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Late Spring < Seven Samurai

Late Spring < Moxie

Late Spring > Submarine

Late Spring < Bullets Over Broadway

Late Spring < Amahl and the Night Visitors

Late Spring < Everything Everywhere All at Once

Final spot: #237, or 94%.