Kneecap (2024)

IMDb plot summary: When fate brings Belfast teacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed "low life scum" Naoise and Liam Óg, the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish, they lead a movement to save their mother tongue.

Directed by Rich Peppiat. Stars Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, and DJ Próvaí.

Kneecap is a fictional biography of the Irish hip-hop group Kneecap, starring all the members as themselves. It tells the story of how they got together and rose to fame despite pressure from multiple sides to quit. This movie is such a strange surprise, made all the more so when I discovered this was a real group and not just a fully made-up story. How much of the story is true? Who knows, but it doesn't matter much because the story and the songs within it are so good. The music is really the emotional core here -- hip-hop is a great musical genre to pair with a story about the fight for Irish identity, and it works all the way through. I loved getting to hear them rap in both English and Irish. It becomes such a powerful statement about rebelling and being counterculture, and it gives extra impact to the story. Overall, this film is very enjoyable, and it also left me wanting to check out Kneecap's music afterward. Definitely worth watching!

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Kneecap (2024)

📊 Ranked #1179/4062 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 72

beat Earth (#2031 → #2748)

lost to Pariah (#1017 → #989)

beat Flora and Son (#1521 → #1520)

beat Glory (#1269 → #1444)

lost to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (#1158 → #1118)

lost to Marjorie Prime (#1206 → #1099)

beat Garbo Talks (#1234 → #1340)

beat Wag the Dog (#1225 → #1226)

beat VeggieTales: Where's God When I'm S-Scared? (#1212 → #1352)

beat The Bells of St. Mary's (#1171 → #1172)

beat Going My Way (#1169 → #1170)

beat Time Bandits (#1209 → #1238)

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001)

IMDb plot summary: After marrying a poor woman, rich Rahul is disowned by his father and moves to London to build a new life. Years later, his now-grown younger brother Rohan embarks on a mission to bring Rahul back home and reunite the family.

Directed by Karan Johar. Stars Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, and Shah Rukh Khan.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is a Bollywood film about a family who exiles their oldest son for marrying outside of the father’s will. A decade later, the younger son sets out to try to reunite them all. One of the things I often really enjoy about Bollywood films is their willingness to tell giant sprawling stories across generations, and that really pays off here. There's a great swooping narrative demonstrating all the actions from the past shaping the present. That sense of generational tension gives the story emotional weight, even when it veers into melodrama. The musical numbers are also excellent -- colorful, energetic, fully worth stopping the story to focus on every time. It's a great balance of spectacle and heart, and the ending is truly satisfying. One I can see myself coming back to.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001)

📊 Ranked #1258/4061 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 71

beat Hotel Rwanda (#2028 → #2030)

lost to Targets (#1012 → #1005)

beat The Tragedy of Macbeth (#1520 → #1493)

beat The Pianist (#1266 → #1484)

lost to Spellbound (#1138 → #1135)

beat Nine to Five (#1201 → #1386)

lost to Good Will Hunting (#1169 → #773)

beat If Beale Street Could Talk (#1185 → #1535)

beat VeggieTales: Josh and the Big Wall (#1177 → #1783)

beat Ghostbusters II (#1173 → #1211)

beat Hoodwinked! (#1171 → #1259)

lost to South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (#1170 → #1147)

Presumed Innocent (1990)

IMDb plot summary: As a lawyer investigates the murder of a colleague, he finds himself more connected to the crime than anyone else.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Stars Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, and Raul Julia.

Presumed Innocent stars Harrison Ford as a prosecuting attorney whose coworker (and affair partner) is brutally murdered, and he finds himself implicated by evidence he can’t disprove. This was a pretty bland film that never quite makes it where it wants to go. The story is pretty lifeless with a few erotic scenes tossed in, but they very much feel gratuitous. They come across as a cheap cash grab trying to bank on having cast attractive actors -- although, also, if you want your audience to be drawn in by Harrison Ford being hot, you should not also give him the dorkiest haircut of all time. It almost manages to pull the whole thing together with a creative answer to the mystery, but then it tanks that by trying to make that answer seem much more profound than it actually is. Ultimately this is a bland thriller that doesn't have much to make it work.

How it entered my Flickchart:

lost to Clueless (1995)

lost to Ready Player One (2018)

won against Madigan (1968)

won against Robots (2005)

lost to The Number 23 (2007)

won against McLintock! (1963)

won against The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

won against The Bishop Murder Case (1929)

won against Soup to Nuts (1930)

won against In Time (2011)

lost to Batman Begins (2005)

won against Lincoln (2012)

22%, #3142/4060 on my Flickchart.

The Holy Mountain (1973)

IMDb plot summary: In a corrupt, greed-fueled world, a powerful alchemist leads a messianic character and seven materialistic figures to the Holy Mountain, where they hope to achieve enlightenment.

Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Stars Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas, and Zamira Saunders.

The Holy Mountain is a surrealist film by Alejandro Jodorowsky, so I’m not going to go much into plot because it’s not super comprehensible. I had heard of this movie but didn’t realize until I started watching that it was directed by the director of my all-time least favorite film, Fando y Lis, so I didn’t have high hopes for it. It wasn’t nearly that unpleasant, but it sure was boring for me. I understand that it's not plot-driven, that it's supposed to be surreal and full of symbolism, but after a while, it just felt like chaos for the sake of chaos. The visuals are often striking, sure, but without a narrative thread for me to latch onto, I couldn't stay invested. The most interesting part, by far, was the section showing life on different planets. Each one was unique and creative, and it was a fun little tangent that actually held my attention. But the rest of the film dragged on for what seemed like forever. Jodorowsky is not for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Holy Mountain (1973)

📊 Ranked #3679/4059 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 9

lost to Meet John Doe (held at #2026)

lost to Bottle Shock (#3040 → #2972)

lost to Enough (#3550 → #3510)

beat Winter Passing (#3803 → #3811)

beat I Accuse My Parents (#3676 → #3684)

lost to Hostage (#3613 → #3575)

lost to Airborne (#3644 → #3642)

lost to GoldenEye (#3660 → #3661)

lost to Wimbledon (#3668 → #3670)

 lost to The Godfather Part II (held at #3672)

lost to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (#3674 → #3671)

beat A Sound of Thunder (#3675 → #3683)

Patriot Games (1992)

IMDb plot summary: When CIA analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets him and his family for revenge.

Directed by Phillip Noyce. Stars Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, and Patrick Bergin.

Patriot Games is a Jack Ryan movie starring Harrison Ford as Ryan, who intercepts two brothers trying to kill a British lord and, in the process, kills one of them. The living assassin makes it his life’s mission to get revenge on Ryan for his brother’s death. I don’t really know this franchise at all, but I’d always assumed more political intrigue, while really this one primarily comes down to one man and his family being personally harassed. I’m not complaining – that’s a more interesting story to me, and the assassin, played by Sean Bean, ends up being the most fascinating character as he continuously throws his cause under the bus to carry out his personal revenge. The pacing is pretty solid, as it’s a long film but moves along quickly enough that it doesn’t FEEL long. It doesn’t make me want to watch anything else in the franchise – Ryan himself is by far the least interesting piece here – but this was enjoyable enough.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Patriot Games (1992)

📊 Ranked #2315/4058 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 42

lost to King Kong (#2025 → #2015)

beat Hour of the Wolf (#3039 → #3037)

beat Only You (held at #2531)

lost to Drive (#2278 → #2274)

beat Thoughtcrimes (#2404 → #2406)

beat Dr. No (#2341 → #2371)

beat Pokémon: The First Movie (held at #2309)

beat About Last Night... (#2293 → #2307)

beat Dr. Seuss on the Loose (#2285 → #2508)

beat A Tale of Two Sisters (#2281 → #2285)

beat Dhamaal (held at #2279)

In a Violent Nature (2024)

IMDb plot summary: When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 70-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it.

Directed by Chris Nash. Stars Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, and Cameron Love.

In a Violent Nature is a mostly standard slasher film told, unusually, from the point of view of the killer. Point of view is literal here – we follow him through the woods as he stalks a group of college aged students, but he does not speak or give us much insight into his actions. While I enjoy the slightly sideways perspective this takes on the slasher genre, and at least one of the deaths was so surprisingly gruesome that I laughed out loud, there is a LOT of just… nothing in this movie. Lots of walking through the woods, picking up weapons, walking by people who are talking and listening to them… it feels almost more like watching a Let’s Play video, where the moments of action are few and far between. If I was more engaged in the slasher genre overall, this might pop more for me, but I did find myself zoning out for large chunks of the movie as we trudged through leaves. Horror fans should probably check this out, but I like this better in theory than I do in execution.

How it entered my Flickchart:🎥 In a Violent Nature (2024)

📊 Ranked #2278/4057 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 43

beat The Cloverfield Paradox (held at #2025)

lost to Mister Roberts (#1011 → #1014)

lost to Beauty and the Beast (#1518 → #1477)

lost to Abigail (#1772 → #1741)

beat Footlight Parade (#1898 → #1895)

beat Gold Diggers of 1933 (#1835 → #1942)

beat Stalag 17 (#1803 → #1814)

beat The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (#1787 → #2076)

lost to Spy (#1779 → #1772)

beat My Blueberry Nights (#1783 → #2390)

lost to Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (#1781 → #1769)

lost to Once Upon A Mattress (#1782 → #1748)

Nickel Boys (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A powerful friendship develops between two young Black men as they navigate the harrowing trials of reform school together.

Directed by RaMell Ross. Stars Ethan Cole Sharp, Sam Malone, and Najah Bradley.

Nickel Boys follows two Black teenagers who are sent to a reform school for boys, where they bond with each other as they weather the negative treatment from the adults and figure out what their futures might look like. This feels like one of those movies that flew in, wowed everybody, and then suddenly disappeared and nobody’s talked about it for a year. The filming gimmick is that it’s told entirely from first-person point of view cinematography, switching between the two main characters as they take center stage. It definitely is an attempt to put us in the characters’ shoes, but it also calls attention to the gimmick in a way I don’t love. The story is interesting and I want to follow along with it, but oddly the camera gimmickry distanced me from it, which I’m sure is exactly the opposite of the intention. As a result, though, this one left me emotionally cold even when I appreciated pieces of the artistry.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Nickel Boys (2024)

📊 Ranked #2096/4056 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 48

lost to The Last Metro (#2024 → #1327)

beat Robots (#3038 → #3276)

beat Pacific Rim (#2530 → #2527)

beat 42nd Street (#2277 → #3089)

lost to The Beach (#2151 → #2095)

beat The Adventures of Huck Finn (#2214 → #2215)

beat BASEketball (#2182 → #3008)

beat The Room (#2166 → #2180)

beat A Hard Day's Night (#2158 → #2166)

beat Holiday Affair (#2154 → #2299)

beat Frank (#2152 → #2159)