TiMER (2009)

IMDb plot summary: If a clock could count down to the moment you meet your soul mate, would you want to know?

Directed by Jac Schaeffer. Stars Emma Caulfield Ford, Scott Holroyd, and Kali Rocha.

TiMER stars Emma Caulfield as a woman looking for love in a future where people can get an arm implant that counts down the minutes until they meet their soulmate. This movie is high concept and well executed, no complaints here. It feels intimate and moves along quickly, and the beats it explores are predictable but done charmingly. Ultimately I'd call it likable but forgettable (I had to wrack my brain just to remember how it actually ended). If you like quirky sci fi rom coms, this is definitely one of the better ones out there!

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 TiMER (2009)

📊 Ranked #1083/4159 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 74

beat Frances Ha (#2077 → #2078)

lost to Guilty as Sin (held at #1038)

beat Loose Ankles (#1557 → #1558)

beat Sophie's Choice (#1297 → #1298)

beat The Color Purple (#1167 → #1168)

beat Brave (#1102 → #1103)

lost to Hoop Dreams (held at #1070)

beat Munich (#1086 → #1087)

lost to Teen Beach Movie (held at #1078)

lost to Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (held at #1082)

beat The Nice Guys (#1084 → #1085)

beat Feet First (#1083 → #1084)

Wicked: For Good (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. The second of a two-part feature film adaptation of the Broadway musical.

Directed by Jon M. Chu. Stars Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and Jeff Goldblum.

Wicked: For Good is the second half of the Wicked film duology -- basically Act Two of the stage show. In this half, we follow Elphaba after she's been declared an enemy of Oz. This has basically all the same problems as Act Two of the stage show, abrupt pacing and less dynamic songs being the main two. While I'm a little surprised the additional film length wasn't used to fix pacing problems, I did still like it basically the same amount as the show. Not every song is a banger, but there are some hits (No Good Deed made me cry). I was especially impressed with Ethan Slater, whose role here is small but pivotal. It's easier to ignore the weakness of Act Two of the show when you're seeing the story all in one fell swoop over the course of a few hours. It's harder to do when you've waited a year to watch Act Two on its own. It still works for me, but I suspect it will work even better if I watch the two back to back -- and the first film will always be the stronger of the two.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Wicked: For Good (2025)

📊 Ranked #976/4158 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 77

beat Phantom Thread (#2076 → #2077)

beat Guilty as Sin (#1038 → #1039)

lost to The Mummy (held at #519)

lost to Stowaway (held at #778)

lost to The Land Before Time (held at #908)

lost to Nebraska (held at #973)

beat Blackbeard's Ghost (#1005 → #1006)

beat The Blue Angel (#989 → #990)

beat Black Bag (#981 → #982)

beat Hairspray Live! (#977 → #978)

lost to Once Were Warriors (held at #975)

beat Till (#976 → #977)

Certified Copy (2010)

IMDb plot summary: In Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged British writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano. While there, a chance question reveals something deeper.

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami. Stars Juliette Binoche, William Shimell, and Jean-Claude Carrière.

Certified Copy follows a French woman and an American writer who meet each other at the man's book signing, and they spend a day together. As the day goes on, they discuss the philosophy of copies versus originals, and then it becomes unclear what their relationship to each other truly is. I couldn't get a handle on this one at *all*. I assume it's trying to Make Big Points over coherence but I can't track the theme. I got thoroughly confused halfway through when it seemed like I'd just fully misunderstood the story, and then by the time I realized it was on purpose and I wasn't just forgetting plot points, I was too annoyed to like it. The philosophical discussions about copies vs originals also stopped losing steam around that point. This is clearly just a movie I don't "get," so I'll have to see if anyone has an interpretation of this that makes it more appealing to me, but for now, this movie is decidedly Not For Me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Certified Copy (2010)

📊 Ranked #3253/4156 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 22

lost to Fahrenheit 451 (held at #2076)

lost to Sliding Doors (held at #3115)

beat Cruel Intentions (#3634 → #3635)

beat The Last of the Mohicans (#3374 → #3375)

lost to Cars (held at #3244)

beat The Girl Said No (#3309 → #3310)

beat CQ (#3276 → #3277)

beat Warm Bodies (#3260 → #3261)

lost to My Best Friend's Wedding (held at #3252)

beat Susannah of the Mounties (#3256 → #3257)

beat The Killing (#3254 → #3255)

beat Frantic (#3253 → #3254)

Didi (2024)

IMDb plot summary: In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can't teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.

Directed by Sean Wang. Stars Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, and Shirley Chen.

Dìdi is a coming-of-age film about an 8th grade Taiwanese-American boy desperately trying to figure out who he is and who he wants to be in high school. It captures this age with such honesty that it's occasionally hard to watch, in the best way. The film understands how painful it is to be young and unable to communicate what you're feeling, even to the people closest to you. Our protagonist stumbles his way through friendships, family expectations, and insecurity, making mistakes the whole way. One of the film's strongest elements is the relationship between him and his sister, which evolves from irritation and distance into something gentler and more compassionate as they learn how to treat each other with care -- it definitely brings to mind my own relationship with my younger siblings. Overall, this is a wonderful, empathetic coming-of-age film.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Dìdi (弟弟) (2024)

📊 Ranked #470/4155 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 89

beat Phantom Thread (#2076 → #2077)

beat Guilty as Sin (#1038 → #1039)

beat The Mummy (#519 → #520)

lost to That Thing You Do! (held at #259)

lost to Hero (held at #389)

lost to Batman Returns (held at #454)

beat Lolita (#486 → #487)

beat Tarzan (#470 → #471)

lost to Footloose (held at #462)

lost to Boyz n the Hood (held at #466)

lost to Eyes Without a Face (held at #468)

lost to Romancing the Stone (held at #469)

Veer-Zaara (2004)

IMDb plot summary: An Indian Air Force pilot rescues a Pakistani girl stranded in India. Years later, a lawyer seeks to unravel the truth behind the pilot's mysterious imprisonment in Pakistan for over two decades, during which he remained silent.

Directed by Yash Chopra. Stars Shah Rukh Khan, Preity G Zinta, and Rani Mukerji.

Veer-Zaara is a Bollywood romance about a man who has been living silently in his prison cell for years, never talking to anyone, until finally he opens up about the great romance of his life and how it landed him in prison. I always find myself the length of Bollywood films a little daunting, but then it turns out they really know how to make compelling films at any length. This is a lot more straightforward drama than the rom coms I've been watching lately, and it captures that wonderfully epic sprawling love for the ages. Our primary actors are both excellent, and the big dramatic courtroom ending is totally earned. Not my favorite Bollywood, but a good ride!

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Veer-Zaara (2004)

📊 Ranked #1607/4154 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 61

beat Fahrenheit 451 (#2075 → #2076)

lost to 20th Century Women (held at #1037)

lost to Laurence Anyways (held at #1556)

beat The Exorcist (#1815 → #1816)

beat Fury (#1685 → #1686)

beat I'm Still Here (#1620 → #1621)

lost to Flight of the Navigator (held at #1588)

lost to Nobody's Fool (held at #1604)

beat Love, Life and Goldfish (#1612 → #1613)

beat Dan in Real Life (#1608 → #1609)

lost to Killers of the Flower Moon (held at #1606)

beat The Tragedy of Macbeth (#1607 → #1608)

Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987)

IMDb plot summary: Writer, ex-con and 40-something bottle-baby Tim Madden, who is prone to black-outs, awakens from a two-week bender to discover a pool of blood in his car.

Directed by Norman Mailer. Stars Ryan O'Neal, Isabella Rossellini, and Debra Stipe.

Tough Guys Don’t Dance stars Ryan O'Neal as someone who life begins to spiral after his wife leaves him, up to and including a murder investigation. The one thing I knew about this movie before watching it was the viral clip of Ryan O'Neal getting bad news and saying "oh god, oh man" over and over again in a hilarious show of bad dialogue and bad acting. Turns out it's just the perfect example of what the entire movie is like, although that is the most amusing piece. Mostly it's just a meandering melodrama with a thoroughly uninteresting protagonist. It's so pretentious but at the same so silly, and none of it works well together. It takes itself so seriously that at first maybe I thought it was a spoof, playing it deadpan, but, nope. It's just bad. Occasionally enjoyably so, but bad.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987)

📊 Ranked #3772/4153 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 9

lost to Fahrenheit 451 (held at #2075)

lost to The Disappearance of Alice Creed (held at #3113)

lost to The Right Stuff (held at #3632)

beat Gidget (#3891 → #3892)

lost to Medium Cool (held at #3761)

beat Bee Season (#3826 → #3827)

beat Shrek the Third (#3793 → #3794)

beat The Christmas That Almost Wasn't (#3777 → #3778)

lost to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (held at #3769)

beat Oklahoma! (#3773 → #3774)

lost to Monkey Business (held at #3771)

beat How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (#3772 → #3773)

Carry-On (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A mysterious traveler blackmails a young TSA agent into letting a dangerous package slip through security and onto a Christmas Eve flight.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Stars Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, and Sofia Carson.

Carry-On is a thriller starring Taron Egerton as a TSA officer and Jason Bateman as the terrorist who is forcing him to allow a dangerous item through the checkpoint, or terrible things will happen. This is a fun premise for a movie -- the problem is, it goes on too long. I'm firmly of the belief that the best one-location thrillers come in around 90 minutes, as it's very hard to carry that energy beyond that. This one stretches to two hours, and the final 40 minutes feel tedious. The first two thirds are a good ride, though, and Jason Bateman is a lot of fun as the heartless terrorist. That deadpan delivery of his turns out to be kind of terrifying when it's being applied to widespread destruction. If this is a genre that you're already drawn to, you might not feel the length, but if not, this isn't the one that is going to draw you in.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Carry-On (2024)

📊 Ranked #1649/4152 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 60

beat Hamlet (#2074 → #2075)

lost to 20th Century Women (held at #1037)

lost to The Virtuous Sin (held at #1555)

beat The Wicker Man (#1814 → #1815)

beat Cinema Paradiso (#1684 → #1685)

lost to I'm Still Here (held at #1619)

beat Unpregnant (#1651 → #1652)

lost to Newsies (held at #1635)

lost to The Thin Man (held at #1643)

lost to Battle Royale (held at #1647)

beat Allegiance (#1649 → #1650)

lost to Hit Man (held at #1648)