Wag the Dog (1997)

IMDb plot summary: Shortly before an election, a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join efforts to fabricate a war in order to cover up a Presidential sex scandal.

Directed by Barry Levinson. Stars Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Nirom and Anne Heche.

Wag the Dog is a political satire starring Robert De Niro as a publicist trying to get the sitting president re-elected. With the election less than a month away, a scandal breaks, and De Niro decides to fully manufacture and stage a fictional war that the president can save the country from to boost his chances of winning. It is indeed depressing how relevant this kind of story still is, especially now in the era of fake news and ever more obvious lying from our politicians. I don't know how genuinely plausible this story felt in the 90s -- I was too young to have a sense of political tone from then -- but most of this does not feel like much of a stretch. That being said, I really enjoyed the characters. I laughed a lot and groaned a lot and said, "Oh, my gosh, that's too close" a lot. Dustin Hoffman as the producer of the war, straight from Hollywood, is the perfect mishmash of the political and the showbiz world, and nearly every one of his lines is a hit. Overall, this is an enjoyable watch as long as you don't get bogged down in the depression of real world politics in the aftermath.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Wag the Dog (1997)

📊 Ranked #1125/4012 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 72

beat Metropolis (#2002 → #2004)

lost to Crazy Rich Asians (#999 → #995)

beat All About My Mother (#1501 → #1525)

beat Fanny and Alexander (held at #1249)

beat Doctor Strange (#1123 → #1146)

beat Grosse Pointe Blank (#1061 → #1064)

beat South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (#1030 → #1028)

lost to Walking and Talking (#1014 → #448)

lost to The Lady Vanishes (#1022 → #1021)

beat Guys and Dolls (#1026 → #1212)

beat Ghostbusters II (#1024 → #1097)

beat The Terminal (#1023 → #1037)

Wicked Little Letters (2024)

IMDb plot summary: When people in Littlehampton--including conservative local, Edith--begin receiving letters full of hilarious profanities, the rowdy, Irish migrant, Rose, is charged with the crime. Suspecting that something is amiss, the town's women investigate.

Directed by Thea Sharrock. Stars Jessie Buckley, Olivia Colman, and Timothy Spall.

Wicked Little Letters stars Olivia Colman as a shy religious spinster who begins receiving extremely vulgar anonymous letters. When her parents persuade her to go to the police about it, she reveals that she thinks it is a former friend of hers, a foul-mouthed Irish woman played by Jessie Buckley. The suspect is quickly arrested but while she is awaiting trial, other women of the village begin to suspect that she’s not the one to blame. This was a really fun watch. It took me a little while to process whether the tone was going to be more dramatic or more comedic, because in the first few scenes it's treading that line so carefully, but it definitely lands on the comedic mystery side of the spectrum, and it does that very well. Both Colman and Buckley are electric in their roles and delightful to watch in their interactions with each other. The variety of smaller characters making up the village are also each engaging and fun to watch come together for solving the mystery. I found the ending very satisfying from both a mystery standpoint and a character development standpoint. This was a solid one that I'm glad I got a chance to see.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Wicked Little Letters (2024)

📊 Ranked #865/4011 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 78

beat John Carter (#2002 → #2006)

beat Zoolander (#999 → #1051)

lost to Magnolia (#498 → #488)

lost to Cats (#749 → #747)

beat Anomalisa (#874 → #881)

lost to Annihilation (#811 → #264)

lost to Do the Right Thing (#842 → #840)

lost to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (#858 → #811)

beat Stowaway (#866 → #910)

lost to Key Largo (#862 → #857)

beat The Postman (#864 → #873)

lost to Anne of Green Gables (#863 → #859)

The Truth About Youth (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Richard Carewe has raised his deceased friend's son from childhood with the help of his housekeeper and her beautiful daughter Phyllis. He arranges a marriage between the lad and Phyllis, but the rascal impulsively marries a notorious nightclub singer known as "The Firefly."

Directed by William A. Seiter. Stars Loretta Young, Conway Tearle, and David Manners.

The Truth About Youth is a 1930 romantic drama about a young engaged couple where the young man is cheating on her with a cabaret star. When he is almost found out, an older friend helps out by pretending he's the one dating the star, when in actuality he is in love with the engaged woman. This is a very predictable story with very familiar themes for my 1930 project. The characters are written in a straightforward but relatively likeable way, and it's not an uncomfortable watch the way some romances from this era are, but it's not a very exciting one either. The most interesting component of it is watching the blooming romance between the engaged man's friend and the engaged woman, although of course nothing will come of it while she is actively engaged because she is the epitome of good behavior, in contrast to the Myrna Loy character. Ultimately a very forgettable but inoffensive romantic drama from the era. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Truth About Youth (1930)

📊 Ranked #2811/4010 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 31

lost to Wristcutters: A Love Story (#2002 → #1773)

beat Frantic (#3002 → #3067)

lost to Nacho Libre (#2502 → #2483)

beat The Irishman (#2751 → #2792)

lost to Hitchcock (#2626 → #2615)

lost to Convict 13 (#2688 → #2627)

lost to Dreamgirls (#2719 → #2727)

lost to The Tomorrow War (#2735 → #2733)

lost to In the Mood for Love (#2743 → #2734)

lost to Dallas Buyers Club (#2747 → #2715)

beat Hamlet (#2749 → #2813)

lost to The Big Trail (#2748 → #2587)

The Man From Snowy River (1982)

IMDb plot summary: In 1880s Australia, after young Jim Craig's father dies, he takes a job at the Harrison cattle ranch, where he is forced to become a man.

Directed by George Miller. Stars Kirk Douglas, Tom Burlinson, and Terence Donovan.

The Man from Snowy River is about a young ranch hand from the mountains who gets a job working for a wealthy rancher. He falls in love with the rancher's daughter, only to be told there is no way he's ever going to be good enough for her, and he must find a way to prove himself, while also discovering the secrets of the rancher's past. This is one of those movies that I always remember sitting on the shelves at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, but I never actually picked it up because it didn't actually look that exciting to me. My instincts were right, this movie is not for me. For most of its runtime I was incredibly bored and had zero investment in any of the character objectives. It picked up a little bit once it started getting into dramatic family squabbles, but that's clearly not the point of this story. It's about the young man trying to make his way in the world, and I just could not care less about him or what he's doing. There are some nice landscape shots, so it is at times very pretty movie, but that was not enough to keep me interested. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Man from Snowy River (1982)

📊 Ranked #3631/4009 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 10

lost to Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (#2001 → #2007)

lost to The Big Pond (#3001 → #2997)

lost to The Secret Life of Pets (#3505 → #3498)

beat Kingpin (#3756 → #3758)

lost to In Cold Blood (#3629 → #3571)

beat Taxi (#3691 → #3697)

lost to The Godfather Part II (#3660 → #3630)

beat The Boy Friend (#3675 → #3677)

beat When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (#3667 → #3672)

beat Special (#3663 → #3666)

lost to The Tribe (#3661 → #3659)

beat The Battle of Algiers (#3662 → #3665)

The Brutalist (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A visionary architect flees post-war Europe in 1947 for a brighter future in the United States and finds his life forever changed by a wealthy client.

Directed by Brady Corbet. Stars Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce.

The Brutalist stars Adrien Brody as a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, right after the second World War. In his home country he was a celebrated architect, but here in the US it takes some time for him to become noticed by a wealthy man, played by Guy Pearce, who hires him to design a community center. As we follow this project over the years it is plagued with difficulties and toxic relationships and slowly destroys Brody. I'm going to start off this review by saying I think this film was absolutely too long. I know it was trying to give a sense of the many years engulfed in this project, but I think I could have had the exact same -- or even a better -- emotional response at half the time. The piece that resonated with me the most was the climactic scene before the end, in which some of the negative treatment of Brody comes to a head. I thought the way that ended was both fascinating and satisfying. I didn't expect it to go down the way it did, but it really worked for me. I continue to think Felicity Jones is one of the least interesting actors getting work today, and that remains the same here, even when she's given kind of a fascinating character to work with. So overall, this has some good moments, and I think the grandiose feel of it captivated a lot of people, but it was only okay for me. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Brutalist (2024)

📊 Ranked #1748/4008 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 57

beat The Dissident (#2001 → #2006)

lost to Fargo (held at #999)

lost to Charlie St. Cloud (#1500 → #1497)

beat Roma (#1749 → #1750)

lost to Death to Smoochy (#1624 → #1626)

lost to The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (#1686 → #1676)

lost to Ant-Man (held at #1717)

lost to Abigail (#1733 → #1719)

lost to The Magnificent Ambersons (#1741 → #1739)

lost to Dark Shadows (held at #1745)

lost to Quiz Show (#1747 → #1746)

beat Challengers (#1748 → #1749)

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

IMDb plot summary: A television actress encounters a variety of eccentric characters after embarking on a journey to discover why her lover abruptly left her.

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Stars Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, and Julieta Serrano.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a film by Pedro Almodóvar about a woman who discovers that her lover is going on a romantic vacation with another woman. In trying to deal with this, she ends up getting involved in some unexpectedly wacky ways with the lover's wife, son, and new mistress, as well as a model friend who is on the run from the police for accidentally helping a terrorist group. Almodóvar doesn't always work for me as a director, but one thing that he always does beautifully is create these rich, fully fleshed-out female characters, and that is absolutely visible here in this film. Each one of these women is so distinct, but not in a way that feels overly broad. You get the sense that each one of them has a full life beyond what we're seeing in this film. I love how the colors of this film are bright and exciting and vivid -- it's just great to look at. The tone of the film also works more than I thought it might for me. I fully got on board with the silly melodrama of all these characters hiding from the police and covering up their accidental drugging of each other and trying to figure out how to exact revenge from the lover. This is probably my favorite from this director, and I think the lighter tone has a lot to do with it. I enjoy this kind of over-the-top emotion more when played for comedy. (It does make me wonder if I should go back and rewatch some of his others with more of an eye out for comedic moments.) This is definitely a good one. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

📊 Ranked #356/4007 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 91

beat Jeff, Who Lives at Home (#2000 → #2003)

beat The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (#1003 → #1004)

beat What If (#504 → #503)

lost to Babe (#249 → #247)

beat Adaptation. (#373 → #375)

lost to Star Wars: The Last Jedi (held at #311)

lost to Nativity! (held at #342)

beat Contagion (#357 → #368)

lost to Beginners (#349 → #347)

lost to Stranger Than Fiction (#353 → #352)

beat Wings of Desire (held at #355)

lost to Dick Tracy (#354 → #353)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

IMDb plot summary: When both he and a colleague are about to lose their job, Walter takes action by embarking on an adventure more extraordinary than anything he ever imagined.

Directed by Ben Stiller. Stars Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, and Jon Daly.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a film starring Ben Stiller as the titular Walter Mitty, a photograph developer for Life Magazine who spends much of his time daydreaming about being a more exciting adventurous person, despite not even having the courage to talk in person to his work crush. But when he discovers that an essential photograph has gone missing, he must go on series of real life adventures to try to track down the elusive photographer and find out what happened to that negative. I was familiar with the 1947 film, as well as the short story, and neither one of those fully grabbed me, but this one does a better job of getting me on board. There are moments where I can feel it being just a tad too deliberate in its messaging, but Ben Stiller grounds it fairly well, playing a relatable character in unrelatable circumstances and making it easy to root for him. There are not necessarily a lot of laughs I got out of this despite being built as a comedy, but there's a lot of warmth in this movie. It was satisfying to watch Mitty pursue his dreams even when he didn't mean to. It's a sweet movie that was worth a watch. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

📊 Ranked #501/4006 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 87

beat The Dissident (#2000 → #2001)

beat Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (#999 → #1005)

lost to The Basketball Diaries (#498 → #500)

lost to Black Christmas (#750 → #727)

lost to American Psycho (#874 → #420)

beat Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (#936 → #949)

lost to Flight (#905 → #437)

beat Ghostbusters II (#920 → #1074)

beat Twins (#912 → #917)

beat SubUrbia (#908 → #1015)

beat Anna Karenina (#906 → #980)