42 (2013)

IMDb plot summary: In 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era when he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers and faces considerable racism in the process.

Directed by Brian Helgeland. Stars Chadwick Boseman, T.R. Knight, and Harrison Ford.

42 is a biopic based on the life of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American player brought onto a Major League Baseball team. It stars Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and a wide supporting cast, including Harrison Ford as the progressive team owner who makes the decision to actually bring him onto the team and tries to pave the way, while knowing it's going to be a really difficult time for Robinson. What makes this film stand out and makes it worth watching is Boseman as Robinson. He does a great job of showing the humanity of this character. He makes him truly feel like just a regular human instead of some larger-than-life character, and we get to see how difficult it is for him to hold back and not retaliate against racist behaviors, because he knows anything he does is going to be used as an excuse to never bring another Black player in again. I think the film does an especially good job of showing how little power Robinson had to respond to the racism around him because anything he did would be framed as an overreaction, and I really like how the film does put the onus on the white people around him to put themselves on the line to defend him, since they have more power and less to lose. Obviously that can tread a "white savior" line, but I think it does a pretty good job of calling the privileged to task. None of the baseball parts of this film are interesting to me, but Boseman is interesting, and framing his character as being willing to lean on others who have more power in this situation to use that power on his behalf is an angle I didn't expect.

🎥 42 (2013)

📊 Ranked #2406/4209 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 43

lost to Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (held at #2141)

beat Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (#3180 → #3181)

beat The Muppets Take Manhattan (#2660 → #2661)

lost to Camp Rock (held at #2400)

beat Men Without Law (#2530 → #2531)

beat One, Two, Three (#2466 → #2467)

beat Finding Vivian Maier (#2431 → #2432)

beat Jesus Christ Superstar (#2415 → #2416)

beat King Kong Escapes (#2407 → #2408)

lost to Revolutionary Road (held at #2403)

lost to Kinky Boots: The Musical (held at #2405)

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

IMDb plot summary: Story of a woman and her three lovers.

Directed by Spike Lee. Stars Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, and John Canada Terrell.

She's Gotta Have It is Spike Lee's first feature film. I watched it as part of a challenge that included a black and white movie, so I went for a newer option. It follows the story of Nola, a young woman living in the city, and her three lovers who she's all dating at once. They all meet very different emotional and physical needs in her life. The story focuses a lot on how all three of them want her to give up the other two and be with just them, while she's just not terribly interested in tying herself down like that. I haven't seen as much Spike Lee as I would like to, but watching this definitely makes me want to prioritize that, because there's an energy to this that is compelling even if I'm not always sold on the narrative on the page. The actress playing Nola especially is incredibly compelling. Even when she's making decisions that are hurting people or that demonstrate she doesn't know what she wants, she's just fun to watch on screen, as are the three men who play her boyfriends. (One of them is played by Spike Lee himself.) I really enjoyed how immediately distinct these three men are, so each interaction we see them have with Nola and each other are unique based on those dynamics. I'm not sure that I'm invested in any of the like big questions being asked by this film so much as I just really enjoy watching the characters interact. Definitely one that makes me want to watch more of Lee's work. This is a heck of a debut.

🎥 She's Gotta Have It (1986)

📊 Ranked #1353/4208 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 68

beat The Girl on a Motorcycle (#2135 → #2136)

lost to The Menu (held at #1092)

beat Hamlet (#1611 → #1612)

lost to Serial Mom (held at #1352)

beat The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (#1481 → #1482)

beat The Song of Lunch (#1417 → #1418)

beat The Descendants (#1385 → #1386)

beat The Artist (#1368 → #1369)

beat The Unholy Three (#1360 → #1361)

beat Corrina, Corrina (#1356 → #1357)

beat Memories of Murder (#1354 → #1355)

Happy as Lazzaro (2018)

IMDb plot summary: An unceasingly kind Italian peasant and his family are blatantly exploited by a tobacco baroness.

Directed by Alice Rohrwacher. Stars Adriano Tardiolo, Agnese Graziani, and Alba Rohrwacher.

Happy as Lazzaro is an Italian film about a wealthy landowner and the serfs that work her land. Specifically, we focus on one young man, Lazzaro, who has some sort of potentially intellectual disability and is not always fully cognizant of how to react to things, but he ends up befriending the son of the wealthy landowner. Then the whole family's lives are turned completely upside down and Lazzaro has to adjust to the new life and what this means about the relationship that he had built with the landowner's son. Watching this right after Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter was interesting because they're not dissimilar in terms of tone and vibe, especially that combination of heartwarming and devastating. This one also has a s sense of dread that nothing is going to go right for this character. It's the kind of film that I think I might have liked more ten years ago in terms of my movie taste and now it feels a little bit overtold in terms of theme. Overall, I enjoyed the setting of it and the way that it put the story together, but it didn't gel the way it might have for me at a different time in my life.

🎥 Happy as Lazzaro (2018)

📊 Ranked #2264/4207 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 46

lost to True Romance (held at #2134)

beat Without a Clue (#3175 → #3176)

beat Heat (#2653 → #2654)

beat Charulata (#2392 → #2393)

lost to Rebecca (held at #2263)

beat Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (#2327 → #2328)

beat Absolute Power (#2295 → #2296)

beat The Secret Life of Pets (#2279 → #2280)

beat The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (#2271 → #2272)

beat The Party (#2267 → #2268)

beat Hamlet (#2265 → #2266)

You’re Next (2011)

IMDb plot summary: When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.

Directed by Adam Wingard. Stars Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg, and AJ Bowen.

You're Next is a horror film about a couple who are spending some time in a remote cabin with the man's family, only for things to go suddenly horribly wrong when a mysterious intruder starts to kill off the family members. One by one they disappear, and it becomes clear that the one person who might be able to stop everything is the man's girlfriend, who knows the family the least. I had high hopes for this one, and I probably should have tamped that down a little bit, because I think that let me down by the end. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun little horror movie. It's got some fun, horror-y deaths, many of which are super gross (and at least one that I will be thinking about for a long time). I also appreciate the way the story sets up its heroes and villains, both in terms of the external threat of a murderer coming after them, but also in terms of the internal dynamics throughout where everybody kind of hates each other. It's a good ride. I'm not sure it stands way above in terms of horror, which I was expected for some reason, but it's a fun little slasher film that does what it's trying to do pretty well.

🎥 You're Next (2011)

📊 Ranked #1990/4206 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 53

beat The Girl on a Motorcycle (#2134 → #2135)

lost to Till Death (held at #1091)

lost to Backbeat (held at #1610)

lost to Children of Paradise (held at #1877)

beat The Guard (#2005 → #2006)

lost to Batman (held at #1941)

lost to The Group (held at #1973)

lost to Two Weeks Notice (held at #1989)

beat Meek's Cutoff (#1997 → #1998)

beat Journey to Greenland (#1993 → #1994)

beat Sweet Dreams (#1991 → #1992)

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014)

IMDb plot summary: A jaded Japanese woman discovers a hidden copy of Fargo (1996) on VHS, believing it to be a treasure map indicating the location of a large case of money.

Directed by David Zellner. Stars Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, and Kanako Higashi.

Kumiko the Treasure Hunter is a film about a lonely Japanese woman who becomes convinced that the movie Fargo is, in fact, real life, and she sets out to travel to North Dakota to try to find the stolen money in the story. She has no money, no friends, and very little grasp of English, but is determined to make her way across the country to find the treasure she's looking for. This movie made me extremely tense as I was watching it because I just knew that this could not end in a positive way. And while the gritty reality of the story absolutely does indicate that it doesn't end positively for her -- and I don't think that's a spoiler, because as I said, you know pretty early on that this can't possibly go well -- but it does move into some magic realism that allows it to at least put a more hopeful spin on this grim story. The actress playing Kumiko is almost too good at being determinedly vulnerable, and that often makes it difficult to watch. Seeing her interact with the different people attempting to help her make her way to Fargo is a mix of heartwarming and devastating. I appreciate that the film doesn't try to lean too hard on one of those feelings, but really lets both of them exist at the same time. An interesting movie, but a sad and difficult one to watch.

🎥 Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014)

📊 Ranked #1538/4205 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 63

beat The Girl on a Motorcycle (#2133 → #2134)

lost to Till Death (held at #1091)

beat Backbeat (#1609 → #1610)

lost to The Country Girl (held at #1350)

lost to True Grit (held at #1479)

beat Interiors (#1545 → #1546)

lost to North by Northwest (held at #1513)

lost to Oscar (held at #1529)

lost to His Girl Friday (held at #1537)

beat The Piano (#1541 → #1542)

beat She's Having a Baby (#1539 → #1540)

Waves (2019)

IMDb plot summary: Traces the journey of a suburban family - led by a well-intentioned but domineering father - as they navigate love, forgiveness, and coming together in the aftermath of a loss.

Directed by Trey Edward Shults. Stars Taylor Russell, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Alexa Demie.

Waves is a 2019 drama about a family. The first half of the story follows the teenage son and the stress that he is under as he deals with losing his prospects of a career in wrestling, and then learning that his girlfriend is pregnant and planning to keep the baby, which is going to make his life even worse. The second half of the film follows primarily the daughter in the family, as she grapples with the choices that her older brother made and how it affects her life and her family's life. This is a very slow, character-heavy drama that was enjoyable moment to moment, but left almost no impact on me in the long run. I had to go read through the Wikipedia summary to remember what happened in this movie, and a lot of what I read, I genuinely don't remember. On one hand, it's good that I don't remember anything that I disliked about it, but on the other hand, it's probably not a good sign that I don't remember a single thing about it. This is a solid cast, and they bring good quality acting work to their roles. I very much see how this could be a movie that would be very affecting to someone, but it just didn't have that effect on me, unfortunately.

🎥 Waves (2019)

📊 Ranked #2262/4204 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 46

lost to The Girl on a Motorcycle (held at #2133)

beat The Deadly Affair (#3173 → #3174)

beat Jimmy the Kid (#2651 → #2652)

beat Bad Education (#2390 → #2391)

lost to Rebecca (held at #2261)

beat Pride & Prejudice (#2325 → #2326)

beat Beauty and the Beast (#2293 → #2294)

beat The Big Pond (#2277 → #2278)

beat The Truth About Youth (#2269 → #2270)

beat Cowboys & Aliens (#2265 → #2266)

beat Happy Christmas (#2263 → #2264)

Frankenstein (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, and Christoph Waltz.

Frankenstein is Guillermo del Toro's take on the classic story of a man who attempts to create life by putting together corpse body parts and animating it with lightning. Here, Oscar Isaac is Dr. Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi is the creature. In many ways this is a very faithful adaptation of the original book, with one large exception that seems to alter the story not at all, and one small exception that seems to alter the story greatly. On one hand, we have the addition of Christoph Waltz's character, who is the one who encourages Frankenstein to pursue his morbid interests and helps to fund them. It is also his daughter, played by Mia Goth, who captures Frankenstein's heart. And then on the other hand, we have one tiny addition to the ending which turns the whole story into a more positive conclusion. I'm not going to explain exactly what it is here for spoiler-y reasons, but it's the kind of thing that ten years ago I would have rolled my eyes at. Here, however, I had something of a dramatic response to it. Expecting the dark, pitiless ending and getting something surprisingly warmer felt like a reminder that I don't always know how stories will end, in fiction or in life, and that we can change them if we want. An unexpected moment of empowerment from a film that most likely meant nothing of the kind, but it hit me in a very emotional way. On top of that, the movie also does, of course, look gorgeous, with the dark gothic feel that I want from both the story as a whole and Del Toro's style. If the ending hadn't moved me so much, this would just sit in the middle of my chart, but it was one of those films that I saw at just the right time and it pushed it much further up.

🎥 Frankenstein (2025)

📊 Ranked #897/4204 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 79

beat Laal Singh Chaddha (#2089 → #2090)

beat Finian's Rainbow (#1033 → #1034)

lost to Revengers Tragedy (held at #515)

lost to Muppets Most Wanted (held at #774)

beat Spellbound (#903 → #904)

lost to The Joy Luck Club (held at #838)

lost to Four Lions (held at #870)

lost to Out of Sight (held at #886)

lost to City Girl (held at #894)

beat Twister (#898 → #899)

lost to The History of Future Folk (held at #896)