Fire of Love (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft died in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together: unraveling the mysteries of volcanoes by capturing the most explosive imagery ever recorded.

Directed by Sara Dosa.

Fire of Love is a documentary about a marriage volcanologist couple, following their joint careers as they researched volcanoes and ultimately lost their lives in the course of their work. This is kind of a fascinating combination of personal love story and educational film. We follow what makes these two people willing to risk their lives to get close enough to active volcanoes to learn about them. The film is strangely gentle for having such a big and dramatic topic as a natural disaster, but I think that's in its favor that it doesn't sensationalize the story and just allows it to be as unique as it is. It also is in fact very educational about volcanoes along the way -- mostly through the lens of "this is what they learned about them and why they by way of also telling the story of these two people and what motivates them to study the more deadly volcanoes in the hopes of finding better methods of prediction and protection. Pretty interesting documentary that moves along quickly.

🎥 Fire of Love (2022)

📊 Ranked #1077/4281 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 75

beat The Firm (#2321 → #2322)

lost to Gremlins (#1124 → #1125)

lost to Seven Days Leave (held at #1629)

lost to The Glass Menagerie (#1873 → #1871)

beat The Forest (#1995 → #2061)

beat One Hundred and One Dalmatians (#1943 → #1977)

beat Dot the I (#1859 → #1882)

beat 8-Bit Christmas (#1879 → #2027)

beat Event Horizon (#1867 → #1866)

beat Vicky Cristina Barcelona (#1868 → #1874)

beat The Princess and the Frog (#1866 → #1872)

The Breadwinner (2017)

IMDb plot summary: In 2001, Afghanistan is under the control of the Taliban. When her father is captured, a determined young girl disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

Directed by Nora Twomey. Stars Saara Chaudry, Soma Chhaya, and Noorin Gulamgaus.

The Breadwinner is about a young girl in Afghanistan who dresses as a boy when her father is unexpectedly jailed and there is no one to be the head of their house. This is a really compelling story with a great main character. It so clearly paints this picture of how difficult this girl's and her sisters' lives are now that there is not a man of the house to take care of them. The animation is really lovely, traditional in some ways but very vivid. The film also does a really nice job of growing these characters so that it's so easy to understand where each of them is coming from and how they relate to each other. It's a great cast of ensemble characters besides just our main girl. This one is definitely worth watching.

🎥 The Breadwinner (2018)

📊 Ranked #1717/4280 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 61

beat Memphis Belle (#2142 → #2187)

beat Robot & Frank (#1092 → #1125)

beat The Kid Detective (#565 → #608)

lost to Take the Money and Run (#257 → #258)

lost to Citizen Kane (held at #417)

beat The Goodbye Girl (#492 → #563)

lost to Next Goal Wins (#454 → #453)

beat Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway (#470 → #556)

lost to Jackie Brown (#462 → #509)

beat The Lady Eve (#466 → #471)

beat Soapdish (#464 → #552)

lost to 10 Cloverfield Lane (#463 → #343)

Apollo 11 (2019)

IMDb plot summary: A look at the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon led by commander Neil Armstrong and pilots Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins.

Directed by Todd Douglas Miller.

Apollo 11 is a documentary about the Apollo 11 moon landing, using a bunch of never-before-seen footage from behind the scenes and of the launch itself. While documentaries, especially documentaries cobbled together from old footage, can be very dry, this one is surprisingly engaging. The documentary is set out in a very linear fashion, with just a straight series of interactions of the crew and the command folks on the ground. We hear them make their journey, share their observations, and of course land on the moon. I found myself amazed by how smoothly everything went -- no abrupt changes needed, no last-minute saves -- it went just about as smoothly as the whole thing possibly could, which is kind of a miracle. I was surprised at how captivating it was when there was very little conflict or surprise, just a bunch of examples of "a day in the life" in space. Its unique nature does mean that I have no interest in really watching it again, but it was fascinating to watch once.

🎥 Apollo 11 (2019)

📊 Ranked #2462/4279 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 47

lost to Wayne's World (#2138 → #2012)

beat My Best Friend's Wedding (#3230 → #3331)

beat Take Me Out to the Ball Game (#2681 → #2685)

beat Spaceballs (held at #2416)

beat Pat and Mike (#2286 → #2292)

beat Meet John Doe (#2211 → #2229)

lost to Two Weeks Notice (#2173 → #1984)

beat Happythankyoumoreplease (#2193 → #2237)

beat The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (#2183 → #2187)

beat The Wrestler (#2177 → #2205)

beat An Affair to Remember (#2175 → #2179)

Love Songs (2007)

IMDb plot summary: Ismael and Julie enter a playful yet emotionally laced threesome with Alice. When tragedy strikes, these young Parisians are forced to deal with the fragility of life and love.

Directed by Christophe Honoré. Stars Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel, and Clotilde Hesme.

Love Songs is a French musical that begins by being about a couple's relationship (and an occasional throuple) and then, when one half of that couple dies unexpectedly, we follow the male half on his journey of healing. This is clearly in the style of Jacques Demy, who I love, and I can see those pieces in this work. I'm a little less swayed by the story we're following -- French romance films often have a unique relational language that I do not identify with at all -- but the songs are great. They were easily the highlight, and I wish on some level that this was fully sung-through like some of Demy's were. The rest of the story and the romance are told pretty well, and while there are ups and downs and how engaged I was in the actual plot, it pulls it together at the end for me for sure. A unique little movie that I am glad that I got the chance to watch.

🎥 Love Songs (2007)

📊 Ranked #1257/4278 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 71

beat Lilies of the Field (#2137 → #2238)

lost to Do the Right Thing (#1087 → #878)

lost to The Wolf of Wall Street (#1610 → #1606)

beat Live Flesh (#1869 → #1871)

beat Hero (held at #1742)

beat American Movie (#1672 → #1671)

beat Hereditary (#1641 → #1728)

beat Hamlet (#1625 → #1623)

beat Patsy & Loretta (#1617 → #1723)

beat Música (#1613 → #1659)

lost to Krisha (#1611 → #1254)

lost to The Salesman (#1612 → #1597)

Maria (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity.

Directed by Pablo Larraín. Stars Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Alba Rohrwacher.

Maria is a biopic of opera singer Maria Callas in the final days of her life. Callas is played by Angelina Jolie, and we see her reminiscing about her past fame, as well as working to restore her damaged voice. I didn't realize until after finishing the film that this is the third in the trilogy of famous women of the 1900s that included Jackie and Spencer before, but it makes sense, because this one is compelling in a very similar way. I was fascinated by its choice to hop in and out of the realism of the story, mirroring Callas' fragile mental state. This is one of Jolie's best acting performances, in my opinion, and not just because of the fact that she studied opera to be able to do her own singing, and while we would never believe her as Callas in her prime (thus using recordings for those sequences), I can totally buy her as a ruined Callas. It's a sad and contemplative film that overall really hits its markers for me. Definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of opera or Angelina Jolie or any of the other films in this biopic series.

🎥 Maria (2024)

📊 Ranked #797/4277 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 81

beat John and Mary (#2182 → #2183)

beat The Other Boleyn Girl (#1091 → #1093)

lost to I ♥ Huckabees (#570 → #572)

lost to The History of Future Folk (#852 → #863)

lost to Night Must Fall (#987 → #993)

beat Amistad (#1065 → #1113)

beat The Other Side of Sunday (#1023 → #1025)

lost to The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (#1006 → #1009)

lost to Fruitvale Station (#1016 → #1017)

lost to The Wild Robot (#1014 → #831)

beat Kwaidan (#973 → #979)

lost to The Quick and the Dead (#1019 → #1021)

The Family That Preys (2008)

IMDb plot summary: Two families from different walks of life learn to work together.

Directed by Tyler Perry. Stars Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, and Sanaa Lathan.

The Family that Preys is a Tyler Perry movie about a family, focusing most frequently on the two grown daughters who have very different attitudes toward romance and money. As the two argue and fight and bring their other family members into it, secrets begin to be revealed. I don't have a wide knowledge of Perry's work, but this was enjoyable, if forgettable. Characters and motivations here are drawn with extremely big, broad strokes. In some ways it is a melodrama, where the villains are villains for very little reason aside from that they're just evil. That being said, it is a fun ride to watch the villains try to finagle their way into getting what they want, and it's satisfying to ultimately see the heroes win out in the end. There are a lot of plots going on here, and I wish they were a little bit more cohesive rather than just feeling slapped together, but hopping back and forth between them certainly meant that I was seldom bored. Not fully my style or genre, but I'm not mad I watched it.

🎥 Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (2008)

📊 Ranked #2381/4276 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 49

lost to Memphis Belle (#2131 → #2101)

beat The Other Sister (#3225 → #3342)

beat Heartbeat (#2676 → #2693)

lost to In the Mood for Love (#2412 → #2213)

beat A Lady to Love (#2540 → #2510)

beat Pi (#2474 → #2396)

lost to Air Force One (#2443 → #2279)

beat The Bat Whispers (#2458 → #2495)

lost to Wide Awake (#2450 → #2290)

lost to Pete's Dragon (#2454 → #2296)

beat Love Exposure (#2456 → #2493)

beat Wreck-It Ralph (#2455 → #2514)

Caught Stealing (2025)

IMDb plot summary: When his neighbor asks him to take care of his cat, a former baseball prodigy now working as a bartender finds himself in the middle of gangsters without knowing why. He must use all his cunning to survive and understand what is happening.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Stars Austin Butler, Regina King, and Zoë Kravitz.

Caught Stealing stars Austin Butler as a washed-up baseball wunderkind who is now an alcoholic bartender. When he finds himself unexpectedly mixed up with his neighbor's shady dealings, he has to pull himself together and figure out how to keep himself and his loved ones safe. This is kind of a departure for Darren Aronofsky, as in many ways, it's just a straightforward action crime movie. I've always been most impressed with Aronofsky when he explores themes of obsession and how that brings people down, and he touches on that a tiny bit in the aspects where the character is having to confront their addiction to alcohol, but the big picture is not as intense as it often is with his films. Instead we get a more straightforward story about an unexpected getting caught up in a criminal scheme and it for the most part follows familiar and expected beats. Austin Butler is charismatic here and he is an easy hero to root for. A little on the expected side for this director, who often is a little bit more experimental, but it is ultimately well done.

🎥 Caught Stealing (2025)

📊 Ranked #1760/4275 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 60

beat Obvious Child (#2117 → #2290)

lost to Twister (#1086 → #932)

lost to Something to Sing About (#1599 → #1592)

lost to The Help (#1857 → #1951)

beat Sweet Bird of Youth (#1989 → #1984)

beat Serpico (#1921 → #1914)

lost to Swiss Army Man (#1888 → #1885)

beat Notes on a Scandal (#1903 → #1992)

lost to Splice (#1895 → #1890)

lost to Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (#1899 → #1896)

beat Lucky Number Slevin (#1901 → #1967)

beat 1408 (#1900 → #1966)