Parenthood (1989)

IMDb plot summary: Four Buckman siblings attempt to raise their children - each in their own different style - and deal with the joys and sorrows that the process brings.

Directed by Ron Howard. Stars Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, and Dianne Wiest.

Parenthood is an ensemble comedy/drama film about, well, parenthood, starring, among others, Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, and Rick Moranis. We see how these people deal with the struggles of raising their children, as well as their current relationship with their own father and how that plays into it. There is a gentle warmth to this movie that really draws you into it. Everybody's performances manage to be comedic while also feeling fully genuine, and that's a pretty impressive feat. That being said, though, I have trouble remembering individual beats now that it's been a few days since I watched it, even while I was confident I enjoyed it. I wonder if this is one that I am going to be inclined to return to, knowing that it was a good watch but not holding any of the specifics in mind so they will surprise me again. A good film but not a great one.

🎥 Parenthood (1989)

📊 Ranked #1038/4265 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 76

beat 21 (#2009 → #2055)

lost to Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (#1076 → #1088)

beat National Treasure (#1633 → #1680)

beat Seven Chances (#1360 → #1355)

beat Nina Wu (#1233 → #1215)

beat Forgiving Dr. Mengele (#1132 → #1144)

beat Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (#1149 → #1132)

lost to Re-Animator (#1105 → #1104)

beat National Lampoon's Vacation (#1126 → #1125)

beat The Game (held at #1112)

lost to The Black Cat (#1130 → #1110)

lost to Sisters (#1148 → #923)

Krisha (2015)

IMDb plot summary: Krisha returns for Thanksgiving dinner after ten years away from her family, but past demons threaten to ruin the festivities.

Directed by Trey Edward Shults. Stars Krisha Fairchild, Alex Dobrenko, and Robyn Fairchild.

Krisha is a drama about a middle-aged woman coming back to spend Thanksgiving with close family and friends after years of being apart from them. We start seeing the relationships tense up as she tries to reconnect. This one is a slow burn, but the final third really cranks up the tension and had me glued to the screen. It's one of those films that allows its characters to sit and interact together slowly, unraveling the pieces of their personalities bit by bit, and that pays off. That works best if you can *trust* that the early quiet moments are building to something interesting, and that sometimes comes into question with occasionally awkward or overly expositional dialogue, but mostly it held my attention. And then, as I said, it comes together nicely in the end for an explosive, if very sad, conclusion. Worth a watch.

🎥 Krisha (2016)

📊 Ranked #1643/4266 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 62

beat Real Life (#2127 → #2128)

lost to Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (#1090 → #915)

lost to The Long Day Closes (#1603 → #1602)

beat Platoon (#1861 → #1862)

beat Hamlet (#1736 → #1738)

beat Swing Shift (#1665 → #1666)

lost to Glory (held at #1634)

lost to Killers of the Flower Moon (#1649 → #1651)

beat The Tragedy of Macbeth (#1657 → #1667)

lost to Kajaki (#1653 → #1647)

lost to VeggieTales: Where's God When I'm S-Scared? (held at #1655)

beat All That Jazz (#1656 → #1661)

Bring Her Back (2025)

IMDb plot summary: A brother and sister uncover a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother.

Directed by Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou. Stars Billy Barratt, Sally Hawkins, and Mischa Heywood.

Bring Her Back is a horror film where two orphaned siblings are placed with foster parent Sally Hawkins and her disturbed son, and things get darker from there. This one was an impressive surprise. Sally Hawkins grounds this with a perfect combination of reassuring and ominous vibes, and as we get to learn more about her story, she just becomes more interesting as a character. The film also has some of the most horrifying sequences that are going to stick in my head forever, which is either going to be a selling point or a "never ever watch this" point, depending on who you are. The creators of this film have gotten some major attention, between this and their previous film, and I am definitely going to have to seek them out in future. A worthwhile watch, if also frequently a difficult watch.

🎥 Bring Her Back (2025)

📊 Ranked #628/4270 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 85

beat The Master (held at #2123)

beat Sarah, Plain and Tall (#1093 → #1086)

lost to I ♥ Huckabees (#566 → #564)

lost to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (#833 → #648)

beat Snowpiercer (held at #959)

beat Iron Man (#897 → #890)

lost to Turning Red (#863 → #854)

beat The Hunger Games (#879 → #886)

lost to Crazy, Stupid, Love. (#870 → #867)

beat Mad Max 2 (#873 → #902)

beat Nosferatu (#871 → #900)

lost to City Girl (#872 → #870)

James and the Giant Peach (1996)

IMDb plot summary: An orphan who lives with his two cruel aunts befriends anthropomorphic bugs who live inside a giant peach, and they embark on a journey to New York City.

Directed by Henry Selick. Stars Paul Terry, Joanna Lumley, and Pete Postlethwaite.

James and the Giant Peach is a partially animated adaptation of the Roald Dahl book of the same name. It tells the story of a young neglected boy named James who finds camaraderie with a group of bugs that live inside the mysteriously enormous peach that started growing in his yard. While I have occasionally enjoyed reading Roald Dahl, there is an ickiness to his stories that always comes out in the worst way in adaptations, and that ickiness is extremely present for me in this movie. The animation is truly so unsettling, and it's clearly a stylistic choice so I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it makes *me* extremely not want to watch it. The script is also dumbed down enough for children that there isn't much depth here for me to latch onto in the story. I get why kids may have latched onto the quirky dark vibe, but it just feels gross to me. Not one I have any interest in rewatching at any point.

🎥 James and the Giant Peach (1996)

📊 Ranked #2993/4267 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 33

lost to The Adam Project (#2113 → #2010)

lost to Captain Marvel (#3214 → #3051)

beat Bohemian Rhapsody (#3766 → #3772)

lost to The Cocoanuts (#3485 → #3433)

beat Cinderella (#3624 → #3628)

lost to Get Smart (#3559 → #3496)

beat Hangman's Curse (#3592 → #3596)

beat A Most Wanted Man (#3576 → #3577)

lost to The Secret Agent (#3543 → #2992)

lost to Basic Instinct (#3571 → #3569)

beat A Decade Under the Influence (#3574 → #3590)

beat Arlington Road (#3573 → #3550)

The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Ann Lee, the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, is proclaimed as the female Christ by her followers. This film depicts her establishment of a utopian society and the Shakers' worship through song and dance, based on real events.

Directed by Mona Fastvold. Stars Amanda Seyfried, Lewis Pullman, and Thomasin McKenzie.

The Testament of Ann Lee is a musical telling of the history of the Shakers in 1700s America, starring Amanda Seyfried as their leader, the titular Ann Lee. This is an interesting enough story on its own, but making it a musical adds this whole additional dimension to it that I found really compelling. I really enjoyed how well the repetitive nature of these folk songs and chants mirror sacred liturgy and rituals -- the two serve each other perfectly. The other thing that recommends the film is Seyfried's performance, which is excellent. Those things make it well worth watching, but the overall story doesn't hang together as well as I'd like and makes it fall a little flat in my memory by the very end. It's a very unique movie and I'd definitely recommend it, but I did want to connect with it more than I did ultimately.

🎥 The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)

📊 Ranked #1748/4264 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 60

beat Anna Christie (#2130 → #2298)

beat The Dictator (#1092 → #1089)

lost to Ordet (#565 → #630)

lost to The Player (#829 → #634)

beat Young Adult (#960 → #958)

lost to Companion (held at #894)

lost to Music and Lyrics (#927 → #928)

lost to Happy Death Day (#944 → #824)

beat Kwaidan (#952 → #951)

beat Daria in 'Is It College Yet?' (#948 → #947)

lost to The Substance (held at #946)

beat The Man from Earth (#947 → #1042)

Wonka (2023)

IMDb plot summary: With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.

Directed by Paul King. Stars Timothée Chalamet, Gustave Die, and Murray McArthur.

Wonka is a Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory prequel, starring Timothee Chalamet as the famous chocolatier, who arrives in town ready to set up a shop with his inventive treats. He has to battle the established conglomerate of chocolatiers who already dominate the town, and they are determined to keep him from breaking through. This is a much better movie than frankly it has any right to be. Starting from the intro song, which is cheery and tells us all we need to know about our character and the world he's in, I knew I was in for a treat. I am going to go out on a limb here and say this is Timothee Chalamet's best performance -- he radiates charm here in a way I've literally never seen in any of his other performances. The big picture story is generic, but the dialogue and characterization is so charmingly written that it doesn't make much difference. This was a huge surprise to me, and I'm pleased I finally watched it.

🎥 Wonka (2023)

📊 Ranked #707/4262 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 83

beat Raising Arizona (#2150 → #2152)

beat Twister (#1099 → #1101)

lost to A Letter to Three Wives (held at #567)

beat The Butler (#835 → #836)

lost to Waking Ned (#703 → #704)

lost to Labyrinth (#771 → #773)

lost to Drunken Angel (#802 → #690)

beat Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (#819 → #835)

lost to The Manchurian Candidate (#811 → #812)

beat Great Expectations (#815 → #817)

beat Cloud Atlas (#813 → #819)

beat New York, New York (#812 → #816)

Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)

IMDb plot summary: A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to finally bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.

Directed by Rob Reiner. Stars Alec Baldwin, James Woods, and Whoopi Goldberg.

Ghosts of Mississippi stars Alec Baldwin as a lawyer who is asked to take on a decades-old case of a Black man's murder, potentially locking up an established member of the community. This film was released the same year as A Time to Kill, and both tackle racial injustice in the legal system in the South, and I think I like them both exactly the same. They both do a medium-but-not-spectacular job of keeping the tension high and addressing some of the societal issues at play in the story. It does stay on a pretty mid-90s surface level of the issues, but it's still worth examining. It keeps the courtroom scenes compellingly taut as they should be. It's not an incredible movie, but it's not a bad watch either.

🎥 Ghosts of Mississippi (1997)

📊 Ranked #1753/4263 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 60

lost to Memphis Belle (#2136 → #2188)

beat Legendary Weapons of China (#3168 → #3172)

beat Phantom of the Paradise (#2700 → #2697)

beat The Family Stone (#2404 → #2409)

lost to Rebecca (#2283 → #2215)

beat Forever Young (#2324 → #2278)

beat Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (#2273 → #2446)

lost to The Three Faces of Eve (#2252 → #2227)

lost to Alice Adams (#2259 → #2035)

beat Hustle & Flow (#2358 → #2468)

beat Nacho Libre (#2341 → #2344)

beat Pat and Mike (#2261 → #2271)