Highest 2 Lowest (2025)

IMDb plot summary: When a titan music mogul is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma.

Directed by Spike Lee. Stars Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, and Ilfenesh Hadera.

Highest 2 Lowest is a Spike Lee remake of an Akira Kurosawa film, about a wealthy man whose son is kidnapped and held for ransom. He and the people around him must figure out how to respond. This is more interesting in concept than it is in execution. It seems like it would be a natural transition into the modern era, but it ultimately ends up feeling clunky, with overly expository dialogue, even given Lee's expository style. The first half is more interesting conceptually than the second, where it just becomes a typical action flick. The acting is uneven as well. Jeffrey Wright does a great job (when does he ever not?) but Denzel Washington feels didactic and stagey in the worst way. Mostly this just made me want to go back and watch the original, because although this is a great concept for a story and Wright is worth watching, so much of it is just kind of disappointing.

🎥 Highest 2 Lowest (2025)

📊 Ranked #1810/4233 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 58

beat Camp Rock (#2199 → #2278)

lost to Speak No Evil (#1148 → #1166)

lost to The Meg (#1668 → #1568)

lost to Dressed to Kill (held at #1935)

beat Blow Dry (#2060 → #2062)

lost to Away We Go (#1998 → #1986)

beat For Pete's Sake (#2029 → #2093)

lost to A Song Is Born (#2012 → #2016)

lost to State and Main (#2021 → #1937)

beat One 2 Ka 4 (#2025 → #2089)

beat The Seventh Seal (#2023 → #2021)

lost to Shine (#2022 → #1936)

The Straight Story (1999)

IMDb plot summary: Alvin Straight, a 73-year-old, learns that his estranged brother, Lyle is critically ill. Unable to drive, Alvin embarks on a journey from Iowa to Mt. Zion by riding a lawn mower.

Directed by David Lynch. Stars Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, and Jane Galloway Heitz.

The Straight Story is a David Lynch drama about an elderly man who plans to travel the country to visit his estranged brother, who has had a stroke. Only problem is, he has no way to get there, until he decides to drive his riding mower. This is a huge departure from what Lynch is most known for -- this is a quiet, realism-centered, heartwarming story, rather than the bizarre fever dreams I associate with him. It's easier to follow for sure, but also just kind of sits there for me. It's so slow and so quiet, there's almost nothing happening. There's no denying it is a pleasant and warm film, but I did almost immediately forget it. I have no doubt this is going to be some people's favorite movie by Lynch, but it all fell a little flat for me.

🎥 The Straight Story (1999)

📊 Ranked #1812/4232 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 58

lost to The Fourth Kind (#2198 → #2193)

beat The Revengers' Comedies (held at #3222)

beat Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (#2702 → #2703)

beat King Richard (#2446 → #2516)

beat Mad Max (#2322 → #2319)

beat Hairspray (#2261 → #2398)

beat Vampyr (#2229 → #2299)

beat Tiny Furniture (#2213 → #2211)

beat Being the Ricardos (#2205 → #2203)

beat Exhuma (#2201 → #2215)

lost to Camp Rock (#2199 → #2198)

beat We Need to Talk About Kevin (#2200 → #2199)

It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

IMDb plot summary: Two homeless men move into a mansion while its owners are wintering in the South.

Directed by Roy Del Ruth. Stars Don DeFore, Ann Harding, and Charles Ruggles.

It Happened on Fifth Avenue tells the story of a group of down-on-their-luck people who squat in a rich man's mansion for the winter while he's in his summer home. When the daughter of the rich man joins them -- although the others have no idea who she is -- she starts hatching a plan to help them get back on their feet. This is a warm movie with lots of Christmas spirit that I can definitely see growing on me and becoming part of my yearly rotation. I kind of hoped for a more staunchly anti-hoarding message, more than "rich people just need to learn to be generally kind," but this is a nice contrast to the more materialistic stories. It's fun to watch the large cast of characters grow and interact with each other in various ways. There aren't a lot of laugh out loud moments, but it's very cozy, and I plan to return to it and see if it grows on me further.

🎥 It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

📊 Ranked #980/4229 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 77

beat Eddington (#2131 → #2132)

beat Blink Twice (#1110 → #1111)

lost to The Big Sick (held at #595)

lost to Bodies Bodies Bodies (held at #853)

lost to Anna Karenina (held at #978)

beat Wag the Dog (#1044 → #1045)

beat The Man in the Iron Mask (#1013 → #1014)

beat Boy A (#993 → #994)

beat Little Women (#985 → #986)

beat Mirage (#981 → #982)

lost to Twins (held at #979)

La Moustache (2005)

IMDb plot summary: Mark is a middle-aged man who has spent most of his life with a mustache on his face. He suddenly decides to shave it.

Directed by Emmanuel Carrère. Stars Vincent Lindon, Emmanuelle Devos, and Mathieu Amalric.

La Moustache is a French film about a man who, on a whim, shaves his moustache. Then things start getting weird: his wife insists he never had a moustache, and other things about his life seem to be breaking with his known reality. I was kind of dreading this one, given my not-great relationship with both semi-surreal films and French film, but it won me over much more than I expected. The score, by Philip Glass, does a lot of the heavy lifting in connecting me with the film emotionally, particularly during one long mostly-wordless section where our main character basically tries to run away from the whole situation. While it could have been irritating that we never get an explanation as to what's actually happening to this character, it mostly worked and hit the emotional beats as we just see him figure out how to cope with it. Our main character's behavior is believable even when his circumstances are bonkers, so it's easy to follow along with him on that journey. It's an interesting and strange little film that captured me.

🎥 The Moustache (2005)

📊 Ranked #1075/4228 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 75

beat Eddington (#2130 → #2131)

beat Barbie (#1110 → #1111)

lost to The Big Sick (held at #595)

lost to Bodies Bodies Bodies (held at #853)

lost to Anna Karenina (held at #978)

lost to Wag the Dog (held at #1044)

beat Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (#1075 → #1076)

lost to Cannibal! The Musical (held at #1059)

lost to The Pirates of Penzance (held at #1067)

lost to Hot Millions (held at #1071)

lost to Shin Godzilla (held at #1073)

Obex (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Conor Marsh's secluded life is disrupted when he plays the OBEX game. His dog Sandy disappears, blurring reality and game. Conor enters the OBEX world to rescue Sandy, navigating its strange realms.

Directed by Albert Birney. Stars Albert Birney, Callie Hernandez, and Frank Mosley.

Obex is a strange little film about a very introverted man in the late 80s who is very into new tech. He gets the chance to try a new computer game called Obex, but it starts blurring the line between reality and fiction, and eventually captures his dog from the real world into the game world, and he has to go rescue him. The vibe of this is very much that one man and maybe his two buddies made a movie in their apartment and with a green screen, but it's definitely also part of the aesthetic, especially as we're also focusing on the late-80s tech and the pixelated computer screens. I appreciate I never knew where this movie was going. It managed to keep surprising me, but even more so as it got to the ending, which was an unexpectedly pleasant landing place. I left with very warm feelings toward it, which were not what I anticipated given the pretty terrifying moments of tension throughout so much of the film. A fascinating little movie that I'm very glad I got to see.

🎥 OBEX (2026)

📊 Ranked #1213/4227 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 71

beat Raising Arizona (#2130 → #2131)

lost to Barbie (held at #1110)

beat Backbeat (#1620 → #1621)

beat Corrina, Corrina (#1364 → #1365)

beat The Awful Truth (#1236 → #1237)

lost to Brazil (held at #1172)

lost to Come and See (held at #1205)

beat Auntie Mame (#1220 → #1221)

lost to The Last Seduction (held at #1212)

beat Hoodwinked! (#1216 → #1217)

beat Gone Girl (#1214 → #1215)

The Rock (1996)

IMDb plot summary: An FBI chemical weapons expert, and a former SAS soldier turned political prisoner, must break into Alcatraz prison when a rogue military group, led by a renegade general, take it over and threaten a nerve gas attack on San Francisco.

Directed by Michael Bay. Stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, and Ed Harris.

The Rock is a Michael Bay film in which a U.S. military leader takes over Alcatraz with a threat to launch devastating bombs at the city if his demands are not met. An explosives expert, played by Nicolas Cage, and a convict who escaped from Alcatraz years ago, played by Sean Connery, must break back in and disarm the bombs before they're launched. The only Michael Bay movie I think I can say I actually enjoyed is Ambulance, and this movie adds another to the "meh" list for me. It's a good concept, and I love the motivation of the lead villain -- that's ripe for cinematic exploration -- but they get super lazy and just drop it when it gets inconvenient. Nicolas Cage is hamming it up, but very inconsistently, and Sean Connery is playing the whole thing pretty straight, and the combo is awkward. Overall pretty disappointing as an action film, although admittedly this is not a genre tailor-made for me to begin with

Had some difficulties saving my Flickchart full ranking, but it landed at 55% on my chart.

Bruno (2009)

IMDb plot summary: Flamboyant, gay Austrian Brüno looks for new fame in America.

Directed by Larry Charles. Stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, and Clifford Bañagale.

Bruno is a film by Sacha Baron Cohen where, much like he did with Borat, he plays an outlandish character interacting with real people in the real world. Here, Bruno is a gay Austrian model determined to become famous, but his vapidness and aggressive sexual drive is at odds with most of the people he encounters. I enjoyed Borat and pieces of Sacha Baron Cohen's TV show that launched these characters, but this one just REALLY didn't work for me. While Borat was about discovering people's lines and boundaries around racism and misogyny, and exposing what they thought they'd do when it was a safe space, Bruno focuses far, far too often on the title character basically sexually harrassing or assaulting people around him, and that never makes me laugh, even if it's happening to quote-unquote "bad people." There are one or two good moments -- one series of interviews with actors parents that is equal parts hilarious and horrifying, and one interview with a conversion therapy pastor where his attempts to explain the concept to someone as unintelligent as Bruno forces him to say some of the quiet parts out loud. But much more of the movie just seeing how explicit Bruno can get with someone before they get angry, and in a #MeToo world that absolutely includes gay men as victims, the attempt at satire disappears. Definitely one of the weaker efforts from this creator.

🎥 Brüno (2009)

📊 Ranked #3507/4225 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 17

lost to The Internship (held at #2156)

lost to Dear Evan Hansen (held at #3205)

beat Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (#3716 → #3717)

lost to Magic in the Moonlight (held at #3461)

beat Atomic Blonde (#3589 → #3590)

beat Arlington Road (#3526 → #3527)

lost to Highlander (held at #3494)

beat The Words (#3510 → #3511)

lost to The Peanut Butter Falcon (held at #3502)

lost to Talk to Her (held at #3506)

beat The Color of Pomegranates (#3508 → #3509)