A Complete Unknown (2024)

IMDb plot summary: In 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world.

Directed by James Mangold. Stars Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, and Elle Fanning.

A Complete Unknown is a musical biopic of Bob Dylan, starring Timothee Chalamet. We follow his early days trying to make it big, as well as the fallout from his attempts to branch out from his folk music roots. I just wrote a review of the Christopher Reeve documentary, which kept a tight narrative focus throughout his life. This is the complete opposite -- the story tackles a much shorter period of time in Dylan's life but somehow lacks any throughline aside from maybe "Bob Dylan is an obnoxious person," which I suspect was not the story they were trying to tell. I do think that it's trying to get us to see him as this sort of a rebel figure, but it's not successful. It feels like a series of disconnected stories that don't add up to a picture of the artist that is interesting or compelling or feels worth telling. I will say Timothee Chalamet is really excellent in this. He fully disappears into the role. Totally forgot that I was watching a known actor. He just embodies the character, which is really impressive. And of course, we also have some really excellent music. I love how much time it spends listening to a lot of these great folk songs, and not just performed by Dylan, but we also get a lot from Baez and a lot from Seeger. (Edward Norton as Pete Seger is also really excellent. I haven't seen him do anything this good in a long time.) So the music is good, but I'm just not compelled by the story enough to be swayed by it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 A Complete Unknown (2024)

📊 Ranked #2523/4183 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 40

lost to Blackmail Is My Life (held at #2100)

beat Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#3144 → #3145)

beat The Man Who Knew Too Much (#2626 → #2627)

lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (held at #2362)

lost to All the Money in the World (held at #2494)

beat Dhamaal (#2560 → #2561)

beat Rushmore (#2526 → #2527)

lost to Stage Fright (held at #2510)

lost to The Savages (held at #2518)

lost to Hanna (held at #2522)

beat Videodrome (#2524 → #2525)

beat Only You (#2523 → #2524)

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Reeve's rise to becoming a film star follows with a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. After the accident, he became an activist for spinal cord injury treatments and disability rights.

Directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is a documentary about Christopher Reeve's life, focusing particular on his rise to fame as Superman and his activism efforts after an accident that left him paralyzed. The fact that Reeve's story really only has two widely-known pieces -- his work as Superman and his disability/activism -- makes this a cleaner documentary work than many films trying to capture a full human being. I also found it fascinating how even though it primarily used interviews from very close friends and family, it didn't idolize him as someone larger than life, so much as just a regular guy who liked to act and then wanted to live a better life. It did make me want to hunt down some of his lesser-known films and learn a bit more about him as an actor before his accident, which I suppose is one of the purposes of the film. Overall it does feel like I came out of it having learned a lot about Reeve but without necessarily feeling much about him, which feels like a missed note.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)

📊 Ranked #2227/4182 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 47

lost to Raising Arizona (held at #2097)

beat The Big House (#3141 → #3142)

beat Tab Hunter Confidential (#2621 → #2622)

beat Skyfall (#2359 → #2360)

lost to The Three Faces of Eve (held at #2226)

beat The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (#2291 → #2292)

beat Dallas Buyers Club (#2259 → #2260)

beat Hamlet (#2243 → #2244)

beat The Lodger (#2235 → #2236)

beat King of Jazz (#2231 → #2232)

beat Cry-Baby (#2229 → #2230)

beat Annie Get Your Gun (#2227 → #2228)

The Lobster (2015)

IMDb plot summary: In a dystopian near future, according to the laws of The City, single people are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in 45 days or they're transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Stars Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, and Jessica Barden.

The Lobster is a Yorgos Lanthimos dark comedy that stars Colin Farrell as a man who signs up to go to a hotel in which he has limited amount of time to find a romantic partner, or else he will be turned into an animal of his choice. As one might guess from the title, he chooses a lobster. As the time ticks by and he has no prospects in sight, he starts trying to figure out what he will actually be willing to do to get a partner and avoid that fate. As with so many Lanthimos films, this plays out in a very unusual way, so I'm not going to spoil it much beyond what I've actually said. I have learned that Yorgos might be my favorite modern director. While this doesn't rise quite to the level of enjoyment that I got out of Poor Things or Kinds of Kindness, I did find it fascinating, and I laughed out loud a lot. It's got a truly wonderful mix of dark comedy alongside its horrific story. I also found the ending and its ambiguity very engaging. It kept me thinking about what the story was trying to say about relationships, and I like that it doesn't give an obvious answer. Not my favorite of this director's films, but it's one that I think will continue to sit with me and I appreciate it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Lobster (2015)

📊 Ranked #1059/4181 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 75

beat The Sasquatch Gang (#2097 → #2098)

lost to The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (held at #1038)

beat Sweet Smell of Success (#1562 → #1563)

beat After Yang (#1301 → #1302)

beat CBGB (#1168 → #1169)

beat Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (#1103 → #1104)

beat Crazy Rich Asians (#1070 → #1071)

lost to The Voices (held at #1054)

beat In the Name of the Father (#1062 → #1063)

lost to The Quick and the Dead (held at #1058)

beat My Life as a Dog (#1060 → #1061)

beat Repo Man (#1059 → #1060)

The Penguin Lessons (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A disillusioned Englishman who goes to work in a school in a divided Argentina in 1976 finds his life transformed when he rescues an orphaned penguin from the beach.

Directed by Peter Cattaneo. Stars Steve Coogan, Jonathan Pryce, and Bruno Blas.

The Penguin Lessons stars Steve Coogan as an English teacher during a time of political upheaval in Argentina in the 1970s. He is determined to stay out of it and not endanger himself or put himself on the line for any of what's going on, but his perspective changes when he ends up unintentionally adopting a penguin. This is the kind of film that I will admit is very unlikely to work for me. I do not tend to be moved by stories of people being pulled out of apathy by either pets or small children. There are just very few ways that I have ever seen that play out that feels compelling to me. This one doesn't quite work either. I admire the story trying to be told, and it is apparently based on a true story to some extent, but it's one of those stories that it is almost impossible to tell well for me. Once you introduce a cute animal into the mix, it just feels perpetually sappy -- and I fully admit this is a problem with me more so than with the movie, but it means that I'm not the right person to evaluate whether or not this film is actually good because all it does is make me kind of sigh and roll my eyes. If you have a similar reaction to stories in that vein, you probably won't love this either.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Penguin Lessons (2025)

📊 Ranked #2547/4180 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 39

lost to Cypher (held at #2100)

beat Le Cercle Rouge (#3142 → #3143)

beat Jimmy the Kid (#2625 → #2626)

lost to The Blues Brothers (held at #2361)

lost to King Richard (held at #2493)

beat A Bridge Too Far (#2559 → #2560)

lost to The Mistress of Spices (held at #2525)

lost to Melinda and Melinda (held at #2543)

beat Ice Princess (#2551 → #2552)

beat The Asphalt Jungle (#2547 → #2548)

lost to Son of Rambow (held at #2545)

lost to I'm Not Rappaport (held at #2546)

The Old Guard (2020)

IMDb plot summary: A covert group of tight-knit mercenaries with an inability to die have fought to protect the world for centuries. But when their abilities are suddenly exposed, they need to eliminate the threat of those who seek to replicate their power.

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Stars Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, and Matthias Schoenaerts.

The Old Guard is a fantasy sci-fi action movie starring Charlize Theron as the leader of a group of immortal beings who go around saving people's lives while also being on the run from those who want to hunt them down. Things get even more complicated when they discover another immortal who doesn't know what she is yet. What an odd movie this is. It has all the hallmarks of a very trope-filled young adult novel, but this is clearly for adults. That's not necessarily a complaint, just something that makes the movie unique. The lore behind the characters is significantly more interesting than watching them engage in actual battle with the government agents, and it was irritating how obviously it was set up for a sequel at the end. Have the courage to end your movie, please. But if you wanted to watch a YA story featuring adult characters, this is absolutely what that is, and it's a decent ride.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Old Guard (2020)

📊 Ranked #2460/4179 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 41

lost to Blackmail Is My Life (held at #2099)

beat Le Cercle Rouge (#3141 → #3142)

beat Jimmy the Kid (#2624 → #2625)

lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (held at #2360)

beat King Richard (#2492 → #2493)

lost to Hellboy (held at #2427)

lost to Wreck-It Ralph (held at #2459)

beat Smokin' Aces (#2475 → #2476)

beat The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (#2467 → #2468)

beat Broken Embraces (#2463 → #2464)

beat Pitch Perfect 2 (#2461 → #2462)

beat Home Again (#2460 → #2461)

Speak No Evil (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A family is invited to spend a whole weekend in a lonely home in the countryside, but as the weekend progresses, they realize that a dark side lies within the family who invited them.

Directed by James Watkins. Stars James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, and Scoot McNairy.

Speak No Evil is about two families who befriend each other on vacation. One family takes the other up on their offer to visit their country home, however things start getting uncomfortable, and the couple begins to wonder if something sinister is going on. As far as horror thrillers go, this one is pretty good. It has a nice balance of genuine creepy moments and slightly exaggerated twists that keep it entertaining throughout. It also does a pretty good job of maintaining the characters' need to stay at the home, even as things come up that feel like they should push them away. It's seldom irritating when they return and more understandable given the circumstances. This isn't an incredible movie, but it is a fun and interesting watch and I'm glad I got to see it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Speak No Evil (2024)

📊 Ranked #1119/4178 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 73

beat Cypher (#2099 → #2100)

lost to Walk Don't Run (held at #1038)

beat Manchester by the Sea (#1562 → #1563)

beat A Grand Day Out (#1301 → #1302)

beat The Nanny Diaries (#1168 → #1169)

lost to Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (held at #1103)

beat Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (#1135 → #1136)

beat Crocodile Dundee (#1119 → #1120)

lost to Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (held at #1111)

lost to Luca (held at #1115)

lost to Baby Driver (held at #1117)

lost to Match Point (held at #1118)

A Troll in Central Park (1994)

IMDb plot summary: An evil Queen banishes a flower loving troll named Stanley to New York City, where he befriends two young children.

Directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. Stars Dom DeLuise, Cloris Leachman, and Charles Nelson Reilly.

A Troll in Central Park is a Don Bluth film in which a young troll, played by Dom DeLuise, is more interested in growing flowers than wreaking havoc with his troll comrades, and as a result he is banished to Central Park. He ends up befriending of couple of New York children who then find themselves in danger from the trolls. It feels like summarizing the movie plot itself took longer than the movie itself. This movie goes by so fast and tries to cram so much in, and it mostly feels overwhelming. I've never been a huge Don Bluth fan, but when his movies work for me, they really work. This one, I think, really needed to be seen as a child for me to have any affection for it. As an adult, I just find it kind of awkward and messy without a lot of real stakes to ground it. Definitely not the best of Bluth's work.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 A Troll in Central Park (1994)

📊 Ranked #3123/4177 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 25

lost to Cypher (held at #2099)

beat A Prairie Home Companion (#3140 → #3141)

lost to Mystic River (held at #2624)

lost to 3, 2, 1... Frankie Go Boom (held at #2882)

lost to Jake's Women (held at #3011)

lost to Alice in Wonderland (held at #3075)

lost to People on Sunday (held at #3107)

beat Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (#3123 → #3124)

lost to The Milagro Beanfield War (held at #3115)

lost to A Man Called Peter (held at #3119)

lost to In the Year of the Pig (held at #3121)

lost to Everyone Says I Love You (held at #3122)