Red Rocket (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Washed-up porn star Mikey Saber returns to his small Texas hometown and decides if he wants to be with his ex-wife or the donut shop girl hes in love with.

Directed by Sean Baker. Stars Simon Rex, Bree Elrod, and Suzanna Son.

Red Rocket is a Sean Baker film about an adult film star who returns to his hometown in search of his next career move. He attempts to rekindle things with his ex, while simultaneously falling for a high schooler working at the local donut shop. Baker and I have been kind of all over the place -- I loved The Florida Project and was bored by Anora, and this one sits right in the middle. Our main character is exactly the kind of character that Sean Baker really excels in highlighting, someone who is absolutely trapped in the world that they live in with not even a hint of being able to get out of it, and some of that world is of their own making. The whole film feels perpetually claustrophobic, and even as the characters are dreaming big dreams you have this sense that it's obviously never going to make it there. There's a hopelessness pervading the entire film that is relentless. I found the ending provocative in the same way The Florida Project was, albeit with a slightly more ambiguous vibe. It's a depressing watch, but it's a well-made one, and certainly one that pulled me into the world of the characters.

🎥 Red Rocket (2021)

📊 Ranked #1819/4274 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 59

beat All Quiet on the Western Front (#2101 → #2246)

beat Going My Way (#1087 → #1147)

lost to Naughty Marietta (#621 → #503)

lost to The Cutting Edge (#826 → #869)

beat Oxygen (#958 → #1037)

lost to An American Werewolf in London (#901 → #876)

lost to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (#926 → #921)

lost to Feet First (#948 → #808)

lost to Synecdoche, New York (#955 → #754)

beat Whale Rider (#957 → #1034)

beat TiMER (#755 → #1789)

lost to The Thursday Murder Club (#869 → #648)

Vengeful (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Raymond, wrongly convicted of a crime enters prison. Upon release, Raymond faces rejection by society and his estranged daughter. Raymond's despair deepens. Fueled by anger, Raymond's focus shifts to revenge.

Directed by Chuck Browne. Stars Bobby J. Coleman, Christoph David Cording, and Linsey Davis.

Vengeful is a film about a man who is unfairly imprisoned and when he is finally released on parole and finds that he is unable to resume any semblance of a normal life, he decides instead to take revenge on those who put him in prison in the 1st place. This is... pretty not-great. The writing and acting feels amateurish at basically every level. You can feel the passion in telling this story, but you can also feel a single writer's unedited voice, when it could use an editor for sure. It clearly is also wanting to make some bigger point about the prison industrial complex and how it affects Black families, but it never lands that message. There are much better examples of better crime movies.

Miami Connection (1987)

IMDb plot summary: A martial arts rock band goes up against a band of motorcycle ninjas who have tightened their grip on Florida's narcotics trade.

Directed by Woo-sang Park and Y.K. Kim. Stars Y.K. Kim, Vincent Hirsch, and Joseph Diamand.

Miami Connection is a martial arts film about a rock band who are all super into Taekwondo, and they fight a bunch of criminals and ninjas in Miami. This film feels tailor-made for an MST3K feature. It's bananas. There's so much going on, and none of it makes sense together. That's not to say it's not entertaining -- I particularly enjoyed the extended scenes of metal songs singing about peace, love, and Taekwondo. But truly the story is extremely confusing and makes very little sense. A silly, fluffy romp that had some enjoyable moments but overall will not sit with me for long.

🎥 Miami Connection (1987)

📊 Ranked #2925/4273 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 36

lost to All Quiet on the Western Front (held at #2118)

beat Cinderella (#3210 → #3211)

lost to Melinda and Melinda (#2659 → #2609)

lost to With Byrd at the South Pole (#2939 → #2842)

lost to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (#3074 → #3075)

beat The 101-Year-Old Man Who Skipped Out on the Bill and Disappeared (#3142 → #3143)

lost to Water for Elephants (#3107 → #3108)

lost to The Untouchables (#3125 → #3127)

beat Lolita (#3133 → #3134)

beat The Divorcee (#3129 → #3130)

lost to Little Women (#3127 → #3129)

beat High Society (held at #3128)

Mazes and Monsters (1982)

IMDb plot summary: When a group of friends decide to take their role-playing gaming to another level, one of their own's mental instability begins to take it too far for him.

Directed by Steven Hilliard Stern. Stars Tom Hanks, Wendy Crewson, and David Wysocki.

Mazes and Monsters is a TV movie featuring Tom Hanks in his first lead role. He plays a college student who has a mental break during a tabletop roleplaying game (modeled after Dungeons & Dragons) and begins to believe he is the actual character. This made the rounds on TikTok for his infamously cringey final scene and take on roleplaying, but it wasn't quite as bad as that scene made it look like out of context. It's definitely got cheesy TV movie dialogue, but it's not being dogmatic about the evils of Dungeons & Dragons, which would have made this a very different story. Hanks is pretty good in his first feature, really embodying this character's fragile psyche and making us feel a little worried for his well-being right from the beginning. The ending definitely does lean into earnestness in a way that is a little eye-rolly, but it's just silly, not irritating. 

🎥 Mazes and Monsters (1982)

📊 Ranked #2919/4272 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 36

lost to Hamlet (#2112 → #2113)

beat Captain January (#3214 → #3351)

lost to The TV Set (#2652 → #2649)

beat Born Reckless (#2939 → #2971)

beat Enemy of the State (held at #2800)

lost to Uptight (#2727 → #2652)

lost to Bill Cunningham New York (#2766 → #2717)

beat Mission: Impossible III (#2783 → #2749)

lost to Dr. Seuss on the Loose (#2774 → #2789)

beat Ace High (#2779 → #2790)

beat Adam (#2777 → #2884)

lost to UHF (#2776 → #2722)

Machete (2010)

IMDb plot summary: After being set-up and betrayed by the man who hired him to assassinate a Texas Senator, an ex-Federale launches a brutal rampage of revenge against his former boss.

Directed by Ethan Maniquis and Robert Rodriguez. Stars Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, and Robert De Niro.

Machete stars Danny Trejo as an assassin who is hunting down a corrupt politician, and it is a big and bloody adventure. This film was spun off of a fake trailer made by Robert Rodriguez as part of the promotion for Grindhouse, and it feels about as deep as the fake trailer. It's often even comedically ridiculous in its machisimo, between blood spurting everywhere and Machete just casually sleeping with literally every woman he runs across. There isn't any actual depth to this or anything I'm likely to remember, it's just a high-adrenaline ride through a bunch of madcap action sequences. A fun experience while I'm watching it, but it's not going to stick with me, although I'm sure it'd be a slightly different story if I loved this genre to begin with.

🎥 Machete (2010)

📊 Ranked #2583/4271 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 44

lost to Hamlet (#2114 → #2113)

beat Benedetta (#3215 → #3216)

beat Framed (#2652 → #2657)

beat An Innocent Man (#2395 → #2394)

lost to Spy Game (#2263 → #2123)

beat St. Vincent (#2330 → #2582)

beat Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (#2296 → #2478)

lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (#2279 → #2285)

lost to The Importance of Being Earnest (#2288 → #2268)

beat Flora & Ulysses (#2292 → #2476)

beat A Time to Kill (#2290 → #2297)

beat The Firm (#2289 → #2307)

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

IMDb plot summary: A series of vignettes that all have coffee and cigarettes in common.

Directed by Jim Jarmusch. Stars Bill Murray, Tom Waits, and Roberto Benigni.

Coffee and Cigarettes is an anthology film by Jim Jarmusch in which each short segment is centered around a character (or two or three) partaking in coffee and cigarettes under some circumstances. Many of these segments feature big-name actors and celebrities playing themselves. Like most anthology films, this one has good and bad segments, but overall this was an enjoyable and intriguing watch. Jarmusch's slow burn method of storytelling doesn't stretch for me over a full-length feature, but I enjoy this in small doses where I get a new setup every ten minutes or so. My personal favorite was the one starring Cate Blanchett as herself and her much less successful cousin, meeting for a brief catch-up during a press junket for Blanchett's newest film. It feels like a casual brainstorming exercise rather than a film, where every so often Jarmusch just said, "Hey, let's give some coffee and cigarettes to the actors I have in front of me and improvise something," and while it sometimes falls flat, it's an interesting creative experiment. It's a unique film that I'm glad I got to see.

🎥 Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)

📊 Ranked #1609/4269 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 63

beat The Master (#2116 → #2117)

lost to Fever Pitch (#1085 → #1083)

lost to The Long Day Closes (#1598 → #1602)

beat 3 Men and a Baby (#1855 → #1854)

lost to The Miracle Worker (#1729 → #1584)

beat Walk on the Wild Side (#1792 → #1795)

beat Man Hunt (#1761 → #1834)

lost to The Wolf Man (#1745 → #1616)

lost to The Gold Rush (#1753 → #1754)

beat Fearless (#1757 → #1758)

beat Backbeat (#1755 → #1756)

beat 12 Years a Slave (#1754 → #1803)

But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)

IMDb plot summary: A naïve teenager is sent to "sexual redirection" school when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being gay.

Directed by Jamie Babbit. Stars Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, and Melanie Lynskey.

But I'm a Cheerleader stars Natasha Lyonne as a cheerleader who is sent away to a camp for anti-gay conversion therapy -- she didn't even realize she was a lesbian until her family signed her up -- and we follow her journey as she figures out her newly discovered sexuality. This is a wonderful and frequently hilarious satire that also ultimately ends up being pretty sweet. Natasha Lyonne is delightful as this oblivious but well-intentioned character with no self-awareness. The comedy is extremely big and broad but the humanity at the heart of all of it is undeniable. I can easily see why critics didn't love it -- it takes BIG tonal swings that absolutely won't land with everyone -- but also why it became a cult classic. It's a fun ride and I'm glad I got to see it.

🎥 But I'm a Cheerleader (2000)

📊 Ranked #907/4268 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 78

beat Gypsy (#2115 → #2209)

beat Flee (held at #1084)

beat I've Loved You So Long (#561 → #606)

lost to Spirited (#255 → #250)

beat Submarine (#412 → #413)

lost to The Banshees of Inisherin (#330 → #333)

lost to Hundreds of Beavers (#373 → #378)

lost to The Bridge on the River Kwai (#393 → #258)

lost to Morgan (#403 → #396)

lost to Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (#407 → #408)

beat The Boat That Rocked (#410 → #434)

lost to Enchanted April (#408 → #402)