Ping Pong Playa (2007)

IMDb plot summary: A kid dreams of playing professional basketball in order to escape his dead-end job, living in the suburbs, his bossy older brother and running his Mom's ping pong classes.
Directed by Jessica Yu. Starring Jimmy Tsai, Andrew Vo, Khary Payton, and Jim Lau.

In many ways, this follows a pretty typical sports movie trajectory. There's the underdog, the unusually high stakes for the big game, the mean jerks on the opposing team. But it feels a bit fresher and newer because of the unusual choice of sport (ping-pong) and because of our main character, who thinks of himself as a much more important athlete than we do as an audience. He consistently straddles the line between entertaining and annoying but ultimately lands on the former for me. The movie overall is fun and sweet and has enough going for it that I had a good time watching it, even if it didn't stand out a whole lot.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Ping Pong Playa > Molly's Game
Ping Pong Playa < Show Me Love
Ping Pong Playa < Bridge of Spies
Ping Pong Playa < War Horse
Ping Pong Playa > Company (2011)
Ping Pong Playa > The Mistress of Spices
Ping Pong Playa > Don Jon
Ping Pong Playa > Charlie St. Cloud
Ping Pong Playa > Bill Cunningham New York
Ping Pong Playa > Safety Not Guaranteed
Ping Pong Playa < The Tourist
Final spot: #1269 out of 2893.

Love Story (1970)

IMDb plot summary: A boy and a girl from different backgrounds fall in love regardless of their upbringing - and then tragedy strikes.
Directed by Arthur Hiller. Starring Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, John Marley, and Ray Milland.

This is... adequate, but with the title and the big dramatic ending music, it sets it up as if it's a movie that makes some sort of enormous meaningful statement about the nature of love. It doesn't. It's just your run-of-the-mill romantic tearjerker. The characters have decent chemistry but it's extraordinarily difficult to get a sense of who they are outside of their relationship. And the classic line from the film is dumb (as O'Neal himself proclaims in his later film What's Up, Doc?).

How it entered my Flickchart:
Love Story < Molly's Game
Love Story > The Queen
Love Story < Tag
Love Story > Firewall
Love Story < Larry-Boy! & the Fib from Outer Space
Love Story > Ocean's Twelve
Love Story < Star Wars Uncut
Love Story < Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Love Story < Fifth of July
Love Story > Neverwas
Love Story > McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Love Story < The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Final spot: #1938 out of 2892.

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

IMDb plot summary: Decades after her original visit, the magical nanny returns to help the Banks siblings and Michael's children through a difficult time in their lives.
Directed by Rob Marshall. Starring Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, and Emily Mortimer.

(Spoilers ahead.)

For all the stars' insistence that this is a sequel, not a remake... it's a sequel that is obviously attempting to be a remake. It's almost ridiculous how exactly they copied things over from the original, especially in regards to musical numbers. A group of Cockney street workers sing and dance an elaborate number using their work elements as props? Check. Cheery ending song in the park about flying? Check. Gentle lullaby? Check. A visit to one of Mary Poppins' relatives where they end up hanging out on the ceiling? Check. Animated penguins? Check. And the musical numbers in this movie ARE a lot of fun. But it's missing the coherent narrative that made the original one so great. The message of the original was clearly about how Mr. Banks needed to stop prioritizing work and status over his children, but the message here is... don't worry if you're about to lose all your possessions? Because that's a silly message. And the original movie solved its problems through a change of heart, but the problems here have to be solved through... a fast-paced action sequence that involve all the lamplighters in the area climbing to the top of Big Ben. That's such a departure from the tone of the original that it feels like whoever penned this just watched the songs in the '64 version and then fast-forwarded through all the boring talky bits. It all adds up to a great musical but a far inferior movie as a whole.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Mary Poppins Returns > Peter Pan (1960)
Mary Poppins Returns < Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Mary Poppins Returns > Bridge of Spies
Mary Poppins Returns > Idiocracy
Mary Poppins Returns > The Scarlet and the Black
Mary Poppins Returns > Le bonheur
Mary Poppins Returns > M
Mary Poppins Returns < Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
Mary Poppins Returns < What the Deaf Man Heard
Mary Poppins Returns < Under the Skin
Mary Poppins Returns > Topsy-Turvy

Final spot: #743 out of 2891. That seems generous but I'll let it stand. Those musicals numbers were beautifully executed.

The Favourite (2018)

IMDb plot summary: In early 18th century England, a frail Queen Anne occupies the throne and her close friend, Lady Sarah, governs the country in her stead. When a new servant, Abigail, arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah.
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Starring Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, and Nicholas Hoult.

Oh, this is so fascinating. I've seen two other Yorgos Lanthimos films (I really liked Killing of a Sacred Deer and didn't care for Dogtooth) and while on the surface this is a very straightforward narrative, his dark sense of humor and willingness to really delve into the more upsetting parts of humanity give this a very unique twist. All three main actresses are superb in their roles, but Olivia Colman is the strongest of them all -- her performance is stunning and unsettling and heartbreaking.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Favourite > Peter Pan (1960)
The Favourite > Zodiac
The Favourite < Breaking Away
The Favourite < Kwaidan
The Favourite < The Invisible Man
The Favourite > The Body Snatcher
The Favourite > Reservoir Dogs
The Favourite < Galaxy Quest
The Favourite < Center Stage
The Favourite > The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Favourite > Contact
The Favourite > Shakespeare Behind Bars

Final spot: #648 out of 2890.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

IMDb plot summary: Miles Morales becomes the Spider-Man of his reality and crosses paths with his counterparts from other dimensions to stop a threat to all reality.
Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman. Starring Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, and Mahershala Ali.

This is so, so much fun. The Peter Parker origin story has now had three different iterations in the past 20 years, so it's beautifully refreshing to have a Spider-Man movie that takes a different route - and as fond as I am of the original 2002 Spider-Man movie, I think Miles Morales is a much more interesting and dynamic character than any film version of Parker ever was. This movie is funny and smart and moving and basically everything I like my superhero movies to be. So much fun.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse > How Do You Know
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse > Show Me Love
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse > Boyhood
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse < Bullets Over Broadway
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse < The Matrix
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse > Eyes Without a Face
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse < Inglourious Basterds
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse < The Grey
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse > Sita Sings the Blues
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse < Reefer Madness (2005)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse < Welcome to Dongmakgol

Final spot: #309 out of 2889.

The Long Day Closes (1992)

IMDb plot summary: A young British boy comes of age among his loving family and the austere Catholic Church as he realizes his love of cinema and his homosexuality.
Directed by Terence Davies. Starring Marjorie Yates, Leigh McCormack, Anthony Watson, and Nicholas Lamont.

I feel like calling this a film isn't quite right, it's more like a series of paintings with music. I can absolutely see why someone would love this -- pieces of this are strikingly beautiful -- but with the scattered nature of it I found myself spending most of my time trying to draw connections between the bits of narrative. I was somehow never able to fully immerse myself into the movie, despite it being the exact kind of movie I SHOULD be able to do that with. As a result, it didn't hit me emotionally the way that I hoped it might. I admire it, but do not love it.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Long Day Closes > How Do You Know
The Long Day Closes < L'atalante
The Long Day Closes > Cabaret
The Long Day Closes > The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
The Long Day Closes < Say Anything...
The Long Day Closes > The Thin Man
The Long Day Closes > Flight of the Navigator
The Long Day Closes < Au Revoir Les Enfants
The Long Day Closes > Pushing Tin
The Long Day Closes < Panic Room

Final spot: #828 out of 2888. So many 8s and 2s.

Dust (1985)

IMDb plot summary: A South African spinster murders her father after he rapes the wife of the black foreman for his plantation.
Directed by Marion Hänsel. Starring Jane Birkin, Trevor Howard, John Matshikiza, and Nadine Uwampa.

Oh, this is so fascinating. And so sad. The story of a woman who has so long lived under someone else's control that even when she gets freedom, she slowly becomes everything she hates about the father who controlled her. It's an extremely slow movie, but once I got into the rhythms of the character, I found myself spellbound.

4 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Dust > Wonder Boys
Dust > Waitress
Dust < Into the Woods (2014)
Dust < Bruce Almighty
Dust > Hairspray Live!
Dust < Rocky
Dust < Deadpool
Dust > Brave
Dust > Robot and Frank
Dust < The African Queen

Final spot: #614 out of 2887.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)

IMDb plot summary: In 1993, a teenage girl is forced into a gay conversion therapy center by her conservative guardians.
Directed by Desiree Akhavan. Starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Sasha Lane, John Gallagher Jr., and Emily Skeggs.

This movie is heartbreaking at times. It does a good job as well of focusing it very much on the personal aspects of the story, not digging deeply into the morality of the theology behind what's happening and getting preachy about it in the abstract, just showing the kind of impact it had on the characters themselves. I found John Gallagher Jr.'s character absolutely fascinating and wish we'd gotten some more story about him.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Miseducation of Cameron Post > Wonder Boys
The Miseducation of Cameron Post < Waitress
The Miseducation of Cameron Post > The Slipper and the Rose
The Miseducation of Cameron Post > The Return of Captain Invincible
The Miseducation of Cameron Post > Marooned
The Miseducation of Cameron Post > Notting Hill
The Miseducation of Cameron Post < A Clockwork Orange
The Miseducation of Cameron Post > Billy Elliot the Musical Live
The Miseducation of Cameron Post < The Mummy (1932)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post < Breaking Away
The Miseducation of Cameron Post < How to Train Your Dragon
The Miseducation of Cameron Post > The Secret Garden (1987)

Final spot: #753 out of 2886.

The Fear of 13 (2015)

IMDb plot summary: A convicted murderer who has spent 23 years on Death Row tells his story.
Directed by David Sington.

I think this might be the only documentary given to me for my movie challenge this time around! I have mixed feelings about it. While there's no denying Yarris has a gift for storytelling, I wish there was a little bit more to the movie than just him narrating his own life. I think the narrative would benefit a bit from some outside commentary. This narrows the focus in a way that I'm not sure does full justice to the story -- it made me doubt him more than anything, despite the pre-movie disclaimer that his stories had been independently verified. I'm also unsure how the title ties in. It's a brief throwaway line that doesn't really connect thematically in any way I can see. Overall, it's an interesting story, I'm just not sure that film is the most interesting way to tell it.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Fear of 13 > The Switch
The Fear of 13 < Waitress
The Fear of 13 < The Slipper and the Rose
The Fear of 13 > Bill Cunningham New York
The Fear of 13 < Lucky Number Slevin
The Fear of 13 < Videodrome
The Fear of 13 < Sleepers
The Fear of 13 > Spider-Man 2
The Fear of 13 > Legend
The Fear of 13 > The Kids Are All Right
The Fear of 13 > Man on Fire

Final spot: #1240 out of 2885.

The History of Future Folk (2012)

IMDb plot summary: The possibly exaggerated origin story of the real life alien bluegrass band, Future Folk, that has been playing for NYC audiences for the better part of a decade.
Directed by John Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker. Starring Nils d'Aulaire, Jay Klaitz, Julie Ann Emery, and April L. Hernandez.

This is such a strange, unusual movie, and it's a premise I'm totally on board with. The (maybe minor?) problem here is that the movie takes this amazing premise and then tries to do too many things with it. It tries to be a musical and a comedy and a romance and a sci-fi adventure all at once, and I'm not convinced it blends them together so much as it just kind of awkwardly hops from one to the other. It's a very likable mess, though, and I can definitely see it growing in my opinion on a rewatch.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The History of Future Folk > The Switch
The History of Future Folk > Waitress
The History of Future Folk < Boyhood
The History of Future Folk < Bruce Almighty
The History of Future Folk > Hairspray Live!
The History of Future Folk < Heavenly Creatures
The History of Future Folk > Deadpool
The History of Future Folk > A Raisin in the Sun
The History of Future Folk > Kiss Me, Stupid!
The History of Future Folk > Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Final spot: #591 out of 2880.

Hellraiser (1987)

IMDb plot summary: An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover; the demonic cenobites are pursuing him after he escaped their sadomasochistic underworld.
Directed by Clive Barker. Starring Andrew Robinson, Claire Higgins, Ashley Laurence, and Sean Chapman.

This is a very cool idea. The evil creatures at the heart of this story have a great concept surrounding them, and I can see how that caught on as a franchise, but this film hardly explores any of that in favor of just gross imagery that doesn't lead anywhere. It's a very disappointing execution of a much more interesting idea.

1 star.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Hellraiser < The Switch
Hellraiser < The 39 Steps
Hellraiser > Capote
Hellraiser > The Ghost and the Darkness
Hellraiser < Holiday Affair
Hellraiser < Dracula
Hellraiser > Airborne
Hellraiser > Medium Cool
Hellraiser > Rambo
Hellraiser > In Cold Blood
Hellraiser < The Godfather

Final spot: #2298 out of 2879.

I and You (2018)

No IMDb plot summary.
Directed by Edward Hall. Starring Maisie Williams and Zach Wyatt.

To my shame, despite Lauren Gunderson being my theater's resident playwright, I'd never read or seen this play of hers, which had its world premiere at my theater several years before I started working there. While I'm not entirely sold on Maisie Williams and Zach Wyatt's performances, the script is lovely and great and funny and touching, and it gives young actors such rich roles. I'm glad I finally got to see it in some form.

How it entered my Flickchart:
I and You > The Switch
I and You < Waitress
I and You > The Slipper and the Rose
I and You > The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
I and You > Notting Hill
I and You > There Will Be Blood
I and You > Up in the Air
I and You > Young Adult
I and You < Little Children
I and You < Thor: Ragnarok

Final spot: #725 out of 2877.

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965)

IMDb plot summary: British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the Cold War during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one.
Directed by Martin Ritt. Starring Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, and Sam Wanamaker.

John le Carre is widely praised as a writer, but movie adaptations of his work are almost always a miss for me. They're so dense and slow and tedious that any excitement or intrigue that may be found in them gets lost for me. That is definitely the case here. I just don't care about any of this, not even with an actor like Richard Burton in the lead, who I usually find very compelling. But this is just such a bureaucratic spy story, it feels like filing paperwork just to watch it.

1 star.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold < The Switch
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold < Mother (2009)
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold > Capote
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold < Braveheart
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold > Playtime
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold < The Number 23
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold > Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold < Inkheart
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold < The Overnight
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold > Gideon, Tuba Warrior
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold > Homicide
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold < Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Final spot: #2400 out of 2876.

Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

IMDb plot summary: After a humiliating commando performance at The Kennedy Center, the Barden Bellas enter an international competition that no American group has ever won in order to regain their status and right to perform.
Directed by Elizabeth Banks. Starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, and Brittany Snow.

I liked the first Pitch Perfect pretty well, and I love musicals and Anna Kendrick in general, so this was a decent choice for me even if sequels typically aren't very interesting to me. This one definitely capitalizes on its celebrity cameos and guests more than I remember the first one doing. Its dialogue is very Ryan Murphy-esque in that it walks RIGHT along that line between hilarious and cringey. Rebel Wilson nearly always falls in the latter, while most of the rest of it falls in the former. The songs in this are not nearly as fun as the first one, or maybe I'm just over the a cappella mashup phase (both are possible). Also, Ben Platt needed to sing more. Overall, pretty enjoyable and fluffy but ultimately forgettable.

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Pitch Perfect 2 > Bully
Pitch Perfect 2 < Waitress
Pitch Perfect 2 < Liberal Arts
Pitch Perfect 2 > Rosemary's Baby
Pitch Perfect 2 < Lucky Number Slevin
Pitch Perfect 2 > Rushmore
Pitch Perfect 2 > Hopscotch
Pitch Perfect 2 < Duck Soup
Pitch Perfect 2 < Spider-Man: Homecoming
Pitch Perfect 2 < Wreck-It Ralph
Pitch Perfect 2 > After the Wedding

Final spot: #1188 out of 2875.

Natural Born Killers (1994)

IMDb plot summary: Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and psychopathic serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Directed by Oliver Stone. Starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, and Robert Downey, Jr.

This is a wildly stylistic movie but I don't know if it's actually good. Its style feels more than a little gimmicky, and then just becomes kind of irritating in the final third of the movie which is just nonstop shooting in a way that is not interesting to watch for me. There are some good moments -- Juliette Lewis is particularly excellent as Mallory -- but there's a lot that falls a little short for me, especially when I think it tries to actually make a point about media celebrities.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Natural Born Killers < Silent Hill
Natural Born Killers > Footloose (2011)
Natural Born Killers > Zelig
Natural Born Killers > Avatar
Natural Born Killers > Paper Moon
Natural Born Killers > Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam
Natural Born Killers > Dunkirk
Natural Born Killers > The Whole Nine Yards
Natural Born Killers > Downfall
Natural Born Killers > Dirty Dancing
Natural Born Killers < Bye Bye Birdie (1995)

Final spot: #1440 out of 2874.

Real Genius (1985)

IMDb plot summary: Teenage geniuses deal with their abilities while developing a high-powered laser for a university project. When their professor intends to turn their work into a military weapon, they decide to ruin his plans.
Directed by Martha Coolidge. Starring Val Kilmer, Gabriel Jarret, Michelle Meyrink, and William Atherton.

This is... fine. It's very playful and very 80's and just on the edge of being a frat bro movie without ACTUALLY being one. There are some entertaining moments here (I like the gag about the dude disappearing into the closet in the first half of the movie) and it's pleasant enough, I just don't find it either terribly funny or terribly exciting. It's just in the middle.

2.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Real Genius < Silent Hill
Real Genius > Footloose (2011)
Real Genius > Shadows and Fog
Real Genius > After the Thin Man
Real Genius > Short Circuit
Real Genius > The Tempest (2010)
Real Genius < Dunkirk
Real Genius > Teacher of the Year
Real Genius > Cinderella (1950)
Real Genius < Anna and the King
Real Genius < Memphis Belle

Final spot: #1465 out of 2873.