The Way Way Back (2013)

IMDb plot summary: Shy 14-year-old Duncan goes on summer vacation with his mother, her overbearing boyfriend, and her boyfriend's daughter. Having a rough time fitting in, Duncan finds an unexpected friend in Owen, manager of the Water Wizz water park.
Directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Starring Liam James, Steve Carell, Toni Colette, and Sam Rockwell.

This is such an engaging coming-of-age movie with some really great performances from basically everyone involved. It conveys such a sense of being trapped and really captures how life-changing it can be to find acceptance somewhere. I'm not entirely convinced at times that the extroverted pushiness of Sam Rockwell is that different from the extorverted pushiness of Allison Janney, but they're both miles away from Steve Carell's passive aggressive displays of dominance over his girlfriend's son, and that's the contrast the movie is really focused on. The final scene is a beautiful nonverbal reconciliation between characters. Just a really well-crafted movie.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Way Way Back > Killing Season
The Way Way Back > The Dark Knight
The Way Way Back < Six Degrees of Separation
The Way Way Back > Atonement
The Way Way Back > The Cat Returns
The Way Way Back > Lawrence of Arabia
The Way Way Back < Boyhood
The Way Way Back < Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Way Way Back < The Holiday
The Way Way Back > High School Musical
The Way Way Back > Collateral
The Way Way Back < Black Panther
Final spot: #437 out of 3143.

The Immortal Story (1968)

IMDb plot summary: In Macao, a wealthy merchant named Charles Clay hires two people to recreate a story of a sailor who is paid to impregnate a man's wife.
Directed by Orson Welles. Starring Jeanne Moreau, Orson Welles, Roger Coggio, and Norman Eshley.

Well, this did absolutely nothing for me. It's one of those little fairy tale/fables that has such broadly drawn characters and plotlines that it just feels unfinished to me rather than universal, and I really don't know what it was attempting to say about life or romance or money or art or, well, anything. At least it was short.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Immortal Story < Killing Season
The Immortal Story < Send Me No Flowers
The Immortal Story > The Good Doctor
The Immortal Story < When I Walk
The Immortal Story < In the Heat of the Night
The Immortal Story > Jezebel
The Immortal Story < Sahara (2005)
The Immortal Story > The Yellow Handkerchief
The Immortal Story < Junior
The Immortal Story > Medium Cool
The Immortal Story > VeggieTales: The Star of Christmas
The Immortal Story > The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Final spot: #2682 out of 3142.

The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968)

IMDb plot summary: A married woman leaves her husband and zooms off on her motorcycle to see her lover.
Directed by Jack Cardiff. Starring Alain Delon, Marianne Faithfull, Roger Mutton, and Marius Goring.

This seems like the kind of movie I shouldn't like much at all -- trippy flashback scenes, long rambly inner philosophical monologues, heavily dislikable characters -- but somehow it all works, and I think it is in fact the motorcycle that ties it all together for me. The shots of her zooming around on her motorcycle convey such a longing for freedom, while all the scenes in between emphasize how she's unlikely to ever get that freedom. I found it unexpectedly powerful and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it, considering how poorly I usually connect to "vehicle=freedom" metaphors. But for whatever reason, it worked for me here. I'll take it!

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Girl on a Motorcycle > Star!
The Girl on a Motorcycle < The Dark Knight
The Girl on a Motorcycle < The Killing of a Sacred Deer
The Girl on a Motorcycle < Eyes Wide Shut
The Girl on a Motorcycle > Duck Soup
The Girl on a Motorcycle > Nanny McPhee
The Girl on a Motorcycle > We Need to Talk About Kevin
The Girl on a Motorcycle < The Green Mile
The Girl on a Motorcycle < Wide Awake
The Girl on a Motorcycle > Following
The Girl on a Motorcycle > Madame Blueberry
The Girl on a Motorcycle > Children of a Lesser God
Final spot: #1393 out of 3141.

Kelly's Heroes (1970)

IMDb plot summary: A group of U.S. soldiers sneaks across enemy lines to get their hands on a secret stash of Nazi treasure.
Directed by Brian G. Hutton. Starring Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, and Carroll O'Connor.

What a strange little combat heist film. It's got some good moments, and the most entertainingly bizarre performance I've ever seen from Donald Sutherland, but it gets messy when it tries to mix heist hijincks with wartime missions. There's a sequence in which some members of their team die, and it can hardly be framed as any kind of "they gave their life for their country" noble sacrifice -- they died going AWOL to rob a bank. It becomes a lot harder to root for everyone after that. The final sequence also feels more combat film than heist, and as such loses my interest almost entirely. But I can see people enjoying this, even if it made a few choices that pushed it further down for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Kelly's Heroes < Man on Fire
Kelly's Heroes > Weekend
Kelly's Heroes < Dark City
Kelly's Heroes < The Barkleys of Broadway
Kelly's Heroes > Martha Marcy May Marlene
Kelly's Heroes < Come to the Stable
Kelly's Heroes > Copying Beethoven
Kelly's Heroes < Zelig
Kelly's Heroes < Lilo & Stitch
Kelly's Heroes > Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
Kelly's Heroes > Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Kelly's Heroes < It's Always Fair Weather
Final spot: #2228 out of 3141.

Escape From New York (1981)

IMDb plot summary: In 1997, when the U.S. president crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in to rescue him.
Directed by John Carpenter. Starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, and Donald Pleasence.

This was a silly fun one. I don't think of myself as particularly liking Kurt Russell as an actor, but I really enjoyed him in both of these. I think I enjoyed him more in Escape because he was the goofiest part of it, whereas he seemed almost normal amid the backdrop of everything else happening in Big Trouble. I loved how ridiculously over-the-top his character was here. I also enjoyed having this steampunky version of New York existing alongside the rest of the normal world.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Escape From New York > Blackmail Is My Life
Escape From New York < The Nanny Diaries
Escape From New York < Dark Shadows
Escape From New York < Rififi
Escape From New York > Wreck-It Ralph
Escape From New York < Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Escape From New York < Lucky Number Slevin
Escape From New York > Jumanji
Escape From New York < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
Escape From New York > The Score
Escape From New York > Kinky Boots the Musical
Escape From New York < Absolute Power
Final spot: #1453 out of 3137.

Up Tight! (1968)

IMDb plot summary: Black revolutionaries are betrayed by one of their own. Based on the 1935 classic, "The Informer."
Directed by Jules Dassin. Starring Raymond St. Jacques, Ruby Dee, Frank Silvera, and Roscoe Lee Browne.

I'm intrigued by this as a retelling of an older book/movie but putting it in a more contemporary setting at the time, in the aftermath of MLK's assassination. Other than that, though, from moment to moment it feels like a pretty straightforward noir, which means I found much of it bland and predictable, with the unique setting occasionally adding an extra layer of depth to it. I want to like it more than I do.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Up Tight! > The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Up Tight! < Sleeping with Other People
Up Tight! < The Fly (1986)
Up Tight! < Guys and Dolls
Up Tight! < The Chalk Garden
Up Tight! < The Shining
Up Tight! < Batman Forever
Up Tight! < Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Up Tight! > Casino
Up Tight! < Killing Season
Up Tight! < Star!
Up Tight! > The Interpreter
Final spot: #1562 out of 3139.

Madigan (1968)

IMDb plot summary: In New York City's Spanish Harlem, detectives Madigan and Bonaro are given 72 hours by their superior to capture a hoodlum wanted for homicide in Brooklyn.
Directed by Don Siegel. Starring Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, and Harry Guardino.

This is a very strange movie, in that it has no perceivable arc for either its characters or its narrative. Little plot points pop up and are batted around, but nothing actually lands, certainly not in a satisfying way. Every time I thought it was going to do something interesting with the characters or the themes the movie raised, it would just shrug them off. Now that I see that this is the same director as Coogan's Bluff, another 1968 cop drama, I have much less faith that he was ineffectively trying to do anything substantial with this. It's so weird and all-over-the-place.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Madigan < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Madigan > The Da Vinci Code
Madigan < Vantage Point
Madigan < The Way We Were
Madigan < What Lies Beneath
Madigan < Arlington Road
Madigan < A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
Madigan > Double Jeopardy
Madigan < The Wages of Fear
Madigan < Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Madigan > Band of Outsiders
Final spot: #2337 out of 3136.

Horus, Prince of the Sun (1968)

IMDb plot summary: A boy with a mythical sword wants to protect a Norse village from an evil ice wizard and his minions, who destroyed his family's village. However, the villagers don't fully trust him and a mysterious girl with a dark secret befriends him.
Directed by Isao Takahata. Starring Mikijirô Hira, Etsuko Ichihara, Eijirô Tôno, and Masao Mishima.

I don't think I've seen any Japanese animation from this far back, and I definitely didn't know it was the first major film for both Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata! It's definitely not nearly as good as their future work. It feels very young and doesn't have nearly as much character depth as their Studio Ghibli films, but it's got some interesting creature design, and the scene with Hilda and the silver wolves at the end was rather stunningly animated.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Horus, Prince of the Sun < Mystic River
Horus, Prince of the Sun > In the Company of Men
Horus, Prince of the Sun > American Hustle
Horus, Prince of the Sun < Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
Horus, Prince of the Sun < Chaos Theory
Horus, Prince of the Sun > Sunshine (2007)
Horus, Prince of the Sun > Moms' Night Out
Horus, Prince of the Sun > The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Horus, Prince of the Sun < Water for Elephants
Horus, Prince of the Sun > Miller's Crossing
Horus, Prince of the Sun > The Boston Strangler
Horus, Prince of the Sun > Father of the Bride (1950)
Final spot: #1869 out of 3135.

Labyrinth (1986)

IMDb plot summary: Sixteen-year-old Sarah is given thirteen hours to solve a labyrinth and rescue her baby brother Toby when her wish for him to be taken away is granted by the Goblin King Jareth.
Directed by Jim Henson. Starring David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, Shari Weiser, and Brian Henson.

I missed out on a lot of "classic" 80s kids movies that are beloved by the majority of people I know, and it turns out that most of them are not that great when watched for the first time as an adult. So I kind of rolled my eyes when Labyrinth came up. But, you know what? This TOTALLY works as an adult viewing. I mean, yes, it's definitely a kids' story, but these are some of the most creative fantasy worlds and monsters I've ever seen. I'm usually super bored by kids' fantasy because they follow all the same tropes, but so many of these are fresh -- the cluster of hands, the cheery creatures that can casually remove their body parts, the end scene where everyone's just walking around upside down and sideways, the tiny dog knight that rides another dog... it's all so interesting. And Sarah is a great main character. She's clearly a teenager, but she also is given enough intelligence, maturity, and agency for her to really feel like SHE is the master of this story, not that the story is just pulling her along to where she's destined to be. The ending's a little dumb, but most of it is kind of great. I am very surprised and pleased to have enjoyed it as much as I did.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Labyrinth > Cape Fear (1991)
Labyrinth > The Woodsman
Labyrinth < Secretary
Labyrinth > Cats (1998)
Labyrinth < Looper
Labyrinth < Coherence
Labyrinth < Synecdoche, New York
Labyrinth > Brooklyn
Labyrinth < The Bumblebee Flies Anyway
Labyrinth < Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Labyrinth < Bride of Frankenstein
Labyrinth < Jaws
Final spot: #574 out of 3134.

Hell in the Pacific (1968)

IMDb plot summary: During World War II, an American pilot and a marooned Japanese navy captain are deserted on a small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. There, they must cease their hostility and cooperate if they want to survive, but will they?
Directed by John Boorman. Starring Lee Marvin and Toshirô Mifune.

I really admire what this movie is doing, even if it doesn't always work for me. In the earliest parts of the movie the characters' erratic actions sometimes made me question whether I was correctly tracking their motives and character arcs, but I got into the swing of it in the latter half of the film and really began appreciating both actors' performances. I found the somewhat ambiguous ending to be the perfect way to conclude this story (apparently the in-theaters ending was far less so, but I can't imagine I would have preferred that over this alternate cut). It's impressive how much story you can convey with only two characters who can't talk with each other.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Hell in the Pacific > Thank You for Smoking
Hell in the Pacific < Gone Baby Gone
Hell in the Pacific > Hamlet (1990)
Hell in the Pacific > La jetee
Hell in the Pacific < Freaky Friday (2003)
Hell in the Pacific > The Boys of Paul Street
Hell in the Pacific > M
Hell in the Pacific < The Descendants
Hell in the Pacific < The Emperor Waltz
Hell in the Pacific < Topsy-Turvy
Hell in the Pacific > Under the Skin
Final spot: #903 out of 3133.

The Brood (1979)

IMDb plot summary: A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, amidst a series of brutal murders.
Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle, and Henry Beckman.

I do always enjoy horror movies that are a little more psychological in nature, in this case connecting this woman's unexpressed anger to literal monster creature babies that go around acting on her rage instincts. That's a really appealing concept to me. I had a good time watching it. It felt like a really enjoyable cheesy B-horror movie from like the 1950s, except then it got real gross at the end. It had that sort of simplistic acting and dialogue that just got right to what we were supposed to get out of it, which isn't what I always like, but it was a fun ride for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Brood > Happy Gilmore
The Brood < Seven Up!
The Brood > Jackie
The Brood < Suspicion
The Brood > Born Yesterday
The Brood > High Strung
The Brood < Christmas in Connecticut
The Brood > Ghostbusters (1984)
The Brood > Pushing Tin
The Brood > The Detective
The Brood > Laurence Anyways
Final spot: #1004 out of 3131.

Being There (1979)

IMDb plot summary: A simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics.
Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, and Jack Warden.

This movie didn't really make as much of an impression on me as I expected. I had a tough time getting into the tone of the movie because it took me much longer than it probably was supposed to to trust that this poor out-of-touch character who was clearly incapable of surviving on his own was going to actually be okay. I felt really tense and worried for him for probably 3/4 of the way through the movie, and maybe didn't fully feel like he'd be all right until he miraculously walked across water at the end. Because of that disconnect in tone, I think I missed what the movie was going for. There were moments that made kind of interesting points about how easy it is to kind of BS your way into prominence. But that was more interesting on kind of an intellectual level, and I was too distracted worrying about his wellbeing to really engage with that. Maybe on a second viewing if I was so inclined.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Being There > Happy Gilmore

Being There < Seven Up!

Being There < Dot the I

Being There > Arthur Christmas

Being There < The Pursuit of Happyness

Being There > Mr. Nice Guy

Being There > 300

Being There > Lord of the Flies

Being There > The Tree of Life

Being There < A Star Is Born (1954)

Being There > Black Snake Moan

Final spot: #1275 out of 3130.

The Devil's Brigade (1968)

IMDb plot summary: A US Army Colonel is tasked with forming an elite commando-style unit from crack Canadian troops and the dregs of the US Army.
Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. Starring William Holden, Cliff Robertson, Vince Edwards, and Andrew Prine.

While most of this feels like an exceptionally well-worn story, I was intrigued by the angle of the "outsiders" being Canadian. I haven't seen many movies dealing with any anti-Canada prejudice from the US, and so that was an interesting story to tell. It was, however, baffling that all the Canadians spoke with Irish or Scottish accents. I kept looking up whether Canada had an unusually large amount of Irish/Scottish immigration, but my research indicates, no, the film just decided to give the Canadians alternative accents. Anyway, it was a small thing in the grand scheme of things. The movie is a very familiar story that had an interesting angle that didn't quite save it but at least helped me finish watching it.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Devil's Brigade < The Jerk
The Devil's Brigade > The Machinist
The Devil's Brigade < The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
The Devil's Brigade < The Balloonatic
The Devil's Brigade > Waiting...
The Devil's Brigade < A Man Called Peter
The Devil's Brigade > Syrup
The Devil's Brigade > Doctor Zhivago
The Devil's Brigade < *batteries not included
The Devil's Brigade < An Ideal Husband
The Devil's Brigade < Stormy Weather
Final spot: #2214 out of 3132.

Never a Dull Moment (1968)

IMDb plot summary: Actor Jack Albany, who plays gangsters on TV, is mistaken for notorious hit-man Ace, and is hired by mob boss Leo Smooth to pull a heist, but Jack must find a way out of it.
Directed by Jerry Paris. Starring Dick Van Dyke, Edward G. Robinson, Dorothy Provine, and Henry Silva.

This is a pretty enjoyable entry in the live action Disney canon. It's definitely a kids' movie and has a couple cheesy or slightly-too-silly moments for me, but there are also a lot of genuinely funny lines and good moments of physical comedy, and Dick Van Dyke is always a pretty charismatic protagonist. I could definitely see this one being a favorite if I'd watched it as a kid.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Never a Dull Moment > Happy Gilmore
Never a Dull Moment < Seven Up!
Never a Dull Moment > Dot the I
Never a Dull Moment < The Country Girl
Never a Dull Moment < Being John Malkovich
Never a Dull Moment < Ramona and Beezus
Never a Dull Moment < Myn Bala: Warriors of the Steppe
Never a Dull Moment < The Sound of Music
Never a Dull Moment > Quiz Show
Never a Dull Moment > 12 Years a Slave
Never a Dull Moment < Anna and the King
Final spot: #1163 out of 3130.

The Detective (1968)

IMDb plot summary: Police detective Joe Leland investigates the murder of a gay man. While investigating, he discovers links to official corruption in New York City in this drama that delves into a world of sex and drugs.
Directed by Gordon Douglas. Starring Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Ralph Meeker, and Jack Klugman.

While the portrayal of the LGBT community in this movie has not aged particularly well, it is a much more compelling detective film than Frank Sinatra and director Gordon Douglas' other 1968 release, Lady in Cement. It was especially refreshing in contrast to Coogan's Bluff, another cop movie from the same era that was much more uncritical of the "by any means necessary" macho toughness. This one feels like it takes the question of doing the right thing in a corrupt system much more seriously, and I appreciate that. A pretty interesting movie, especially in a genre that tends to bore me.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Detective > Easy Virtue
The Detective < Seven Up!
The Detective > Jackie
The Detective < The Country Girl
The Detective > Spanglish
The Detective > Gone in 60 Seconds
The Detective < 28 Up
The Detective > The Death of Stalin
The Detective > The Long Day Closes
The Detective < Christmas in Connecticut
The Detective < Laurence Anyways
The Detective > Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Final spot: #1006 out of 3129.

Fando and Lis (1968)

IMDb plot summary: Fando and his partially paralyzed lover Lis search for the mythical city of Tar. Based on Jodorowsky's memories of a play by surrealist Fernando Arrabal.
Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Starring Sergio Kleiner, Diana Mariscal, María Teresa Rivas, and Tamara Garina.

Well, I hated every single second of this. Not only was it the kind of nonsense nightmare surreal symbolism I hate so much, it also is very viscerally unpleasant and just *gross*. No horror movie has given me the thought, "I may never be able to eat anything again," but this did. It was one of the most disgusting and upsetting movies I've ever seen, but not in a way that was productive at all, just... in a horrific unpleasant way that I can't wait to forget.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Fando and Lis < Enemy of the State

Fando and Lis < Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Fando and Lis < The Music Man (2003)

Fando and Lis < Head

Fando and Lis < Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion

Fando and Lis < The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Fando and Lis < Doogal

Fando and Lis < Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde

Fando and Lis < Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

Fando and Lis < American Pie

Fando and Lis < Mallrats

Final spot: #3128 out of 3128.

Coogan's Bluff (1968)

IMDb plot summary: Arizona Deputy Sheriff Coogan is sent to New York City to escort an escaped fugitive back for trial.
Directed by Don Siegel. Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Susan Clark, and Tisha Sterling.

This is maybe one of the least likable heroes I have seen on screen in recent memory. Toward the end, when he is confronted about how he hurt someone and responds by going back to hurt them again, I thought, "Surely we MUST be meant to see him as the villain, right? This is too over-the-top for us to not!" But no luck, as his doubling down on his hurtful actions gets him both the criminal he's been chasing AND, apparently, the love of the woman who tried to call him out in the first place. (That last moment actually made me exclaim out loud, "DON'T go back to him, he's reprehensible!") I can't in a million years root for this character, and that makes the rest of this movie, which I think *is* trying to set him up as admirable, a really unpleasant watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Coogan's Bluff < An American in Paris
Coogan's Bluff < Persona
Coogan's Bluff < Playtime
Coogan's Bluff > Head
Coogan's Bluff < Shalako
Coogan's Bluff < Susannah of the Mounties
Coogan's Bluff > Attack of the Crab Monsters
Coogan's Bluff > The Good German
Coogan's Bluff > Tuck Everlasting
Coogan's Bluff > Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Coogan's Bluff < Broken Flowers
Final spot: #2886 out of 3127.

You'll Never Get Rich (1941)

IMDb plot summary: In order to cover up his philandering ways, a married Broadway producer sets one of his dancers up on a date with a chorus girl for whom he had bought a gift, but the two dancers fall in love for real.
Directed by Sidney Lanfied. Starring Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley, and John Hubbard.

(Spoilers ahead.)

This definitely isn't one of Fred Astaire's stronger rom coms. There are a couple good dance numbers (his lovestruck number in the guardhouse is particularly great) but the plot is pretty darn loose and ultimately hinges on our hero tricking a woman into marrying him but it's all okay because he wasn't a philanderer like she thought! (Just someone who thinks it's totally cool to say, "Surprise, we're married now.") I did really enjoy the side character of the guy who speaks super fast and mumbles his words so nobody knows what he's saying, and my subtitles had a super fun time trying to keep up with him! Overall it fell a little flat for me but old timey big dance numbers are nice.

How it entered my Flickchart:
You'll Never Get Rich > If...
You'll Never Get Rich < Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994)
You'll Never Get Rich < White Heat
You'll Never Get Rich < Batman Returns
You'll Never Get Rich < The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
You'll Never Get Rich > The Kids Are All Right
You'll Never Get Rich > A Foreign Affair
You'll Never Get Rich < A Bug's Life
You'll Never Get Rich < Focus
You'll Never Get Rich < Must Love Dogs
You'll Never Get Rich < The Age of the Medici
You'll Never Get Rich > Trumbo

Final spot: #1488 out of 3126.

Wimbledon (2004)

IMDb plot summary: A pro tennis player has lost his ambition and has fallen in rank to 119. Fortunately for him, he meets a young player on the women's circuit who helps him recapture his focus for Wimbledon.
Directed by Richard Loncraine. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, Sam Neill, and Jon Favreau.

I've been reopening myself to loving romantic comedies, a genre I used to think I loathed, and now I'm pretty sure I just dislike bad ones, but mediocre ones are a ton of fun for me. This one's pretty bad, though. The main problem is that we don't really get to know either of the characters and they don't get to know each other, so it's impossible to buy their growing romance or care about it. What do they like and appreciate about each other? Nothing that I can tell. That's like the bare minimum of necessary characterization for a rom com, and this film can't even manage to meet that, so it's a definite dud.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Wimbledon < Yellow Submarine
Wimbledon < La Dolce Vita
Wimbledon > The Lone Ranger
Wimbledon < Green Lantern
Wimbledon < Paradise Now
Wimbledon < The Tribe
Wimbledon > 30 Minutes or Less
Wimbledon > Like Mike
Wimbledon < Short Circuit 2
Wimbledon < The Killing of Sister George
Wimbledon > 8 1/2
Final spot: #2696 out of 3125.

Firecreek (1968)

IMDb plot summary: A peace-loving, part-time Sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.
Directed by Vincent McEveety. Starring James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, and Gary Lockwood.

James Stewart and Henry Fonda are interesting enough to keep this from being awful, but there's nothing unique or interesting about this movie. It all plays out very predictably. It kind of dances around a deeper meaning to the story but never lands on anything, and so ultimately it's a very by-the-book western, which means I'm going to forget it immediately.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Firecreek < Company (2011)
Firecreek > La Dolce Vita
Firecreek < Rio Bravo
Firecreek < Nothing Like a Dame
Firecreek > Charlie Wilson's War
Firecreek < Ted
Firecreek < Where Eagles Dare
Firecreek < The Baby-Sitters Club
Firecreek < The Love Witch
Firecreek < How to Marry a Millionaire
Firecreek < Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
Firecreek < One 2 Ka 4
Final spot: #2245 out of 3124.

The Firemen's Ball (1967)

IMDb plot summary: A volunteer fire department throws a party for their former boss with the whole town invited, but nothing goes as planned.
Directed by Milos Forman. Starring Jan Vostrcil, Josef Sebánek, Josef Valnoha, and Frantisek Debelka.

What a strange tiny little comedy! There are some pieces of this that made me laugh out loud hard -- the ongoing problem of people stealing the raffle prizes in particular -- but there's also a very long, very uncomfortable section about a beauty contest where all the women (characters, not actors) are clearly having a terrible time and it's played for laughs, and that didn't land for me at all. But it's definitely worth a watch. This was apparently Milos Forman's last movie in Czechosovakia, and it became quite a controversial one for its portrayal of government programs.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Firemen's Ball > Yellow Submarine
The Firemen's Ball < Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book
The Firemen's Ball < The Gold Rush
The Firemen's Ball < Camp
The Firemen's Ball > Rushmore
The Firemen's Ball < Duck Soup
The Firemen's Ball > All the Money in the World
The Firemen's Ball < Pitch Perfect 2
The Firemen's Ball < The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe (1988)
The Firemen's Ball < Mrs. Miniver
The Firemen's Ball > Downfall
Final spot: #1437 out of 3123.

Marriage Story (2019)

IMDb plot summary: Noah Baumbach's incisive and compassionate look at a marriage breaking up and a family staying together.
Directed by Noah Baumbach. Starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, and Azhy Robertson.

I really didn't have very high hopes for this. I often find Noah Baumbach a little too clever in his writing and his characters a little too removed. But this easily the best thing I've ever seen of his. I think it owes most of that to the performances -- Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson bring such a richness to these characters and make them feel like such real people. I also didn't expect it to be quite as funny as it was, but there are a lot of moments of humor that lean into the absurdity of the situation and how awkward everyone feels about it. This one surprised me in a good way, and I'm glad I made space to see it.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Marriage Story > Rosemary's Baby
Marriage Story > Hoodwinked!
Marriage Story > Chariots of Fire
Marriage Story < In the Bedroom
Marriage Story < Nativity!
Marriage Story < Footloose (1984)
Marriage Story < Nosferatu
Marriage Story > Soapdish
Marriage Story < Best in Show
Marriage Story > The Wizard of Oz
Marriage Story > Revengers Tragedy, which is clearly way too high
Marriage Story > Death at a Funeral (2007), also way too high? What's going on with this section of my chart?
Final spot: #372 out of 3121.