Stage Door (1937)

IMDb plot summary: A chronicle of the ambitions, dreams, and disappointments of aspiring actresses who all live in the same boarding house.

Directed by Gregory La Cava. Starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, and Gail Patrick.

The dialogue here is the most delightful kind of witty banter, with nearly every exchange functioning as either playful teasing or a pointed jab, and the two can alternate frequently within a scene as dynamics between characters shift. Some more serious drama arises near the end as one woman has to contend with the unexpected results of elbowing her way to the top, but the film isn't trying to make much of a statement about it other than perhaps "Art is hard," and is content to let it sit there. This feels like a film that would live up to multiple rewatches and deep dives into individual characters, and I feel like I barely scratched the surface in a single viewing. There's a lot to appreciate here, and I definitely recommend it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Stage Door > The Dinner Guest

Stage Door > Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

Stage Door < Revengers Tragedy

Stage Door < The Muppets

Stage Door < A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)

Stage Door < Blackbeard's Ghost

Stage Door > Hot Millions

Stage Door < Shallow Grave

Stage Door > Robin Hood (1973)

Stage Door > Fever Pitch (1997)

Stage Door > The Other Boleyn Girl

Final spot: #769 out of 3224, or 76%.

Tallulah (2016)

IMDb plot summary: Desperate to be rid of her toddler, a dissatisfied Manhattan housewife hires a stranger to babysit and ends up getting much more than she bargained for.

Directed by Sian Heder. Starring Ellen Page, Allison Janney, Tammy Blanchard, and Evan Jonigkeit.

A lot of indie dramas have deeply flawed characters trying to find their way in the world, but we as the audience are often meant to at least sympathize with their struggle. even if we disagree with their choices. This film bizarrely treats every character, aside from maybe Janney, with a kind of deep contempt. It provides multiple opportunities for audience stand-ins to coldly lecture Page and the mom on their choices and builds up an incredibly shame-y vibe. On top of that, the narrative itself runs out of steam and resolves abruptly, with characters overcoming their inner demons with no justification whatsoever, it's like they just ran out of time and it was time to be fulfilled now. Page and Janney turn in some quality performances and make these characters almost likable despite how judgily they're portrayed, but it is a clunky mess of a film.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Tallulah < The Dinner Guest

Tallulah < Lilo & Stitch

Tallulah > Captain January

Tallulah > Walking Across Egypt

Tallulah > The Devil Rides Out

Tallulah > Napoleon

Tallulah < Night at the Museum

Tallulah > From Here to Eternity

Tallulah < Sixteen Candle

Tallulah < Jake's Women

Tallulah > X2

Final spot: #2452 out of 3222, or 24%

Little Women (1994)

IMDb plot summary: The March sisters live and grow in post-Civil War America.

Directed by Gillian Armstrong. Starring Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Trini Alvarado, and Samantha Mathis.

I finally saw the version of Little Women that all my peers loved growing up. At its best, the story oozes warmth and welcome and a strong sense of family love despite ups and downs, and this definitely hits all those notes. The cast is all good, with special nods to Winona Ryder as Jo and Susan Sarandon as their mother. I think I am realizing however, after watching both this and the Greta Gerwig version this year, that this just isn't a story that resonates with me. I don't relate particularly well to any of the characters, it doesn't spark bigger ideas within me, no iteration of it unveils new layers, and on the whole it works for me better as a cozy mindless watch than as something that actually draws me in. And it always has that weird anti-genre-fiction thread running through it. There's nothing to complain about here, really - it's a solid, warm, cozy movie but nothing much beyond that.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Little Women > 12 Monkeys

Little Women < Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

Little Women < The Terminal

Little Women > Three Colors: Red

Little Women > Children of Paradise

Little Women > The Theory of Everything

Little Women > Mother Night

Little Women < Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Little Women < Ben-Hur

Little Women < The Chorus

Little Women < The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

Little Women < Mr. Holmes

Final spot: #1234 out of 3223, or 62%.

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

IMDb plot summary: A surgeon is assigned the case of a young woman whose aunt wants her lobotomized to cover up a family secret.

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, and Albert Dekker.

This film definitely FEELS like a play, not necessarily a negative for me, but there are long monologues where characters describe more dramatic scenes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The crowning jewel here is Hepburn, who dominates the first and final thirds of the film and radiates icy possessiveness - the way she speaks of her deceased son seems cloying at first and then downright ominous the more the story plays out. The cinematography is dramatic but usually effective. Once Elizabeth Taylor as the niece enters the picture, I found myself less interested - she's not nearly as captivating, and her big descriptive monologue at the film's climax is one of the ones that doesn't work, sadly. It's very Tennessee Williams and very theatrical, but it definitely has its moments and is probably worth checking out.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Suddenly, Last Summer > 12 Monkeys

Suddenly, Last Summer < Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

Suddenly, Last Summer < Sleeping Beauty

Suddenly, Last Summer > Three Colors: Red

Suddenly, Last Summer > Children of Paradise

Suddenly, Last Summer > The Theory of Everything

Suddenly, Last Summer > Mother Night

Suddenly, Last Summer < Young Frankenstein

Suddenly, Last Summer > Ben-Hur

Suddenly, Last Summer < The Return of Captain Invincible

Suddenly, Last Summer < The Big Chill

Suddenly, Last Summer > Chaos Theory

Final spot: #1224 out of 3220, or 62%.

The Browning Version (1994)

IMDb plot summary: On the verge of forced resignation, a strict old-fashioned teacher rethinks his life.

Directed by Mike Figgis. Starring Albert Finney, Greta Scacchi, Matthew Modine, and Julian Sands.

When this film works, it's on the strength of Albert Finney's performance. He does such an excellent job of showing this character's pride in his work and how deeply hurt he is as he realizes how little his efforts have meant to anyone around him. As a teacher who also teaches a subject she's passionate about, a lot of his wrestling with that hit very hard. But he is really the only good part of this film, as much of the rest of it is alternately bland and preachy, and the ending would be entirely unsatisfying were it not for Finney managing to bring believability to his final monologue, which really doesn't earn it. Maybe worth a watch for his performance, but otherwise nah.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Browning Project < 12 Monkeys

The Browning Project > It's Always Fair Weather

The Browning Project > A Dangerous Method

The Browning Project < Away From Her

The Browning Project > Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

The Browning Project > Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl

The Browning Project > Drive

The Browning Project > The Commitments

The Browning Project < Descendants

The Browning Project < Yellowbeard

The Browning Project > Interstate 60

Final spot: #1821 out of 3219, or 43%.

Legends of the Fall (1994)

IMDb plot summary: In the early 1900s, three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of Montana are affected by betrayal, history, love, nature, and war.

Directed by Edward Zwick. Starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, and Julia Ormond.

This is the kind of film that jumps ahead years at a time to give a sprawling sense of this family's overarching drama. Brad Pitt is more likable than he has any right to be, given how his character is written, but I found myself more intrigued by Aidan Quinn's character's struggle with doing the right thing when his brother can make horrific mistakes and yet, to quote Quinn, "everyone still loved you more." The movie loves him more too, pushing us heavily to sympathize with Pitt and scorn Quinn, but it never quite convinced me. I would have appreciated the film more if it had centered the brothers wholly and cut the love triangle that keeps fighting to be the movie's focus (Julia Ormond is sorely underused). There's no denying that the film does look lovely, with grandiose sweeping landscape shots that make it easy to understand why the family patriarch stays. But the film frequently feels overstuffed.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Legends of the Fall < The Dinner Guest

Legends of the Fall > It's Always Fair Weather

Legends of the Fall > A Dangerous Method

Legends of the Fall < House of Flying Daggers

Legends of the Fall > Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

Legends of the Fall > Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl

Legends of the Fall < Lazer Team

Legends of the Fall < The Fourth Kind

Legends of the Fall > Streets of Fire

Legends of the Fall < Office Space

Legends of the Fall < The Illusionist

Legends of the Fall < Wordplay

Final spot: #1853 out of 3218, or 42%.

The Rainmaker (1956)

IMDb plot summary: During the Depression, a con-man promises rain to a desperate drought-ridden Kansas town and marriage to a local desperate spinster.

Directed by Joseph Anthony. Starring Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, and Lloyd Bridges.

I was loosely familiar with this story as the basis for the musical 110 in the Shade. I've heard the cast album but haven't seen the show, and frankly it's hard to imagine a show with a revival as recent as 2007 being THIS antiquated in its views of women. Katharine Hepburn got an Oscar nomination for this performance, but it's one of the most unflattering portrayals of older single women I think I've ever seen, making her fragile and pitiable for the SOLE reason that she isn't married, even go so far as to explicitly state more than once that a woman isn't REALLY a woman until she's attractive to men. Hepburn excels at portraying bold, independent characters, and, whoo, that would have been more interesting. The film is maybe trying to say some things about ambition and being willing to fight for what you want, but it all gets drowned out by the deliberate on-screen patheticness of this character who apparently just needs a man to bestow upon her her sense of purpose. What a terrible character to put at the center of your film.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Rainmaker < The Dinner Guest

The Rainmaker < Lilo & Stitch

The Rainmaker > Captain January

The Rainmaker > Walking Across Egypt

The Rainmaker > Madigan

The Rainmaker > Quitting

The Rainmaker < Night at the Museum

The Rainmaker < From Here to Eternity

The Rainmaker > Steve Jobs

The Rainmaker < The Peanut Butter Falcon

The Rainmaker > Petulia

Final spot: #2454 out of 3217, or 24%.

Il Postino (1994)

IMDb plot summary: A simple Italian postman learns to love poetry while delivering mail to a famous poet, and then uses this to woo local beauty Beatrice.

Directed by Michael Radford and Massimo Troisi. Starring Philippie Noiret, Massimo Troisi, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, and Linda Moretti.

Now that I've watched 100 movies from 1968, my random number generator has chosen my next year, and it has gone with 1994. I have 52 movies to watch to get to 100, so we're starting with Il Postino. The first two thirds of this movie are a charming little comedy drama, structured almost like a coming-of-age story, and then the final third takes a turn I wasn't expecting -- in what the character does with the lessons they've learned after that formative experience goes away or change. My favorite parts by far are the conversations Neruda and young Mario have about language and love and metaphors, and while I'm not as wowed by the final third, I think it is necessary. It grounds the film back in reality, where Mario lives, rather than pretending that living perpetually in the abstract is a reality for most people. It's a sweet and thoughtful movie that was a great kick-off to widening my knowledge of 1994 in film.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Il Postino > 12 Monkeys

Il Postino > Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

Il Postino < Leap of Faith

Il Postino < Super 8

Il Postino > Taxi Driver

Il Postino < Bubba Ho-tep

Il Postino < Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Il Postino > The Grand Budapest Hotel

Il Postino > Upside Down

Il Postino > The Great Gatsby (2013)

Il Postino > Titanic

Il Postino < Roxanne

Final spot: #680 out of 3216, or 79%.

Asterix and Cleopatra (1968)

IMDb plot summary: Provoked, Cleopatra bets Caesar that she can build a big palace in 3 months. An architect is given 3 months or else. Fortunately, Getafix, Asterix and Obelix come to Alexandria to help.

Directed by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. Starring Roger Carel, Jacques Carel, Micheline Dax, and Jacques Balutin.

This is my 100th movie I've watched from 1968, and it's not a particularly strong one to end the challenge on. It's based on a French-language comic series popular in the 1960s. My dad grew up reading them, so we had a few of them around our house growing up. This particular one features the series protagonists, Asterix and Obelix, voyaging to Egypt to help a terrible architect build a palace to impress Cleopatra. This is most definitely a film (and comic series) for kids, with the characters being defined by single traits and the jokes being basically that one trait used over and over again. The use of racial caricatures in this video in particular has definitely not aged well. But the musical numbers are fun, and there are a few enjoyably absurdist moments. It was strange how much of the series came back to me as I watched the film, but it was better as a nostalgia vehicle for me than as a film in and of itself. The plot kind of bounces all over the place in a way that makes total sense for a kids' cartoon but feels aimless to me as an adult. If it weren't for those racial caricatures I'd recommend it for kids, but as is I'm happy to just let it sit in the vault.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Asterix and Cleopatra < 12 Monkeys

Asterix and Cleopatra > Spirits of the Dead

Asterix and Cleopatra < Ghost

Asterix and Cleopatra < Nothing Like a Dame

Asterix and Cleopatra > Who's That Knocking At My Door

Asterix and Cleopatra < In the Line of Fire

Asterix and Cleopatra < Rebel Without a Cause

Asterix and Cleopatra < The Man With One Red Shoe

Asterix and Cleopatra < Heidi

Asterix and Cleopatra < The Year Without a Santa Claus

Asterix and Cleopatra < My Favorite Wife

Asterix and Cleopatra < How to Deal

Final spot: #2311 out of 3215, or 28%.

My Darling Clementine (1946)

IMDb plot summary: The Earps battle the Clantons at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.

Directed by John Ford. Starring Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, and Cathy Downs.

My Darling Clementine is a western in which the character the movie is named after technically exists but has absolutely zero bearing on the plot. The movie is actually about Wyatt Earp becoming Tombstone's Marshal, befriending Doc Holliday, and attempting to find the man who murdered his brother. I seldom feel more out of sync with the rest of the movie criticism world than when watching a western. This film is regarded as one of Ford's very best, but it doesn't hold together for me. I found this script to be strange and sloppy -- for example, at one point Doc Holliday tells someone to "leave town or I will." They don't, he confronts them to tell them, fine, he's leaving because they won't, and Earp corners him to tell him he can't run people out of town. But... he isn't? Because he's just leaving instead? The whole script feels like this. I kept finding myself deeply frustrated by how dumb it made the characters sound, which I don't think was the intention. And while it's a small thing, that title really DOESN'T make sense -- Clementine isn't the catalyst for any single thing in the plot, nor does she function as a narrative symbol. Given how loved this film is, it must have its merits, but I just can't find them. There isn't a satisfying throughline or rich characters or, really, anything that holds my interest.

How it entered my Flickchart:

My Darling Clementine < The Dinner Guest

My Darling Clementine < Spirits of the Dead

My Darling Clementine > The Watcher in the Woods

My Darling Clementine > The Butterfly Effect

My Darling Clementine > Graveyard of Honor (1975)

My Darling Clementine > Throw Momma from the Train

My Darling Clementine < Syrup

My Darling Clementine > The Peanut Butter Falcon

My Darling Clementine < Jake's Women

My Darling Clementine > From Here to Eternity

My Darling Clementine > Wuthering Heights

My Darling Clementine < X2

Final spot: #2444 out of 3214, or 24%.

Hustlers (2019)

IMDb plot summary: Inspired by the viral New York Magazine article, Hustlers follows a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.

Directed by Lorene Scafaria. Starring Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, and Keke Palmer.

This film creates multiple comparisons between these women and skeazy Wall Street traders, and this film feels very much like a Wolf of Wall Street-style heist biopic, that high-flying, high-energy kind of journey, albeit with genders swapped and more emphasis on the personal connection between the hustlers. Jennifer Lopez has gotten a lot of praise for her performance here, and deservedly so. She manages to pull off being both ruthless and charming, and from moment to moment the adoration she heaps on her young proteges can switch between feeling maternal to feeling predatory. I admire a film that's bold enough to have such a strong female-centric cast. (Not only does it pass the Bechdel Test with flying colors, but it might not pass a reverse test -- I'm not sure there are two men in here who have a conversation with each other not about women!) The movie feels like a refreshingly unique take on a well-worn genre, and it's worth a watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hustlers > 12 Monkeys

Hustlers > Brave

Hustlers < Revengers Tragedy

Hustlers < The Martian

Hustlers < Taxi Driver

Hustlers < Sherlock Jr.

Hustlers < Ocean's Eleven

Hustlers < Safe

Hustlers < My Name Is Joe

Hustlers < Robot and Frank

Hustlers < Queen of Katwe

Hustlers > Barton Fink

Final spot: #802 out of 3212, or 75%.

The Informer (1935)

IMDb plot summary: In 1922, an Irish rebel informs on his friend, then feels doom closing in.

Directed by John Ford. Starring Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster, and Margot Grahame.

This is the earliest movie I've seen from John Ford, and I found it frequently infuriating. The titular informer is depicted as someone not particularly bright, and not only does he not think through his plan to inform on his friend, but once he does, he fluctuates wildly between extreme paranoia, where he becomes violent at any mention of the police, and overconfident security, where he recklessly spends so much of the money he betrayed his conscience to get. Ford had a long career directing silent films before venturing into talkies, and you can tell -- there's a definite "silent melodrama" feel to this movie, with many early sections having no dialogue or sound other than the score. The film does ask some interesting questions about forgiveness and personal responsibility, and the cinematography is striking, but you will have to get past the melodramatic acting and narrative style, which is sometimes easier said than done. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Informer > 12 Monkeys

The Informer < Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

The Informer < A Goofy Movie

The Informer > Three Colors: Red

The Informer > Children of Paradise

The Informer > The Theory of Everything

The Informer < Mr. Holmes

The Informer < Esther, the Girl Who Became Queen

The Informer > Were the World Mine

The Informer > Albert Nobbs

The Informer > The Crying Game

The Informer < War Horse

Final spot: #1243 out of 3212, or 61%.

5 Centimeters Per Second (2007)

IMDb plot summary: Told in three interconnected segments, we follow a young man named Takaki through his life as cruel winters, cold technology, and finally, adult obligations and responsibility converge to test the delicate petals of love.

Directed by Makoto Shinkai. Starring Kenji Mizuhashi, Yoshimi Kondou, Satomi Hanamura, and Ayaka Onoue.

This film is divided into three segments about how a short-lived relationship sticks with a boy/young man at different points in his life. It clocks in at a brief 60 minutes, and that's about the perfect length for this - much longer and there'd be a higher risk of the film losing its carefully crafted emotional tone. Director Makoto Shinkai has a way of bringing out "the big picture" in his work, making his themes feel enormous, universal, while still focusing on a singular narrative. Here there's a sprawling sense of longing, searching, and it's powerful. The score here definitely helps too - it's absolutely stunning. It grounds the film and gives it an immediate weight, a sense that this story is bigger than you think it is. It's one of those films that feels almost more like a painting than cinema, beautiful and still and the longer you stare at it, the more you start pondering those big universal questions.

How it entered my Flickchart:

5 Centimeters Per Second > Les Miserables (1935)

5 Centimeters Per Second > Brave

5 Centimeters Per Second < Revengers Tragedy

5 Centimeters Per Second > Super 8

5 Centimeters Per Second < The Sessions

5 Centimeters Per Second < Notting Hill

5 Centimeters Per Second > The Shawshank Redemption

5 Centimeters Per Second < Face/Off

5 Centimeters Per Second > What About Bob?

5 Centimeters Per Second > Star Trek

5 Centimeters Per Second < Down With Love

Final spot: #566 out of 3211, or 82%.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

IMDb plot summary: On the way to California, a family has the misfortune to have their car break down in an area closed to the public, and inhabited by violent savages ready to attack.

Directed by Wes Craven. Starring Suze Lanier-Bramlett, Robert Houston, Martin Speer, and Dee Wallace.

This was a huge blind spot for me up until now. It has the same grody, uncomfortable feel as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was one of Craven's favorite films and you can absolutely see its influence here -- not only in the grunginess of its visuals but in how generally unlikable its protagonists are. It's interesting how little information is given to us about the antagonists. We get a sort of back story about halfway through the film, but still it's never clear what these people want or how far their power extends or a lot of other things. But, hey, we fear what we don't understand, and the film really leans into the horror of regular people wanting to know "why are they even DOING this," and it's a pretty effective angle. It's definitely not my preferred sub-genre of horror, but it does exactly what it's trying to do, and I give it props for that.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Hills Have Eyes < All the Money in the World

The Hills Have Eyes > Little Manhattan

The Hills Have Eyes > Bronson

The Hills Have Eyes < Adama

The Hills Have Eyes < Konrad

The Hills Have Eyes > The Hurt Locker

The Hills Have Eyes > Frankie Go Boom

The Hills Have Eyes < Dirty Dancing

The Hills Have Eyes > Ralph Breaks the Internet

The Hills Have Eyes < Sullivan's Travels

The Hills Have Eyes > Flypaper

Final spot: #1921 out of 3210, or 

Heaven Knows What (2014)

 

IMDb plot summary: A young woman struggles to reconcile her loves of her life: her boyfriend and heroin. She finds out that suicide is the only way for her boyfriend to forgive her for her misdeed.

Directed by Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie. Starring Arielle Holmes, Caleb Landry Jones, Buddy Duress, and Necro.

Heaven Knows What is a Safdie Brothers film showing a few days in the life of a homeless drug addict. It's a brutal and unforgiving film that left me in a deep funk after I finished it -- it is that depressing. It's based on the real life experiences of Arielle Holmes, who the Safdie Brothers met while she was living on the streets and they were working on what would become Uncut Gems. Holmes in fact plays the main character and lends a layer of authenticity that makes it even more upsetting to watch -- she speaks in an interview about essentially scheduling her drug usage around the scenes she was filming. The film is a far cry from the elaborate plot threads in Good Time or Uncut Gems but hits much harder emotionally. It's a devastating watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Heaven Knows What > The Lighthouse

Heaven Knows What < Match Point

Heaven Knows What < The Terminal

Heaven Knows What < A Star Is Born (1954)

Heaven Knows What > Skyfall

Heaven Knows What > Mr. Nice Guy

Heaven Knows What < 300

Heaven Knows What > Kiss the Girls

Heaven Knows What > Hail, Caesar!

Heaven Knows What > Swingers

Heaven Knows What > The Mummy (1999)

Heaven Knows What > The Wrestler

Final spot: #1430 out of 3209, or 55%.

Naked Lunch (1991)

 

IMDb plot summary: After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally kills his wife, and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.

Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, and Julian Sands.

I found the novel Naked Lunch insufferable, but the movie much less so. Some of it has to do with the fact that added visuals make it so much easier to pull a narrative together and even just follow what (might) be going on. The surrealism is strong here but it contributes to an atmosphere in a way it didn't on the written page. Of course, the atmosphere it contributes to is not a pleasant one. Director David Cronenberg excels at wielding body horror in a way that's not just disgusting but unsettling down to the core. Critic reviews of the film frequently reference its bleakness and pessimism, and I'd have to agree. It's a wildly depressing film, and not one I could fathom watching again or even really recommending to anyone, even if it's technically done well.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Naked Lunch < Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood

Naked Lunch > The First Wives Club

Naked Lunch > The Howling

Naked Lunch < George of the Jungle

Naked Lunch > The Paperboy

Naked Lunch > Quigley Down Under

Naked Lunch < Harry and the Hendersons

Naked Lunch < The Conversation

Naked Lunch < The Front Page (1974)

Naked Lunch < The Blind Side

Naked Lunch > Wild Zero

Naked Lunch < The Avengers (2012)

Final spot: #1852 out of 3207, or 42%.

Little Italy (2018)

 

IMDb plot summary: A young couple must navigate a blossoming romance, amidst a war between their families' competing pizza restaurants.

Directed by Donald Petrie. Starring Emma Roberts, Hayden Christensen, Danny Aiello, and Andrea Martin.

This is an exceptionally strange movie, clearly trying to be My Big Fat Greek Wedding but with Italy and hardly any Italian actors -- and, more confusingly, they all speak with stereotypical New York Italian accents despite the fact that the film is set in Canada. The chemistry between the two leads is nonexistent, with Emma Roberts appearing perpetually uncomfortable and Hayden Christensen completely unable to pass for a mid-twenties youth at 37. I also find it irritating how frequently romantic comedies in this style require the female lead to give up the dreams she has and settle down in one place with a good man and never leave it again. That's especially bizarre here, given that the male lead is *also* frequently frustrated with the narrow-mindedness of his tiny community. Just think how much fun they could have traveling the world! It's a messy, bland rom com that does no favors to the genre... or Canada.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Little Italy < Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood

Little Italy < The First Wives Club

Little Italy > Joseph: King of Dreams

Little Italy < Marjorie Morningstar

Little Italy > Nicholas Nickleby

Little Italy > Countdown

Little Italy < The Great Train Robbery

Little Italy > Bus Stop

Little Italy > Analyze This

Little Italy > Jane Eyre (1997)

Little Italy > Fedora

Little Italy > The Boss

Final spot: #2631 out of 3206, or 18%.

The Duel (2016)

 

IMDb plot summary: A Texas Ranger investigates a series of unexplained deaths in a town called Helena.

Directed by Kieran Darcy-Smith. Starring Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth, Alice Braga, and Emory Cohen.

This movie is *trying* to be a lot of things -- a takedown of predatory religion, a commentary on vigilante justice, a lesson on the historical relationship between Mexico and the US in Texas... but it doesn't do any of those things very well. These aspects all flit in and out of the picture inconsistently based on how convenient they are. What is Harrelson's religion he's preaching that keeps his town enthralled? I haven't the faintest idea, but, hey, they're snake handling, so you know it's bad! What does this movie think of vigilante justice? Who knows, it doesn't actually come up until the ham-fisted monologue at the end! How is racism intertwined with this narrative? Well, we'll never really know, because the only non-white person whose story gets even partly told just abruptly loses all agency partway through the film and is then abandoned with no resolution. This script feels so rushed -- it definitely needed a few more edits to achieve thematic cohesion.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Duel < Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood

The Duel < The First Wives Club

The Duel > The Christmas That Almost Wasn't

The Duel < Marjorie Morningstar

The Duel > The Passion of Joan of Arc

The Duel > The Number 23

The Duel > Fedora

The Duel < Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

The Duel < Compulsion

The Duel > Dark of the Sun

The Duel > Shalako

The Duel < Darkest Hour

Final spot: #2624 out of 3205, or 18%.

Pather Panchali (1955)

 

IMDb plot: Impoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.

Directed by Satyajit Ray. Starring Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Uma Das Gupta, and Subir Banerjee.

The film gets a lot of praise for highlighting small daily joys that can be found even in poverty, but I'll be honest, the sadness drowned a lot of that out for me. I found Apu's mother to be the emotional center of the movie, and she is constantly, visibly feeling the strain of their poverty. She has to field the neighbors' accusations of her children stealing from them. She is forever aware of all the debts they owe. She begs her husband to ask for his backpay from his employer and even to consider moving away from his ancestral home to a more lucrative location. The film is slow and thoughtful, filled with long shots of people doing their daily work, or, for the children, playing with their friends. The use of music is especially striking, as several times during heightened emotional scenes, the sound of dialogue drops altogether and is replaced with just the score. This is especially effective during a scene when a distraught character's cries are mimicked by the wailing of the instrument. It does take work to get through - I wasn't fully engaged until about 2/3 of the way through - but it's ultimately easy to see why the film is acclaimed, even if not an instant favorite.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Pather Panchali > Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood

Pather Panchali < The Road Warrior

Pather Panchali < Sleeping Beauty

Pather Panchali < The Revenant

Pather Panchali > Skyfall

Pather Panchali > Drunken Master

Pather Panchali > Struck by Lightning

Pather Panchali > Lord of the Flies

Pather Panchali > Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical

Pather Panchali > Black Snake Moan

Pather Panchali < A Star Is Born (1954)

Final spot: #1404 out of 3204, or 56%. This seems low, but my Flickchart is very personal to me, which means good films I don't love land lower than messy films I do.

Mother Night (1996)

 

IMDb plot summary: An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.

Directed by Keith Gordon. Starring Nick Nolte, Sheryl Lee, John Goodman, and Alan Arkin.

Mother Night is an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel about Howard Campbell, a writer who is begrudgingly recruited as an American spy to encode hidden messages in the Nazi propaganda he broadcasts. Now that the war is over, the Americans will not claim him as theirs for fear of revealing their espionage methods, so as far as anyone knows, he's just another war criminal. I like what Roger Ebert said in his review of the film: "The dilemma Vonnegut sets [the main character] is that he cannot jump off the ship it was convenient for him to sail through the war on." At one point Campbell is confronted with the question of whether he'd have been content to live in prosperity under Nazi regime had the Germans won, and truth be told, he probably would have. It's easy to skate by on convenience in the face of evil. Last month I criticized the 2020 film The Hunt for (maybe) advocating a "just take care of yourself" attitude to politics, and here Campbell tried to do just that, but ended up doing much more in self-preservation, and now doesn't even have the comfort of knowing he was following his conscience. The film's absurd side characters are less engaging than its more philosophical moments, but it's a solid adaptation, and one I think I'd recommend.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Mother Night > The Baby-Sitters Club

Mother Night < The Road Warrior

Mother Night < The Terminal

Mother Night > Black Snake Moan

Mother Night > The Magnificent Ambersons

Mother Night > A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Mother Night > The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Mother Night < Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Mother Night < 12 Years a Slave

Mother Night < Nothing in Common

Mother Night < Mr. Holmes

Mother Night > Brick

Final spot: #1225 out of 3203, or 62%.