Shampoo (1975)

IMDb plot summary: On Election Day, 1968, a hairdresser and ladies' man is too busy cutting hair and dealing with his various girlfriends and his mistress, whose husband he meets and finds out is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend.

Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, and Lee Grant.

There really isn't one redeemable character in this story, I think, with just the constant cheating and objectifying, and I would assume that's on purpose, but it's hard for me to tell what this movie is actually attempting to say about relationship ethics. There's not really any thought put into any of the (many) female characters, they all just blend together into one perfectly-hairstyled jealous blob, and it makes it difficult to take the misogynistic statements made by the male characters at the end as something other than the actual writer's feelings about women. Director Hal Ashby and I don't ever see eye to eye on our comedy, either. There are a few almost slapsticky moments that I think are trying to be comedic, but most of them don't really work for me and feel out of place in the depressed aimlessness of the rest of the movie. And maybe that's the most apt description: "depressed." This movie feels exceptionally depressed about relationships and wants to make us all depressed about them too, and so we get... this.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Shampoo < Letters from Iwo Jima

Shampoo < Secondhand Lions

Shampoo > Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Shampoo > War Machine

Shampoo < The World Is Not Enough

Shampoo < Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Shampoo < Gilda

Shampoo > Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush

Shampoo < Premonition

Shampoo < Brokeback Mountain

Shampoo < King Kong (1933)

Shampoo < Frankenstein (1931)

Final spot: #2639 out of 3264, or 19%.

Europa '51 (1952)

IMDb plot summary: A wealthy woman becomes obsessed with humanitarianism when her young son dies after committing suicide.

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini, and Giulietta Masina.

I found this film unexpectedly captivating, and I'm sure I can attribute much of that to Ingrid Bergman herself, who often brings a fascinating combination of realism and ethereality to her roles, and both serve her well here, especially in the latter half of the film. Bergman's transition from sheltered socialite who takes no interest in anything outside her own four walls to someone willing to sacrifice everything to make one person's life better is transformative but believable, and I'm not at all surprised to see that Rossellini's inspiration was partly that of Catholic saints. I like that despite the movie being heavily about morality and philosophy, it doesn't actually feel preachy -- there's some real depth to the question of what she's doing and why and the effect it's having on the people around her. It's an interesting, thoughtful film that I think will stick with me for quite some time.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Europa '51 > Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

Europa '51 > Chronicle

Europa '51 < Marriage Story

Europa '51 > You Can't Take It With You

Europa '51 < Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Europa '51 > Cats and Dogs

Europa '51 < Jesus People: The Movie

Europa '51 > The Fallen Idol

Europa '51 > Evil Dead II

Europa '51 > Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead

Europa '51 > Looper

Final spot: #537 out of 3263, or 84%.

Perfect Blue (1997)

IMDb plot summary: A pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.

Directed by Satoshi Kon. Starring Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji, and Masaaki Ôkura.

The use of animation to tell this story REALLY works. It adds a level of unreality to the story that plays beautifully with the motif of the main character wondering if she's losing her mind as bad things keep happening around her. There's a moment toward the end where the villain literally floats after our main character during a chase, still making us question how much of what our protagonist sees is actually happening. I read some comparisons to Black Swan, and I can definitely see that, though with fewer themes of "obsession." And the way the plot ultimately falls into place genuinely surprised me -- it's not often that a film can completely take me by surprise, so that was a delight. It was also fascinating to see how the early days of the Internet played in the horror angle here -- even in 1997 it was pretty clear how the Internet could play a role in fandom in pretty ominous ways! Overall, this is definitely worth a watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Perfect Blue > Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

Perfect Blue > The Black Cat

Perfect Blue > Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Perfect Blue < Arrival

Perfect Blue < Ernest & Celestine

Perfect Blue < (500) Days of Summer

Perfect Blue > Naughty Marietta

Perfect Blue < Footloose (1984)

Perfect Blue > Romancing the Stone

Perfect Blue < American Psycho

Perfect Blue < Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Perfect Blue > Eyes Without a Face

Final spot: #373 out of 3261, or 89%.

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)

IMDb plot summary: A corpse has 24 hours to mastermind a good deed without leaving his crypt, to go "up there" and have his youth restored.

Directed by Don Weis. Starring Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley, Aron Kincaid, and Quinn O'Hara.

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is the last of the official Beach Party films, and it is a VERY silly one. The premise is that a group of heirs to a mysterious fortune end up spending the night in the dead man's house along with ghosts, murderers, a biker gang, a gorilla, an offensive Native American stereotype, and a bunch of people in bathing suits because, well, it IS a beach party film, even if there's no beach in sight. There are moments of this film that really work -- I recall Eric Von Zipper biker gang being the best part of the other beach party films I've seen, and that's definitely the case here. I enjoy the framing device where dead Boris Karloff sends a ghost to help his heirs (who, uh, don't know him so I don't know why he named them as heirs in the first place, but we're not here for plot). And some of the scenes with the nearsighted villainess are really enjoyable. There's also a lot of moments that fall flat. The final chase scene is too long, the primary villain sidekick is too prominent for not being at all funny, and, well, that "Native American" character exists. It's mostly a fun fluffy watch with a few cringey moments.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini < Letters from Iwo Jima

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Spinning Into Butter

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > The Deer Hunter

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Love Me Tonight

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Waterloo

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Stage Fright (2014)

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > The Dinner Guest

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Smokin' Aces

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > Hopscotch

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini > After the Wedding

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini < Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

Final spot: #1632 out of 3260, or 50%.

Out of Africa (1985)

IMDb plot summary: In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.

Directed by Sydney Pollack. Starring Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, and Michael Kitchen.

I just recently read the book this was based on and found it a little startling how very, very little of Africa comes through here in the film, compared to the book. The film is a romance, focused heavily on Karen and Denys' relationship, with the setting functioning as a common interest between the two of them. But it doesn't build that common interest with the viewer. Nearly everyone and everything coming FROM Africa is passed by to focus on the European transplants, and I found myself dearly missing that part of the narrative. It barely even needed to be Africa for the filmed version of this story -- they took so much of its core out, it could have been Australia or Canada or Poland or the American West. And for a story with Africa *in* the title, that seems like an oversight. All that being said, it's a fine story. Meryl Streep is good as always, and Robert Redford is charming. It just feels like a missed opportunity.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Out of Africa < Letters from Iwo Jima

Out of Africa > As Good As It Gets

Out of Africa > The Rescuers Down Under

Out of Africa > Dr. Seuss on the Loose

Out of Africa > Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Out of Africa < Waterloo

Out of Africa > Trumbo

Out of Africa > Ice Princess

Out of Africa < Waxwork

Out of Africa < Vanya on 42nd Street

Out of Africa < Melinda and Melinda

Out of Africa > Son of Rambow

Final spot: #1691 out of 3259, or 48%.

Hamilton (2020)

IMDb plot summary: The real life of one of America's foremost founding fathers and first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Captured live on Broadway from the Richard Rodgers Theater with the original Broadway cast.

Directed by Thomas Kail. Starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, and Phillipa Soo.

Hamilton is a show I admire on just about every level -- it's engaging and powerful and funny and sad and makes theater AND history more accessible and has just endlessly engaging lyrics. I'm quite comfortable saying Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius songwriter. While the show itself hasn't wormed its way into my heart quite as deeply as it has everyone else's, I still find myself moved by it every time I see it. In this production, the side character actors are the biggest standouts. As brilliant as Miranda is on the page, he's not as smooth on the stage, and I have a strong suspicion that Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr was under the weather on the night this was filmed. But Philippa Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Daveed Diggs absolutely steal the show as Hamilton's wife, sister-in-law, and colleagues. And like with any theatrical piece, seeing it with multiple casts brings out different nuances and highlights different pieces -- and Hamilton has LOTS to dig into. I'm not going to put the cast album on repeat any time soon, but I'm going to keep recommending it to people because this is a great show.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hamilton > Letters from Iwo Jima

Hamilton > The Black Cat

Hamilton > Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Hamilton < Arrival

Hamilton > The Florida Project

Hamilton < Blue Jasmine

Hamilton > The Lion in Winter

Hamilton > Spirited Away

Hamilton > August Rush

Hamilton < Waking Life

Hamilton < Ruby Sparks

Hamilton < The Virgin Spring

How it entered my Flickchart: #260 out of 3258, or 92%.

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

IMDb plot summary: In 1985 Dallas, electrician and hustler Ron Woodroof works around the system to help AIDS patients get the medication they need after he is diagnosed with the disease.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Starring Matthew McConnaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, and Denis O'Hare.

This is more focused than many biopics, but the focus is, for whatever reason, not as centered on the characters themselves as I was hoping and more on the logistics of their business. All that we learn about the characters we learn through those logistics. I kind of wonder what the purpose of this kind of movie is *now*, in 2013, when there have been so many other well-told stories about the AIDS epidemic. Not that you can only tell a story once, obviously, but what made *this* story one that inspired the director and the actors to bring it to life? And I just am not sure. That lack of focus shows itself in the broad strokes with which the non-McConnaughey characters are painted and the intense detail on the logistics of "how does one run a buyers' club in the 1980s?" I don't think it's a bad film, it just doesn't do much of ANYTHING, and I wish it was bolder in basically any sense of the word.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Dallas Buyers Club < Letters from Iwo Jima

Dallas Buyers Club > As Good As It Gets

Dallas Buyers Club < Spinning Into Butter

Dallas Buyers Club > Play Misty for Me

Dallas Buyers Club < Alice in Wonderland (1999)

Dallas Buyers Club > Two for the Money

Dallas Buyers Club > Peter Pan (2003)

Dallas Buyers Club < The Robe

Dallas Buyers Club > Mrs. Doubtfire

Dallas Buyers Club < Shrek Retold

Dallas Buyers Club > Millions

Final spot: #2153 out of 3257, or 34%.

SubUrbia (1996)

IMDb plot summary: A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.

Directed by Richard Linklater. Starring Gioovanni Ribisi, Amie Carey, Jayce Bartok, and Nicky Katt.

I grew up in the suburban Midwest and, hoooo, did I find this a claustrophobic familiar watch. Teens and college-aged people everywhere have their own existential crises, but there IS something distinct about small-town coming-of-age crises, where it's so easy to see your life just stretching in front of you as a neverending sea of... blah. Some of these characters tried and failed to get out and now feel even more stuck, some tried and succeeded, and some haven't tried yet so they still feel hopeful about their chances. Richard Linklater is a great director choice for this text, because he has such a great sense for directing dialogue that is a lot deeper than it seems on the surface. It hit hard enough for me to make it a difficult watch, but I would still recommend it. There's a lot in here to unpack, and it's probably worth it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

SubUrbia > Letters from Iwo Jima

SubUrbia < Chronicle

SubUrbia > I, Tonya

SubUrbia > M

SubUrbia > RoboCop

SubUrbia > Wonder Boys

SubUrbia > Hawking

SubUrbia > Oliver Twist (1948)

SubUrbia < Barton Fink

SubUrbia < Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary

SubUrbia < The Road Warrior

SubUrbia > Match Point

Final spot: #825 out of 3256, or 75%.

Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)

IMDb plot summary: New York actors rehearse Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" in a dilapidated theatre.

Directed by Louis Malle. Starring Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore, Brooke Smith, and Larry Pine.

So in 1994, an actual group of actors worked through performance workshops of Chekhov in an abandoned theater in their street clothes for no public audience, it was solely for their own artistic growth and development. And this is that play. It was pure coincidence that I watched this after another Dogville, another movie with a very pared down almost Brechtian aesthetic. And while I love the concept of it and find many of the performances very compelling, it's a movie that forces me to come to terms with one of my most guilty confessions as a theater lover and teacher -- I don't like Chekhov. I find his plays tedious and uninspiring and seldom rewarding enough to make the long journey into them. And that continues to be the case here. While I enjoy these performances (Brooke Smith and Wallace Shawn especially stand out) I am just so, so bored with the stories and the characters and their long wordy monologues about their deep-seated ideals. If you are a big fan of his work, this is an immensely talented cast doing a stripped-down text-focused production, and it's probably worth a watch. But it just didn't work for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Vanya on 42nd Street < Letters from Iwo Jima

Vanya on 42nd Street > An Ideal Husband

Vanya on 42nd Street > The Rescuers Down Under

Vanya on 42nd Street > Bananas

Vanya on 42nd Street > Wind River

Vanya on 42nd Street < Waterloo

Vanya on 42nd Street > Lost in America

Vanya on 42nd Street > The Sandlot

Vanya on 42nd Street < Waxwork

Vanya on 42nd Street > Melinda and Melinda

Vanya on 42nd Street < Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

Final spot: #1687 out of 3255, or 48%.

Dogville (2003)

IMDb plot summary: A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town she finds out that their support has a price.

Directed by Lars von Trier. Starring Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, John Hurt, and Stellan Skarsgård.

The gimmick of this film is that the "set" is actually just a giant soundstage, with chalk outlines marking the presence of walls, doors, and bushes. It's very theatrical, which I love from an aesthetic standpoint, but I'm still working out how this gimmick helps or hurts the movie's narrative. It definitely puts the town's lack of material goods front and center -- these townspeople don't appear to even have walls, much less anything else Kidman would have expected in her previous life. And like all Von Trier movies, it's unbelievably depressing. I went and read some reviews later and a lot of them bash it as being too cynical about humanity, but I think it actually makes some interesting points about our tendency to segregate and self-preserve and about tribalism, all of which have seemed more obvious here in the US over the last four years. I'm not entirely sure that I grasp Von Trier's ultimate message here, and unlike some of his others I feel he IS trying to make a definitive point here, rather than just tell a story, but I often find his films powerful and emotionally resonant despite not being convinced of his messaging, and that is true here as well. Definitely an engaging film that's likely to stick with me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Dogville > Letters from Iwo Jima

Dogville > The Black Cat

Dogville < Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation

Dogville > You Can't Take It With You

Dogville > Purple Noon

Dogville < Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Dogville < Ordet

Dogville < Regarding Henry

Dogville > Brothers

Dogville > Driving Miss Daisy

Dogville > The Royal Tenenbaums

Dogville < Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Final spot: #496 out of 3254, or 85%.

Sand Castle (2017)

IMDb plot summary: The story follows a young soldier, and his introduction into the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Based on true events, it bears witness to the destruction, and horrors of war.

Directed by Fernando Coimbra. Starring Henry Cavill, Nicholas Hoult, Tommy Flanagan, and Glen Powell.

This is apparently based on the screenwriter's experiences in Iraq. It definitely has its moments where it shines. Like so many war movies, most of the characters all blend into each other no matter how much personality they try to give them, but Hoult as a centerpiece brings more charisma to the role than the "young recruit audience viewpoint" characters in a lot of similar films. It's easy to connect with his disillusionment, his frustration, his hope, and his disappointment throughout the film. Without giving anything away, I thought the ending was interesting as well -- not necessarily emotionally powerful or thought-provoking, which is what I would REALLY want from this -- but it went a direction I didn't necessarily expect. This is however a film weighed down by the logistics of the task they're trying to accomplish, and a lot of the scenes feel less like stories and more like watching someone checking off checkpoints in a video game.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Sand Castle < Letters from Iwo Jima

Sand Castle > An Ideal Husband

Sand Castle < The Rescuers Down Under

Sand Castle < Play Misty for Me

Sand Castle > The Thin Red Line

Sand Castle < Cry-Baby

Sand Castle > Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Sand Castle > Zorba the Greek

Sand Castle > Apocalypse Now

Sand Castle < In the Heat of the Night

Sand Castle < On the Waterfront

Sand Castle < Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Final spot: #2292 out of 3251, or 29%.

Raising Cain (1992)

IMDb plot summary: The oncologist wife of a prominent child psychologist suspects her husband has an unhealthy scientific obsession with their child, unaware of what - or who - is really going on inside his head.

Directed by Brian De Palma. Starring John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, Steven Bauer, and Frances Sternhagen.

This is an obviously bad but kind of enjoyable movie. Even after the plot comes together, it really doesn't make much sense, and it includes all these long expository "So, you see, what happened was" scenes where characters explain the movie to each other. There's at least one dramatic scene that is supposed to be dark and sad I think but it's so over-the-top that I laughed out loud. And that plot! At one point I had to pause the movie and go find the synopsis on Wikipedia to read up to where I was thus far and figure out if I'd missed a section. I hadn't, it was just making confusing plot decisions on its own. John Lithgow is clearly having a blast hamming this up though -- he definitely gives it his all. I would mostly recommend this one for a group watch with a bunch of snarky friends.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Raising Cain > Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

Raising Cain < The Black Cat

Raising Cain < I, Tonya

Raising Cain < The Fixer

Raising Cain < Ping Pong Playa

Raising Cain < Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Raising Cain < The Major and the Minor

Raising Cain > It Comes at Night

Raising Cain > Jumanji

Raising Cain > The Score

Raising Cain < Escape from New York

Final spot: #1604 out of 3253, or 51%.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012)

IMDb plot summary: A crime novelist, whose research on Victorian serial killers has turned him into a paranoid wreck, must confront his worst fears, when a film executive takes a sudden interest in his movie script.

Directed by Crispian Mills and Chris Hopewell. Starring Simon Pegg, Alan Drake, Clare Higgins, and Paul Freeman.

This movie has some promise but it squanders most of it by feeling too mean-spirited. It's exceptionally clear that this character has some mental health issues to deal with, and he seems in genuine distress, and while we are trapped inside his head with him, it feels just so cruel to try to laugh at his irrational fears. When we laugh at fear and anxiety it's usually because we find it relatable, and at first I thought I wasn't laughing just because I didn't relate that hard, but then during the middle section, there's an extended scene of him panicking in a social situation, something I DO relate to, and instead of feeling seen and laughing, I just felt mocked. And EVERY punchline revolves around this fear, so if the jokes they choose to pull out of it don't land for you in the first 10 minutes, none of it will. The lines between comedy, horror, and tragedy are all thin and this never quite tips over into the comedy section, despite trying very hard.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Fantastic Fear of Everything < Letters from Iwo Jima

A Fantastic Fear of Everything < As Good As It Gets

A Fantastic Fear of Everything < Annie (1982)

A Fantastic Fear of Everything > Sweet Home Alabama

A Fantastic Fear of Everything > Flywheel

A Fantastic Fear of Everything > Courageous

A Fantastic Fear of Everything < John Q.

A Fantastic Fear of Everything > Taxi

A Fantastic Fear of Everything > Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

A Fantastic Fear of Everything < Eagle Eye

A Fantastic Fear of Everything < Shrek the Third

A Fantastic Fear of Everything < Detropia

Final spot: #2877 out of 3252, or 12%.