Elle (2016)

IMDb plot summary: A successful businesswoman gets caught up in a game of cat and mouse as she tracks down the unknown man who raped her.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Starring Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, and Charles Berling.

Isabelle Huppert got an Oscar nomination for her work here, and it's well-deserved. She conveys so much with so little, these subtle little moments that suddenly tell us so much about what's going on inside her. The narrative itself is... complex and tricky to sort out. While I think it's done well and thoughtfully in a way that gives Huppert's character a lot of agency and depth, I do sort of raise my eyebrow at this story being written and directed solely by men. It doesn't automatically disqualify it for me, but it means I hold it a little bit at arms' length and am a little less sure I like it than I was at first. It makes me wonder how much of its story is meant to be... tantalizing instead of thought-provoking. Huppert's work deserves recognition, but I'm still parsing out how much recognition the film deserves on its own.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Elle > One, Two, Three

Elle < Hoop Dreams

Elle < Harakiri

Elle < Holiday Inn

Elle < 21

Elle < Kinky Boots the Musical

Elle < The Keep

Elle < Nine Queens

Elle > Raising Cain

Elle < The Major and the Minor

Elle < Absolute Power

Elle > Escape from New York

Final spot: #1658 out of 3331, or 50%.

Pal Joey (1957)

IMDb plot summary: Joey Evans' a charming, handsome, funny, talented a-1st class, A-N°.1 - heel. When Joey meets the former chorus girl and now is the rich widow, Vera Simpson, the pair of lecherous souls seem made for each other.

Directed by George Sidney. Starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, and Barbara Nichols.

I've been enjoying a lot of classic musical movies recently -- Kismet, Call Me Madam, Bells Are Ringing -- but this one doesn't work for me much at all. I attribute that partly to how uninteresting the story is overall -- Joey's an unpleasant character and I don't particularly care who he ends up with -- but this movie also features primarily diegetic numbers sung by the characters at the nightclub where they work. This nearly always severs the emotional connection for me between the music and the story, though you can get away with it if the story is rich enough, like in Cabaret or Once. Pal Joey's story is not rich enough to stand up to that. So even though there are some good individual musical moments, none of them strengthen or are strengthened by the narrative, and it ends up falling a little flat.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Pal Joey < The Beach

Pal Joey > Big Business

Pal Joey < The Hurt Locker

Pal Joey > Pride and Prejudice (1940)

Pal Joey > Paint Your Wagon

Pal Joey > Happy Christmas

Pal Joey > Stephen King's The Stand

Pal Joey < Captain Fantastic

Pal Joey < Another Thin Man

Pal Joey < The Rescuers Down Under

Pal Joey < Gypsy (1962)

Pal Joey < Rigoletto

Final spot: #2107 out of 3330, or 37%.

The Lords of Salem (2012)

IMDb plot summary: Heidi, a radio DJ, is sent a box containing a record - a "gift from the Lords". The sounds within the grooves trigger flashbacks of her town's violent past. Is Heidi going mad, or are the Lords back to take revenge on Salem, Massachusetts?

Directed by Rob Zombie. Starring Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison, Jeff Daniel Phillips, and Judy Geeson.

Rob Zombie's aesthetic is... not mine. There are a lot of pieces of this that have some great ideas, and a few of the scenes involving the record itself are genuinely creepy, but for the most part it's not scary so much as just... grimy, and occasionally silly. There's a gleeful earnestness with which Zombie tosses subverted Christian symbols into the movie, but they seldom make any *sense*, they just feel like they were put there by someone convinced that was enough to be edgy and creepy. But... no, just showing me an image of a nun or a weird shape around a cross isn't a big deal. Maybe for others it is, but it feels like so many of these images were thrown together haphazardly, like Zombie made a mood board on Pinterest and then just decided to film it all, regardless of whether it connects narratively. It drowns out an otherwise unsettling story by feeling, honestly, just kind of silly.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Lords of Salem < The Beach

The Lords of Salem > Big Business

The Lords of Salem < The Woman in Black

The Lords of Salem > Rust and Bone

The Lords of Salem > Bandidas

The Lords of Salem > Crash

The Lords of Salem < Stephen King's The Stand

The Lords of Salem < Mr. Holland's Opus

The Lords of Salem > The Dirty Dozen

The Lords of Salem < Hitch

The Lords of Salem > A Dangerous Method

Final spot: #2124 out of 3329, or 36%.

Bells Are Ringing (1960)

IMDb plot summary: A Brooklyn answering service operator becomes involved in the lives of her clients, including a struggling playwright with whom she begins to fall in love.

Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Starring Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark, and Eddie Foy Jr.

I knew one or two of the tunes from this show before watching but really didn't know the plot or most of the score at all, and I found myself very pleasantly surprised. It's light and funny and heartwarming, and many of the songs are much more interesting than your typical classic musical sound. The only song that didn't fully land for me was the big ensemble number at a party, and I suspect that's because the story's magic comes from the individual performances. The star here is undoubtedly Judy Holliday, whose charm didn't quite sell me on Born Yesterday but who just delights me here, somehow managing to be both blissfully dreamy and pragmatically down-to-earth. I laughed out loud more than once and adored watching all her clients realize the common threads tying together their dramatic life changes. If you're at all a fan of golden age musicals, this is one to watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Bells Are Ringing > The Beach

Bells Are Ringing > Hoop Dreams

Bells Are Ringing > The Great Muppet Caper

Bells Are Ringing < Frozen

Bells Are Ringing < 50/50

Bells Are Ringing > Trust

Bells Are Ringing > The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Bells Are Ringing > Nativity!

Bells Are Ringing > 25th Hour

Bells Are Ringing > Fail-Safe (1964)

Bells Are Ringing > The Lady Eve

Bells Are Ringing < Shattered Glass

Final spot: #314 out of 3328, or 91%.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)

IMDb plot summary: In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.

Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour. Starring Shela Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, and Mozhan Marnò.

This isn't a plot-centric movie, it's all about the cinematic atmosphere being created, and wow, is it a haunting one. This film moves slowly and deliberately through its world, and that meant it frequently took me by surprise by how intense I found it. I'd be vaguely bored with long slow shots of characters sitting sadly, and then all of a sudden I'd realize I was terrified, or deeply sad, or some other big emotion. Ana Lily Amirpour's directorial choices really crept up on me. Aside from the cinematography, the score is always startlingly impactful. It's never what I would have expected as a film score for any particular scene, but it always set the mood perfectly. A lot of times I find that films relying this heavily on film language can become predictable for me, but I genuinely never knew where this film was taking me, and I loved that. This is one that is going to sit with me for quite some time, I'm sure.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night > One, Two, Three

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night > The Black Cat

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night > Revengers Tragedy

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night < Frozen

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night < 50/50

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night > Citizen Kane

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night < The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night < The World's End

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night < Once

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night > (500) Days of Summer

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night > I.Q.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night < White Christmas

Final spot: #359 out of 3327, or 89%.

End of Days (1999)

IMDb plot summary: At the end of the century, Satan visits New York in search of a bride. It's up to an ex-cop who now runs an elite security outfit to stop him.

Directed by Peter Hyams. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, and Kevin Pollak.

This movie is absolutely ridiculous, but not in a fun or interesting way. The woman being protected is an extremely poorly-written character, with no agency or personality whatsoever. The camerawork frequently relies on unjustified shaky shots that made me a little sick for no good reason, as well as way-too-fast-to-be-useful editing. The film is hilariously confused on whether firearms are or are not effective weapons against Satan, because while they want him to be beyond the reach of mere mortal tools, you can't NOT have your action hero coming in with guns ablazing. Even with the script attempts to be mildly thoughtful, such as the flashback to the protagonist's family when they were alive, is muddled by the script's unclear motivations. This film is a hot mess, and a boring one to boot.

How it entered my Flickchart:

End of Days < The Beach

End of Days < Big Business

End of Days < VeggieTales: The Star of Christmas

End of Days > The Art of War

End of Days < Stand Up and Cheer!

End of Days > Me Before You

End of Days < Pokemon: The First Movie

End of Days < Detour

End of Days < Yes Man

End of Days < Breach

End of Days < Song of the South

End of Days > Avalanche

Final spot: #3066 out of 3326, or 8%.

Twins (1988)

IMDb plot summary: A physically perfect but innocent man goes in search of his long-lost twin brother, who is short, a womanizer, and small-time crook.

Directed by Ivan Reitman. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Kelly Preston, and Chloe Webb.

For being mostly a one-joke idea, this is executed much better than I anticipated. The two actors are playing to their strengths here, playing up not just their physical differences but their personalities, with Schwarzenegger playing the sweet naive brother who just wants to bond with his family, and DeVito playing the jaded criminal who doesn't trust anyone. Watching them interact and explore their fraternal relationship is entertaining enough that when a criminal-deal-gone-wrong subplot appears in the second half of the film, it feels unnecessary, a very obvious ploy to move along a story that was moving just fine on its own. Still an enjoyable second half, but it is noticeably a means to an end. I don't know that I'll rewatch this any time soon, but I'm glad I saw it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Twins > One, Two, Three

Twins > The Game

Twins < Revengers Tragedy

Twins < The Muppets

Twins < City Lights

Twins > Rounders

Twins > American Dreamz

Twins < Snowpiercer

Twins < Open Your Eyes

Twins < They Came Together

Twins < The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Twins > The Impostors

Final spot: #752 out of 3325, or 77%, which seems high but the chart does not lie.

The Villain (1979)

IMDb plot summary: Facing hanging, a bank robber makes a deal with the corrupt banker to avoid execution in exchange for a dirty assignment.

Directed by Hal Needham. Starring Kirk Douglas, Ann-Margret, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Paul Lynde.

This is a thoroughly bizarre movie, primarily because it is clearly a tribute to the Looney Tunes characters of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, played here by Kirk Douglas and Arnold Schwarzenegger respectively. And when I say tribute, I mean... they play the Looney Tunes theme at the end. Douglas paints a giant tunnel on a mountain which Schwarzenegger then drives his wagon through. It is basically just a live-action Road Runner cartoon, and while you'd think that'd be a lot of fun, it sadly mostly doesn't work. The jokes are nearly all pretty flat, there's some very uncomfortable scenes of redface, and the ending is... I'd say nearly incomprehensible. But it's kind of a marvel this thing existed at all, and considering I went in knowing nothing about it and thought it was just your typical western, it definitely yielded some surprised shrieks of delight when I realized what it was going for, even if it doesn't meet the high bar it sets for itself.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Villain < The Beach

The Villain < Horton Hears a Who

The Villain > VeggieTales: The Star of Christmas

The Villain < VeggieTales: Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush

The Villain < Johnny Tremain

The Villain < Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

The Villain > Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

The Villain > The Monuments Men

The Villain > Alice in Wonderland (2010

The Villain > Wyatt Earp

The Villain < Pinocchio (1940)

Final spot: #2859 out of 3324, or 14%.

To Live (1994)

IMDb plot summary: After Fugui and Jiazhen lose their personal fortunes, they raise a family and survive difficult cultural changes during 1940s to 1970s China.

Directed by Yimou Zhang. Starring Yuo Ge, Li gong, Ben Niu, and Wu Jiang.

This is one of those films that successfully showcases the personal side of big historical events. Enormous shifts in the culture are happening, but the movie stays narrowed in on how this family in particular is making it work. We see the father's work as an entertainer sometimes valued greatly and sometimes not at all. We see people in charge willing to bend the rules to make sure the people they love are taken care of. It's a moving story that somehow never feels melodramatic even when dramatic things happen, and I think that's partly due to the pragmatic responses from the characters. They mourn, they celebrate, but at the end of the day they go back to living their lives the way they always have. I'm having trouble putting into words all that I liked about this movie, and I think that's because it's one of those films that sits in my heart more than in my head, and I'm sure the more it sits there the more my thoughts on it will gel.

How it entered my Flickchart:

To Live > One, Two, Three

To Live < The Black Cat

To Live > Ramona and Beezus

To Live > Death by Hanging

To Live > Gandhi

To Live < The Hill

To Live > Children of a Lesser God

To Live < 42 Up

To Live > Borat

To Live < The Cranes Are Flying

To Live < Call Me Madam

To Live < Song of the Sea

Final spot: #901 out of 3323, or 73%.

Kodachrome (2017)

IMDb plot summary: Set during the final days of the admired photo development system known as Kodachrome, a father and son hit the road in order to reach the Kansas photo lab before it closes its doors for good.

Directed by Mark Raso. Starring Ed Harris, Jason Sudeikis, Elizabeth Olsen, and Bruce Greenwood.

These are very familiar beats being played out here. It's a well-worn story and there are no surprises to it really, we know exactly how it's all going to play out and it does so competently, so evaluating the story here isn't really the point. Instead we're relying solely on the acting performances to carry the movie, and it largely works. Jason Sudeikis always holds his own as a dramatic actor, a subtle one, capable of speaking his dialogue in a dry tone full of hidden depths of meaning. Olsen and Harris don't bring quite as much nuance to the table but they're still good and convey effectively the complex relationships at play here. Movies don't need to be wholly original, they just need to make you think or care about the characters, and this accomplishes that.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Kodachrome > One, Two, Three

Kodachrome < The Black Cat

Kodachrome < Harakiri

Kodachrome < Holiday Inn

Kodachrome < 21

Kodachrome > King Kong Escapes

Kodachrome > Following

Kodachrome < Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

Kodachrome < The Call

Kodachrome < The Girl on a Motorcycle

Kodachrome < Bottle Rocket

Kodachrome > The Invention of Lying

Final spot: #1582 out of 3322, or 52%.

The Formula (1980)

IMDb plot summary: The synthetic fuel production formula, invented by the Nazis at the end of World War II, is sought after by some who aim to sell it, and by others who wish to destroy it.

Directed by John G. Avildsen. Starring George C. Scott, Marlon Brando, Marthe Keller, and John Gielgud.

This is one of those movies where you spend most of your time trying to remember which lead led where and how the person who just showed up for 3 minutes and gave them another name to talk to is connected to the original person. A lot of films can get away with this by having those characters make strong impressions or by providing a strong thematic throughline to keep you on track, but this film doesn't offer either. It dances around a bunch of arcs, such as the relationship Scott's character has with his son, or the one he builds with the niece of one of the men he's investigating, but they're... not dropped so much as just forgotten. It feels like it is just complicated for the sake of being complicated, like that's what makes a movie good, but by the time it gets to the end not only have we lost track of who's who, we just don't care anymore.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Formula < One, Two, Three

The Formula < Horton Hears a Who

The Formula > VeggieTales: The Star of Christmas

The Formula > Captive State

The Formula < Arlington Road

The Formula < In the Company of Men

The Formula < Albatross

The Formula < Gilda

The Formula > VeggieTales: Sumo of the Opera

The Formula < Spaceballs

The Formula < Gone With the Wind

The Formula < Eddie the Eagle

Final spot: #2690 out of 3320, or 19%.

Prince of the City (1981)

IMDb plot summary: A New York City narcotics detective reluctantly agrees to cooperate with a special commission investigating police corruption, and soon realises he's in over his head, and nobody can be trusted.

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Richard Foronjy, and Don Billett.

This is directed by Sidney Lumet, who less than a decade earlier directed Serpico, also about a solo police officer fighting corruption, and it's hard not to compare the two. Daniel Ciello is a much less heroic figure than Frank Serpico, and we see his story play out less in terms of abstract rights and wrongs and more of how it affects him and his relationships on a personal level. This version of the story is less black-and-white overall, as so much of the corruption is clearly not just a matter of greed but passionately defended as the only way save the city in a world where corruption elsewhere allows the "bad guys" to wriggle out. Is it better to use corrupt methods against them yourself in the name of the greater good? This is something the film touches on in a very interesting way, and I found myself thinking longer and harder about these questions after this film than I did Serpico.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Prince of the City > To Be or Not to Be

Prince of the City < The Black Cat

Prince of the City < Ramona and Beezus

Prince of the City > An Affair to Remember

Prince of the City > Never a Dull Moment

Prince of the City > War Horse

Prince of the City < Young Frankenstein

Prince of the City < The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

Prince of the City > Loins of Punjab Presents

Prince of the City < Mother Night

Prince of the City > Brick

Final spot: #1287 out of 3319, or 61%.

Bottle Rocket (1996)

IMDb plot summary: Three friends plan to pull off a simple robbery and go on the run.

Directed by Wes Anderson. Starring Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Ned Dowd, and Shea Fowler.

This film has a lot of the hallmarks of classic Wes Anderson material, such as a vivid color palette and understated conversation styles, and the Wilson brothers are a good fit for his style right off the bat. But it is lacking both the overt humor and the clearer themes of his later work. I suppose if pressed I would guess this is a film about friendship, but the friendship between the two leads is frequently manipulative and controlling, so it's hard to tell if the film is intending to say anything about it. It feels more like just a chance to let the Wilsons goof around and play off each other, and while that doesn't wow me or make me laugh out loud, it's a pleasant enough way to spend an afternoon.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Bottle Rocket > To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Bottle Rocket < The Black Cat

Bottle Rocket < Harakiri

Bottle Rocket < Holiday Inn

Bottle Rocket < 21

Bottle Rocket > Vampyr

Bottle Rocket > Julie & Julia

Bottle Rocket < Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

Bottle Rocket < The Call

Bottle Rocket < The Girl on a Motorcycle

Bottle Rocket > The Invention of Lying

Bottle Rocket < VeggieTales: Madame Blueberry

Final spot: #1579 out of 3318, or 52%.