Avalon (1990)

IMDb plot summary:  A Polish-Jewish family comes to the U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century. There, the family and their children try to make themselves a better future in the so-called promised land.

Directed by Barry Levinson. Starring Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, and Leo Fuchs.

Avalon follows a Jewish immigrant man and his family in the early days of television. We begin with his initial journey to assimilate into the United States and then follow his family's attempts to become successful. A lot of this, though not all, is told through the eyes of young grandson, played by Elijah Wood. Although I've been able to sum up the story reasonably succinctly there, the story is not that coherent in terms of what is actually about. It shifts constantly from focusing on the grandfather, the father, and the son in ways that I found occasionally a little jarring. I'm happy to believe that's my problem, rather than the movie's, but it does mean that the ending, which makes it sound as if the film was meant to be centered around the main patriarch the whole time, hits a little strangely. The movie definitely has some good moments and a couple plot threads that I found really engaging, and and the many scenes of the whole family interacting were always enjoyable and fascinating to watch, with all these personalities coming to the forefront. But something about the movie just falls short for me at the end. A good effort that doesn't quite land.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Avalon < Port of Shadows

Avalon > 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Avalon > 10

Avalon < Life of Pi

Avalon > Bananas

Avalon > The Subject Was Roses

Avalon < The Lost Boys

Avalon < The Core

Avalon > Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Avalon < Laura

Avalon < The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

Avalon < Happy Gilmore

Final spot: #2114 out of 3672, or 42%.

Garbo Talks (1984)

IMDb plot summary: The son of a woman dying of a brain tumor tries to fulfill his mother's last wish: to meet Greta Garbo.

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Anne Bancroft, Ron Silver, and Carrie Fisher.

Garbo Talks tells the story of a woman who finds out she has terminal cancer, and her last wish is to be able to meet Greta Garbo. Her adult son takes on the extremely difficult task of finding the elusive movie star and convincing her to meet his mother before she dies. After watching so many Sidney Lumet thrillers about taking on corrupt systems of power, there's something really relaxing and sweet about this simple story of a man trying to fulfill his mother's dying wish. While he definitely gets his own subplot, it's the mother who holds focus here. She is played beautifully by Anne Bancroft, and even with her limited screentime she manages to cement herself as the emotional core of the entire movie, and everything that happens around her ties into her. It's not an amazing movie but it's unlike much else, and that uniqueness feels refreshing.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Garbo Talks > Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Garbo Talks < Woman in the Dunes

Garbo Talks > Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India

Garbo Talks < L'atalante

Garbo Talks < North by Northwest

Garbo Talks < Laurence Anyways

Garbo Talks > Stargate

Garbo Talks > Ghostbusters

Garbo Talks > The Long Day Closes

Garbo Talks > The Blind Side

Garbo Talks > The Detective

Garbo Talks > Singles

Final spot: #1320 out of 3671, or 64%.

RRR (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A fictitious story about two legendary revolutionaries and their journey away from home before they started fighting for their country in 1920s.

Directed by S.S. Rajamouli. Starring N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan Teja, and Ajay Devgn.

RRR is an Indian movie set during British rule of India. It tells the story of two men who become friends, one who is a British police officer and one who is trying to retrieve a girl kidnapped from his village by one of the British city leaders. They don't realize at first that their goals are opposite to each other, but when they do it strains their friendship. This movie got a lot of attention for its over-the-top action sequences, and those are indeed pretty delightful. It only has a couple of songs, but those songs are used to incredible effect -- far better to have only a few that are done well than a whole bunch that don't really matter. And most of all, the story of these two men's bond is heartwarming and well told. We get flashbacks showing their pasts and what brought the two of them to be the people they are today, and seeing those back stories makes it so easy to root for both of them to get what they want and reconnect. Are the action scenes wild and fun and unpredictable? Absolutely. But there's also a core to this movie that works just as well.

How it entered my Flickchart:

RRR > Port of Shadows

RRR > Woman in the Dunes

RRR > The White Tiger

RRR < Equus

RRR < The Fountain

RRR < Perfect Blue

RRR > Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

RRR > Magnolia

RRR > Billy Elliot the Musical Live

RRR < Dog Day Afternoon

RRR > The Parent Trap (1998)

Final spot: #405 out of 3668, or 89%.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)

IMDb plot summary: In this action-packed comedy, Nicolas Cage plays Nick Cage, channeling his iconic characters as he's caught between a superfan and a CIA agent.

Directed by Tom Gormican. Starring Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, and Tiffany Haddish.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent stars Nicolas Cage as himself, struggling to connect with his 16-year-old daughter and wondering if he should give up acting. He takes one last gig, which turns out to tangle him up in both international espionage and a once-in-a-lifetime bromance. The concept of this movie is fun, but... in so many ways, it's a weaker version of Adaptation. The meta commentary, the real-life artist struggling to create, even two Nicolas Cages arguing with each other. It's not unpleasant, but having just watched Adaptation, a lot of the similar humor and twists don't land as well here. What does make this movie work for me is the warm friendship between Cage and Javi. Even as Cage is making plans to take down Javi or turn him into the U.S. government, we feel how strong their bond is and hope for things to turn out right. And not to give too much of a spoiler, but when they ultimately start fighting on the same side, it's deeply satisfying. Pedro Pascal plays Javi and is incredibly charming, and I don't think the movie would have been the same with someone else in the role. Overall, a fluffy, fun watch, but if you want something headier... Adaptation is right there.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent > Port of Shadows

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent < Woman in the Dunes

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent > Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent > L'atalante

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent < 1917

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent < sex, lies, and videotape

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent > Father Goose

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent < Army of Shadows

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent < A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent > Undercover Blues

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent < Extremities

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent < A League of Their Own

Final spot: #1111 out of 3661, or 70%.

Death on the Nile (2022)

IMDb plot summary: While on vacation on the Nile, Hercule Poirot must investigate the murder of a young heiress.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Starring Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, and Kenneth Branagh.

Death on the Nile is Kenneth Branagh's sequel to Murder on the Orient Express, where he once again plays Detective Hercule Poirot, based on the popular mystery novels by Agatha Christie. Instead of being on a train, this time Poirot is accompanying a newlywed couple and their friends on a celebratory trip to Egypt, when one of them is murdered. This is not as interesting a plot as Orient Express, neither in the cast of characters nor in the mystery's solution, though it does round up a decent ensemble of actors including Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, and Annette Bening, among others. But where this film falters the most, I think, is in trying to shoehorn in a dramatic arc for Poirot himself. It's just not that kind of story, and it means that we never really lean as much as I want into the other characters being created because I find myself kind of just waiting for Poirot's arc to play out. It's definitely a step down from Branagh's previous Christie adaptation, even if the Christie formula is still strong enough to hold it together.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Death on the Nile < Port of Shadows

Death on the Nile > In the Company of Men

Death on the Nile > Withnail & I

Death on the Nile > The English Patient

Death on the Nile < Vivo

Death on the Nile < Must Love Dogs

Death on the Nile > Avengers: Infinity War

Death on the Nile > No eres tu, soy yo

Death on the Nile > Trumbo

Death on the Nile < Holiday Affair

Death on the Nile < Swing Time

Death on the Nile < You'll Never Get Rich

Final spot: #2013 out of 3670, or 45%.

Melvin and Howard (1980)

IMDb plot summary: The story of hard-luck Melvin E. Dummar, who claimed to have received a will naming him an heir to the fortune of Howard Hughes.

Directed by Jonathan Demme. Starring Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards, and Elizabeth Cheshire.

Melvin and Howard tells the true story of Melvin Dummar, an average milkman who gives a strange hitchhiker a ride one night, only to discover that that man was Howard Hughes and that he's been left a piece of Hughes' fortune. While Dummar could certainly use the money, he has a difficult time convincing anyone that the will including him is genuine. The story is split between showing his financial difficulties before and after Hughes' death. I wonder what the real Melvin Dummar thought of this film, in which he's portrayed as kind of a horrible person. There's a level of not wanting him to win the money because he doesn't seem to "deserve" a windfall like this. The movie is also awkwardly paced and makes it tough to tell what the conflict actually is at any given moment. We just meander through Melvin's life for awhile, and then suddenly it kicks into gear in the last forty minutes or so when Hughes dies, and it feels sloppily executed. The most interesting piece by far is the opening 15 minutes or so, which shows our one interaction between the two title characters, and that'd be a great little short film if not saddled with the rest of the movie.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Melvin and Howard < Port of Shadows

Melvin and Howard > Fast Food Nation

Melvin and Howard > Star Trek Into Darkness

Melvin and Howard < Life of Pi

Melvin and Howard > Flightplan

Melvin and Howard < The Subject Was Roses

Melvin and Howard > Boys Town

Melvin and Howard < Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Melvin and Howard < Isadora

Melvin and Howard < Mission: Impossible III

Melvin and Howard > Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Melvin and Howard < The Secret War of Harry FRIGG

Final spot: #2145 out of 3666, or 41%.

Abraham Lincoln (1930)

IMDb plot summary: An episodic biography of the 16th President of the United States.

Directed by D.W. Griffith. Starring Walter Huston, Una Merkel, and William L. Thorne.

Abraham Lincoln is a biopic of, well, the title character, focusing heavily on his early life, his relationship with Mary Todd, and his determination to preserve the country during the Civil War. The film was made by D.W. Griffith, and given his earlier extremely racist film The Birth of a Nation, I was not at all excited for a Lincoln biopic. While Griffith still definitely doesn't seem to be elevating Lincoln's anti-slavery decisions, focusing entirely on the unity factor (which, I'm sure, was primarily Lincoln's goal to begin with), he does laud the man as a hero, which I wasn't sure would be the case. That being said, the political pieces of this story are by far the least interesting, told in strange halting pieces. I'd much rather see a full film on Griffith's take on the Lincoln-Todd marriage, which may not be accurate but would at least be more entertaining. This isn't one I'd recommend overall, it's both boring and cinematically unspectacular.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Abraham Lincoln < Closer

Abraham Lincoln < 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Abraham Lincoln > Wyatt Earp

Abraham Lincoln < Roberta

Abraham Lincoln > Running With Scissors

Abraham Lincoln > VeggieTales: Sumo of the Opera

Abraham Lincoln > Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin

Abraham Lincoln > Atomic Blonde

Abraham Lincoln > The Fast and the Furious

Abraham Lincoln < Kinsey

Abraham Lincoln < Good Night, and Good Luck.

Abraham Lincoln < Freaky Friday (1976)

Final spot: #2984 out of 3663, or 19%.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A grifter working his way up from low-ranking carnival worker to lauded psychic medium matches wits with a psychiatrist bent on exposing him.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, and Toni Collette.

Nightmare Alley, directed by Guillermo del Toro, follows a carnival worker played by Bradley Cooper. He learns the secrets of the mentalists and decides to branch out with the act on his own but finds himself drawn into a much darker world than he anticipated. This is a long movie, and I gotta be honest, I feel every minute of its length. This is the kind of style-driven noir mystery that I know lots of people will love -- it did get nominated for an Oscar, after all -- but for me it falls far short of almost everything else Del Toro has ever done. This color palate is somehow more depressing than anything he's ever done, and these characters are boring at best and unpleasant at worst, and I don't want to spend hours in their company. There are one or two interesting moments -- I like the brief subplot of exchanging psychological analysis for inside information -- but overall I found it just plodding and dull and unpleasant. Somebody who loved this movie, tell me what made it interesting, because I did not get it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Nightmare Alley < Port of Shadows

Nightmare Alley > In the Company of Men

Nightmare Alley > Iron Eagle

Nightmare Alley < Life of Pi

Nightmare Alley < Bananas

Nightmare Alley < Blow Out

Nightmare Alley < Quigley Down Under

Nightmare Alley > For Your Consideration

Nightmare Alley < Kicking and Screaming (1995)

Nightmare Alley < Confessions of a Shopaholic

Nightmare Alley < Fun and Fancy Free

Nightmare Alley < Guarding Tess

Final spot: #2278 out of 3669, or 38%, which is higher than I anticipated.

The Appointment (1969)

IMDb plot summary: The lawyer Federico Fendi has reasons to believe that his wife Carla in secret is Rome's highest paid prostitute.

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Omar Sharif, Anouk Aimee, and Didi Perego.

The Appointment stars Omar Sharif as a man who falls desperately in love with his friend's fiancee. When the couple breaks up because the friend suspects his fiancee is a prostitute, Sharif swoops in but can't quite shake the worry that his friend is right. We watch his obsession with "discovering" her grow into something truly terrifying. This is a Sidney Lumet film, and some of his best work focuses on people falling into self-obstructive obsession, and while this one doesn't quite reach the heights of The Pawnbroker or The Offence, it's got a solid conclusion. It moves very slowly, without any of the tension of the others I mentioned, but it does a great job of showing the consequences of not only the obsesser but the obsessee. The woman he continually suspects is having a miserable time with no indication from her partner of what's going on or why he appears to be angry at her, and although we know the reason, it doesn't make his moments of range come across any more sympathetically. Not Lumet's best by any means but definitely a lesser-known one to check out.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Appointment > Port of Shadows

The Appointment < Kuroneko

The Appointment < The Green Mile

The Appointment < Muppet Treasure Island

The Appointment > Celeste and Jesse Forever

The Appointment > The Guard

The Appointment < The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Appointment < Bridge of Spies

The Appointment > Lenny

The Appointment < An Affair to Remember

The Appointment < I Love You, Man

The Appointment < Two Weeks Notice

Final spot: #1650 out of 3660, or 55%.

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

IMDb plot summary: A letter is addressed to three wives from their "best friend" Addie Ross, announcing that she is running away with one of their husbands - but she does not say which one.

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Starring Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, and Ann Sothern.

A Letter to Three Wives features three women in unsatisfying marriages who all get a letter from a woman in town saying she's run off with one of their husbands but doesn't say who. The women are participating in a social event at the time, so we follow them throughout the day as they work and socialize, interspersed with flashbacks about their relationships that set up the mystery of who's run off and why? These three women are all so different that we never get bored watching each of their relationships go through their own unique struggles, and the mystery of which woman is going to end up alone is genuinely intriguing throughout the whole thing. It's one of those movies that has such a simple premise but makes its characters and plotlines so engaging that they hold your attention through the whole thing. And my favorite part is that a story that could easily be incredibly snarky and cynical makes to keep a throughline of kindness and hope running through the whole thing, and even perhaps romance. It's a great movie that I'm glad I finally watched.

How it entered my Flickchart:

A Letter to Three Wives > Beauty and the Beast (1946)

A Letter to Three Wives > La La Land

A Letter to Three Wives < The White Tiger

A Letter to Three Wives > Onward

A Letter to Three Wives > Le bonheur

A Letter to Three Wives < Black Panther

A Letter to Three Wives > Driving Miss Daisy

A Letter to Three Wives < Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

A Letter to Three Wives > Crossing Delancey

A Letter to Three Wives > Smashed

A Letter to Three Wives > Million Dollar Baby

A Letter to Three Wives > Black Narcissus

Final spot: #530 out of 3667, or 86%.

The Rose (1979)

IMDb plot summary: The tragic life of a self-destructive female rock star who struggles to deal with the constant pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager.

Directed by Mark Rydell. Starring Bette Midler, Alan Bates, and Frederic Forrest.

The Rose stars Bette Midler as a rock star at the end of her rope, exhausted by endless touring and a controlling manager. We follow her as she tries to regain her footing and independence through a series of reckless adventures, accompanied by a newfound love she hopes will help her change her ways. This was apparently initially conceived as a Janis Joplin biopic, but the family did not give consent -- and I don't blame them, it's hardly a flattering look at our title character. So the story was fictionalized and turned into a general character study of a self-destructive rock star. This was Midler's film debut, and she's kind of amazing in it. She obviously nails the musical performances (of which there are many to enjoy) but she also really beautifully captures how her character yo-yos back and forth from being the life of the party to just collapsing, from being loving and effervescent to cruelly striking out at her closest friends' insecurities. This kind of story has been told before but making it a fictional story and not being beholden to anyone's memory in specific really allows it to dig into the character, and even though a lot of it's a little over-the-top, it suits the story. Pretty solid.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Rose > Closer

The Rose < Woman in the Dunes

The Rose > The Green Mile

The Rose > Cargo

The Rose < 1917

The Rose > sex, lies, and videotape

The Rose < The Hudsucker Proxy

The Rose > Henry V

The Rose > The Magnificent Seven (1960)

The Rose < The Crow

The Rose < Airheads

The Rose > The Killers

Final spot: #1063 out of 3662, or 71%.

Guilty As Sin (1993)

IMDb plot summary: A female lawyer takes an accused wife-murderer as a client, but finds herself morally compelled to betray him one way or another.

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Rebecca De Mornay, Don Johnson, and Stephen Lang.

Guilty As Sin tells the story of a hotshot female lawyer who decides to represent a womanizer accused of murdering his wife. At first it seems like business as usual, but the more they work together, the more she becomes convinced he not only did it but may be a danger to others. This is pretty much exactly what I want out of a fun thriller -- the stakes are high, the story is a little bit unbelievable but the emotion is realistic proportionate to the circumstances, and the acting is a little cheesy but totally works. Are there plot holes left and right? Probably, but picking those apart isn't nearly as fun as enjoying the wild twists the story throws at you. It made me feel trapped on the level of a supernatural slasher film, where you just have this creeping sense that the killer is never fully dead, he's always going to find a way to come back. This isn't anywhere near Sidney Lumet's most masterful work, but I had a ton of fun with it and I'm glad I saw it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Guilty as Sin > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Guilty as Sin > Kuroneko

Guilty as Sin < Six Degrees of Separation

Guilty as Sin < The Pawnbroker

Guilty as Sin < Sansho the Bailiff

Guilty as Sin < Mixed Nuts

Guilty as Sin < Shallow Grave

Guilty as Sin > Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Guilty as Sin < The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall

Guilty as Sin > Kiss Me, Stupid!

Guilty as Sin > What Maisies Knew

Guilty as Sin < Robin Hood (1973)

Final spot: #893 out of 3653, or 76%.

Dirty Harry (1971)

IMDb plot summary: When a madman calling himself "the Scorpio Killer" menaces the city, tough-as-nails San Francisco Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is assigned to track down and ferret out the crazed psychopath.

Directed by Don Siegel. Starring Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, and Harry Guardino.

Dirty Harry stars Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan, a cop who doesn't like to play by the rules. We follow his attempts to catch a serial killer despite the bureaucratic red tape holding him back from doing it the way he'd like. This probably shouldn't be a surprise, but I mostly hated this film. I hate how this character is set up as a hero despite doing a lot of truly despicable things. I especially hated when they deliberately set him up in the first twenty minutes as someone who supposedly protects women (by being violent toward their attackers) and then, just a few scenes later, peeps at a nude woman in her apartment while muttering something along the lines of, "You deserve to live a little." I hate this trope, I hate this character, I hate this movie. The mystery itself would be fine in any other movie but here it just seems mocking and sadistic when put against this protagonist. I understand people love this movie. It is not for me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Dirty Harry < Closer

Dirty Harry < 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Dirty Harry < Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

Dirty Harry < Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Dirty Harry > Interview

Dirty Harry > Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars

Dirty Harry < Aquamarine

Dirty Harry < Sahara (2017)

Dirty Harry > G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Dirty Harry < 10,000 B.C.

Dirty Harry > The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Final spot: #3482 out of 3664, or 5%.

Shoot the Moon (1982)

IMDb plot summary: A mother of four is abandoned by her husband for a younger woman. Husband, wife and children struggle to survive the seemingly inevitable divorce.

Directed by Alan Parker. Starring Albert Finney, Diane Keaton, and Karen Allen.

Shoot the Moon stars Albert Finney and Diane Keaton as a couple with four daughters who are in the process of dissolving their marriage. We see both of them try to navigate single parenthood, begin new relationships, and wrap things up somewhat civilly (although neither of them is very good at that last part). Writer Bo Goldman stated that the inspiration for this story was seeing how couples' breakups affected their children, and the children are easily the most interesting part of this story. These kids are rambunctious and nosy very much in the way a lot of real kids are, and they are affected by their parents' breakup in unexpected but realistic ways. Finney and Keaton spend most of their time being as petty to each other as they can, and without witty dialogue or an occasional catharsis it gets old pretty quickly, but there's a bit of saving grace in their relationship with their kids. The movie certainly ends in a way I didn't expect but it wasn't one of those times where just being surprising was enough to make me care. Overall a good cast in a not-very-good movie.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Shoot the Moon < Port of Shadows

Shoot the Moon < In the Company of Men

Shoot the Moon > Wyatt Earp

Shoot the Moon > Weekend (2011)

Shoot the Moon > Hellraiser

Shoot the Moon > As Good As It Gets

Shoot the Moon < War of the Buttons (1994)

Shoot the Moon > The Shaggy Dog (1959)

Shoot the Moon < You Only Live Once

Shoot the Moon < Tag

Shoot the Moon > Elizabeth Town

Shoot the Moon < Chungking Express

Final spot: #2789 out of 3665, or 24%.

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)

IMDb plot summary: After winning a game show contest, a newlywed couple travels to New Orleans where the husband seeks to reclaim his ancestral plantation mansion from his biracial stepbrother.

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring James Coburn, Lynn Redgrave, and Robert Hooks.

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots is a Sidney Lumet film based on a Tennessee Williams play. The story follows a couple of strangers who got married on TV in exchange for a large amount of money, and now the newlyweds are returning to the man's rundown plantation. He dreams of restoring the home to its former glory and making it a tourist attraction, but his mixed-race half-brother, who is next in line for the property, has other plans. That synopsis took me longer than usual because the plot gets... complicated. There are a lot of differing dynamics going on here between the three characters we have on screen, and that would be okay if any of them were interesting. Mostly what ends up happening is characters go back and forth from one person to the next, fighting about the same things over and over again, without ever really seeming to get anywhere. And Lynn Redgrave is just... so difficult to watch here. The combination of her thick accent, high-pitched voice, and choice of intonation make it sometimes almost impossible to track what she's saying, and it's hard to get to know her as a character, which I think we need to do. Not a great movie.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots < Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots < 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots > Wyatt Earp

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots < Roberta

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots > Running With Scissors

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots < The Formula

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots < Deja Vu

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots > Maid in Manhattan

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots > Instinct

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots < Mystic Pizza

Last of the Mobile Hot Shots > Hamlet 2

Final spot: #3061 out of 3657, or 16%.

Radhe Shyam (2022)

Plot summary: A renowned palmist meets a woman and falls for her.

Directed by K.K. Radhakrishna Kumar. Starring Prabhas, Pooja Hegde, and Bhagyashree Patwardhan.

Radhe Shyam is a Bollywood film about a palm-reader and a doctor who have a fling and start to develop deeper feelings for each other. The palm-reader has never once been wrong in his predictions, though, and reading his own palm shows no love line, meaning he will never be able to love the doctor the way she loves him, so he decides to give her up. The songs in this one are pretty mediocre, but the chemistry between the two leads totally works for me. I really enjoy seeing their light flirtations develop into something more, and I found myself rooting hard for them and hoping things would work out. In Bollywood style, the plot twists and development are pretty melodramatic and over-the-top, meaning the moments of breaking into song don't push the suspension of disbelief much further. The only thing that doesn't work for me here is the music, which is mostly forgettable and not nearly as fun as I wanted it to be. If you enjoy the genre, it's worth checking out!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Radhe Shyam > Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Radhe Shyam < Kuroneko

Radhe Shyam < The Green Mile

Radhe Shyam > Happy-Go-Lucky

Radhe Shyam > Five Graves to Cairo

Radhe Shyam < Velvet Buzzsaw

Radhe Shyam < Spider-Man 2

Radhe Shyam > Martian Child

Radhe Shyam > Hotel Rwanda

Radhe Shyam > The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Radhe Shyam < Prince of the City

Final spot: #1461 out of 3659, or 60%.

Mosaic (2007)

IMDb plot summary: When he finds an ancient artifact at a crime scene, Interpol Agent Nathan Nelson takes it home to conduct more research. A freakish combination of a lightning storm, a pet chameleon and the rune stone gives his daughter, Maggie, mystical powers. Now Maggie must utilize her new-found super powers to solve the mysterious kidnapping of her father and to learn the secrets of an ancient, long-forgotten race of people.

Directed by Roy Allen Smith. Starring Anna Paquin, Kirby Morrow, and Cam Clarke.

Mosaic is an animated superhero movie about a young woman who gains unexpected superpowers and must use them to rescue her father from the clutches of a villain with similar powers. This is a short, simple story that feels less like a feature film and more like a pilot for a TV show. It's barely feature-length and is clearly structured to create interest in this particular character for future stories. The word that comes to mind most strongly for me is "cute." It feels sweet and simplistic and meant for young kids, even if it isn't. It doesn't bother with exploring deeper themes or posing audience questions, just a quick adventure story. There's nothing wrong with that -- I found its brevity to be a breath of fresh air in the era of bloated superhero films -- but it may not recommend itself to a lot of people. The superhero origin story is also one of the more ludicrous ones I've heard, so it does take a little more suspension of disbelief even than "boy gets bitten by radioactive spider." Overall, fun but unremarkable.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Mosaic > Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Mosaic < Kuroneko

Mosaic < Joker

Mosaic > Happy-Go-Lucky

Mosaic > Five Graves to Cairo

Mosaic < The Imposter

Mosaic < Mother Night

Mosaic > Martian Child

Mosaic > Hotel Rwanda

Mosaic > The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Mosaic > Prince of the City

Mosaic < Spider-Man 2

Final spot: #1458 out of 3658, or 60%.

Don't Look Up (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.

Directed by Adam McKay. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Meryl Streep.

Don't Look Up is... well, let's call it a satire from Adam McKay about a pair of scientists who discover a comet is en route to hit the Earth and obliterate all life, but when they call it to the higher-ups' attention, nobody seems to be taking it very seriously. I was hesitant to call this a satire because it *doesn't* feel like it's trying to actually make any points, it seems to just be screaming in frustration. And while it may be primarily a climate change metaphor, I felt it in my SOUL about the pandemic and found myself just screaming right along with him and going, "YES, that's EXACTLY what it feels like." If I'm going to compare it to anything, it weirdly might be in the same category as like... super angsty music for teens, in that it doesn't necessarily hold together on an artistic level but it's the unfiltered cry of a furious soul and is going to connect with other furious souls. Should it have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar? Absolutely not. Did I find it a cathartic viewing experience? Absolutely.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Don't Look Up > Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Don't Look Up < Anna Karenina

Don't Look Up > The Green Mile

Don't Look Up < Cargo

Don't Look Up < Man on Wire

Don't Look Up < Panic Room

Don't Look Up < Gone in 60 Seconds

Don't Look Up > The Family Man

Don't Look Up < The Impossible

Don't Look Up > Nobody's Fool

Don't Look Up < All That Jazz

Final spot: #1352 out of 3655, or 63%.

The Northman (2022)

IMDb plot summary: From visionary director Robert Eggers comes The Northman, an action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father's murder.

Directed by Robert Eggers. Starring Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, and Claes Bang.

The Northman is a Viking retelling of Hamlet. A young boy sees his Viking leader father murdered by his uncle and returns years later for revenge. (Embarrassingly, it took me half the movie to realize our main character is named "Amleth" -- Hamlet with the H moved to the end.) I haven't seen The Witch, but this reminds me very much of director Robert Eggers' previous film The Lighthouse, in that it is stylized out the wazoo and I just don't care. I blame it partly on Hamlet being a story that just doesn't grip me in almost any form and partly on historical period pieces about Vikings not gripping me either. It does look fascinating though, this combination of dreary and too-bright light that was interesting to me even when I was bored out of my mind by the story, and the acting is, I think, entirely in the vein of what this film is going for. So, like The Lighthouse, I found Eggers' style impressive but it didn't connected with me in any way, although it certainly makes me want to keep an eye on him and see if at some point we'll click.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Northman < Port of Shadows

The Northman > 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The Northman > Iron Eagle

The Northman < Life of Pi

The Northman > Flightplan

The Northman > The Subject Was Roses

The Northman < The Lost Boys

The Northman < The Core

The Northman < Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

The Northman > Enemy of the State

The Northman < Almost Famous

The Northman < Mad Dog and Glory

Final spot: #2109 out of 3656, or 42%.

It's a Gift (1934)

IMDb plot summary: A henpecked New Jersey grocer makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife.

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Starring W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, and Jean Rouverol.

It's a Gift stars W.C. Fields as a henpecked grocery store owner with a dream of owning an orange ranch someday, and when the chance for his dream comes true, he decides to go for it and make it a reality. Watching this, I realize I've maybe never seen a Fields film before -- certainly not one where it was his vehicle. I like him more than I like the movie. He's got some more subtlety to his delivery than a lot of other comedians of the same time, and while that doesn't make him better than them, it does make him stand out. His aimless bumbling is quiet enough that it makes space for a lot of other jokes to land. Where it doesn't work is that every character in this film is deeply unlikable, and I don't really want to root for any of them to do well, I just want them off my screen as soon as I can get them off. But despite the miserable cast of characters, Fields' work is creative enough that I do want to check out more of his films. Maybe there will be another one that works for me more fully.

How it entered my Flickchart:

It's a Gift < Beauty and the Beast (1946)

It's a Gift < Anna Karenina

It's a Gift < Joker

It's a Gift > Happy-Go-Lucky

It's a Gift > Five Graves to Cairo

It's a Gift > Velvet Buzzsaw

It's a Gift > Kiss Me Kate

It's a Gift < Blue Sky

It's a Gift < Timecop

It's a Gift > Furlough

It's a Gift > Poltergeist

It's a Gift > I Saw the Devil

Final spot: #1392 out of 3654, or 62%.

Session 9 (2001)

IMDb plot summary: Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.

Directed by Brad Anderson. Starring David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon, and Paul Guilfoyle.

Session 9 is a creepy, low budget horror about an asbestos cleaning crew who are working on an old abandoned mental institution. Along the way, we get flashes of the creepy stories of the horrors that this place once housed, as well as hints that maybe some of the former inmates are now just walking around out there (not my favorite trope, that setting up a fear of the mentally unstable). Despite teasing that, the way that the story ultimately lands works fairly well for me. The twist is one that you can see coming if you're paying attention, but it does make sense and I think it's filmed and revealed in a very satisfying way, in which even if you could see it coming, even if you knew what you were going to find out, the reveal is actually done in a pretty chilling way. That being said, the low budget absolutely shows, and some of the dialogue is pretty clunky, but it's a valiant effort that works on quite a few levels, if not all of them.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Session 9 > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Session 9 < Anna Karenina

Session 9 > The Green Mile

Session 9 > Cargo

Session 9 < 13th

Session 9 > sex, lies, and videotape

Session 9 > The Hudsucker Proxy

Session 9 < How to Steal a Million

Session 9 > Kursk

Session 9 < Willy's Wonderland

Session 9 < The River Wild

Session 9 > Gandhi

Final spot: #1047 out of 3652, or 71%.

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

IMDb plot summary: After leaving prison, master thief Corey crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot an elaborate heist.

Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. Starring Alain Delon, Bourvil, and Gian Maria Volonte.

Le Cercle Rouge follows a newly released prisoner who finds himself meeting to take on another job even though they put him at risk of heading back to prison. I have really liked other films by this same director, but this one just didn't gel for me, not even with Alain Delon as our protagonist. It just seems to tread so many of the same old tropes of crime movies, and I'm just tired of hearing about them. I don't know that this brought anything new to the table, although if you're only going to watch one movies focusing on these themes, this isn't a bad one. It's just not one that I was going to get much out of. The cinematography and acting and scripting are all fine. If this is your kind of movie, it's definitely worth the watch. If it's not, it doesn't step beyond its boxes.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Le Cercle Rouge < Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Le Cercle Rouge > Fast Food Nation

Le Cercle Rouge < The Christmas Toy

Le Cercle Rouge < Treasures of the Snow

Le Cercle Rouge > A Mighty Wind

Le Cercle Rouge < The Dinner Game

Le Cercle Rouge > Gozu

Le Cercle Rouge > Monsters University

Le Cercle Rouge < Sliding Doors

Le Cercle Rouge < The Big House

Le Cercle Rouge < Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Le Cercle Rouge > The Accidental Tourist

Final spot: #2580 out of 3651, or 29%.

Men (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A young woman goes on a solo vacation to the English countryside following the death of her ex-husband.

Directed by Alex Garland. Starring Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, and Paapa Essiedu.

Men is the newest Alex Garland film, about a woman renting a house alone in the country to rest and recover after the traumatic death of her abusive husband. But as strange things begin to happen around her, she begins to realize her vacation won't be as restful as she expected. That's about all the details I want to get into, because the rest of the movie is a strange and surreal experience and probably best appreciated going in mostly blind as I did. This movie isn't getting nearly as much critical love as Garland's two previous features, but it worked for me as well, if not slightly better, than those two. The metaphor may be a little bit clumsy in its meaning but I found it extremely effective in its tone -- the *emotion* I got from this movie was, I think, exactly the emotion I was meant to get from it. It reminded me a bit of Titane in that it incorporated lots of strange visceral body horror, but here I knew what emotional state I was supposed to be in for it and the horror sustained me rather than turned me off. Garland is solidifying himself as one of my favorite filmmakers, and I can't wait to see what he does next.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Men > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Men > Woman in the Dunes

Men < Castle in the Sky

Men > The Pawnbroker

Men > The Jungle Book (1967)

Men > The Holiday

Men > Moonrise Kingdom

Men < Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Men > Argo

Men > Glengarry Glen Ross

Men > Grease

Men > A Man for All Seasons

Final spot: #470 out of 3646, or 87%.

Internal Affairs (1990)

IMDb plot summary: An Internal Affairs agent becomes obsessed with bringing down a cop who has managed to maintain a spotless reputation despite being involved in a web of corruption.

Directed by Mike Figgis. Starring Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, and Nancy Travis.

Internal Affairs stars Andy Garcia as a police officer in the Internal Affairs division who finds himself investigating Richard Gere, a police officer with an upstanding record with a hidden history of corruption. After months of watching Sidney Lumet's filmography, I forgot at times that this wasn't a Lumet film -- it was so like him in its themes and style (and even stars actors he worked with in the 80s and 90s), though without any of the spark that made him such a great director. However it does a good job of setting up the necessary stakes and building tension, and seeing Gere as a villain is a lot of fun. His smugness really works well to make us hate him here. As always I find Garcia an uninteresting actor but his character does his job here. This isn't a spectacular film, but it is pretty competent within a well-worn genre, and fans of that genre will probably enjoy this well enough. 

How it entered my Flickchart:

Internal Affairs < Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Internal Affairs > Fast Food Nation

Internal Affairs > The Christmas Toy

Internal Affairs > The English Patient

Internal Affairs > Jack Strong

Internal Affairs < Fatherhood

Internal Affairs < Raffles

Internal Affairs < 12 Monkeys

Internal Affairs > The Morning After

Internal Affairs < JFK

Internal Affairs > Once Upon a Time ...in Hollywood

Final spot: #1929 out of 3650, or 47%.

Margin Call (2011)

IMDb plot summary: Follows the key people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.

Directed by J.C. Chandor. Starring Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, and Kevin Spacey.

Margin Call is set in an investment bank in the early stages of the 2007-2008 recession. A group of employees realize that things are about to collapse and escalate this information to the higher-ups. Turns out, the only way to save the company is by getting rid of their assets as quickly as possible before but they become valueless, which of course screws over all the people the bank works with, and that doesn't sit well with everyone. This is a tightly written thriller that manages to contain all its drama in one location at one point in time. I always admire films that can keep that narrow focus and still remain riveting -- it's the theater nerd in me. The film does a good job of giving glimpses at each of these characters as they're confronted with this moral question, even if it doesn't have the time to fully flush all of them out, and that's enough for it to be a really satisfying watch. Also... is this the least sleazy person Kevin Spacey has ever played? It may be. It's a film that kept me interested through the whole run time and never felt slow or made me impatient for something else to happen. Well-written, well-acted, well-directed.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Margin Call > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Margin Call > Kuroneko

Margin Call < Castle in the Sky

Margin Call < The Pawnbroker

Margin Call > City Lights

Margin Call > Pig

Margin Call < Megamind

Margin Call < Don't Drink the Water

Margin Call > Sleight

Margin Call < Bubba Ho-tep

Margin Call > Take This Waltz

Final spot: #731 out of 3648, or 80%.

Drive My Car (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A renowned stage actor and director learns to cope with his wife's unexpected passing when he receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima.

Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Starring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, and Reika Kirishima.

Drive My Car is a Japanese film about a play director whose wife dies unexpectedly, and sometime later we see him directing a production of Uncle Vanya in which he casts his wife's ex lover as Vanya. The title comes from the fact that the man is driven back and forth from his lodgings to his rehearsals by a young female driver who he gets to know along the way. This is a very slow, very quiet film that has no interest in giving you any more information than it absolutely has to. Sometimes that really pays off. The scene, for example, where the actor and the director finally open up to each other about the wife really worked for me. But sometimes, as in good chunks of the first two thirds of the movie, it's just frustrating. This is a three hour movie, and you really have to be ready to give it that amount of time and be prepared to sink yourself into it for that amount of time. I heard all this from your reviewers before but wasn't quite able to get that amount of time set aside to really focus on it. As a result, while I liked the film, I think there was certainly more to get out of it, and I hope to revisit it sometime to dig deeper.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Drive My Car > Be Kind Rewind

Drive My Car < Woman in the Dunes

Drive My Car < Battle Royale

Drive My Car < Josie and the Pussycats

Drive My Car > Alice Adams

Drive My Car > Alice

Drive My Car > Blow Dry

Drive My Car > Natural Born Killers

Drive My Car > Dakota Skye

Drive My Car > How Do You Know

Drive My Car > Sleepy Hollow

Drive My Car > Batman

Final spot: #1585 out of 3621, or 56%.

Come From Away (2021)

IMDb plot summary: 7,000 passengers are stranded after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in a small town in Newfoundland, where they were housed and welcomed. Filmed live on stage at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York City.

Directed by Christopher Ashley. Starring Petrina Bromley, Jenn Colella, and De'Lon Grant.

Come From Away is a filmed stage version of the Tony Award-nominated musical. It tells the story of a small town in Newfoundland, Canada, that became an emergency refuge for 38 US planes rerouted after the September 11th terrorist attacks. All actors play multiple roles as both Canadians and passengers on the planes, with a very simple set consisting of some chairs and tables. A lot of the dialogue is pulled directly from firsthand accounts of the people who lived through this. This is really a show that needs to be seen, not listened to. Nearly all the songs are interwoven with dialogue instead of being standalone pieces, and while that make for a mediocre cast album, it makes the whole story beautifully coherent. These are also really solid performances -- there's not one actor struggling to pull their weight, and that's impressive in such a large ensemble cast. A musical about 9/11 could easily be cloying and cheesy, but the story handles itself beautifully and ends up being the best kind of inspirational.

Come From Away > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Come From Away > Kuroneko

Come From Away < Castle in the Sky

Come From Away < The Pawnbroker

Come From Away > Kismet

Come From Away > Red Carpet

Come From Away < Megamind

Come From Away > Don't Drink the Water

Come From Away > 9

Come From Away > Mildred Pierce

Come From Away > The Incredibles

Final spot: #714 out of 3649, or 80%.

Yes Day (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A mom and dad who usually say no decide to say yes to their kids' wildest requests with a few ground rules on a whirlwind day of fun and adventure.

Directed by Miguel Arteta. Starring Jennifer Garner, Edgar Ramirez, and Jenna Ortega.

Yes Day is a family comedy featuring Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramirez as uptight parents. When Garner discovers that her kids think of her as a tyrant and a dictator, she decides to plan a "yes day" for them, in which she and her husband will agree to whatever they want to plan. The majority of the movie follows the hijinks that ensue as the kids determine the course of the day. This is absolutely a children's fantasy movie about being able to do whatever they want and go wherever they want, so it's a little weird that the protagonist is the mother more than the kids. Jennifer Garner is somehow simultaneously good and bad in this, with an obvious uncomfortable stiltedness in early scenes and then one unexpectedly hilarious sequence in which she completely loses it on a stranger at the carnival. I literally went from thinking, "This is why I don't like Jennifer Garner in anything," to thinking, "Hold on, is she actually a really talented comedienne?" As a whole though, most of it isn't either very good or very bad. It's a cute movie about parents and children. No more.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Yes Day < Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Yes Day > Heidi (1937)

Yes Day < The Christmas Toy

Yes Day < The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Yes Day > Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Yes Day > Blue Valentine

Yes Day < Peter Pan (2003)

Yes Day < Steel Magnolias

Yes Day < Martha Marcy May Marlene

Yes Day < Miss Potter

Yes Day < Annie (2014)

Yes Day < The Dinner Game

Final spot: #2565 out of 3647, or 30%.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

IMDb plot summary: An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led.

Directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Starring Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, and Ke Huy Quan.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a 2022 film starring Michelle Yeoh as the exhausted hard-working owner of a laundromat who is being audited. Amid all of her stress, she covers that the multiverse exists and that she is somehow extremely important to it and to stopping a mysterious evil that's jumping through the universes, so she must learn to jump through universes herself to solve the problem. This is a wild, funny, beautiful ride. The film really takes advantage of the absurdist nature of multiple universes and the infinite selection of literally anything being possible. Those absurdist moments make for both some of the funniest and some of the saddest moments in the whole movie. But despite the big picture gimmick idea, at the heart of it, it really does make space to be a beautiful, thoughtful, heartbreaking look at motherhood and existential crisis and how to deal with loved ones who are in pain. This movie at no point was disappointing. Every step along the journey was truly a delight.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Everything Everywhere All at Once > Be Kind Rewind

Everything Everywhere All at Once > Woman in the Dunes

Everything Everywhere All at Once > The Goodbye Girl (1977)

Everything Everywhere All at Once < Amahl and the Night Visitors

Everything Everywhere All at Once > Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

Everything Everywhere All at Once > Spirited Away

Everything Everywhere All at Once > Unforgiven

Everything Everywhere All at Once > Parasite

Everything Everywhere All at Once > Fright Night (1985)

Everything Everywhere All at Once > 28 Days Later...

Everything Everywhere All at Once > Equus

Everything Everywhere All at Once > Submarine

Final spot: #227 out of 3620, or 94%.

Winter Light (1963)

IMDb plot summary: A small-town priest struggles with his faith.

Directed by Ingmar Burgman. Starring Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, and Gunnel Lindblom.

Winter Light follows a disillusioned priest of a tiny village church throughout his day, seeing him do things like counseling a man who has lost his faith and interacting with the unbelieving woman he's been having a secret affair with. His own faith is clearly barely alive at this point and yet we watch him going through the motions to fulfill his priestly duties. There's a deep devastating hopelessness to this movie that could easily be taken as a statement on the futility of religious beliefs, although as a religious person myself I see it as being more about how ritual and tradition cannot alone keep someone's spirit alive, nor can it prevent someone from being an awful person (as this priest is). Director Ingmar Bergman's stark visual choices really showcase the deadness of this man's inner self. Sometimes black and white cinematography looks pristine and beautiful and fully alive, but here it is cold and wintry and lifeless, and that ends up being very haunting. While I admire this film as a portrait of a particular person, I'm definitely unsatisfied by the ending. Of course, maybe that's the point, maybe the ending needs to be as unsatisfactory as the rest of this character's life. Regardless, it's one I'll keep thinking about for awhile.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Winter Light > Spellbound (1945)

Winter Light < Woman in the Dunes

Winter Light > Battle Royale

Winter Light < L'atalante

Winter Light > Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Winter Light > The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Winter Light < Child's Play (1972)

Winter Light > The Song of Lunch

Winter Light > Trick 'r Treat

Winter Light > Under the Skin

Winter Light > The Happening

Final spot: #1169 out of 3645, or 68%.