Infinity Pool (2023)

IMDb plot summary: James and Em Foster are enjoying an all-inclusive beach vacation in the fictional island of La Tolqa, when a fatal accident exposes the resort's perverse subculture of hedonistic tourism, reckless violence and surreal horrors.

Directed by Brandon Cronenberg. Starring Alexander Skarsgard, Mia Goth, and Cleopatra Coleman.

Infinity Pool is a difficult movie to describe the plot of without immediately getting into spoilers, but basically it's about a man on vacation in a foreign country who gets in trouble with the law, only to find himself drawn into a dark world of reckless cruelty. This is a movie I came to begrudgingly like after reading some analyses of it afterwards, but in the moment of watching it I found it needlessly confusing and couldn't process what I was supposed to get out of it. After letting it sit and reading other people's takes on it, it clicked a little bit more and does make me want to rewatch it with a clearer understanding of the narrative. And regardless of my negative first impression, I want to say that Mia Goth is an absolutely fascinating new actress. This was the first thing I've seen her in and while I didn't love the movie, I definitely wanted to see more of her. She's got such a uniquely charismatic look that she uses to the max in this film and kept me interested even when I wasn't drawn to the rest of the story.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Infinity Pool < The Anderson Tapes

Infinity Pool > The Killing

Infinity Pool > Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

Infinity Pool > Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Infinity Pool < Kate

Infinity Pool < Vanya on 42nd Street

Infinity Pool > The Fox and the Hound

Infinity Pool < The Devil Wears Prada

Infinity Pool < Swing Time

Infinity Pool > Lost in America

Infinity Pool > Death on the Nile (2022)

Infinity Pool > You'll Never Get Rich

Final spot: #2105 out of 3807, or 45%.

Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

IMDb plot summary: On Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo discover a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents.

Directed by Satoshi Kon. Starring Tôru Emori, Yoshiaki Umegaki, and Aya Okamoto.

Tokyo Godfathers is an animated Japanese film about three homeless people on the streets of Japan who find themselves taking care of an abandoned baby at Christmastime. As they wander around trying to figure out what to do with this child, we learn more about their individual back stories and how they interact with each other. Some of these stories are definitely more interesting than other, but all the stories feel rich, and it did pique my interest in going back to rewatch it sometime. The kindness and love at the center of the film make it a good fit for the holiday season, despite the dark plotlines of loss and poverty at the heart of it. When it comes to my personal reaction, though, it's something I admire more than subjectively enjoy, though I think it's definitely one that could grow on me on another viewing or two, and I would like to give it that chance.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Tokyo Godfathers > The Anderson Tapes

Tokyo Godfathers > The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Tokyo Godfathers < Six Degrees of Separation

Tokyo Godfathers > Onward

Tokyo Godfathers < The Jungle Book (1967)

Tokyo Godfathers > 5 Centimeters Per Second

Tokyo Godfathers < Summer Wars

Tokyo Godfathers > Cats and Dogs

Tokyo Godfathers < Werewolves Within

Tokyo Godfathers < Eat Drink Man Woman

Tokyo Godfathers > Loving Vincent

Tokyo Godfathers < The Fugitive Kind

Final spot: #637 out of 3807, or 83%.

The Unholy Three (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A trio of former sideshow performers double as the "Unholy Three" in a scam to nab some shiny rocks.

Directed by Jack Conway. Starring Lon Chaney, Lila Lee, and Elliott Nugent.

The Unholy Three follows three circus performers -- a little person, a ventriloquist, and a strong man -- who leave the circus after their sideshow is shut down and band together to commit crimes, disguised as a family running a pet shop. This certainly is a more exciting premise than a lot of the crime films I've seen from 1930, leaning heavily into melodrama and elaborate costumes (the ventriloquist disguises himself as a kindly grandmother, and the little person as her baby grandchild). It's a remake of a silent film by Tod Browning, who was later known for the film Freaks, and like that film, the premise of this one treads the line between being respectful of folks who worked at the sideshow and being exploitative. But overall I think it does a good job of letting them be villains without letting their "otherness" MAKE them villains, and overall they come across as full characters more often than not. It's not a film for everyone, but I enjoyed it -- it felt different from other films of the era, and I appreciated a story I hadn't seen told yet.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Unholy Three > The Anderson Tapes

The Unholy Three < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

The Unholy Three > Cafe Society

The Unholy Three < We're No Angels (1955)

The Unholy Three > Secret Window

The Unholy Three > Andhadhun

The Unholy Three > The French Dispatch

The Unholy Three > I and You

The Unholy Three > Whisky Galore!

The Unholy Three < The Mummy (1932)

The Unholy Three > Maria Full of Grace

Final spot: #1194 out of 3806, or 69%.

Maria Full of Grace (2004)

IMDb plot summary: A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately-needed money for her family.

Directed by Joshua Marston. Starring Catalina Sandino Moreno, Guilied Lopez, and Orlando Tobon.

Maria Full of Grace is a story about a 17 year old girl from Colombia who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and is shortly thereafter fired from her job. She ultimately decides to take on work as a drug mule to help support herself and her family. This is certainly a harrowing story, and the image of her swallowing these large packages that could burst inside her at any moment, killing her, is going to stick with me for a long time. The film treads an interesting line between hopelessness and hopefulness, but it doesn't feel it any point like the film is milking it for us to feel bad for these characters. We just see things going badly for them. The slightly distanced viewpoint actually allows me to feel even more connected to these characters because I don't feel like they are being used to send a message or an idea. While there's obviously not a pure happily ever after for the situation, the story ends with some optimism about the characters, and I appreciated that. Our lead actress is really stupendous -- I believe she earned an Academy Award nomination for this, and that is well deserved. A worthwhile movie to see.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Maria Full of Grace > Wrong Turn

Maria Full of Grace < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Maria Full of Grace > Begin Again

Maria Full of Grace < We're No Angels (1955)

Maria Full of Grace > The Edge of Heaven

Maria Full of Grace > The Absent-Minded Professor

Maria Full of Grace > Full Metal Jacket

Maria Full of Grace > Ice Age

Maria Full of Grace > Cargo

Maria Full of Grace < The Mummy (1932)

Maria Full of Grace > Ghost World

Final spot: #1194 out of 3805, or 69%. That seems a little low, but TCDNL.

Borderline (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A black woman having an adulterous affair with a white man causes his wife to go mad and re-enforces the towns-folk's prejudice.

Directed by Kenneth MacPherson. Starring Paul Robeson, Eslanda Robeson, and Hilda Doolittle.

Borderline is a 1930 avant-garde film exploring the issue of interracial relationships. For many years it was considered lost but a copy was apparently discovered in Switzerland by accident in 1983. It's definitely a very interesting piece of cinema history and probably worth the watch just for that reason alone. That being said, it's not particularly one that I would watch out of narrative interest or outside of its context in the history of film. It's deliberately disjointed and dreamlike, which is a style that holds very little interest for me no matter how it is used, and I have to assume that in alienating me it is functioning exactly the way that it wants to. There are certainly many striking visuals here, and the soundtrack that was accompanying it in the version I saw absolutely lends itself to the frustrated chaos of the characters. If any of this sounds interesting to you, it's almost certainly one that you should try to find and check out. If it doesn't, it's probably not going to surprise you by being something it's not.

How it entered my Flickchrt:

Borderline < The Anderson Tapes

Borderline > Little Lord Fauntleroy

Borderline < Adam

Borderline < Paint Your Wagon

Borderline > Gozu

Borderline < King Kong (1933)

Borderline < Two for the Money

Borderline < Lovelace

Borderline < Luther

Borderline > Captain America: Civil War

Borderline > 12 Days of Terror

Borderline > Dear Evan Hansen

Final spot: #2727 out of 3804, or 28%.

Hollywood Stargirl (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Stargirl Caraway as she journeys out of Mica into a bigger world of music, dreams and possibility.

Directed by Julia Hart. Starring Grace VanderWaal, Elijah Richardson, and Judy Greer.

Hollywood Stargirl is a Disney coming-of-age story about a high schooler who moves to a new town and works to make new friends and follow her dreams of being a musician. This is apparently a sequel to Stargirl, which in turn is based on a fairly well-known young adult novel that I've never read, but I'm curious as to whether the character in the novel is as insufferable as the movie. This is the definition of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, set up initially to be somebody who has trouble connecting with others but within a day or two of living in a new place has diehard friends, because she's just so magical people are drawn to her. Now, granted, the actress playing her is extremely charismatic and sells the character as much as I think anyone could, and this does feel more like one of Disney's theatrical releases than a straight-to-streaming optionin terms of how the story is structured. However, it still is moving so many mountains to make things just fall into place for this character that she never gets an actual character arc that makes any sense. I might have identified more with this when I was the main character's age, but I think even then I would have realized how unrelatable she was to me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hollywood Stargirl < The Anderson Tapes

Hollywood Stargirl > Susannah of the Mounties

Hollywood Stargirl < Adam

Hollywood Stargirl > Bandidas

Hollywood Stargirl < Doctor Zhivago

Hollywood Stargirl > Bronson

Hollywood Stargirl < August: Osage County

Hollywood Stargirl > A Dangerous Method

Hollywood Stargirl < The Fighter

Hollywood Stargirl < The Fifth Element

Hollywood Stargirl < Hitch

Hollywood Stargirl < The Lords of Salem

Final spot: #2540 out of 3803, or 33%.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

IMDb plot summary: A young German soldier's terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.

Directed by Edward Berger. Starring Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, and Aaron Hilmer.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a 2022 German adaptation of the book of the same name, following a young German Soldier and his troop during World War I. It shows the young boys being indoctrinated into agreeing to fight for their country, as well as their loss of idealism once they get into the thick of it and realize that they are being manipulated for someone else's power grab. I had just recently rewatched the 1930 version of this story before watching this one, and while both are good, I think I prefer the earlier version. It digs a little bit more heavily into the psyche of the character and feels a little less reliant on gruesome battle scenes. That being said, this is a pretty solid movie. I'm not sure if it adds anything to the anti-war film ouevre that hasn't already been said, although considering that the original book was written by a German, it's nice to get a version finally adapted by German filmmakers. This cinematography is good, the acting is good, there's not much if anything wrong with it. It doesn't feel like a new story by any means but it's a well-told one.

How it entered my Flickchart:

All Quiet on the Western Front > The Last Dragon

All Quiet on the Western Front > Susannah of the Mounties

All Quiet on the Western Front > Adam

All Quiet on the Western Front > Steamboat Bill, Jr.

All Quiet on the Western Front > Downfall

All Quiet on the Western Front < Star Trek: Nemesis

All Quiet on the Western Front < Strawberry and Chocolate

All Quiet on the Western Front < Hopscotch

All Quiet on the Western Front > Mrs. Miniver

All Quiet on the Western Front > Maverick

All Quiet on the Western Front > The Librarian: Quest for the Spear

All Quiet on the Western Front > The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe (1988)

Final spot: #2006 out of 3802, or 47%. That feels unexpectedly low but TCDNL.