The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

IMDb plot summary: Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures.

Directed by Mark Waters. Starring Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, and Nick Nolte.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a young adult fantasy movie based on a book. Freddie Highmore stars as twin brothers who, along with their sister and mother, move to the mansion they've inherited from an ancestor. One of the twins, Jared, discovers an ancient book detailing the world of fairy tale creatures, and soon he learns this was his great-great-uncle's life's work, and it's caught the attention of an evil ogre who wants to use the information in it to conquer the world. So I know that there are a lot of people who inherently love the faefolk kind of fantasy world and will eat up anything involving dark mysterious forests full of tiny magical people. I however find that kind of setting just... so, so dull. And this wasn't the movie to convince me otherwise. Highmore has given good performances, but he's at a weird place in his acting journey here, where his character choices feel forced and stilted, and having him play two separate characters doesn't help matters. The monster CGI is pretty messy and feels entirely separate from the actors, and the film draws a surprising amount of attention to it -- especially by withholding the "big reveal" of the main monster until the end, at which point it fully disappoints. I get someone having a soft spot for this movie, but very little of it works for me. Someday I'll have to see if the books fare any better!

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Spiderwick Chronicles < Le voyage au Groenland

The Spiderwick Chronicles > Thirteen Conversations About One Thing

The Spiderwick Chronicles < The Happiest Millionaire

The Spiderwick Chronicles < The Lost Weekend

The Spiderwick Chronicles < Sliding Doors

The Spiderwick Chronicles > Fracture

The Spiderwick Chronicles > The Devil is a Woman

The Spiderwick Chronicles < The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach

The Spiderwick Chronicles > Teorema

The Spiderwick Chronicles > Borderline

The Spiderwick Chronicles < The Forger

The Spiderwick Chronicles < Luther

Final spot: #2869 out of 3965, or 28%.

Ma vie en rose (1997)

IMDb plot summary: Ludovic is an innocent seven-year-old child who provokes horror in his community when he dresses in girls clothes and insists he's a girl.

Directed by Alain Berliner. Starring Georges Du Fresne, Michéle Laroque, and Jean-Philippe Écoffey.

Ma vie en rose is a French film about a family whose youngest son begins dressing like a girl and saying he will be a girl someday. The family doesn't know how to respond, the community doesn't know how to respond, and the seven-year-old transgender girl at the center of the story can't quite figure out how her search for identity is causing so much trouble. This is a very moving film, if a difficult one to watch at times, particularly in the moments where the daughter's new behavior causes ripple effects in the parents' lives and they blame her for being so difficult, either directly or indirectly. I was fascinated by the choice to, very occasionally, sprinkle in some fantastical elements, usually to show the young girl's method of processing her world, and while there were times where I found it jarring, I think ultimately it works, even if I can't explain what that means *actually* happened at the end of the movie. Overall, a powerful story handled very well.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Ma vie en rose > Le voyage au Groenland

Ma vie en rose > Woman in the Dunes

Ma vie en rose < The People Under the Stairs

Ma vie en rose > The Farewell

Ma vie en rose > The Fabelmans

Ma vie en rose < Black Panther

Ma vie en rose > The Kite Runner

Ma vie en rose < A Letter to Three Wives

Ma vie en rose > Zero Effect

Ma vie en rose > Cats and Dogs

Ma vie en rose > Black Narcissus

Final spot: #574 out of 3964, or 86%.

The Legend of the Titanic (1999)

IMDb plot summary: A grandfather mouse tells his grandchildren the "real" story of the Titanic disaster, including himself, evil sharks, a giant octopus, and an evil whaling scheme.

Directed by Orlando Corradi and Kim Jun Ok. Starring Gregory Snegoff, Francis Pardeilhan, and Jane Alexander.

The Legend of the Titanic is an animated film set on the Titanic, in which the iceberg is thrown into the way of the ship by an octopus child, on behalf of an evil shark who is helping a greedy human procure whaling rights from a wealthy duke. Also it's mostly told by mice. How do you even rank or review something this ridiculous? It's terrible and baffling (and very unclear on who did and did not survive the disaster). The voice acting is messy, with many of the more distinct character voices being fully incomprehensible. The animation is awful, with some hilariously abrupt CGI giving us full shots of the ship in a way that is so jarring against the clunky stiff 2D character scenes. It is a fun watch, though, and I even watched it a second time with my husband so we could snark it together. An impossible film to rank, so that should mostly be disregarded, but enjoyably terrible.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Legend of the Titanic < Le voyage au Groenland

The Legend of the Titanic > K-19: The Widowmaker

The Legend of the Titanic < The Happiest Millionaire

The Legend of the Titanic > Father of the Bride (1950)

The Legend of the Titanic < Nowhere Boy

The Legend of the Titanic > August: Osage County

The Legend of the Titanic > Little Big League

The Legend of the Titanic < The Big Heat

The Legend of the Titanic > Rancho Notorious

The Legend of the Titanic < The Verdict

The Legend of the Titanic < Ever After

The Legend of the Titanic < Teacher of the Year

Final spot: #2624 out of 3963, or 34%.

Next Goal Wins (2023)

IMDb plot summary: The story of the infamously terrible American Samoa soccer team, known for a brutal 2001 FIFA match they lost 31-0.

Directed by Taika Waititi. Starring Michael Fassbender, Oscar Knightley, and Kaimana.

Next Goal Wins is Taika Waititi's take on the true story of the American Samoan football team, which was a true disaster, and the outside coach they brought in to help them out of last place. If I recall correctly, this got pretty mixed reviews when it was released, but fortunately for me, Waititi's style of humor in his films is nearly identical to mine, and his particular method of mixing heart with laughter is also the exact right proportion for me, so I had a great time all the way through. I laughed a lot, and I also enjoyed how it subverted the white savior trope a bit by having the new coach's style nearly tank them in the end, and I appreciated the subplot about the trans player who is so at home in her own self and so unconditionally accepted by her teammates. It's a pleasant film that gets elevated for me by how close Waititi's storytelling sensibilities are to my own, so anyone who is less a fan of his voice probably would find it grating, but it worked for me!

How it entered my Flickchart:

Next Goal Wins > Le voyage au Groenland

Next Goal Wins > La La Land

Next Goal Wins < The People Under the Stairs

Next Goal Wins > Raya and the Last Dragon

Next Goal Wins > Le bonheur

Next Goal Wins > The Way, Way Back

Next Goal Wins < 56 Up

Next Goal Wins > It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown

Next Goal Wins > Ex Machina

Next Goal Wins > Into the Woods (2014)

Next Goal Wins < Christmas in Connecticut

Final spot: #529 out of 3961, or 87%.

Home Again (2017)

IMDb plot summary: Life for a single mom in Los Angeles takes an unexpected turn when she allows three young men to move in with her.

Directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Michael Sheen, and Candice Bergen.

Home Again stars Reese Witherspoon as a separated mother moving back home to the house she inherited from her father. She soon crosses paths with three aspiring filmmakers who end up living in her guesthouse and becoming very close with her and her family. This is... an exact medium movie. Witherspoon is always a charismatic actress, and it's pleasant to watch her forming relationships with these younger men as she figures out her new life, but none of them have much chemistry with her, and the dramatic scenes have a very forced earnestness that often made me roll my eyes a bit. I do appreciate on one hand that it doesn't end with the predictable romance formula I thought it was setting up, but it's kind of clumsy in how it handles it and makes it feel like the movie is a bit unfinished. So... an extremely mixed bag. Nothing horrendous, but nothing great, and it lands right around the middle of my chart.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Home Again < Pete's Dragon (1977)

Home Again > K-19: The Widowmaker

Home Again > The Happiest Millionaire

Home Again > The Good Dinosaur

Home Again < Wreck-It Ralph

Home Again > Dunkirk

Home Again > The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Home Again > Maverick

Home Again > Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmélites

Home Again > Certain Women

Home Again > The Wailing

Final spot: #2106 out of 3962, or 47%.

Pariah (2011)

IMDb plot summary: A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Directed by Dee Rees. Starring Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans, and Aasha Davis.

Pariah tells the story of a lesbian teenager who is not out to her parents and is exploring her identity with the help of two friends, one butch lesbian her mother disapproves of, and the friend her mother pushes her toward who turns out to have a lot in common with her. Lee is such a great character, alternately confident and terrified, as we often all are as teens. I was going to say her relationship with her father was the most interesting to me, but genuinely each of the four key relationships she has in her story are compelling and show different sides of her identity as she figures out who she is and how to be that authentically. These characters are complex and looking to understand their world as it is, and seeing how each of them influences and is influenced by our lead character is great. It's a thoughtful, moving watch that I'd definitely recommend.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Pariah > Le voyage au Groenland

Pariah < Woman in the Dunes

Pariah > The Impossible

Pariah > Corrina, Corrina

Pariah > Nina Wu

Pariah > Minority Report

Pariah > Suburbia

Pariah > The Nice Guys

Pariah < The Menu

Pariah > H.M.S. Defiant

Pariah < Tower

Pariah < Tremors

Final spot: #1001 out of 3960, or 75%.

Africa Speaks (1930)

IMDb plot summary: Explorer Paul Hoefler leads a safari into central Africa and what was then called the Belgian Congo, in the regions inhabited by the Wassara and the famous Ubangi tribes.

Directed by Walter Futter.

Africa Speaks is a 1930 "documentary" about life in central Africa. I say "documentary" because it notably mixes actual footage of animals in Uganda with staged dramatic moments that it purports as realistic, including a vicious animal attack. Although my research led to mixed results, it's quite likely that most of the scenes featuring the supposed native Africans were also scripted and shot on L.A. sound stages. It's pretty gross to present your film as a documentary and then add in sensationalized fictional content, especially when it's contributing to stereotypes of an entire continent. There is one short scene that I loved: footage of bounding impalas. I had never seen them move like that, and I was captivated watching them spring all over the place like rabbits. Nature is cool sometimes. But a good minute-and-a-half scene of natural life does not make up for the icky exploitational nature of the rest of the film.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Africa Speaks < Le voyage au Groenland

Africa Speaks < K-19: The Widowmaker

Africa Speaks > The Mirror

Africa Speaks > X-Men: The Last Stand

Africa Speaks < Deceived

Africa Speaks < Batman Begins

Africa Speaks < Steve Jobs

Africa Speaks > The Chocolate War

Africa Speaks > Quitting

Africa Speaks > Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia

Africa Speaks < Annie Get Your Gun

Final spot: #3190 out of 3959, or 19%.

This Is Me... Now (2024)

IMDb plot summary: This narrative-driven odyssey that coincides with the release of her same-named album tells the story of Jennifer Lopez's journey to love through her own eyes.

Directed by Dave Meyers. Starring Jennifer Lopez, Fat Joe, and Jane Fonda.

This Is Me... Now is Jennifer Lopez's visual interpretation of her newest album, and is essentially a series of music videos smushed together with a clumsy plot. We follow our lead character, played by Lopez, as she tries to find love, shares her weird music video dreams with her therapist, and goes to treatment for love addiction. The music videos are fun, with some good visuals and some catchy songs, but trying to pretend there's a cinematic throughline here is absolute nonsense. It doesn't hold together at all and would be much more enjoyable without this clumsy plot trying to say... *something* about J. Lo's life (it's so poorly put together that it's hard to even really know what she's trying to communicate). It all just comes off as pretentious, throwing a bunch of vague tropes at the screen and assuming they'll take on a greater meaning. I could definitely rewatch some of the individual numbers, but there's no reason for them to be put together like this. It makes each one of them less interesting.

How it entered my Flickchart:

This Is Me... Now < Pete's Dragon (1977)

This Is Me... Now < K-19: The Widowmaker

This Is Me... Now > Michael Clayton

This Is Me... Now > X-Men: The Last Stand

This Is Me... Now < Deceived

This Is Me... Now < Batman Begins

This Is Me... Now > The Color of Pomegranates

This Is Me... Now > The Life of David Gale

This Is Me... Now < 42nd Street

This Is Me... Now > Highlander

This Is Me... Now > The Westing Game

Final spot: #3158 out of 3951, or 20%.

The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)

IMDb plot summary: A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno with the help of a diminutive photographer.

Directed by Peter Weir. Starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, and Linda Hunt.

The Year of Living Dangerously is set in the weeks before the overthrow of Indonesia's President Sukarno in the mid-60s. Mel Gibson plays an Australian journalist new to Jakarta, Linda Hunt a (male) photo-journalist who has been there for some time, and Sigourney Weaver the British embassy worker they both fall in love with. The romance is easily the least interesting part of this movie, so it's too bad that it takes up the most space. I'm much more interested in Hunt's character, who is immersing himself in the lives of the downtrodden in Jakarta and becoming increasingly frustrated with how their government has abandoned them. (The choice to cast Hunt as a man is fascinating, and she does throw her all into this part and make Billy a well-fleshed-out character, although of course the fact that her character is half-Chinese is a messy bit of yellowface.) It made me want to learn a lot more about that time in Indonesian politics, which I admittedly know almost nothing about, and I always found myself irritated when it tried to recenter me back on Gibson and Weaver's bland love affair. The two sides of the story don't help reinforce each other, they just fight against each other, and the side that "wins" in terms of dominant theme is the least compelling side.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Year of Living Dangerously < Pete's Dragon

The Year of Living Dangerously > K-19: The Widowmaker

The Year of Living Dangerously < Anchors Aweigh

The Year of Living Dangerously > Father of the Bride (1950)

The Year of Living Dangerously > National Velvet

The Year of Living Dangerously < Sideways

The Year of Living Dangerously > Ralph Breaks the Internet

The Year of Living Dangerously < The Resurrection of Gavin Stone

The Year of Living Dangerously > Sullivan's Travels

The Year of Living Dangerously > Splash

The Year of Living Dangerously > Bee Movie

Final spot: #2552 out of 3958, or 36%.

Secret in Their Eyes (2015)

IMDb plot summary: A tight-knit team of rising investigators, along with their supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.

Directed by Billy Ray. Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, and Julia Roberts.

Secret in Their Eyes is a mystery thriller told in two timelines. A government agent's daughter is brutally murdered, and we follow both the original time in which the murder occurred and was not solved, as well as a time jump 13 years later when one of the former agents thinks he's tracked the guy down again. In a lot of ways, this is a pretty typical crime story, but it sets itself apart a bit with some excellent acting performances. Julia Roberts in particular is excellent here as the mother of the murdered woman. She portrays the physical and spiritual toll her daughter's death takes on her, both in the immediate aftermath of the crime and over a decade later when she has been living with it for awhile. The ending is the best part, both satisfying and unsettling in a way that makes it feel more grounded in the humanity of the characters -- there's nothing that's going to undo the pain these characters have gone through, and hoping for that kind of happy ending will always disappoint.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Secret in Their Eyes > Pete's Dragon (1977)

Secret in Their Eyes < Anna Karenina

Secret in Their Eyes < The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

Secret in Their Eyes < Winnie the Pooh (2011)

Secret in Their Eyes > Black Snake Moan

Secret in Their Eyes > Scrooge (1970

Secret in Their Eyes > Serenity

Secret in Their Eyes > Is It Fall Yet?

Secret in Their Eyes > Sleepers

Secret in Their Eyes > Irma La Douce

Secret in Their Eyes > The Sword in the Stone

Secret in Their Eyes > Treasure Planet

Final spot: #1729 out of 3950, or 56%. That definitely feels too low, so something's wonky there in my chart.

Bright Lights (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A successful Broadway star ready to retire from her wild career announces her engagement. But her tumultuous past isn't done with her yet.

Directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring Dorothy Mackaill, Frank Fay, and Noah Beery.

Bright Lights is a showbiz romantic drama involving murder and several different romantic plotlines. It's a short film with several lengthy musical numbers, which unfortunately means there's not nearly enough time for all the plot they're trying to add in vain. It's an oddly paced film, with huge amounts of plot squeezed into tiny two-minute bursts, which then gets interrupted by a 10-minute musical number (too often a racist song about African life). I'm not one to complain about a film having lots of musical numbers, but they feel jarring against the dense plot and dozens of characters being crammed into the rest of the film. I'm not sure if I'm getting tired of my 1930 project or if I've seen most of the ones I'd like from the year, but this is another dull entry in the list.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Bright Lights < Pete's Dragon (1977)

Bright Lights < Thirteen Conversations About One Thing

Bright Lights > Michael Clayton

Bright Lights > X-Men: The Last Stand

Bright Lights < The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Bright Lights < Bad Moms

Bright Lights < Steve Jobs

Bright Lights < The Chocolate War

Bright Lights > 30:Minutes or Less

Bright Lights > Charlie Wilson's War

Bright Lights > Green Book

Bright Lights < The Toy That Saved Christmas

Final spot: #3195 out of 3949, or 19%.

Try Seventeen (2002)

IMDb plot summary: The story of a young man who enters college only to discover that he can learn more about life and love from his neighbors in the apartment building where he lives.

Directed by Jeffrey Porter. Starring Elijah Wood, Franka Potente, and Mandy Moore.

Try Seventeen stars Elijah Wood as a 17-year-old starting college and then immediately dropping out, moving into an apartment with two women who are into him, and trying to work through his complicated relationship with his mother and the father he never met. And it's a weird mess of a movie. Wood's character arc is nearly incomprehensible. We can't tell what he wants or what he's trying to do, he's just kind of floating through the movie as things happen around him that apparently contribute to his character growth, but none of it is done well. Especially early on, it can't quite decide if it wants to be a dark quirky comedy or an earnest coming-of-age story, and jumping back and forth doesn't help at all with understanding what we're supposed to be rooting for. I'm especially disappointed with how underdeveloped the subplot is between our lead and his mother, which feels like there's unmined depth there, and the movie just... gives up on it in favor of much less compelling stories. A bland and sloppy film that never reaches its potential.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Try Seventeen < Pete's Dragon (1977)

Try Seventeen > K-19: The Widowmaker

Try Seventeen < Anchors Aweigh

Try Seventeen < The Lost Weekend

Try Seventeen < Sliding Doors

Try Seventeen < Fracture

Try Seventeen > The Da Vinci Code

Try Seventeen < The Three Faces of Eve

Try Seventeen < The 5th Wave

Try Seventeen < Falling in Love

Try Seventeen < Side Effects

Try Seventeen > Walking Across Egypt

Final spot: #2935 out of 3956, or 26%.

The Bounty (1984)

IMDb plot summary: Fed up with their Captain's harsh discipline, a sailing ship's crew decides to take action.

Starring Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, and Laurence Olivier.

The Bounty is the 1980s adaptation of the Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Anthony Hopkins as the captain insistent on taking the more direct but more dangerous route to their destination, and Mel Gibson as the officer who overthrows him with the help of the crew. I watched the Trevor Howard/Marlon Brando version of this story just last year, and that one sets up Howard as fairly unlikable early on, while this one holds onto a bit more uncertainty about who is in the right. Some of that is due to the film's gimmick of being a flashback, told by Hopkins to the naval council determining whether the mutiny happened due to his incompetence, so the earliest beats of the story in particular are filtered through his eyes. (There's definitely a possibility that the entire story is *meant* to be unreliably filtered through his character's viewpoint, although the sequences following the mutineers after the split don't quite fit in with that thought.) Anyway, the actual quality of the film... It's well paced and decently acted, and I had a good time watching it, but I can't imagine it will make a lasting impact on me.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Bounty > Le voyage au Groenland

The Bounty < Woman in the Dunes

The Bounty < The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

The Bounty < Secret in Their Eyes

The Bounty > Cast Away

The Bounty < Scrooge

The Bounty < Sweet Dreams

The Bounty > The Fixer

The Bounty > My Favorite Year

The Bounty > Meek's Cutoff

The Bounty > Lenny

The Bounty > The Flamingo Kid

Final spot: #1825 out of 3957, or 54%.

Dhamaal (2007)

IMDb plot summary: Four lazy slacker conmen buddies who are jobless, homeless and broke learn about the secret of a hidden treasure from a dying thief and later embark on a race against time to find the mobster's buried treasure and claim it while being pursued by a determined police inspector who is hellbent to get the treasure all by himself.

Directed by Indra Kumar. Starring Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh, and Arshad Warsi.

Dhamaal is a Bollywood remake of the Hollywood classic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, in which a zany cast of characters all race to find hidden treasure revealed to them by a dying man. The chaos of this story is well served by the broad style of comedy often found in Bollywood films -- I didn't remember the Mad World plot and didn't recognize it as a remake until nearly the end of the movie, that's how well the story fit in this world. It is a big, bold, silly movie, and while many of the jokes don't land for me, there are enough that I had an okay time with it. It does a good job of hopping around quickly enough with each group that it keeps the energy going, and any time I got bored with one plotline, it was okay because it was only a small portion of the story. Mostly it makes me want to revisit the American version, though, and as such I don't know that it serves much purpose as a remake. So... okay, but just okay.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Dhamaal < Pete's Dragon (1977)

Dhamaal > K-19: The Widowmaker

Dhamaal > Anchors Aweigh

Dhamaal > The Good Dinosaur

Dhamaal < Wreck-It Ralph

Dhamaal < Dunkirk

Dhamaal < Vanya on 42nd Street

Dhamaal < The Devil Wears Prada

Dhamaal > You'll Never Get Rich

Dhamaal > Nobody

Dhamaal > Must Love Dogs

Dhamaal < The Lion in Winter (2003)

Final spot: #2209 out of 3952, or 44%.

Klaus (2019)

IMDb plot summary: A simple act of kindness always sparks another, even in a frozen, faraway place. When Smeerensburg's new postman, Jesper, befriends toymaker Klaus, their gifts melt an age-old feud and deliver a sleigh full of holiday traditions.

Directed by Sergio Pablos and Carlos Martínez López. Starring Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons, and Rashida Jones.

Klaus is an animated retelling of the Santa Claus origin story, focusing on the spoiled son of a post office magnate who is sent to be postman to a distant northern town until he learns the value of his work. He ends up teaming up with a toy-making hermit to bring life back to the town, and the legend of Santa begins to grow. This is an odd duck of a movie, combining the sort of myth-making grandiosity of something like Rise of the Guardians with the fast-talking wise-cracking hero of most other DreamWorks movies. The former works best, and it takes over more of the movie as the lead becomes more grounded, but it's got kind of a rough start until it gets there. Once they find the right balance, I enjoy the thread of silliness that stays embedded in the story -- seeing the different Santa Claus myths pop up through very silly misunderstandings is a lot of fun, and ultimately the film lands in a satisfying place that sits just right for a cozy holiday watch. Not a perfect movie, but pretty charming.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Klaus > Le voyage au Groenland

Klaus < Kuroneko

Klaus > Kajaki

Klaus > Memories of Murder

Klaus < Gentleman's Agreement

Klaus < A Christmas Carol (1951)

Klaus > New York Stories

Klaus < Three Colors: White

Klaus > Punch-Drunk Love

Klaus < Finder's Fee

Klaus < Lyle, the Kindly Viking

Klaus > Army of Shadows

Final spot: #1192 out of 3946, or 70%.

The Beguiled (2017)

IMDb plot summary: The unexpected arrival of a wounded Union soldier at a girls school in Virginia during the American Civil War leads to jealousy and betrayal.

Directed by Sofia Coppola. Starring Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning.

The Beguiled is a Sofia Coppola film set during the American Civil War. An all-girls' school in the south finds a wounded Union soldier and decide to nurse him back to health before turning him in to the army. But his presence in the house begins to affect the house in unexpected ways, and things get complicated. There's an eerie otherworld-ness about this movie. It reminded me a bit of something like Black Narcissus -- a group of women cloistered from the world encountering something they were not prepared for, and their equilibrium falls apart. I did find that I had trouble telling some of the young girls apart, and I wish I'd gotten to know them a bit better to help flesh that out, but the key relationships here are developed beautifully. I love how much emotion and thought is communicated nonverbally; this truly is one of those movies where the subtext is the key to the whole thing. I haven't always glommed onto Sofia Coppola's work, but this one made me want to watch more of her because it had such a unique tone.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Beguiled > Pete's Dragon (1977)

The Beguiled > Anna Karenina

The Beguiled < Cam

The Beguiled < Nope

The Beguiled < Wizards

The Beguiled > The Blue Angel

The Beguiled < BigBug

The Beguiled > Censor

The Beguiled > The Impostors

The Beguiled < The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

The Beguiled > Twins

Final spot: #899 out of 3948, or 77%.

The Great Outdoors (1988)

IMDb plot summary: A Chicago man and his family go camping with his obnoxious brother-in-law.

Directed by Howard Deutch. Starring Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, and Stephanie Faracy.

The Great Outdoors is a John Hughes-written film starring John Candy and Dan Aykroyd as two brothers-in-law on vacation in a remote cabin along with their families. Candy just wants to enjoy some quiet unplugged family time, while Aykroyd is constantly competing to get the biggest, shiniest thing for their trip. The John Hughes filmography ride has been kind of a bumpy one, but this one is definitely a hit. It's clearly a big broad comedy but allows for some very touching human connection moments, and the relationship between Candy and Aykroyd manages to hit the right emotional beats while also being amusing. It's a little surprising to me that this doesn't get as much love as some of Hughes' other written work -- maybe it's because he didn't direct it himself. It's not a masterpiece, but I think it's significantly better than, say, Sixteen Candles or Pretty and Pink. (Although, of course, this one doesn't have a protagonist for teens to relate to.) Definitely a worthwhile watch!

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Great Outdoors > Love Exposure

The Great Outdoors < Kuroneko

The Great Outdoors > The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain

The Great Outdoors < Memories of Murder

The Great Outdoors > Air

The Great Outdoors > Carefree

The Great Outdoors < Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

The Great Outdoors > The Emperor Waltz

The Great Outdoors > The French Dispatch

The Great Outdoors < Up in the Air

The Great Outdoors < The Shoes of the Fisherman

The Great Outdoors < Rack, Shack & Benny

Final spot: #1270 out of 3945, or 68%.

Two Days, One Night (2014)

IMDb plot summary: Liège, Belgium. Sandra is a factory worker who discovers that her workmates have opted for a EUR1,000 bonus in exchange for her dismissal. She has only a weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses in order to keep her job.

Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. Starring Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, and Catherine Salée.

Two Days, One Night stars Marion Cotillard as a woman who has just been fired from her job after her boss held a ballot among the employees as to whether they should get a financial bonus or let Cotillard go. When it's revealed that one of the coworkers convinced everyone to vote against her by lying to them, she requests a second ballot and then has the weekend to convince everyone to agree to keep her on. I recently watched Rosetta by the Dardenne brothers and was unenthused, but this one worked for me. Cotillard's character's task is SUCH hard work, and it's so humiliating to ask each coworker one-by-one whether they could please forego additional money they need to help save her job. I love the variety of responses we get, from anger, to relief, to shock, to defiance, all feeling equally human and equally possible. The good responses make her task seem vaguely possible, while the bad ones make it seem unachievable. No surprise, Cotillard is absolutely incredible in this. Her exhaustion and despair is perpetually under the surface, sometimes becoming visible, and I immediately saw myself reflected in her, in the moments when I have absolutely no spoons left but have no choice but to try to forge ahead anyway. A marvelous film I will have to revisit.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Two Days, One Night > Le voyage au Groenland

Two Days, One Night > Kuroneko

Two Days, One Night < Cam

Two Days, One Night > The Farewell

Two Days, One Night > The Cat Returns

Two Days, One Night > The Last Unicorn

Two Days, One Night > Breaking Away

Two Days, One Night > A Man for All Seasons

Two Days, One Night > Kramer vs. Kramer

Two Days, One Night > Chariots of Fire

Two Days, One Night < The People Under the Stairs

Final spot: #497 out of 3947, or 87%.

Hulchul (2004)

IMDb plot summary: A man and woman from feuding families each pretend to fall in love, as part of a revenge plot. Chaos ensues when their fake romance becomes a reality.

Directed by Priyardashan. Starring Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor, and Amrish Puri.

Hulchul is a Bollywood take on Romeo and Juliet... if Romeo and Juliet began by faking a relationship to try and undermine the other's family by luring them into their own. The two young people find that their pretend feelings are actually becoming something real, and they work to find a way to be a together. After watching a series of mediocre romances, I was very pleased to have a good time with this one. There's a particularly delightful early song in which the two leads haven't actually fallen in love with and sing about their infatuation, while their body language portrays the exact opposite every time their partner isn't looking at them. It's the first time in a while I've really been drawn into one of the frequent Bollywood musical performances, and it was great fun. It runs a little long in the final third -- there's a lot of side stuff with the male lead's brothers that feels like a tangent to the more interesting sections -- but it's a fun rom-com with a lot to like.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hulchul > Le voyage au Groenland

Hulchul < Kuroneko

Hulchul > Kajaki

Hulchul < Time Bandits

Hulchul > Loins of Punjab Presents

Hulchul > The Pirate Movie

Hulchul < Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

Hulchul < Summer Stock

Hulchul < The Hustler

Hulchul > Everybody's Talking About Jamie

Hulchul > M

Hulchul < Trick 'r Treat

Final spot: #1290 out of 3954, or 67%.

Inside the Lines (1930)

IMDb plot summary: During World War 1, German spies will stop at nothing to spy on the allied war plans stored at Gibraltar.

Directed by Roy Pomeroy. Starring Betty Compson, Ralph Forbes, and Montagu Love.

Inside the Lines tells the story of two American spies working in Germany during World War 1. They fell in love together before the war began, and then when they reunite on the other side, both thinks the other is an actual traitor. This is more interesting as a plot in theory, but the story drags on screen. There are a lot of characters with a lot of different interactions that are uninteresting to keep track of, and we don't spend enough time with the couple pre-spying to really be invested in their love story once things get going. When things finally pick up in the final section, it's not nearly as exciting as it would need to be to make up for the first half. A pretty boring entry into my 1930 project.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Inside the Lines < Le voyage au Groenland

Inside the Lines < K-19: The Widowmaker

Inside the Lines > The Mirror

Inside the Lines < Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Inside the Lines > Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Inside the Lines < The Last Temptation of Christ

Inside the Lines > Bullitt

Inside the Lines < Picnic

Inside the Lines < The People vs. Larry Flynt

Inside the Lines < It Could Happen to You

Inside the Lines < Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Inside the Lines < Robin Hood: Men in Tights

Final spot: #3304 out of 3953, or 16%.

Allegiance (2016)

IMDb plot summary: Allegiance illuminates one of American history's lesser known chapters as it tells the story of Sam Kimura, transported back nearly six decades to when his younger self and his sister Kei fought to stay connected to their heritage, their family and themselves after Japanese Americans were wrongfully imprisoned during World War II.

Directed by Lorenzo Thione. Starring Lea Salonga, Telly Leung, and George Takei.

Allegiance is the filmed version of the Broadway musical written by George Takei and inspired by his and his family's experiences in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. It centers around one family, where the adult brother and sister take very different tactics toward their imprisonment -- he enlists in the military so he can prove they're loyal Americans, and she takes up with the camp leader of a revolution against their jailers. This is definitely a fascinating historical story, and the script and performances are all pretty solid. It's the songs where this show lets us down. There are a few memorable tunes, but also a lot of repetitive ones that don't have much of an arc and make me wonder if this was initially imagined as a sung-through show entirely. We have some incredible performers giving it their ally -- you're never going to have a bad time listening to Telly Leung and Lea Salonga sing -- but I can't imagine I'll want to add the cast album to my playlist any time soon. It's a good story, though, and I'm glad it's being told, even if I wish it were just a little bit better.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Allegiance > Le voyage au Groenland

Allegiance < Kuroneko

Allegiance < Kajaki

Allegiance > Secret in Their Eyes

Allegiance > Ben-Hur (1959)

Allegiance > Hereditary

Allegiance < Música

Allegiance > Space Sweepers

Allegiance < Saltburn

Allegiance < Joker

Allegiance < Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India

Allegiance < Battle Royale

Final spot: #1528 out of 3955, or 61%.