Ransom (1996)

IMDb plot summary: Multi-millionaire Tom Mullen's son is kidnapped, but after initially agreeing to pay the ransom Mullen then decides to use the ransom money as a bounty.

Directed by Ron Howard. Stars Mel Gibson, Gary Sinise, and Rene Russo.

Ransom is a thriller starring Mel Gibson as a wealthy tycoon whose son is kidnapped and held for ransom. It's about that simple a plot, but I had a surprisingly good time with this -- surprisingly for me, at least. Furious vigilante father films can definitely be hit or miss for me, but this one has a pretty good storyline where the characters do behave believably and I can follow along on the journey. The final 15 minutes or so especially are an enjoyable thrill ride as we see the culmination of the villain being taken down. It takes some unexpected turns but nothing too out of left field to take you out of the story. As far as 90s thrillers go, this is a pretty good one and one that I could see enjoying again sometime.

🎥 Ransom (1996)

📊 Ranked #1212/4283 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 72

beat Alice Adams (#2142 → #2143)

lost to Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary Performance (held at #1107)

beat Laurence Anyways (#1597 → #1614)

beat Friday the 13th (#1373 → #1370)

beat The Color Purple (#1204 → #1226)

beat Identity (held at #1167)

lost to The Body Snatcher (#1142 → #1141)

lost to Kneecap (#1145 → #1142)

lost to To Live (#1160 → #1156)

beat Going My Way (#1149 → #1154)

beat CBGB (#1169 → #1208)

beat The Man in the Iron Mask (#1158 → #1157)

Cold War (2018)

IMDb plot summary: In the 1950s, a music director falls in love with a singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France.

Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski. Stars Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, and Borys Szyc.

Cold War is a story about a couple in post World War 2 Europe. We follow the two of them over several decades as they meet, part, reunite, break up, and so forth. This one took me a long time to gel with. One problem for me which is very much a "me" problem and not a problem with film, is that I had great difficulty recognizing the male half of this couple, so there were moments when he would show up and have interactions with the woman and I didn't realize it was him, which means I definitely missed portions of this story that were significant. At one point during the film when I realized that I had completely lost the plot, I went to Wikipedia and looked up the summary, only to realize that there had been several interactions that I had completely missed the meaning of because I had thought that they were different people. That being said, the deeper digging into what actually was happening did help it gel for me quite a bit, and by the time the end rolled around, I was much more invested in the story and found the ending very emotionally impactful. This is definitely one that I need to go back and rewatch because given on how much I liked the ending, I might like the rest of it more than I thought he did as well.

🎥 Cold War (2018)

📊 Ranked #1414/4282 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 67

beat Another Earth (#2139 → #2132)

lost to The Lobster (#1088 → #1109)

lost to Marie Antoinette (#1611 → #1601)

lost to The Princess and the Frog (#1872 → #1744)

beat Struck by Lightning (#2006 → #2064)

beat Journey to Greenland (#1939 → #2117)

beat The Act of Killing (#1905 → #1913)

lost to Dark Shadows (#1887 → #1847)

lost to Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (#1895 → #1882)

beat You Can Count on Me (#1901 → #1898)

beat Drive My Car (#1898 → #1987)

lost to Death to Smoochy (#1896 → #1712)

Fire of Love (2022)

IMDb plot summary: Intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft died in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together: unraveling the mysteries of volcanoes by capturing the most explosive imagery ever recorded.

Directed by Sara Dosa.

Fire of Love is a documentary about a marriage volcanologist couple, following their joint careers as they researched volcanoes and ultimately lost their lives in the course of their work. This is kind of a fascinating combination of personal love story and educational film. We follow what makes these two people willing to risk their lives to get close enough to active volcanoes to learn about them. The film is strangely gentle for having such a big and dramatic topic as a natural disaster, but I think that's in its favor that it doesn't sensationalize the story and just allows it to be as unique as it is. It also is in fact very educational about volcanoes along the way -- mostly through the lens of "this is what they learned about them and why they by way of also telling the story of these two people and what motivates them to study the more deadly volcanoes in the hopes of finding better methods of prediction and protection. Pretty interesting documentary that moves along quickly.

🎥 Fire of Love (2022)

📊 Ranked #1077/4281 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 75

beat The Firm (#2321 → #2322)

lost to Gremlins (#1124 → #1125)

lost to Seven Days Leave (held at #1629)

lost to The Glass Menagerie (#1873 → #1871)

beat The Forest (#1995 → #2061)

beat One Hundred and One Dalmatians (#1943 → #1977)

beat Dot the I (#1859 → #1882)

beat 8-Bit Christmas (#1879 → #2027)

beat Event Horizon (#1867 → #1866)

beat Vicky Cristina Barcelona (#1868 → #1874)

beat The Princess and the Frog (#1866 → #1872)

The Breadwinner (2017)

IMDb plot summary: In 2001, Afghanistan is under the control of the Taliban. When her father is captured, a determined young girl disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

Directed by Nora Twomey. Stars Saara Chaudry, Soma Chhaya, and Noorin Gulamgaus.

The Breadwinner is about a young girl in Afghanistan who dresses as a boy when her father is unexpectedly jailed and there is no one to be the head of their house. This is a really compelling story with a great main character. It so clearly paints this picture of how difficult this girl's and her sisters' lives are now that there is not a man of the house to take care of them. The animation is really lovely, traditional in some ways but very vivid. The film also does a really nice job of growing these characters so that it's so easy to understand where each of them is coming from and how they relate to each other. It's a great cast of ensemble characters besides just our main girl. This one is definitely worth watching.

🎥 The Breadwinner (2018)

📊 Ranked #1717/4280 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 61

beat Memphis Belle (#2142 → #2187)

beat Robot & Frank (#1092 → #1125)

beat The Kid Detective (#565 → #608)

lost to Take the Money and Run (#257 → #258)

lost to Citizen Kane (held at #417)

beat The Goodbye Girl (#492 → #563)

lost to Next Goal Wins (#454 → #453)

beat Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway (#470 → #556)

lost to Jackie Brown (#462 → #509)

beat The Lady Eve (#466 → #471)

beat Soapdish (#464 → #552)

lost to 10 Cloverfield Lane (#463 → #343)

Apollo 11 (2019)

IMDb plot summary: A look at the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon led by commander Neil Armstrong and pilots Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins.

Directed by Todd Douglas Miller.

Apollo 11 is a documentary about the Apollo 11 moon landing, using a bunch of never-before-seen footage from behind the scenes and of the launch itself. While documentaries, especially documentaries cobbled together from old footage, can be very dry, this one is surprisingly engaging. The documentary is set out in a very linear fashion, with just a straight series of interactions of the crew and the command folks on the ground. We hear them make their journey, share their observations, and of course land on the moon. I found myself amazed by how smoothly everything went -- no abrupt changes needed, no last-minute saves -- it went just about as smoothly as the whole thing possibly could, which is kind of a miracle. I was surprised at how captivating it was when there was very little conflict or surprise, just a bunch of examples of "a day in the life" in space. Its unique nature does mean that I have no interest in really watching it again, but it was fascinating to watch once.

🎥 Apollo 11 (2019)

📊 Ranked #2462/4279 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 47

lost to Wayne's World (#2138 → #2012)

beat My Best Friend's Wedding (#3230 → #3331)

beat Take Me Out to the Ball Game (#2681 → #2685)

beat Spaceballs (held at #2416)

beat Pat and Mike (#2286 → #2292)

beat Meet John Doe (#2211 → #2229)

lost to Two Weeks Notice (#2173 → #1984)

beat Happythankyoumoreplease (#2193 → #2237)

beat The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (#2183 → #2187)

beat The Wrestler (#2177 → #2205)

beat An Affair to Remember (#2175 → #2179)

Love Songs (2007)

IMDb plot summary: Ismael and Julie enter a playful yet emotionally laced threesome with Alice. When tragedy strikes, these young Parisians are forced to deal with the fragility of life and love.

Directed by Christophe Honoré. Stars Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel, and Clotilde Hesme.

Love Songs is a French musical that begins by being about a couple's relationship (and an occasional throuple) and then, when one half of that couple dies unexpectedly, we follow the male half on his journey of healing. This is clearly in the style of Jacques Demy, who I love, and I can see those pieces in this work. I'm a little less swayed by the story we're following -- French romance films often have a unique relational language that I do not identify with at all -- but the songs are great. They were easily the highlight, and I wish on some level that this was fully sung-through like some of Demy's were. The rest of the story and the romance are told pretty well, and while there are ups and downs and how engaged I was in the actual plot, it pulls it together at the end for me for sure. A unique little movie that I am glad that I got the chance to watch.

🎥 Love Songs (2007)

📊 Ranked #1257/4278 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 71

beat Lilies of the Field (#2137 → #2238)

lost to Do the Right Thing (#1087 → #878)

lost to The Wolf of Wall Street (#1610 → #1606)

beat Live Flesh (#1869 → #1871)

beat Hero (held at #1742)

beat American Movie (#1672 → #1671)

beat Hereditary (#1641 → #1728)

beat Hamlet (#1625 → #1623)

beat Patsy & Loretta (#1617 → #1723)

beat Música (#1613 → #1659)

lost to Krisha (#1611 → #1254)

lost to The Salesman (#1612 → #1597)

Maria (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity.

Directed by Pablo Larraín. Stars Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Alba Rohrwacher.

Maria is a biopic of opera singer Maria Callas in the final days of her life. Callas is played by Angelina Jolie, and we see her reminiscing about her past fame, as well as working to restore her damaged voice. I didn't realize until after finishing the film that this is the third in the trilogy of famous women of the 1900s that included Jackie and Spencer before, but it makes sense, because this one is compelling in a very similar way. I was fascinated by its choice to hop in and out of the realism of the story, mirroring Callas' fragile mental state. This is one of Jolie's best acting performances, in my opinion, and not just because of the fact that she studied opera to be able to do her own singing, and while we would never believe her as Callas in her prime (thus using recordings for those sequences), I can totally buy her as a ruined Callas. It's a sad and contemplative film that overall really hits its markers for me. Definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of opera or Angelina Jolie or any of the other films in this biopic series.

🎥 Maria (2024)

📊 Ranked #797/4277 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 81

beat John and Mary (#2182 → #2183)

beat The Other Boleyn Girl (#1091 → #1093)

lost to I ♥ Huckabees (#570 → #572)

lost to The History of Future Folk (#852 → #863)

lost to Night Must Fall (#987 → #993)

beat Amistad (#1065 → #1113)

beat The Other Side of Sunday (#1023 → #1025)

lost to The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (#1006 → #1009)

lost to Fruitvale Station (#1016 → #1017)

lost to The Wild Robot (#1014 → #831)

beat Kwaidan (#973 → #979)

lost to The Quick and the Dead (#1019 → #1021)

The Family That Preys (2008)

IMDb plot summary: Two families from different walks of life learn to work together.

Directed by Tyler Perry. Stars Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, and Sanaa Lathan.

The Family that Preys is a Tyler Perry movie about a family, focusing most frequently on the two grown daughters who have very different attitudes toward romance and money. As the two argue and fight and bring their other family members into it, secrets begin to be revealed. I don't have a wide knowledge of Perry's work, but this was enjoyable, if forgettable. Characters and motivations here are drawn with extremely big, broad strokes. In some ways it is a melodrama, where the villains are villains for very little reason aside from that they're just evil. That being said, it is a fun ride to watch the villains try to finagle their way into getting what they want, and it's satisfying to ultimately see the heroes win out in the end. There are a lot of plots going on here, and I wish they were a little bit more cohesive rather than just feeling slapped together, but hopping back and forth between them certainly meant that I was seldom bored. Not fully my style or genre, but I'm not mad I watched it.

🎥 Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (2008)

📊 Ranked #2381/4276 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 49

lost to Memphis Belle (#2131 → #2101)

beat The Other Sister (#3225 → #3342)

beat Heartbeat (#2676 → #2693)

lost to In the Mood for Love (#2412 → #2213)

beat A Lady to Love (#2540 → #2510)

beat Pi (#2474 → #2396)

lost to Air Force One (#2443 → #2279)

beat The Bat Whispers (#2458 → #2495)

lost to Wide Awake (#2450 → #2290)

lost to Pete's Dragon (#2454 → #2296)

beat Love Exposure (#2456 → #2493)

beat Wreck-It Ralph (#2455 → #2514)

Caught Stealing (2025)

IMDb plot summary: When his neighbor asks him to take care of his cat, a former baseball prodigy now working as a bartender finds himself in the middle of gangsters without knowing why. He must use all his cunning to survive and understand what is happening.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Stars Austin Butler, Regina King, and Zoë Kravitz.

Caught Stealing stars Austin Butler as a washed-up baseball wunderkind who is now an alcoholic bartender. When he finds himself unexpectedly mixed up with his neighbor's shady dealings, he has to pull himself together and figure out how to keep himself and his loved ones safe. This is kind of a departure for Darren Aronofsky, as in many ways, it's just a straightforward action crime movie. I've always been most impressed with Aronofsky when he explores themes of obsession and how that brings people down, and he touches on that a tiny bit in the aspects where the character is having to confront their addiction to alcohol, but the big picture is not as intense as it often is with his films. Instead we get a more straightforward story about an unexpected getting caught up in a criminal scheme and it for the most part follows familiar and expected beats. Austin Butler is charismatic here and he is an easy hero to root for. A little on the expected side for this director, who often is a little bit more experimental, but it is ultimately well done.

🎥 Caught Stealing (2025)

📊 Ranked #1760/4275 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 60

beat Obvious Child (#2117 → #2290)

lost to Twister (#1086 → #932)

lost to Something to Sing About (#1599 → #1592)

lost to The Help (#1857 → #1951)

beat Sweet Bird of Youth (#1989 → #1984)

beat Serpico (#1921 → #1914)

lost to Swiss Army Man (#1888 → #1885)

beat Notes on a Scandal (#1903 → #1992)

lost to Splice (#1895 → #1890)

lost to Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (#1899 → #1896)

beat Lucky Number Slevin (#1901 → #1967)

beat 1408 (#1900 → #1966)

Red Rocket (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Washed-up porn star Mikey Saber returns to his small Texas hometown and decides if he wants to be with his ex-wife or the donut shop girl hes in love with.

Directed by Sean Baker. Stars Simon Rex, Bree Elrod, and Suzanna Son.

Red Rocket is a Sean Baker film about an adult film star who returns to his hometown in search of his next career move. He attempts to rekindle things with his ex, while simultaneously falling for a high schooler working at the local donut shop. Baker and I have been kind of all over the place -- I loved The Florida Project and was bored by Anora, and this one sits right in the middle. Our main character is exactly the kind of character that Sean Baker really excels in highlighting, someone who is absolutely trapped in the world that they live in with not even a hint of being able to get out of it, and some of that world is of their own making. The whole film feels perpetually claustrophobic, and even as the characters are dreaming big dreams you have this sense that it's obviously never going to make it there. There's a hopelessness pervading the entire film that is relentless. I found the ending provocative in the same way The Florida Project was, albeit with a slightly more ambiguous vibe. It's a depressing watch, but it's a well-made one, and certainly one that pulled me into the world of the characters.

🎥 Red Rocket (2021)

📊 Ranked #1819/4274 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 59

beat All Quiet on the Western Front (#2101 → #2246)

beat Going My Way (#1087 → #1147)

lost to Naughty Marietta (#621 → #503)

lost to The Cutting Edge (#826 → #869)

beat Oxygen (#958 → #1037)

lost to An American Werewolf in London (#901 → #876)

lost to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (#926 → #921)

lost to Feet First (#948 → #808)

lost to Synecdoche, New York (#955 → #754)

beat Whale Rider (#957 → #1034)

beat TiMER (#755 → #1789)

lost to The Thursday Murder Club (#869 → #648)

Vengeful (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Raymond, wrongly convicted of a crime enters prison. Upon release, Raymond faces rejection by society and his estranged daughter. Raymond's despair deepens. Fueled by anger, Raymond's focus shifts to revenge.

Directed by Chuck Browne. Stars Bobby J. Coleman, Christoph David Cording, and Linsey Davis.

Vengeful is a film about a man who is unfairly imprisoned and when he is finally released on parole and finds that he is unable to resume any semblance of a normal life, he decides instead to take revenge on those who put him in prison in the 1st place. This is... pretty not-great. The writing and acting feels amateurish at basically every level. You can feel the passion in telling this story, but you can also feel a single writer's unedited voice, when it could use an editor for sure. It clearly is also wanting to make some bigger point about the prison industrial complex and how it affects Black families, but it never lands that message. There are much better examples of better crime movies.

Miami Connection (1987)

IMDb plot summary: A martial arts rock band goes up against a band of motorcycle ninjas who have tightened their grip on Florida's narcotics trade.

Directed by Woo-sang Park and Y.K. Kim. Stars Y.K. Kim, Vincent Hirsch, and Joseph Diamand.

Miami Connection is a martial arts film about a rock band who are all super into Taekwondo, and they fight a bunch of criminals and ninjas in Miami. This film feels tailor-made for an MST3K feature. It's bananas. There's so much going on, and none of it makes sense together. That's not to say it's not entertaining -- I particularly enjoyed the extended scenes of metal songs singing about peace, love, and Taekwondo. But truly the story is extremely confusing and makes very little sense. A silly, fluffy romp that had some enjoyable moments but overall will not sit with me for long.

🎥 Miami Connection (1987)

📊 Ranked #2925/4273 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 36

lost to All Quiet on the Western Front (held at #2118)

beat Cinderella (#3210 → #3211)

lost to Melinda and Melinda (#2659 → #2609)

lost to With Byrd at the South Pole (#2939 → #2842)

lost to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (#3074 → #3075)

beat The 101-Year-Old Man Who Skipped Out on the Bill and Disappeared (#3142 → #3143)

lost to Water for Elephants (#3107 → #3108)

lost to The Untouchables (#3125 → #3127)

beat Lolita (#3133 → #3134)

beat The Divorcee (#3129 → #3130)

lost to Little Women (#3127 → #3129)

beat High Society (held at #3128)

Mazes and Monsters (1982)

IMDb plot summary: When a group of friends decide to take their role-playing gaming to another level, one of their own's mental instability begins to take it too far for him.

Directed by Steven Hilliard Stern. Stars Tom Hanks, Wendy Crewson, and David Wysocki.

Mazes and Monsters is a TV movie featuring Tom Hanks in his first lead role. He plays a college student who has a mental break during a tabletop roleplaying game (modeled after Dungeons & Dragons) and begins to believe he is the actual character. This made the rounds on TikTok for his infamously cringey final scene and take on roleplaying, but it wasn't quite as bad as that scene made it look like out of context. It's definitely got cheesy TV movie dialogue, but it's not being dogmatic about the evils of Dungeons & Dragons, which would have made this a very different story. Hanks is pretty good in his first feature, really embodying this character's fragile psyche and making us feel a little worried for his well-being right from the beginning. The ending definitely does lean into earnestness in a way that is a little eye-rolly, but it's just silly, not irritating. 

🎥 Mazes and Monsters (1982)

📊 Ranked #2919/4272 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 36

lost to Hamlet (#2112 → #2113)

beat Captain January (#3214 → #3351)

lost to The TV Set (#2652 → #2649)

beat Born Reckless (#2939 → #2971)

beat Enemy of the State (held at #2800)

lost to Uptight (#2727 → #2652)

lost to Bill Cunningham New York (#2766 → #2717)

beat Mission: Impossible III (#2783 → #2749)

lost to Dr. Seuss on the Loose (#2774 → #2789)

beat Ace High (#2779 → #2790)

beat Adam (#2777 → #2884)

lost to UHF (#2776 → #2722)

Machete (2010)

IMDb plot summary: After being set-up and betrayed by the man who hired him to assassinate a Texas Senator, an ex-Federale launches a brutal rampage of revenge against his former boss.

Directed by Ethan Maniquis and Robert Rodriguez. Stars Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, and Robert De Niro.

Machete stars Danny Trejo as an assassin who is hunting down a corrupt politician, and it is a big and bloody adventure. This film was spun off of a fake trailer made by Robert Rodriguez as part of the promotion for Grindhouse, and it feels about as deep as the fake trailer. It's often even comedically ridiculous in its machisimo, between blood spurting everywhere and Machete just casually sleeping with literally every woman he runs across. There isn't any actual depth to this or anything I'm likely to remember, it's just a high-adrenaline ride through a bunch of madcap action sequences. A fun experience while I'm watching it, but it's not going to stick with me, although I'm sure it'd be a slightly different story if I loved this genre to begin with.

🎥 Machete (2010)

📊 Ranked #2583/4271 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 44

lost to Hamlet (#2114 → #2113)

beat Benedetta (#3215 → #3216)

beat Framed (#2652 → #2657)

beat An Innocent Man (#2395 → #2394)

lost to Spy Game (#2263 → #2123)

beat St. Vincent (#2330 → #2582)

beat Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (#2296 → #2478)

lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (#2279 → #2285)

lost to The Importance of Being Earnest (#2288 → #2268)

beat Flora & Ulysses (#2292 → #2476)

beat A Time to Kill (#2290 → #2297)

beat The Firm (#2289 → #2307)

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

IMDb plot summary: A series of vignettes that all have coffee and cigarettes in common.

Directed by Jim Jarmusch. Stars Bill Murray, Tom Waits, and Roberto Benigni.

Coffee and Cigarettes is an anthology film by Jim Jarmusch in which each short segment is centered around a character (or two or three) partaking in coffee and cigarettes under some circumstances. Many of these segments feature big-name actors and celebrities playing themselves. Like most anthology films, this one has good and bad segments, but overall this was an enjoyable and intriguing watch. Jarmusch's slow burn method of storytelling doesn't stretch for me over a full-length feature, but I enjoy this in small doses where I get a new setup every ten minutes or so. My personal favorite was the one starring Cate Blanchett as herself and her much less successful cousin, meeting for a brief catch-up during a press junket for Blanchett's newest film. It feels like a casual brainstorming exercise rather than a film, where every so often Jarmusch just said, "Hey, let's give some coffee and cigarettes to the actors I have in front of me and improvise something," and while it sometimes falls flat, it's an interesting creative experiment. It's a unique film that I'm glad I got to see.

🎥 Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)

📊 Ranked #1609/4269 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 63

beat The Master (#2116 → #2117)

lost to Fever Pitch (#1085 → #1083)

lost to The Long Day Closes (#1598 → #1602)

beat 3 Men and a Baby (#1855 → #1854)

lost to The Miracle Worker (#1729 → #1584)

beat Walk on the Wild Side (#1792 → #1795)

beat Man Hunt (#1761 → #1834)

lost to The Wolf Man (#1745 → #1616)

lost to The Gold Rush (#1753 → #1754)

beat Fearless (#1757 → #1758)

beat Backbeat (#1755 → #1756)

beat 12 Years a Slave (#1754 → #1803)

But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)

IMDb plot summary: A naïve teenager is sent to "sexual redirection" school when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being gay.

Directed by Jamie Babbit. Stars Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, and Melanie Lynskey.

But I'm a Cheerleader stars Natasha Lyonne as a cheerleader who is sent away to a camp for anti-gay conversion therapy -- she didn't even realize she was a lesbian until her family signed her up -- and we follow her journey as she figures out her newly discovered sexuality. This is a wonderful and frequently hilarious satire that also ultimately ends up being pretty sweet. Natasha Lyonne is delightful as this oblivious but well-intentioned character with no self-awareness. The comedy is extremely big and broad but the humanity at the heart of all of it is undeniable. I can easily see why critics didn't love it -- it takes BIG tonal swings that absolutely won't land with everyone -- but also why it became a cult classic. It's a fun ride and I'm glad I got to see it.

🎥 But I'm a Cheerleader (2000)

📊 Ranked #907/4268 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 78

beat Gypsy (#2115 → #2209)

beat Flee (held at #1084)

beat I've Loved You So Long (#561 → #606)

lost to Spirited (#255 → #250)

beat Submarine (#412 → #413)

lost to The Banshees of Inisherin (#330 → #333)

lost to Hundreds of Beavers (#373 → #378)

lost to The Bridge on the River Kwai (#393 → #258)

lost to Morgan (#403 → #396)

lost to Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (#407 → #408)

beat The Boat That Rocked (#410 → #434)

lost to Enchanted April (#408 → #402)

Parenthood (1989)

IMDb plot summary: Four Buckman siblings attempt to raise their children - each in their own different style - and deal with the joys and sorrows that the process brings.

Directed by Ron Howard. Stars Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, and Dianne Wiest.

Parenthood is an ensemble comedy/drama film about, well, parenthood, starring, among others, Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, and Rick Moranis. We see how these people deal with the struggles of raising their children, as well as their current relationship with their own father and how that plays into it. There is a gentle warmth to this movie that really draws you into it. Everybody's performances manage to be comedic while also feeling fully genuine, and that's a pretty impressive feat. That being said, though, I have trouble remembering individual beats now that it's been a few days since I watched it, even while I was confident I enjoyed it. I wonder if this is one that I am going to be inclined to return to, knowing that it was a good watch but not holding any of the specifics in mind so they will surprise me again. A good film but not a great one.

🎥 Parenthood (1989)

📊 Ranked #1038/4265 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 76

beat 21 (#2009 → #2055)

lost to Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (#1076 → #1088)

beat National Treasure (#1633 → #1680)

beat Seven Chances (#1360 → #1355)

beat Nina Wu (#1233 → #1215)

beat Forgiving Dr. Mengele (#1132 → #1144)

beat Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (#1149 → #1132)

lost to Re-Animator (#1105 → #1104)

beat National Lampoon's Vacation (#1126 → #1125)

beat The Game (held at #1112)

lost to The Black Cat (#1130 → #1110)

lost to Sisters (#1148 → #923)

Krisha (2015)

IMDb plot summary: Krisha returns for Thanksgiving dinner after ten years away from her family, but past demons threaten to ruin the festivities.

Directed by Trey Edward Shults. Stars Krisha Fairchild, Alex Dobrenko, and Robyn Fairchild.

Krisha is a drama about a middle-aged woman coming back to spend Thanksgiving with close family and friends after years of being apart from them. We start seeing the relationships tense up as she tries to reconnect. This one is a slow burn, but the final third really cranks up the tension and had me glued to the screen. It's one of those films that allows its characters to sit and interact together slowly, unraveling the pieces of their personalities bit by bit, and that pays off. That works best if you can *trust* that the early quiet moments are building to something interesting, and that sometimes comes into question with occasionally awkward or overly expositional dialogue, but mostly it held my attention. And then, as I said, it comes together nicely in the end for an explosive, if very sad, conclusion. Worth a watch.

🎥 Krisha (2016)

📊 Ranked #1643/4266 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 62

beat Real Life (#2127 → #2128)

lost to Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (#1090 → #915)

lost to The Long Day Closes (#1603 → #1602)

beat Platoon (#1861 → #1862)

beat Hamlet (#1736 → #1738)

beat Swing Shift (#1665 → #1666)

lost to Glory (held at #1634)

lost to Killers of the Flower Moon (#1649 → #1651)

beat The Tragedy of Macbeth (#1657 → #1667)

lost to Kajaki (#1653 → #1647)

lost to VeggieTales: Where's God When I'm S-Scared? (held at #1655)

beat All That Jazz (#1656 → #1661)

Bring Her Back (2025)

IMDb plot summary: A brother and sister uncover a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother.

Directed by Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou. Stars Billy Barratt, Sally Hawkins, and Mischa Heywood.

Bring Her Back is a horror film where two orphaned siblings are placed with foster parent Sally Hawkins and her disturbed son, and things get darker from there. This one was an impressive surprise. Sally Hawkins grounds this with a perfect combination of reassuring and ominous vibes, and as we get to learn more about her story, she just becomes more interesting as a character. The film also has some of the most horrifying sequences that are going to stick in my head forever, which is either going to be a selling point or a "never ever watch this" point, depending on who you are. The creators of this film have gotten some major attention, between this and their previous film, and I am definitely going to have to seek them out in future. A worthwhile watch, if also frequently a difficult watch.

🎥 Bring Her Back (2025)

📊 Ranked #628/4270 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 85

beat The Master (held at #2123)

beat Sarah, Plain and Tall (#1093 → #1086)

lost to I ♥ Huckabees (#566 → #564)

lost to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (#833 → #648)

beat Snowpiercer (held at #959)

beat Iron Man (#897 → #890)

lost to Turning Red (#863 → #854)

beat The Hunger Games (#879 → #886)

lost to Crazy, Stupid, Love. (#870 → #867)

beat Mad Max 2 (#873 → #902)

beat Nosferatu (#871 → #900)

lost to City Girl (#872 → #870)

James and the Giant Peach (1996)

IMDb plot summary: An orphan who lives with his two cruel aunts befriends anthropomorphic bugs who live inside a giant peach, and they embark on a journey to New York City.

Directed by Henry Selick. Stars Paul Terry, Joanna Lumley, and Pete Postlethwaite.

James and the Giant Peach is a partially animated adaptation of the Roald Dahl book of the same name. It tells the story of a young neglected boy named James who finds camaraderie with a group of bugs that live inside the mysteriously enormous peach that started growing in his yard. While I have occasionally enjoyed reading Roald Dahl, there is an ickiness to his stories that always comes out in the worst way in adaptations, and that ickiness is extremely present for me in this movie. The animation is truly so unsettling, and it's clearly a stylistic choice so I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it makes *me* extremely not want to watch it. The script is also dumbed down enough for children that there isn't much depth here for me to latch onto in the story. I get why kids may have latched onto the quirky dark vibe, but it just feels gross to me. Not one I have any interest in rewatching at any point.

🎥 James and the Giant Peach (1996)

📊 Ranked #2993/4267 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 33

lost to The Adam Project (#2113 → #2010)

lost to Captain Marvel (#3214 → #3051)

beat Bohemian Rhapsody (#3766 → #3772)

lost to The Cocoanuts (#3485 → #3433)

beat Cinderella (#3624 → #3628)

lost to Get Smart (#3559 → #3496)

beat Hangman's Curse (#3592 → #3596)

beat A Most Wanted Man (#3576 → #3577)

lost to The Secret Agent (#3543 → #2992)

lost to Basic Instinct (#3571 → #3569)

beat A Decade Under the Influence (#3574 → #3590)

beat Arlington Road (#3573 → #3550)

The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Ann Lee, the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, is proclaimed as the female Christ by her followers. This film depicts her establishment of a utopian society and the Shakers' worship through song and dance, based on real events.

Directed by Mona Fastvold. Stars Amanda Seyfried, Lewis Pullman, and Thomasin McKenzie.

The Testament of Ann Lee is a musical telling of the history of the Shakers in 1700s America, starring Amanda Seyfried as their leader, the titular Ann Lee. This is an interesting enough story on its own, but making it a musical adds this whole additional dimension to it that I found really compelling. I really enjoyed how well the repetitive nature of these folk songs and chants mirror sacred liturgy and rituals -- the two serve each other perfectly. The other thing that recommends the film is Seyfried's performance, which is excellent. Those things make it well worth watching, but the overall story doesn't hang together as well as I'd like and makes it fall a little flat in my memory by the very end. It's a very unique movie and I'd definitely recommend it, but I did want to connect with it more than I did ultimately.

🎥 The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)

📊 Ranked #1748/4264 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 60

beat Anna Christie (#2130 → #2298)

beat The Dictator (#1092 → #1089)

lost to Ordet (#565 → #630)

lost to The Player (#829 → #634)

beat Young Adult (#960 → #958)

lost to Companion (held at #894)

lost to Music and Lyrics (#927 → #928)

lost to Happy Death Day (#944 → #824)

beat Kwaidan (#952 → #951)

beat Daria in 'Is It College Yet?' (#948 → #947)

lost to The Substance (held at #946)

beat The Man from Earth (#947 → #1042)

Wonka (2023)

IMDb plot summary: With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.

Directed by Paul King. Stars Timothée Chalamet, Gustave Die, and Murray McArthur.

Wonka is a Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory prequel, starring Timothee Chalamet as the famous chocolatier, who arrives in town ready to set up a shop with his inventive treats. He has to battle the established conglomerate of chocolatiers who already dominate the town, and they are determined to keep him from breaking through. This is a much better movie than frankly it has any right to be. Starting from the intro song, which is cheery and tells us all we need to know about our character and the world he's in, I knew I was in for a treat. I am going to go out on a limb here and say this is Timothee Chalamet's best performance -- he radiates charm here in a way I've literally never seen in any of his other performances. The big picture story is generic, but the dialogue and characterization is so charmingly written that it doesn't make much difference. This was a huge surprise to me, and I'm pleased I finally watched it.

🎥 Wonka (2023)

📊 Ranked #707/4262 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 83

beat Raising Arizona (#2150 → #2152)

beat Twister (#1099 → #1101)

lost to A Letter to Three Wives (held at #567)

beat The Butler (#835 → #836)

lost to Waking Ned (#703 → #704)

lost to Labyrinth (#771 → #773)

lost to Drunken Angel (#802 → #690)

beat Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (#819 → #835)

lost to The Manchurian Candidate (#811 → #812)

beat Great Expectations (#815 → #817)

beat Cloud Atlas (#813 → #819)

beat New York, New York (#812 → #816)

Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)

IMDb plot summary: A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to finally bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.

Directed by Rob Reiner. Stars Alec Baldwin, James Woods, and Whoopi Goldberg.

Ghosts of Mississippi stars Alec Baldwin as a lawyer who is asked to take on a decades-old case of a Black man's murder, potentially locking up an established member of the community. This film was released the same year as A Time to Kill, and both tackle racial injustice in the legal system in the South, and I think I like them both exactly the same. They both do a medium-but-not-spectacular job of keeping the tension high and addressing some of the societal issues at play in the story. It does stay on a pretty mid-90s surface level of the issues, but it's still worth examining. It keeps the courtroom scenes compellingly taut as they should be. It's not an incredible movie, but it's not a bad watch either.

🎥 Ghosts of Mississippi (1997)

📊 Ranked #1753/4263 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 60

lost to Memphis Belle (#2136 → #2188)

beat Legendary Weapons of China (#3168 → #3172)

beat Phantom of the Paradise (#2700 → #2697)

beat The Family Stone (#2404 → #2409)

lost to Rebecca (#2283 → #2215)

beat Forever Young (#2324 → #2278)

beat Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (#2273 → #2446)

lost to The Three Faces of Eve (#2252 → #2227)

lost to Alice Adams (#2259 → #2035)

beat Hustle & Flow (#2358 → #2468)

beat Nacho Libre (#2341 → #2344)

beat Pat and Mike (#2261 → #2271)

St. Vincent (2014)

IMDb plot summary: A young boy whose parents have just divorced finds an unlikely friend and mentor in the misanthropic, bawdy, hedonistic war veteran who lives next door.

Directed by Theodore Melfi. Stars Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, and Naomi Watts.

St. Vincent stars Bill Murray as a crotchety hermit who finds himself a semi-unwilling babysitter for his new neighbor's young child. The two form a friendship and begin to learn new things about each other. "Cranky old man has life changed by child" is almost never going to be a subgenre that I'm drawn to, even when it's fairly competently made, as this one is. Bill Murray is a good choice for this main character, as he's especially good at capturing both likability and grumpiness. But even he can carry this concept only so far, and I'm not fully convinced by the character growth. I think I'd have to be more sold on the idea from the beginning for this to work, but as it is, it's just okay. Worth watching if the story or the actors hold immediate appeal for you.

🎥 St. Vincent (2014)

📊 Ranked #1973/4257 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 55

lost to I Love You, Man (#2148 → #2031)

beat Gigi (#3212 → #3213)

beat The Asphalt Jungle (#2671 → #2672)

beat In the Mood for Love (#2415 → #2416)

beat Deceiver (#2282 → #2283)

beat Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (#2219 → #2220)

beat Blackmail Is My Life (#2185 → #2186)

beat Mr. Nice Guy (#2164 → #2165)

lost to The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (#2156 → #2157)

beat The Matrix Reloaded (#2160 → #2161)

beat Lenny (#2158 → #2159)

lost to Laal Singh Chaddha (#2157 → #2158)

Pump Up the Volume (1990)

IMDb plot summary: Mark runs a pirate radio station and causes an uproar when he speaks his mind and enthralls fellow teens.

Directed by Allan Moyle. Stars Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, and Anthony Luke Lucero.

Pump Up the Volume is a 1990s drama starring Christian Slater as an angry teenager who lets out his angst by running an extremely crass radio show under a pseudonym, but when his rants inspire a student at his school to take their own life, Slater has to figure out what he wants to do moving forward. I had never heard of this film before a friend recommended it to me, and it was a wonderful discovery. It's a great early look at the 90s grunge teen who was just angry at a system, and then at how that anger can have unintended consequences if processed appropriately. While I didn't necessarily *relate* to most of these characters, I sympathized deeply with all of them, and I was very engaged in seeing how things were going to play out. It doesn't necessarily go the expected coming-of-age drama route, and I appreciated that. This one was worth a watch for sure.

🎥 Pump Up the Volume (1990)

📊 Ranked #935/4259 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 78

beat The Wrestler (#2151 → #2154)

lost to The Moustache (#1098 → #1100)

beat The Front (#1617 → #1619)

lost to Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (#1362 → #1185)

beat 35 Up (#1491 → #1509)

beat Under the Skin (#1427 → #1425)

beat DragonHeart (#1393 → #1391)

lost to Summer Stock (#1377 → #1378)

beat Memories of Murder (#1385 → #1384)

beat Monsters vs Aliens (#1381 → #1428)

beat L'Atalante (held at #1379)

beat In Search of a Midnight Kiss (#1378 → #1483)

Along Came Polly (2004)

IMDb plot summary: A buttoned-up newlywed finds his strictly organized life descend into chaos when he falls in love with an old classmate.

Directed by John Hamburg. Stars Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, and Debra Messing.

Along Came Polly is a romantic comedy starring Ben Stiller as a risk averse man getting over his wife's betrayal on their honeymoon and Jennifer Aniston as the commitment-phobic "girl that got away" from high school. I can see glimmers of enjoyment in here, but it's hidden under unpleasant raunch comedy and muddy character development. Our two leads have very little chemistry, and their on-and-off romance never seems believable. The film seems to *want* to be taken semi-seriously, given the way the final conflicts play out, but it just never takes its characters seriously enough for us to believe that. There's just not a lot enjoyable here. It's definitely one to skip.

🎥 Along Came Polly (2004)

📊 Ranked #3775/4258 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 14

lost to Bonnie and Clyde (#2150 → #2142)

lost to Snakes on a Plane (#3215 → #3206)

beat Running with Scissors (#3753 → #3732)

lost to Passion (#3483 → #3459)

lost to The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (#3618 → #3599)

beat Atomic Blonde (#3685 → #3668)

lost to Stardust Memories (#3651 → #3629)

beat 101 Dalmatians (#3668 → #3649)

lost to Mr. & Mrs. Smith (#3660 → #3644)

beat Instinct (#3664 → #3707)

beat Django, Prepare a Coffin (#3662 → #3726)

lost to Fedora (#3661 → #3641)

Eraser (1996)

IMDb plot summary: A Witness Protection specialist becomes suspicious of his co-workers when dealing with a case involving high-tech weapons.

Directed by Chuck Russell. Stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams, and James Caan.

Eraser is an Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick in which he works in witness protection. He discovers there's a mole in the system who is taking out critical witnesses, and he has to go outside the system to protect one particular witness. This is a decent ride, as far as big dramatic 90s thrillers go. Arnold is his regular capable-but-not-particularly-exciting self as an action hero, and the journey of trying to keep Vanessa Williams safe is an exciting one. It's fun to see these two fighting against a giant corporation and have an average woman be able to take them down. I don't necessarily remember any of the actions set pieces or scenes, which means that they were not much of a standout, but the overall vibe is decent. A lot of similar films from this time period I just find boring. This one was definitely not that, so kudos.

🎥 Eraser (1996)

📊 Ranked #1966/4256 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 55

beat Anonymous (#2148 → #2145)

lost to The Great Gatsby (#1097 → #918)

lost to Joker (#1615 → #1581)

lost to Dakota Skye (#1880 → #1853)

beat Deceiver (#2014 → #2282)

lost to Deconstructing Harry (#1948 → #1867)

lost to Battle of the Sexes (#1979 → #1968)

lost to Oddity (#1998 → #1857)

beat The Firm (#2006 → #2131)

lost to Total Recall (#2002 → #2034)

beat Malcolm & Marie (#2004 → #2012)

lost to The Chaperone (#2003 → #1927)

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025)

IMDb plot summary: When their plan to book a show at the Rivoli goes horribly wrong, Matt and Jay accidentally travel back to the year 2008.

Directed by Matt Johnson. Stars Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol, and Ben Petrie.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is based on Nirvanna the Band the Show, a Canadian comedy show about Nirvanna the Band, a two-person musical act that is desperate to find fame at any cost. I've never seen the show, but it was pretty easy to hop into this and feel like I was already familiar with the characters and storyline. I don't know if this is common in the original show, but I really enjoyed the surprise left turn into a more fantastical line of story. There's a comfort to these characters that bleeds through even to someone unfamiliar with them, and that makes their interactions more compelling than I expected. The creative Back to the Future-style shenanigans in the final third especially are a ton of fun. It's not a world-changing movie by any means, but I had a good time with it.

🎥 Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2026)

📊 Ranked #1174/4260 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 73

beat Cat's Eye (held at #2152)

beat Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (#1099 → #1100)

lost to A Letter to Three Wives (#566 → #567)

lost to The Scarlet Pimpernel (#834 → #710)

beat Raya and the Last Dragon (#965 → #969)

lost to Music and Lyrics (#900 → #901)

lost to Heavenly Creatures (#933 → #931)

beat Mixed Nuts (#949 → #1008)

lost to The Great Silence (#941 → #936)

beat Will & Harper (#945 → #1007)

beat Feet First (#943 → #941)

beat Children of Men (#942 → #1015)

The Ritual (2017)

IMDb plot summary: A group of old college friends reunite for a hiking trip in a remote area of Sweden. A wrong turn leads them into a forest of Norse legend where ancient evil exists.

Directed by David Bruckner. Stars Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, and Robert James-Collier.

The Ritual follows a group of friends who go on a hiking trip in commemoration of their friend's death, only for things to start getting dark as something seems to be stalking them. About halfway through, I said to myself, "This is just... The Descent, but men, and aboveground," and I stand by that, which means it takes away most of what made The Descent interesting to begin with. There aren't a lot of scares here that really land, at least for me. The moments that work best are not the horror moments, but the subplot in which one of the friends is blaming himself (and being blamed by others in the group) for the death of their comrade. Those moments are far more interesting than any of the weird nightmares or creepy branch placements. If you're looking for an engaging horror movie, this one's pretty lackluster. Just watch The Descent or Blair Witch instead.

🎥 The Ritual (2017)

📊 Ranked #2724/4261 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 40

lost to The Dawn Patrol (#2149 → #2145)

lost to Goldfinger (#3214 → #3221)

beat Gomorrah (#3755 → #3756)

beat Silver Streak (#3486 → #3606)

beat American Sniper (#3351 → #3352)

beat The House on Carroll Street (#3279 → #3288)

lost to Independence Day (#3245 → #3174)

lost to Snakes on a Plane (#3261 → #3235)

lost to Victor/Victoria (#3271 → #3272)

beat Cassandra's Dream (#3275 → #3395)

lost to Where Eagles Dare (held at #3273)

lost to Monsters University (#3274 → #3218)

The Secret Agent (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Amid the political turmoil of 1977 Brazil, a technology expert is forced into hiding and seeks help from the underground resistance as he tries to flee the country with his young son.

Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho. Stars Robson Andrade, Wagner Moura, and Rubens Santos.

The Secret Agent is a foreign film set in Brazil during the 1970s and follows a man who is living as a refugee in the city, trying to avoid being arrested for his past. There is a lot of plot and political intrigue in this movie that sometimes obscures the humanity of the story. Based on the reviews I've seen and the response to this film at the Oscars, I'm clearly in the minority thinking that, but aside from the woman who runs the house for refugees, I find myself very disconnected emotionally from most of these characters. I like the added framing of the story being told through recorded audio files being researched by people decades later, that helps to put some of the story in perspective, and it does land a little bit better at the end, but overall this one left me a little cold, especially in comparison to something like I'm Still Here, another recent film set in the same setting.

🎥 The Secret Agent (2025)

📊 Ranked #3061/4255 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 32

lost to The Master (#2148 → #2099)

beat Sweet and Lowdown (#3211 → #3214)

beat Kung Fury (#2674 → #2681)

beat The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (#2414 → #2416)

lost to Hopscotch (#2285 → #2300)

beat Avanti! (#2351 → #2355)

beat My Family (#2318 → #2341)

beat Camp (#2301 → #2388)

lost to Corpse Bride (#2292 → #2301)

beat It Had to Be You (#2296 → #2268)

beat Beaches (#2294 → #2287)

beat The Sasquatch Gang (#2293 → #2314)

Cube (1997)

IMDb plot summary: A group of strangers awaken to find themselves placed in a giant cube. Each one of them is gifted with a special skill and they must work together to escape an endless maze of deadly traps.

Directed by Vincenzo Natali. Stars Nicole de Boer, Maurice Dean Wint, and David Hewlett.

Cube is a psychological horror thriller in which a group of strangers wake up to discover that they have all been kidnapped and placed inside a maze of giant cubes full of deadly traps. The group bands together to solve the puzzle of their prison and escape. I really enjoy single concept horror films set in small enclosed spaces, but what really makes that work is if the characterization, dialogue, and acting all hold up to the challenge. It reminds me of a black box theater play in the amount of precise intelligent writing it requires to make that work. And this doesn't have that. The dialogue makes me roll my eyes, and when most of the movie is dialogue with an occasional gory death in there, I really need it to keep me connected to the characters. There are some very cool images, particularly as they reached the outer edges of the cube, and some inventively gross deaths, but neither of those quite make up for the bizarre writing.

🎥 Cube (1998)

📊 Ranked #3075/4251 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 31

lost to Raising Arizona (held at #2153)

beat Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (held at #3211)

lost to Avengers: Age of Ultron (#2678 → #2680)

lost to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (#2947 → #2890)

beat Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (#3078 → #3086)

lost to FernGully: The Last Rainforest (#3013 → #2909)

lost to The Fighter (#3045 → #3037)

beat Analyze This (#3062 → #3061)

beat A Soldier's Sweetheart (#3053 → #3067)

lost to The Fifth Element (#3049 → #3043)

lost to Hiroshima Mon Amour (#3051 → #3039)

lost to Whisper of the Heart (held at #3052)

Maniac (2012)

IMDb plot summary: As he helps a young artist with her upcoming exhibition, the owner of a mannequin shop's deadly, suppressed desires come to the surface.

Directed by Franck Khalfoun. Stars Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, and America Olivo.

Maniac is a horror movie in which, and I don't think this is a spoiler because it's clear very early on, Elijah Wood plays a psychopathic killer of young women. This is one of the lower points in my trek through watching all of Elijah Wood's movies. It's so cheesily written, and the armchair psychology of this psychopathic character is the kind of thing that we were super into as a culture in 2000s and 2010s, and it just seems awkward now. There is a little enjoyment to be gotten out of the first-person filming gimmick, where so often we see things from Wood's point of view. Every so often it is done effectively, but most of the time it feels just like a gimmick. With so many great slasher horror movies out there, this one is definitely one to skip.

🎥 Maniac (2013)

📊 Ranked #4230/4254 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 1

lost to Bonnie and Clyde (held at #2139)

lost to Did You Hear About the Morgans? (held at #3205)

beat African Kung-Fu Nazis (#3744 → #3745)

lost to Silver Streak (#3477 → #3478)

lost to The Monkey King (held at #3609)

lost to Wild Strawberries (#3676 → #3675)

beat How the Grinch Stole Christmas (held at #3712)

lost to The Killing of Sister George (#3696 → #3697)

lost to Dutch (#3697 → #3698)

lost to Antz (#3710 → #3709)

beat King of the Zombies (held at #3711)

lost to Stage Door Canteen (held at #3719)

Jennifer's Body (2009)

IMDb plot summary: A newly-possessed high-school cheerleader turns into a succubus who specializes in killing her male classmates. Can her best friend put an end to the horror?

Directed by Karyn Kusama. Stars Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, and Adam Brody.

Jennifer's Body is a Horror film starring Amanda Seyfried and Megan Fox as two mismatched best friends whose friendship starts going through some difficulties when one of them suddenly has some dramatic behavior changes after a traumatic experience. I didn't know much more about the actual plot than that going in, so I'm not going to give you any more just in case, because watching it unfold without knowing the destination was a ton of fun. I did not realize until the end that it was written by Diablo Cody, but that seems obvious in hindsight. The dialogue is absolutely Cody's blend of sincerity and cringe and wit that is a very unique voice, and I think it's exactly the right tone for this movie and its dance around the edge of campy horror. Both Fox and Seyfried are excellent in this and give the right kind of over the top portrayals of their stereotyped characters. This movie is definitely not going to be for everyone, but I fully understand why this has become a cult classic. It takes big artistic choices and big swings and that may not pay off for everybody, but they made it a great watch for me.

🎥 Jennifer's Body (2009)

📊 Ranked #814/4252 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 81

beat Cat's Eye (#2146 → #2147)

beat Twister (#1100 → #1104)

lost to I ♥ Huckabees (#568 → #569)

lost to The Babysitter (#834 → #639)

beat Bandits (#966 → #1017)

beat The Departed (#888 → #896)

lost to City Girl (#869 → #871)

lost to Taxi Driver (#884 → #886)

lost to Sansho the Bailiff (#892 → #890)

lost to Music and Lyrics (#898 → #900)

beat Ghost Town (#899 → #904)

lost to Hidden Figures (#900 → #901)

Jay Kelly (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Famous movie actor Jay Kelly embarks on a journey of self-discovery, confronting his past and present with his devoted manager Ron. Poignant and humor-filled, pitched at the intersection of regrets and glories.

Directed by Noah Baumbach. Stars George Clooney, Adam Sandler, and Stanley Townsend.

Jay Kelly is a Noah Baumbach movie starring George Clooney as an action star having a midlife crisis and trying to figure out what the purpose of his life has been. Baumbach can be hit or miss for me, and this one is enjoyable throughout but not necessarily memorable. Adam Sandler is a standout here as Clooney's manager, perfectly portraying the exhaustion of someone who has given far too much of his life to helping someone else succeed and now has very little to show for it. The movie is a mix of comedy and drama in a way that feels very rooted and grounded in reality and the absurdities of life and fame without ever feeling forced or stilted. A pretty good movie and well-crafted, even if it didn't hit me as powerfully as I hoped it would.

🎥 Jay Kelly (2025)

📊 Ranked #1287/4250 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 70

beat The Call (#2153 → #2196)

lost to Chronicle (#1101 → #1082)

lost to Ghostbusters (#1619 → #1623)

beat Natural Born Killers (#1887 → #1968)

beat The Parent Trap (#1755 → #1759)

lost to Sling Blade (#1685 → #1518)

lost to The Miracle Worker (#1722 → #1564)

beat Phone Booth (#1739 → #1738)

beat Lady Bird (#1731 → #1578)

beat Flora and Son (#1726 → #1575)

beat The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (#1724 → #1729)

beat The Big Chill (#1723 → #1746)

The Shadow in My Eye (2021)

IMDb plot summary: The fates of several Copenhagen residents collide when a WWII bombing mission accidentally targets a school full of children.

Directed by Ole Bornedal. Stars Bertram Bisgaard, Ester Birch, and Ella Josephine Lund Nilsson.

The Shadow in My Eye is a Danish movie telling the story of a fuel bombardment that happened in German-occupied Denmark during World War 2. In an attempt to bomb a Gestapo headquarters, the fighters unintentionally bomb a school and cause a ton of collateral damage. We follow a handful of children and their parents as they deal with the aftermath of this. This is a pretty good movie, and a lot of that rests in the little moments that it highlights. I'm particularly struck by the story of one boy who is selectively mute as a result of trauma from having witnessed a car bombing, and watching him try to heal and then having to go through a similar trauma again is very compelling as a story and you really want him to be OK. I was a little surprised coming back to write this review after a week or two at how little I remembered of the movie. I had almost forgotten I'd seen it. When I sit and think about it, of course I remember all the pieces that stood out to me very good, but I do have to put in the actual effort to think about it, because it doesn't rise to the top automatically. I would still recommend it because I think it's a well done movie, but for whatever reason it didn't land in the top echelon for me.

🎥 The Shadow in My Eye (2022)

📊 Ranked #2283/4249 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 49

lost to George of the Jungle (#2143 → #2114)

beat SpaceCamp (#3202 → #3204)

beat Peter Pan Live! (#2672 → #2833)

beat Splash (#2409 → #2411)

beat David Copperfield (#2281 → #2280)

lost to Hellboy (#2214 → #2212)

beat Avengers: Infinity War (#2248 → #2226)

beat Safety Not Guaranteed (#2231 → #2463)

lost to Vanya on 42nd Street (held at #2222)

lost to A Cure for Wellness (#2226 → #2221)

lost to Malcolm X (#2229 → #2213)

beat Forever Young (#2230 → #2302)

Pennies From Heaven (1981)

IMDb plot summary: During the Great Depression, a sheet-music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent schoolteacher.

Directed by Herbert Ross. Stars Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, and Jessica Harper.

Pennies From Heaven stars Steve Martin as a mostly unsuccessful sheet music salesman in the early 1900s, Jessica Harper as his frigid wife, and Bernadette Peters as the naive school teacher he takes up an affair with. The film is also a musical, with characters doing lip synced song and dance numbers to recordings of classic songs from the era. I went through the whole gamut of emotions watching this movie. In the first third or so I loved it and thought it was one of the best movies I'd seen in awhile. I loved the creativity of the musical numbers and how it fit into the world. But as the story went on, I became less and less invested in the narrative, even though many of the musical numbers were still entertaining. This film definitely feels like it's trying to say something, but the tone is so muddled it's hard to take much out of it. The darkness of the story takes you by surprise in a way that I wonder if it would sit differently on a rewatch, knowing where the story is headed. I still say it's worth a watch because it is a creative way of making a musical and the musical numbers themselves are often really enjoyable, but it doesn't come together the way that I hoped it would when I first started watching it.

🎥 Pennies from Heaven (1981)

📊 Ranked #2168/4247 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 51

beat Corpse Bride (#2163 → #2307)

lost to Oliver Twist (held at #1116)

beat Ghostbusters (#1635 → #1660)

lost to Shadow of the Vampire (#1385 → #1386)

lost to The Sound of Music (held at #1510)

lost to The Ref (#1572 → #1573)

lost to Mrs Brown (#1603 → #1604)

beat The Front (#1618 → #1625)

lost to Die Hard (#1610 → #1612)

beat mother! (#1614 → #1615)

lost to The Meg (#1612 → #1588)

lost to Interiors (#1613 → #1587)

Send Help (2026)

IMDb plot summary: An overworked analyst and her arrogant nepo-baby boss survive a plane crash near Thailand and must cooperate to survive on a remote jungle island while their workplace power dynamic collapses around them.

Directed by Sam Raimi. Stars Rachel McAdams, Dylan O'Brien, and Edyll Ismail.

Send Help stars Rachel McAdam as a dowdy office worker who is consistently made fun of by her cryptobro misogynist coworkers, but when she and her boss are the sole survivors of a plane crash on a deserted island, her love for the TV show Survivor is what keeps them alive. I had a ton of fun with this one. It's directed by Sam Raimi and it really in many ways feels like a callback to his work with the Evil Dead trilogy, where there are so many scenes where I am both deeply grossed out and laughing hysterically at how ridiculous the whole thing is. McAdam is tremendous in this, balancing the nice and not-so-nice aspects of her personality perfectly so that she continuously surprises you. This is a fun big film and I had a great time watching it.

🎥 Send Help (2026)

📊 Ranked #595/4246 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 86

beat The Call (#2166 → #2168)

beat Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (#1119 → #1150)

lost to West Side Story (#595 → #596)

lost to Four Lions (#861 → #855)

beat It Happened on Fifth Avenue (#988 → #992)

beat The Pursuit of Happyness (#925 → #930)

beat Nurse Betty (#892 → #891)

beat Nosferatu (#877 → #903)

beat Smiles of a Summer Night (#868 → #898)

lost to Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (held at #864)

lost to Companion (#866 → #867)

beat A Haunting in Venice (#867 → #870)