Pacific Rim (2013)

IMDb plot summary: As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Starring Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, and Charlie Day.

If you mostly tune into this movie expecting some big dramatic kind-of-cool scenes of giant monsters fighting giant robots, you're going to be very pleased. If you tune into it expecting powerful character development or spooky gothic atmosphere like many of Del Toro's other movies, it won't do so well. I find the male lead in particular pretty insufferable and wish almost anybody but him in this ensemble cast had been chosen to center the movie. Writing up this review a few days after watching it, all I really remember is the chaotic fight scenes, and that's probably all it was meant to do, but I did find myself wanting something more from it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Pacific Rim < Dark and Stormy Night

Pacific Rim > The Lorax (1972)

Pacific Rim > No Sudden Move

Pacific Rim < The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

Pacific Rim < The Shop Around the Corner

Pacific Rim > Jurassic World

Pacific Rim > Jezebel

Pacific Rim > Streets of Fire

Pacific Rim < The Fourth Kind

Pacific Rim > Office Space

Pacific Rim < Blow Out

Final spot: #2040 out of 3421, or 40%.

The Sparks Brothers (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with Ron and Russell Mael celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks.

Directed by Edgar Wright.

I knew absolutely nothing about this band going into this film, but came out of it thoroughly intrigued. The group has had widely varying degrees of commercial success throughout their career, but continued to push out music and experiment with new styles and sounds, sometimes resulting in wild shifts in tone from record to record. The film follows them chronologically, so even as the music changes, we get to see how one led to the next, led to the next, which made for a beautifully cohesive way of understanding their work. Wright is, of course, a fantastically energetic director and turns out to be a great fit for this genre-pushing, norm-defying group, as he shapes their saga with such enthusiasm for the work they did. They seem to be an interesting band to begin with, and I definitely intend to listen to some more of them, but watching Wright nerd out for them for two hours was a great way to catch the spirit of what they were doing.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Sparks Brothers > Dark and Stormy Night

The Sparks Brothers < Anna Karenina

The Sparks Brothers < Being John Malkovich

The Sparks Brothers < Natural Born Killers

The Sparks Brothers < The Chalk Garden

The Sparks Brothers > Julie & Julia

The Sparks Brothers > It Had to Be You

The Sparks Brothers < Hamlet (2000)

The Sparks Brothers > Cypher

The Sparks Brothers < Connie and Carla

The Sparks Brothers > Raising Arizona

Final spot: #1620 out of 3419, or 53%.

No Sudden Move (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A group of criminals are brought together under mysterious circumstances and have to work together to uncover what's really going on when their simple job goes completely sideways.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Starring Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, and Jon Hamm.

Steven Soderbergh directed this movie, and it's definitely got some of his hallmarks. It's a slick, fast-paced heist crime story with unexpected moments of humor scattered throughout. Like many stories in this genre, I find myself getting tired of the endless twists and double crosses and new characters being introduced all the time, but this film does a good job of keeping an emotional center to the story and helping us navigate the world's twistiness through just one or two characters. Despite being set in the 1950s, it feels unusually modern -- I kept genuinely forgetting it was a period piece until suddenly something would feel out of place and I'd remember where we were. It's pretty solidly put together, if not something that I'm going to remember a year down the line.

How it entered my Flickchart:

No Sudden Move < The Keep

No Sudden Move > Play It Again, Sam

No Sudden Move < National Treasure

No Sudden Move > Miss Potter

No Sudden Move > The Trouble With Angels

No Sudden Move > Birdman of Alcatraz

No Sudden Move > Teacher of the Year

No Sudden Move > Double Jeopardy

No Sudden Move > National Velvet

No Sudden Move > Run Lola Run

No Sudden Move > A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Final spot: #2138 out of 3418, or 37%.

Possession (1981)

IMDb plot summary: A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.

Directed by Andrzej Zulawski. Starring Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, and Heinz Bennent.

This was absolutely terrifying. One of those films where even if you're not entirely sure of what's causing things to happen, you know that something is VERY WRONG. I knew Isabelle Adjani's performance was noteworthy going into this, and it absolutely is, one of the most unsettling things I've ever seen, particularly that subway scene, but also throughout. But Sam Neill is also deeply unsettling, a character who acts with such sociopathy but is completely unaware that there's anything wrong with him. I do wish I knew what this movie was trying to be *about*. I was fascinated by the wild and terrifying ride through this couple's life, but it all feels a little empty for me at the end. It's undeniably effective though, and while I don't particularly want to rewatch it, I'm glad I saw it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Possession > Dark and Stormy Night

Possession < Anna Karenina

Possession > Being John Malkovich

Possession < L'atalante

Possession < Meet Joe Black

Possession > Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Possession > Inherit the Wind

Possession < Good Time

Possession > The Exterminating Angel

Possession < Lethal Weapon

Possession > The Meg

Final spot: #1191 out of 3417, or 65%.

The Fugitive Kind (1959)

IMDb plot summary: Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier, a trouble-prone drifter trying to go straight, wanders into a small Mississippi town looking for a simple and honest life but finds himself embroiled with problem-filled women.

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, and Maureen Stapleton.

Sidney Lumet is such a great fit for Williams' work. He makes melodrama believable without taking away how larger-than-life it is, but instead blends it all together almost seamlessly. Brando's steamy persona may work even better here than in his other Williams work I've seen, A Streetcar Named Desire, because here we sense that he IS a good person fighting old habits. Anna Magnani is also truly wonderful as Lady Torrance, garnering a tremendous amount of sympathy for the terrible position in which she finds herself. It's not the finest work of any of the talented people involved here, but it is solid and worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of Williams, Lumet, or Brando.

How it entered my Flickchart:

The Fugitive Kind > Dark and Stormy Night

The Fugitive Kind > Anna Karenina

The Fugitive Kind < The Great Muppet Caper

The Fugitive Kind > Super 8

The Fugitive Kind < Cloud Atlas

The Fugitive Kind > Cats and Dogs

The Fugitive Kind < Jojo Rabbit

The Fugitive Kind < The Player

The Fugitive Kind < See You Yesterday

The Fugitive Kind < Queen of Katwe

The Fugitive Kind > Loving Vincent

The Fugitive Kind < Eat Drink Man Woman

Final spot: #584 out of 3416, or 83%.

Come and See (1985)

IMDb plot summary: After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.

Directed by Elem Klimov. Starring Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius, and Vladas Bagdonas.

This film has a mix of hyperrealism and surrealism that feels like a living nightmares, especially in those moments when it crosses from one to the other and you can't quite tell where you are yet. This is definitely not what you could call an enjoyable movie. It's difficult and unpleasant and at times just horrible to watch, but I think it accomplishes everything it sets out to do. I've seen enough war movies that I often find it too easy to see the strings pulling me to care, but this film broke through that and affected me on a deep emotional level. The use of sound and shots of people looking directly into the camera are especially effective, and 13-year-old Aleksei Kravchenko, who plays the central character, is astonishing in the role, though reading about the making of the film made me uncomfortable with how hard they worked to get that performance out of him, with some rumored techniques being just straight-up abusive. Fortunately he seems to be doing OK these days. That caveat aside, this is a movie I'm glad I saw, even if I couldn't say I liked watching it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Come and See > Frank

Come and See < Anna Karenina

Come and See > Fantasia 2000

Come and See > Waitress

Come and See > Being There

Come and See < Fear of a Black Hat

Come and See < The Woodsman

Come and See > Hoodwinked!

Come and See > Song of the Sea

Come and See < 42 Up

Come and See > Gone Baby Gone

Final spot: #937 out of 3415, or 73%.

Land (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A bereaved woman seeks out a new life, off the grid in Wyoming.

Directed by Robin Wright. Starring Robin Wright, Demián Bichir, Sarah Dawn Pledge, and Kim Dickens.

This is a slow, thoughtful movie with an abundance of nature scenes. It takes on a unique tone having a female protagonist, as nearly all "hurt person becomes a hermit after losing their family" stories are centered on men, and Robin Wright's character here brings a different vibe to the movie. The film includes long sequences with very little dialogue, where we just watch the character cope with her new life, and while part of me definitely zoned out a little bit in these scenes that felt like some sort of survivalist documentary, it also very nicely captures the ebb and flow of the time she spends there. At the end of the film, when she mentions two years have passed since she moved in, that doesn't feel startling or unexpected, even though that time hasn't been marked throughout the film. It's not a film that speaks to my interests specifically but it's well done and worth a watch.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Land > Frank

Land < Anna Karenina

Land < Charlie St. Cloud

Land < Real Life

Land > Drunken Master

Land < Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical

Land > Jeff, Who Lives At Home

Land > John Carter

Land > The Room

Land < Badlands

Land > 21

Final spot: #1550 out of 3414, or 55%.