This movie purports to be an action comedy, but every joke is just something sad that the audience is expected to laugh at. The action is passably mediocre, and the narrative twists and turns are boring.
Closest comparison: It’s like Tears of the Sun by way of Four Brothers.
Setting: War
Plot: Tragedy
Tone: Drama
This movie is the standard David Mamet formula in a fun, small-town comedy. It’s sufficiently interesting and fairly funny, but best of all it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Holiday by way of The Spanish Prisoner.
Setting: Small Town Drama
Plot: Comedy of Errors
Tone: Slow-burn Comedy
This film is a pointless look at a troubled young man with a fatalistic woe-is-me attitude. As far as the narrative is concerned there’s no real reason for his disaffected ennui but he mopes about for the duration, before coming to a conclusion without a resolution. Nothing about this movie stands out as worth watching on its own, and the story does not justify its own existence.
Closest comparison: It’s like The 400 Blows by way of Rebel Without a Cause.
Setting: Family Drama
Plot: Self-pity
Tone: Dour Drama
This movie is meandering and pointless, though endearing in its quaintness. There is no plot. The cinematography is solid and the characters are pretty vivid, but there’s no substance to this vapid waste of time.
Content warning: female nudity
Closest comparison: It’s like The Bicycle Thief by way of Rififi.
Setting: Drama
Plot: <None>
Tone: DocuDrama
This movie’s main faults are being sappy and pretentious, but on the whole it works out pretty well. While the ‘silent treatment’ is a gimmick the film understands how to convey its story through the restricted medium and carries a sufficiently compelling narrative. The scant times it breaks convention it does so to great effect, not distracting from the story but propelling it forward.
Closest comparison: It’s like Stan & Ollie by way of Silent Movie.
Setting: Navel-gazing
Plot: Changing Times
Tone: Dramedy
This movie is an old classic, and true to form knocks it out of the park. In parts it’s a slapstick extravaganza, but on the whole it’s equal parts hilarious, heartfelt, and heartbreaking. There’s a purity to silent films that here is used to great effect, using the audience’s loss of one sense and lack of agency to empathize with the heroine. It has antiquated sensibilities and pacing, but it comes across as sincere and meaningful ninety years later.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Pursuit of Happyness by way of Modern Times.
Setting: RomCom
Plot: Rags to Riches
Tone: Comedy/Drama
This is a very boring docudrama about reporters and the Watergate scandal. The pacing is impressively bad, so much so that it’s ubiquitously unclear what key persons of interest mean to the investigation at large, and the goalposts keep moving without resolution. The film seems to think it’s a thriller but has no teeth, even including one confusing jumpscare with nobody there in an empty parking garage. Presumably it may make more sense to someone know knows the subject matter very well, but that philosophy is antithetical to the fundamental concept of filmmaking.
Content warning: language
Closest comparison: It’s like Kill The Messenger by way of ‘Good Night and Good Luck’.
Setting: Journalism
Plot: Investigation
Tone: Drama
This movie is a character drama that starts off promising but loses the plot. It’s too pointless to be a classic, though the production values are there for it, and everyone’s acting chops are wasted on a washout script.
Closest comparison: It’s like Rounders by way of The Graduate.
Setting: Gambling
Plot: Gambling
Tone: Drama
This movie is a tragedy about the cost of bitterness and resentment. I’m rarely in the mood for a bleak morality tale, but those who need the lesson would do well to pay close attention. The novel is vividly realized here though it sometimes abruptly changes tones, apparently in an attempt to include more content from the book.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Place Beyond the Pines by way of Gone With the Wind.
Setting: Gothic Horror
Plot: Tragedy
Tone: Drama
This movie is a pretty faithful remake of the original, complete with pensive pacing and inherent ambiguities in the plot and its resolution. It’s cerebral sci-fi that doesn’t have as much to say as it seems to think it does, using an interesting concept to propel a somewhat less interesting story.
Closest comparison: It’s like Ad Astra by way of Melancholia (2011).
Setting: Grounded Sci-Fi
Plot: Mind-Bending Sci-Fi
Tone: Dramatic Sci-Fi
This movie is a philosophical drama that never achieved well-known cult status, but is good enough to warrant it. It’s a cerebral exploration of the nature of mental illness and personal sacrifice, being thought-provoking without falling into the open-endedness trap that so many of its peers relish. Its main flaw is esotericism, not ambiguity.
Closest comparison: It’s like M*A*S*H by way of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Setting: Psychiatric
Plot: Drama
Tone: Philosophy
This movie is an intense exploration of the drive for perfectionism, both internal and external. It’s a tour-de-force of passionate acting, with an impeccable soundtrack that’s magnificent in its own right. This is not a long movie, but it packs a lot of dynamite into one neat package.
Content warning: language
Closest comparison: It sits at the intersection between Mr. Holland’s Opus and La La Land, with an intensity more akin to District 9.
Setting: College Drama
Plot: Sports Drama
Tone: Thriller
This movie is one of the top films in the stalker genre and for good reason. It manages to be endearing and funny without detracting from the seriousness and depravity of its subject matter. In many ways this is the movie that Taxi Driver wanted to be, being much clearer about its characters’ motivations and more coherent overall.
Closest comparison: It’s like Joker (2019) by way of Taxi Driver.
Setting: Corporate Drama
Plot: Stalker Thriller
Tone: Awkward Dramedy
This movie is a classic courtroom thriller with an excellent, cozy mystery style resolution. It’s clever and surprising in all the right ways, and the ending is Hitchcockian in its drama while being more Film Noir in its style. For period courtroom dramas you can’t do much better than this.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Mysterious Affair At Styles by way of Anatomy of a Murder.
Setting: Courtroom Drama
Plot: Cozy Mystery
Tone: Noir Thriller
This movie is a pensive sci-fi arthouse piece from Russia in the ‘70s. Its glacial tempo is on pace with Meek’s Cutoff even more than Ad Astra. There’s about 40 minutes of movie here stretched out into 2h45m. And for all that, it offers no conclusions for the questions that it recognizes exist while being careful to not actually pose them. It’s more nebulous than it is confusing, and much like Blade Runner the mood is a much larger part of the story than the plot.
Closest comparison: It’s like Forbidden Planet by way of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Setting: Sci-Fi
Plot: Philosophy
Tone: Drama
This movie sets itself up to be a violent kidnap revenge story, but ends up being a thoughtful character drama. Nicolas Cage carries the film, and the cast of characters that the plot cycles through is solid. The subtext for most of the narrative is the West coast fine dining scene which comes to the foreground enough that the audience’s enjoyment of the film will vary by proximity to, and understanding of, that milieu. That being said, it’s equal parts admiration for and critique of the chefs of fine dining establishments, but if you’re looking for a guns-blazing revenge-fest this is not it.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Protector (2005) by way of Chef (2014).
Setting: Hipster Dramedy
Plot: Kidnapping
Tone: Retrospective Drama
This is an Instagram stalker story that flirts with the idea of having a point. It’s more interested in having a conversation about the dynamic between reality and unreality in modern social media than it is in forming any conclusions about the topic. It’s always fun watching Aubrey Plaza’s awkward humor, and Elizabeth Olsen is great in everything, but this film just putts along like it’s just trying to fill the runtime.
Closest comparison: It’s like Social Network by way of SwimFan.
Setting: Adventure
Plot: Stalker
Tone: Dramedy
This movie is a gambler drama, more focused on the family-style dynamics and hotel room banter than the actual gambling. It uses the sleazy underbelly of the casino nightlife as the backdrop for its plot, but for the most part eschews it onscreen. John C. Reilly and Philip Baker Hall absolutely carry the film, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Sam Jackson giving solid performances as well. Dialogue and character study are the main draws here, and the story wraps up in a nice, solid ending.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Gambler by way of Punch Drunk Love.
Setting: Casino Drama
Plot: Crime Drama
Tone: Family Drama
This movie is a docutopian thriller, where humanity has legislated and scientifically classified itself into a moral corner. It feels like an Ethan Hawke film, sufficiently art-house and comparable in some regards to Predestination. The plot is more moralistic than it is fun, and the film’s message is apparent very early on with little added beyond the requisite conclusion to those threads. Dystopian sci-fi enthusiasts should definitely check this one out.
Closest comparison: It’s like the bureaucracy of Brazil with the clean futurism of Paycheck. Or, to put it another way, it’s like October Sky by way of Predestination.
Setting: Sci-Fi Drama
Plot: Espionage
Tone: Thriller
This movie is a solid noir, though more of a drama than a thriller like many of its contemporaries. It exchanges much of the standard sordid noir material for a tragic scam gone awry. The main characters are more sympathetic than good, and it ultimately amounts more to a cautionary tale than thriller or adventure.
Closest comparison: It’s like The Woman in the Window by way of Detour.
Setting: Drama
Plot: Mistaken Identity
Tone: Noir
