Flickchart Battle: The Descendants vs. Dear Zachary

vs. 

This is an interesting match-up because these are two movies that I was deeply moved by (okay fine, I bawled my damn eyes out) and are two movies that I wouldn’t particularly want to watch again because of how emotionally draining they are.

Dear Zachary surprised me because all I knew going into the film was that it was a documentary about a father who died and who’s best friend wanted to make a video for his son to learn about the father he’ll never meet. But gosh dang! This movie had one of the more surprising events where I can remember exactly where I was when my jaw dropped to the floor. I won’t ruin that moment for anyone, but it’s definitely one powerful aspect that Dear Zachary has over The Descendants.

Meanwhile, The Descendants is just an all-around good film. Led by an Oscar-nominate performance from George Clooney, he’s the heart and soul of the film as he tries to juggle the situations between his immediate family, his wife in a coma, and selling his ancestors’ land. It’s also the role that put Shailene Woodley on the map for bigger things to come. And it’s an Alexander Payne film, who I’m a big fan of.

While I liked both of these movies a lot, I’ll have to pick The Descendants as the winner of this Flickchart battle. Dear Zachary did seem a bit preachy towards the end, but overall was a very well-done documentary that presents plenty of questions while suggesting immediate change. It’s an important film. But in the sense of cinema, The Descendants stands out as one of the best family-dramas in the past few years. There are layers and layers of conflict that gives the film its pure richness.

Winner: The Descendants

Introducing: Flickchart Battle

When I used to podcast with my good friend Michael Sheehan, one of my favorite segments was the Flickchart Battle, where we logged into our favorite time-wasting site and repeatedly chose which movie we liked better. I’ve decided to make this a frequent post on the blog so enjoy!

Since this is just an introduction post, let me just break down how I usually make my decisions to which film I “like” better:

1. Did I like it?

This might seem like a given, but there’s that line you have to draw when you’re on Flickchart between which movie do you like better, or which movie is better. This obviously depends on the individual participating, and after thousands of rankings I realized there’s no clear side that I take. Because although I do enjoy some cheesy rom-coms, can they really match up against an Oscar-worthy drama? Again, it depends on the specific match-up.

2. Did it achieve its purpose?

Just like I stated above, it’s really tricky when comparing two movies of different genres, so I ask myself this very question. So did this comedy make me laugh? Did this thriller keep me in suspense? Did this horror movie scare me? This usually separates which movie is actually good, and which aren’t and therefore my selection is made.

3. Rewatchability

Sometimes you run into a movie that is just brilliant, but something about it makes you never want to watch it again. For instance, Amour was a spectacular and tragic film, but it was such an emotional ride to make it through, I’ll be content if I never see it again. Meanwhile, a lesser quality movie like Chronicle… hell it’s short, funny, and very enjoyable. I probably watched it on HBO twenty times in the past year and a half. So in many cases, I pick movies with the rewatchability factor over those without it.

4. First time experience

Not every movie is memorable, but once in a while you get a perfect movie experience while watching a certain movie. It could be a wildly loud applause after a great scene at the movies, or maybe when you were able to assemble the right group of friends for a comedy you all enjoyed. Whatever the case, sometimes that great movie experience can influence my decision.