Ryan McNeil
Last week, Badass blogger extraodinaire Joel Crary posted a review about one of my all time favorite movies, FIGHT CLUB. As I glanced at it again today, it suddenly dawned on me…that was ten years ago! While this of course instantly makes me feel old, it also momentarily makes me nostelgic. Not for FIGHT CLUB on its own…but for 1999 at the movies.
I have long argued, that 1999 was the greatest year at the movies in my lifetime – and likewise one of the greatest years at the movies ever. I can never begin to guess why, but the stars aligned that year to give us an absolute bounty of intelligent, original, challenging films. This phenomenon went into overdrive when the autumn arrived, and I swear every Friday when I’d go to see a new release, I’d get knocked on my ass.
Hell, even the major studios seemed to get in on the act. I won’t try to convince anybody that flicks like THE GREEN MILE, THE HURRICANE, or SLEEPY HOLLOW were game changers. I will say, that for major studio films, they all felt a bit…smarter.
As luck would have it, this was also the point in my life where I stopped caring about going to the movies with other people to avoid looking like some sort of a loner. This widened the field to what I could see even more, since I now no longer had to convince mainstream-minded friends to forsake an Ashley Judd thriller, and to instead come with me to see that girl from THE NEXT KARATE KID in a movie where she pretends to be a boy.
As the saying goes “it was a very good year”…and I really do miss such a stretch where week after week brought such mind-blowing films. Thinking back on that year just makes me a little sad, when I go to the theatre and try to decide between seeing WHITEOUT or SORRORITY ROW.
For your consideration, I have included a list of my favorite 1999 films below the jump.
FIGHT CLUB
RUN LOLA RUN
MAGNOLIA
SWEET AND LOWDOWN
BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
BEING JOHN MALKOVICH
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
THE MATRIX
AMERICAN BEAUTY
THREE KINGS
THE INSIDER
ELECTION
THE SIXTH SENSE
THE HURRICANE
BOYS DON’T CRY
THE CIDER HOUSE RULES
THE STRAIGHT STORY
OFFICE SPACE
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY
ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
THE IRON GIANT
DOGMA
THE GREEN MILE
MAN ON THE MOON
SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
TOY STORY 2
SLEEPY HOLLOW
Dear god, all those came out in '99? That's unreal. What the hell happened to Hollywood?
Definitely a great year for film, 2009 is not living up to its 10 year prior ancestor.
@ Aiden… No idea. For a while, every fifth year (94, 99, 04) was gangbusters. Then this year Hollywood broke the cycle. Granted what we're seeing now is the fallout from four months' worth of writers striking.
@ Univarn… Tell it. 2009 would have been hard pressed anyway, but with twelve weeks or so to go, it's looking especially dire.
There is not one movie on your list that was "unliked" by me! OMG- I think I must have spent all of 99 in the movie theatre!
Kuddos to you for bringing us all back to a better time and place in the history of film.
Amanda
1999 was a helluva year for sure…A few additions if I may:
"Mr. Death – The Rise And Fall Of Fred A. Leuchter Jr." – One of my favourite all-time documentaries. Errol Morris' film about one man's desperate need to be accepted – by anyone.
"My Voyage To Italy" – Martin Scorsese's 4 hour trip through Italian cinema. An additional 4 hours would've been fine with me…
"The Road Home" and "Not One Less" – Two beautiful and very human films by Zhang Yimou in the same year (the first one starring 20 year-old Zhang Ziyi).
"South Park" – How did you forget this one?
"Princess Mononoke" – My initial foray into Miyazaki's films. Wow.
"Go" – Crude, crass and very funny three part story with a laundry list of fine young actors.
"One Day In September" – Munich. 1972. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about that day until I saw this. Not an easy watch though.
"10 Things I Hate About You" – Heath Ledger's breakout performance (not to mention Julia Stiles and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in a really fun and very smart teen comedy.
"American Movie" – Hosers can live in the States too you know…
"Kikujiro" – No yakuza in this Takeshi Kitano film, but they aren't needed. A wonderful, gentle comedy about an older man and a young boy in search of the boy's mother and finding that they can help each other.
By the way, I might make a case for 1967 being a great year for movies too. The short list below contains some of my faves from the decade with the top 3 being some of my fave of all-time:
Playtime
The Young Girls Of Rochefort
Branded To Kill
Le Samourai
Samurai Rebellion
The Jungle Book
The Dirty Dozen
How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying
Point Blank
The Graduate
In Cold Blood
Cool Hand Luke
Wait Until Dark
Fearless Vampire Killers
Belle De Jour
Yes it was great year. Fight Club and Run Lola Run aren’t just my favourite films of’99 they are two of my all time favourite films. The Matrix was also brilliant. Other films of the year that I liked that are not on your list:
Go
Girl, Interrupted
Eyes Wide Shut
I think you mean "Badassssss…"
1999 was a pretty amazing year for films. When I was still in University I used to think about writing a paper on turn-of-the-millennium films, because I think they capture a social psychology unique to the period. I might still do it one day.
@ Bob… As always, you come through when my memory fails me. Haven't seen all of those, but colour me embarrassed for not having SOUTH PARK on the list.
@ Fandango… I think you might be the first other person I've known who liked EYES WIDE SHUT too! I left it off the list since I usually get heckled when I bring it up.
@ Joel… No, I meant "badass". My cast isn't allowed anywhere near my keyboard 🙂
Don’t worry about the hecklers, they probably don’t like movies. If you present a casual cinema goer with a two and a half hour film with no action and long slow scenes they are going to hate it. I always view the film as a darker version of After Hours (a really underrated film).
A little story on the subject of the film: Back in 1997 (two years before it came out) while I was a student I was seeing a Norwegian girl who was over here working as an Au Pair. One night we were watching Interview With the Vampire on video, she mentioned she had met Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman a couple of months before (a few weeks before I had met her). She had been working on set a Luton Hoo (used for lots of other films including Four Weddings and a funeral) looking after the kids of the cast and crew. I had read in a Empire magazine that they were filming over here and knew it must be Eyes Wide Shut, (Luton Hoo is only ten minutes from where Stanley Kubrick lived at the time). I tried to explain that it was Stanley Kubrick’s first film for ten years. She looked blank not having a clue who he was. She described sets and costumes in intricate detail and even saw some of the party scene being shot and was completely oblivious to what she was seeing. The experience was as wasted on her as it was on lots of people who went to see the film expecting porn.
I put up a similar love letter to 1999 some time ago; it's far and away my favorite movie year, with 1994 coming in a close (but not close at all) 2nd, thanks mostly to Pulp Fiction.
How dare you leave Go out of the original list! Bless Bob and Fandango for mentioning it. My favorites from 1999 are Fight Club (of course), Go, Three Kings, The Matrix, Run Lola Run (which I saw twice in the theater…alone), Election, Office Space, Malkovich…
This year dominates my personal top films list. It's friggin' bizarre.
@ Fandango… I think by the time it was released, a lot of people were expecting it to be something it wasn't ever intended to be. Pity too, since I really dig it…even if I do think it goes on about one scene too long.
@ Fletch… Not sure why I totally forgot about GO, especially since I quite liked it (though a lot of it is now a snapshot of late-nineties culture).
Oh, and I totally agree about 1994…one of the best classes of Best Picture nominees ever!