Ten years ago it was 1999 and that year, for me, was easily the greatest year for movies. Sure, there have been some great movies that have been released since but 1999 featured a veritable murderer’s row of classics. Don’t believe me? Here is a chronologically ordered list of movies released in theaters in 1999:
Office Space
The Matrix
Election
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Big Daddy
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
American Pie
The Blair Witch Project
The Sixth Sense
American Beauty
Boys Don’t Cry
Fight Club
Being John Malkovitch
42 Up
The Green Mile
The Cider House Rules
So, if you’re keeping score at home there are in this list: six movies that were almost immediately ingrained into pop culture (Office Space, The Matrix, American Pie, The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense, and Fight Club); seven comedies ranging from instant classics (Office Space and American Pie) to quietly hilarious (Election and Being John Malkovitch) to powerhouse moneymakers that lived up to the hype (Austin Powers, Big Daddy, and South Park); an outstanding documentary (42 Up); and six movies that almost certainly show up on people’s Top 50 lists for best movie once they’ve seen it (The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, American Beauty, Boys Don’t Cry, The Green Mile and The Cider House Rules). And I’m not even counting The Insider (mostly b/c I don’t like Russell Crowe movies) which was also nominated for Best Picture alongside American Beauty, The Sixth Sense, The Green Mile, and The Cider House Rules.
Contextually, 1999 poses a problem in that the year was full of so many great movies that every subsequent year seems smaller in comparison. Look at the Best Picture winners since 2000: Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Million Dollar Baby, Crash, The Departed, and No Country For Old Men. I don’t want to get in too much explanation or comparison but of these movies only Million Dollar Baby, to me, is the unrivaled masterpiece of the group. (Chicago and LoTR were very good but also for very static reasons, I don’t really like Russell Crowe so I’m biased on the first two, Crash was patently ridiculous and completely inferior to Brokeback Mountain, The Departed was nothing more than a collective “We’re sorry” sympathy gift given to Scorcese for all the years that his movies did not win, and No Country For Old Men was genuinely good until the weak ending arrived, ultimately asking us to care about someone whose final scene’s weight was never really earned.) Now, to go strictly off of Oscar winners is a bit unscientific and unfair but I thought it was worth mentioning that the 5 nominations from 1999 are all, for the most part, better than all 8 of the previous Best Picture winners combined. So, let’s go one-by-one on each movie:
Office Space — possibly the best comedy of the last ten years not associated with Judd Apatow and is the quintessential movie about working. It’s the Caddyshack of comedies about work.
The Matrix — groundbreaking special effects and a sci-fi storyline that makes it this generation’s Star Wars. Not even Keanu Reeves could hinder this movie’s sheer awesomeness and, yes, the sequels to this movie never happened. You hear me? They. Never. Happened.
Election — I’ve already covered this movie before but it bears reminding that this is a really good under-the-radar comedy. Reese Witherspoon is so damn perfect in this movie.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me — what is there to really say about this? It had a ton of hype before it premiered and it delivered. Too many great lines and scenes to mention here but the Jerry Springer Show scene with Scott and Dr. Evil was pretty priceless.
Big Daddy — I know, I know, everyone’s supposed to hate Adam Sandler movies not named Happy Gilmore or The Waterboy but I think Big Daddy is his best movie, annoying kid and all.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut — five words: greatest raunchy animated movie ever.
American Pie — yes, the sequels were totally unnecessary and mostly unfunny but the original was significant in every pop culture aspect as something like Goonies, There’s Something About Mary, or Some Like It Hot.
The Blair Witch Project — hands down the greatest marketed movie ever. If you saw this movie when it first came out (when it only played in like 20 theaters across the country) you were genuinely scared and tense throughout the entire movie. And when it ended, you and the entire theater had a collective case of the screaming fantods walking out. People who saw this movie at home or at the local cineplex will never understand how frickin’ scary this movie was before it was announced that it was a hoax.
The Sixth Sense — one of the greatest reveals to end a movie, a modern “Rosebud.”
American Beauty — the eventual winner of Best Picture for 1999. I know this movie is sort of polarizing for some people but I thought everything about it was pitch-perfect. Kevin Spacey is perfect and Annette Benning gives a career performance (the scenes of her prepping the house she is trying to sell is perfect on so many levels).
Boys Don’t Cry — Hillary Swank would win her first Oscar for her role as Brandon Teena, a girl who wants to be a boy. A powerful and gut-wrenching movie. Chloe Sevigny is also outstanding in this movie too.
Fight Club — not only is this movie perfectly casted but for a movie that is so unabashedly male and masculine, it is, in retrospect, kind of amazing that critics didn’t publicly renounce it, considering that boy bands, metrosexuality, and the overall feminization of boys were the soup of the day in 1999. This movie proves that great acting and writing can transcend societal trends. Also, the line “The first rule about Fight Club…” will forever live in the pop culture Pantheon.
Being John Malkovitch — one of the quirkiest movies I have ever seen, yet it still had the brains to have a legitimately good ending. The scene where John Malkovitch goes into his own head might be one of the craziest sequences on film I’ve ever seen.
42 Up — okay, this is probably the one title that probably most of you are completely unfamiliar with. 42 Up is the 6th installment of The Up Series, a BBC documentary that started in 1964 by following 14 seven year-old kids of various income classes with the idea being that the director would then follow up with them every seven years. For a better and more detailed review go here, but I’ll just say that The Up Series should be required viewing as it shows you more about life and death than any documentary or “reality” show possibly can.
The Green Mile — certainly not on the same level of Rewatchability as The Shawshank Redemption is, but Frank Darabont’s follow-up to Shawshank is still really damn good. Career performance by Michael Clarke Duncan and Tom Hanks is surprisingly well cast as the man who oversees the Green Mile. The scene where John Coffey shows Paul who killed the two little girls is haunting and played with perfect creepiness by the actor who plays the murderer (don’t want to reveal anything in case you’ve not seen it yet).
The Cider House Rules — an all-time Top-5 movie for me. At the time, I understood why American Beauty won the Oscar but I think time will render a different verdict as maybe The Cider House Rules should have won it all that night. Great movie, great cast, perfectly directed, great soundtrack, and the performance by Michael Caine is astonishing. If you have not seen this movie yet you must put it near the top of your queue at some point. All of the scenes that are shot in the orphanage are great but the one involving the death of one of the kids is genuinely sad and acted perfectly.
Again, this post is hardly scientific or objective. But until someone can provide me a year that had 16 movies that were released that would make a lot of people’s Favorite Movies lists I think I rest my case.