Okay, here’s my first stab at a list of twenty favorite films of 1999.
UPDATES: Found out that Rushmore opened in NY/LA on December 11, 1998, but across the U.S. on February 5, 1999. So, I’m updating.
Disclaimers: As Rosetta, The Wind Will Carry Us, Beau Travail, and The Virgin Suicides all played in 1999, but were not accessible to American moviegoers until 2000 or later, I am excluding them from my list. If I counted them as ’99 releases, I’d be rating them very highly, all three in the top ten.
Autumn Tale, meanwhile, opened in 1998, but didn’t become accessible in the U.S. until ’99, so I *am* including that one here.
Similarly, The Road Home, classified on Wikipedia as 1999, didn’t reach the U.S. until 2001.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, 8½ Women, Divided We Fall, East Is East, La Fille sur le pont (The Girl on the Bridge), Titus, After Life, and The Color of Paradise would figure here as well if they has been distributed in the U.S. in ’99, but they didn’t until 2000 or later. (Some made fleeting appearances in New York, but that’s hardly fair, is it?)
Please let me know if you can think of other important releases that opened in the U.S. in 1999, after playing elsewhere in the world in previous years.
I’ll be revising this list as I get a clearer picture of what was accessible to me in 1999.
TWENTY FAVORITES of 1999
- The Insider
- The Iron Giant
- Toy Story 2
- Magnolia
- Princess Mononoke
- Mansfield Park
- Eyes Wide Shut
- The Limey
- Autumn Tale
- Limbo
- Three Kings
- Ride with the Devil
- Topsy-Turvy
- The Straight Story
- Galaxy Quest
- Being John Malkovich
- EXistenZ
- The Sixth Sense
- The Talented Mr. Ripley
- Run Lola Run
HONORABLE MENTION (in no particular order)
- Rushmore
- Man on the Moon
- Boys Don’t Cry
- American Movie
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Cookie’s Fortune
- Fight Club
- Cradle Will Rock
- My Life So Far
- The Red Violin
- Sleepy Hollow
- Snow Falling on Cedars
- October Sky
- Office Space
- Sweet and Lowdown
- The Winslow Boy
- Three Seasons
- The Thomas Crown Affair
- Twin Falls Idaho
I CAN’T BELIEVE I STILL HAVEN’T SEEN…
- 10 Things I Hate About You
- East/West
- Angela’s Ashes
- Any Given Sunday
- Felicia’s Journey
- Human Resources
- Julien Donkey-Boy
- Ratcatcher
- The Third Miracle
- Time Regained
- All About My Mother
HAS BEEN SO OVERANALYZED, OVER-HYPED, AND OVER-BASHED,
THAT I AM INCAPABLE OF MAKING A FAIR JUDGMENT FOR ANOTHER 10 YEARS
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
FILMS I’M OFTEN CHIDED FOR DISLIKING,
BUT I’VE TRIED AND TRIED
AND FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER… THEY EITHER ANNOY ME
OR BRING OUT THE RAGING CYNIC
- American Beauty
- The Blair Witch Project
- Bringing Out the Dead
- The Cider House Rules
- The Green Mile
- The Matrix
- Bowfinger
- Dogma
- The End of the Affair
- Election
SAW IT, BUT FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER,
I CAN’T REMEMBER IT WELL ENOUGH TO SAY
- Kikujiro
- Jesus’ Son
- The Ninth Gate
- One Day in September
- Tumbleweeds
- Venus Beauty Institute
- After Life
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Never particularly thought there was anything special about Terance Stamp, but I’ll have to rent The Limey next time I get a chance.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Just wanna say: See “All About My Mother.” It’s really something.
I’m glad to see “The Insider” up top. Just re-watched that last week and was amazed again by its power and conviction. It’s also fun to see Mann man experimenting with hand-helds…in his uber-precise way, of course.
Also glad to see “The Iron Giant” up high.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Just posted this on Twitter, @you, but I figured I’d repeat my top ten here:
1. Magnolia
2. The Limey
3. Eyes Wide Shut
4. American Movie
5. The Blair Witch Project
6. Ratcatcher
7. eXistenZ
8. Jesus Son
9. The Talented Mister Ripley
10. “Let Forever Be” (Michel Gondry, Chemical Bros. video)
Kind of depressingly Anglo-centric. I need to broaden my viewing.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I’m with you on American Beauty. It’s just a freaking plastic bag, people!
I’ve watched most of After Life twice (Netflix watch instantly cut out with half an hour left the first time); it’s worth watching twice, though. I’d recommend revisiting it if you have time sometime.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Of Michael Mann’s films, The Insider is the one I find myself returning to again and again, multiple times per year. It always stays fresh, energetic, riveting, and meaningful. A hearty cheer for your top choice!
Also, on American Beauty, it amazes me how many people I meet who hold it in such high regard. When I finally got around to watching it, it turned out to be just a beautifully shot shell, as fakely pretty on the outside and ugly on the inside as the lives it portrayed.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Wow. 5 that made my list (including honorable mentions) made Jeffrey’s “chide” list. I’m surprised.
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Jacob’s Favourite Films from 1999
Having no idea when I saw some of these and also no idea when some of them made it to New Zealand (I saw some at our International Film Festival) I have selected films released in 1999 (from your list) that I have seen, hence Rosetta tops mine!
1. Rosetta
2. A Room for Romeo Brass
3. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
4. Mansfield Park
5. Run Lola Run
6. Fight Club
7. One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
8. 10 Things I Hate About You
9. Return of the Idiot
10. Human Resources
11. Sleepy Hollow
12. My Voyage to Italy
13. East/West
14. Being John Malkovich
15. The Virgin Suicides
16. Man on the Moon
17. Office Space
18. The Matrix
19. The Insider
20. The Sixth Sense
July 22nd, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Glad to say I own the top five on my list on DVD. That wouldn’t have been the case a few years ago. Apity 2 of my top five films ever were made in 1998 and 2000 meaning they didn’t make the list: Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo ’66 (1998) and Trent Harris’ sublime study of celebrity/media/cultural repression The beaver Trilogy (2000).
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Jeffrey, I’m looking forward to seeing you cull your list down to 10…LOL. (I just saw your Rushmore addition. Good flick. Not sure it’d bump out anything in my top 10 favorites, though.)
As I was scanning the list, I also was thinking about the list of films I thought were overrated and/or irritating. Mine would include the following:
-Wild Wild West (Ugh…painful to sit through. Dull, dull, dull, a miss by people who should’ve done better)
-American Beauty (what was all the hype about? Good movie, maybe, but great? No. And full of characters that don’t garner much sympathy.)
-The Blair Witch Project (I saw a bit of this on tv about a month ago and didn’t hold up at all. Heck, it didn’t hold up back then, either! And unfortunately it spawned the now popular nauseating hand-held camera technique.)
-Election (my wife and I, far from prudes, walked out on this one. It was disturbing on a number of levels, but especially on the level of me believing the filmmakers intentionally made it as offensive and profane as they thought they could get away with, just to see if people WOULD get up and leave. Bravo, boys…you did create just such a film.)
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I’m surprised at the number of people here who dislike American Beauty. Although it was obviously a bit cynical, I thought it had very honest and revealing insights on society, as opposed to something like Fight Club, which I admire for its production value and brilliant acting, but find a bit shallow and disingenuous in its themes. That’s just a side thought though. I really enjoy the lists. I didn’t realize what a packed year ’99 was in terms of good films. I’ve added quite a few I’ve seen in all your lists as movies to see.
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:29 am
I did finally catch up with Any Given Sunday weeks ago and wished I had not.
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:29 am
For those who want to know what bothers me about American Beauty:
http://lookingcloser.org/2008/11/american-beauty-1999/
July 25th, 2009 at 1:24 am
Out of the films mentioned here, Rushmore, Limbo, Eyes Wide Shut, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Being John Malkovich, and Run Lola Run are all on my list of all-time favorites (admittedly, it’s a large list of around 100 films). Also on that list is Election, which I thought was brilliant and very funny — I’d be curious to hear your take on that one, Jeffrey.