I began thinking about this about three or four years ago. Whenever I was asked what my favourite movie was, I was always torn between The Virgin Suicides and American Beauty, which I had noticed had both been released in 1999. Also, around the same time, after seeing it so many times growing up, I really began to love and fully appreciate Office Space and I now probably rate it as my favourite cult comedy film. Funnily enough, that too was released in 1999.
Since then, I've noticed that so many movies I like and rewatch regularly came out that year. I tend to prefer witty, independent, quirky films and black comedies. Two of my all-time favourites from that category are Being John Malkovich and Election. Remaining on the topic of comedy, there are also some other great cult comedies to have come out of 1999, such as Galaxy Quest , Mystery Men and Bowfinger (which I think is severely underrated). In terms of big, successful comedies that everyone started copying and quoting, there was Austin Power: The Spy Who Shagged Me and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. There were some excellent teen movies released in that year too. American Pie was the first naughty movie I saw, so I'm always going to have a soft spot for it. That obviously ended up being a huge success and having a massive cultural impact. Also, I really enjoy stuff like 10 Things I Hate About You and Cruel Intentions, even though they were more aimed towards female audiences. However, I'm not the only guy who liked those movies; several of my male friends like them too! I think those three movies really captured that late '90s, American high school aesthetic (maybe Cruel Intentions not as much) and had great soundtracks from that era.
Then, there were the bigger budget movies of the year. The Matrix was incredible when it came out and had a huge impact on popular culture and CGI. Although it is quite silly and lighthearted, I still have a bit of a soft spot for *The Mummy* too. If that came out now, I think people would be overly critical of it, saying it's not dark enough, but it has a certain charm to it that you could get away with in 1999. There's also Fight Club, which a lot of people like (and which I used to rate as one of my favourite movies of all time). Then there's stuff like The Green Mile, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Eyes Wide Shut and Toy Story 2, which I haven't seen enough for them to have a big emotional impact on me, but I do recognise them as great films and can see why many people love them.
Lastly, it was also a great year for horror and suspense movies. The Sixth Sense was such a big movie when it came out and it's still one I enjoy today and will watch whenever it is on TV. I think the whole "spoiler alert" thing came out of that movie. Also, The Blair Witch Project was pretty groundbreaking at the time. That definitely must have influenced later movies, such as Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield.
I've just Googled more 1999 movies. I'm forgetting many and there are several acclaimed ones I haven't even seen yet (Man on the Moon, The Insider, Any Given Sunday, Boys Don't Cry, etc.).
I'm wondering whether timing could have been a big factor in this. I was born in 1987 and would have been 11 for most of 1999, turning 12 in December. Some of these movies I would've seen on my first few visits to the cinema with friends, and some I would've rented on video shortly after they came out. Most of them though would've been shown and repeated a lot on TV throughout my teens. Is this partly down to personal nostalgia or was 1999 really that good of a year for movies? Could the end of the millennium have had some sort of impact on it? People often bring up 1994 as a good year for movies, because of Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption and Forrest Gump, but I think 1999 is better and has a much wider variety of good movies. Does anyone else feel this way about 1999?
Submitted December 03, 2018 at 12:18PM by RustyCostanza https://ift.tt/2AOrlxM
