This was an interesting film year for me in that, for the first time, there were some movies coming up that I was looking forward to solely because I liked the previous work of the directors. The era of relying on advertising campaigns and movie stars to decide what I was going to see came to an end. This new crop of directors had started popping up the couple years previous, I was using gossip sites and IMDB to track what their next projects were going to be, and the whole film going experience was taking on a new sense of anticipation that it never had before. Now I wasn’t just looking forward to seeing something for a couple of months while the trailers made the rounds, I was tracking the development of prospective films, building up what they might be in my head, and taking years long journeys from initial announcements to premiere weekend.
10-The Apostle ***
The Apostle premiered at the very end of ’97, got a very small release in the early part of ’98, and didn’t actually get seen by me until it was getting a big Academy Awards push later that year. It’s kind of a small, unassuming film. At the time, I thought it was too obvious Oscar bait, and a bit slow. But, as an acting showcase for Robert Duvall it works; and also gives us a glimpse at what he might have to offer as a director. There’s no question that he is absolutely one of the greatest actors of his generation, and the film succeeds because he is so interesting to watch; but I also thought that it was competently put together and aesthetically pleasing. I wish he had spent a bit more time doing stuff behind the camera after this one came out. I’ll have to give his 2002 film Assassination Tango a try, as I haven’t even heard of it until pulling up his credits just a moment ago.
9- La vita รจ bella ***
There seems to have been a pretty big backlash to this film over the years, and I imagine that it’s because of the content being so sentimental and blatantly uplifting in an era where grittiness and sarcasm were the benchmarks of what you wanted to accomplish. Despite the criticisms it gets not, I felt that the material worked as it was presented. Sure, the story developed into a bit of a filmic inspirational poster, but the script was inventive, sometimes funny, sometimes heart breaking, and I was generally with it most of the way. I guess a film like this lives or dies on whether or not you buy into the sentiment. Here, I bought it enough to go along with the story, and found it to be a pleasant experience overall.
8-The Game ***
The Game was David Fincher’s big follow up to Se7en and I couldn’t have been more excited to see it. While I enjoyed the film, I saw it as a pretty big disappointment at the time. Looking back, I think that it was probably a much safer film than Se7en, and I was looking for something that was going to be a lot more experimental and reaching. It can’t be denied what a well-constructed thriller this one is, though. It’s editing and sound design make it kind of a technical marvel and the storytelling keeps you engaged and guessing all the way through. A strong veteran performance from Michael Douglas brings it all together. This isn’t a film that I’ve thought much about, or revisited very often since it came out, but it’s definitely worth a watch just to see what Fincher can do.
7-Grosse Pointe Blank ****
This film came out of nowhere in my eyes. It’s the screenwriter’s only listed credit. The director was someone I didn’t know. I didn’t really have much of an experience with John Cusack’s 80’s work at this point. The trailer looked fun as heck though, and I went into the theater pretty enthusiastically optimistic and left satisfied. This film takes the typical indie trope of a city boy coming back home to his small town and turns it on it’s head by making it more mainstream, funny, and entertaining. Plus, it’s a good example of how the 80’s can be mined for nostalgia in a more subtle, successful way than is usually attempted. Cusack utilizes his charm to anchor this one, and the script is so endearing that not even Minnie Driver being extremely unlikable in everything could sink it. This was required viewing for a high school kid who felt smug and superior to his fellow classmates. I wanted to be Martin Blank, dang it.
6-Gummo ****
Gummo was the most disturbing thing I had ever seen back in 1997; probably it still holds that title. Make no mistake; this is pure shock filmmaking, something with little redeemable subtext or storytelling. There’s something so enthralling about what filmmaking nut job Harmony Korine was able to accomplish with this, however. Scripted actors blend near seamlessly with real life backwater hillbillies into a disgusting three-ring circus of low-class white culture that keeps you guessing what’s real and what isn’t. The characters here seem too broad, too repugnant, too irredeemable to be believable; but there’s always enough of a glimpse of terrible things I’ve seen with my own eyes to inject doubt about the rest. Are there really people out there that are this backwards, this disgusting? Probably, and the strength of affect that this realization had on me is enough to make juvenile, gross out film a huge success despite it’s nature.
5-Chasing Amy ****
I went into Chasing Amy a full on drinker of the Kevin Smith Kool-Aid. I thought Clerks was revolutionary, I thought Mallrats was hilarious and could have been great if the studio had gotten out of the way. If you asked me who my favorite filmmaker of all time was back then I would have said Smith. I was 16. Despite aging issues with Smith’s other works, I still find Chasing Amy to be a likeable, entertaining indie romance that holds up as a solid film on its own, separate from all the interconnected fan boy universe stuff that Smith was writing into all of his stuff. Jason Lee showed great comedic timing and delivery, Affleck showed some real acting chops, I was into the whole raspy voiced, hotter version of Renee Zellweger thing Joey Lauren Adams had going on. Sure the climax was pretty stupid, but story resolution isn’t really what this one was all about. The laughs and the constant pop culture references delivered, and there was just enough grit left in the presentation to where, at least for this one last film, Smith still felt indie and credible.
4-Good Will Hunting ****
Modern mythology says that Affleck and Damon wrote the script to Good Will Hunting just as a way of drumming up acting roles for themselves. If that’s truly the case, then I wish their careers would hit the skids already, because this bit of screenwriting is the best thing either of them has done in their careers. The characters are memorable and likable, the dialogue was sharp and quotable, and there are moments in here that became part of the fabric of pop culture. The performances are all great up to and including one of Robin William’s least annoying turns, it was put together well by a strong veteran presence in Gus Van Sant; everything came together here to create the prototype for the perfect indie film gone mainstream. Even if that “it’s not your fault” climax was a little bit much. How do you like dem apples?
3-Jackie Brown ****
Okay, maybe I lied in the Chasing Amy write-up. Maybe if you asked me back then who my favorite director of all-time was I would have said Quentin Tarantino. Pulp Fiction, more than anything else, was the cinematic nuke that leveled my brain and turned me into a film buff for life. To say that I was looking forward to his follow up is the understatement of the freaking year. While I think this film is viewed as a bit of a disappointment, or at least is slightly forgotten in most circles, I was always a big fan of it. In fact, it’s my second favorite Tarantino next to Pulp Fiction. The story, originally an Elmore Leonard novel, is adapted to the screen with skill and imagination by Tarantino. The camera work is predictably slick and stylized. There are career redefining performances by Pam Grier, Robert De Niro, and especially Robert Forster who was Oscar nominated for his role and couldn’t have deserved the recognition more. The story is a bit complex, and the cast list sprawling, but things never get jumbled or confusing. The soundtrack is great and goes just short of being shoved down your throat (this is a distinction I make between how Tarantino used music here to develop character, and how he used it in Death Proof to show off what an aficionado he is). In fact, Jackie Brown may be Tarantino’s best use of mining genre film past for material. Here, he takes things that influenced him from the past and puts an interesting, modern slant on them. Later on he would degenerate into rapid-fire reference that worked less as homage and began to look more like obsessive, masturbatory cataloging of his favorite film moments, bordering on outright thievery.
2-L.A. Confidential *****
L.A. Confidential was nominated for pretty much every Academy Award there is; and rightly so in my eyes, because from top to bottom I am hard pressed to find a flaw in the production. The period nature of the film is completely immersive, putting you in a specific time and place that is gorgeously rendered and sentimental, but always authentic feeling. The script was intelligent, engaging, and filled with tension and intrigue. I would be hard pressed to name a better realized crime story than this. Kim Basinger won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, but wasn’t even close to being the best performance in a film that was stacked with them. Kevin Spacey continued on his amazing role, creating a refined Hollywood cop that stood out in the genre. Russell Crowe played his part with a mad dog zeal that earned him instant recognition, launched his gigantic career as a leading man, and was probably a lot of the fuel that got him the Oscar for The Insider next time around. Guy Pearce played a substantial role, taking a straight laced, potentially boring character and crafting him in a way that kept you with him the entire time. James Cromwell and Danny DeVito hit it out of the park playing smaller character roles that nobody else on the planet could have pulled off. The score was award worthy, the cinematography was award worthy, this is one of those rare films that could have cleaned up everything at the Oscars, and isn’t any less good because it didn’t.
1-Boogie Nights *****
