The summer and fall of 1998 were the summer in anticipation of and the beginning of my senior year of high school respectively. I suppose it was a pretty important time for me, but it’s kind of funny (Ha-ha?) how few concrete memories I have that take up places of significance on a timeline of my life. This was twelve years ago now, and if you asked me what kind of stuff I was doing while preparing for my last year of school, or what my thoughts were upon entering into it, I draw a bit of a blank. What were the milestones? What were the big moments? What routines did my day-to-day existence consist of? If I look at the year through the lens of it’s film releases, however, suddenly very specific memories of what theaters I saw movies in, who I saw them with, and what my reactions were to them come flooding back with no problem. I guess that’s where a lot of my love of cinema has come from throughout the years; the lives of the people up on the screen have always been more memorable and satisfying than the mundanity of my own. All of the lost loves, all of the big choices, all the moments of crisis in my life have been projected onto a big white screen and have happened to other, more fictional people rather than to myself. What would I know of life and the world if not for what I learned through the movies? Little more, I suppose, than eat, sleep, school, work, household chores, hygienic maintenance, self-medication, rinse, repeat… Good lord, how depressing, let’s go to the movies!
Seeing as Bryan Singer’s previous film The Usual Suspects was an absolute masterpiece that absolutely floored me with how easily it mixed art with entertainment all while creating a memorable, unique filmgoing experience, I was pretty stoked to go see his follow up Apt Pupil. It has an interesting enough story, that of a high school kid finding out his neighbor is a Nazi war criminal and blackmailing him into teaching him about his experiences in the war; but it just never was able to have the same affect that The Usual Suspects did. It’s a fine film, just a quiet, minor film. It’s anchored by two good performances from Brad Renfrow and Ian McKellen, it’s shot well, it’s moody and tense, there’s just not much to it that stuck with me. If you haven’t seen it and come across it, I recommend giving it a look, but if it doesn’t sound that interesting to you, your time would probably be best served elsewhere.
9-Dirty Work ***
I’m not sure if Norm MacDonald is the funniest man on the planet or not, but it’s definitely down to like two or three guys. One of life’s great tragedies is that he was only given one real shot to helm a feature film as a leading man. That one shot was Dirty Work, and it’s a real hoot and a good promise of what could potentially have come later on, but due to the fact that nobody bothered to see it we haven’t really gotten any more Norm on the silver screen ever since. I guess it might also be due to the fact that he is reportedly insane and a complete hassle to work with as well; but doesn’t being one of the most unique comedic minds on the planet count for anything these days? Anyways, despite being little more than derivative, studio comedy fluff, Dirty Work is still hilarious thanks to Norm’s writing and performance and is well worth any comedy fan’s time. And it also even manages to teach a great life lesson, “Don’t take no crap from anybody”. And Bob Saget directed it! Bruddaman, what else do you need?
8-Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels ***
Guy Ritchie’s first feature not only put him on the map overseas, but also got a bit of distribution and attention in the US. It’s set firmly in the post Pulp Fiction, stylish crime movie genre, and there were about a million films that were trying to do the same thing coming out at the time, but Lock, Stock separated itself from the pack by being flat out better than all the other imitators and clearly being a debut of a pretty substantial filmmaking talent. Sure, while Ritchie was able to recreate and even improve upon what he did here with Snatch, he did hit a bit of a rough patch after that and make himself look like a bit of a one trick pony; but there is still no denying how fun these first couple films of his are to revisit. The dialogue is fast paced and clever, the visuals are interesting, and actors like Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones are still riding the momentum that got started with this film into pretty successful Hollywood careers.
7-Slums of Beverly Hills ***
Slums of Beverly Hills was one of those films that I didn’t have any information about or expectations of going in, and it completely floored me with how well it introduced it’s unique characters, developed them, and managed to stay ridiculously entertaining without having any sort of compelling plot or outlandish gimmick attached to it. This was just a film about people. It wasn’t overtly dramatic, it wasn’t a straight comedy; I guess it was just well written and well acted. Sometimes that can be pretty damn refreshing. Natasha Lyonne looked like a force that came out of nowhere and was poised to go on to big things. That I never saw her in any other roles that matched the power of this one is, I suppose, a credit to the director. Alan Arkin anchored the whole thing with a hilarious, veteran performance that was woefully ignored during awards season. And, despite all of this this, I haven’t watched any of writer/director Tamara Jenkins’ other work. That’s definitely something I need to fix. Off to the Netflix queue!
6-Pi ***
Darren Aronofsky’s first feature length film immediately established him as a young director worth watching in Hollywood. Pi was rather low budget and simple in execution, but wrapped itself in a distinct aesthetic and developed some pretty high minded ideas, separating it from the pack of other rookie film efforts out there. The cinematography, shot in black and white, was stylish and interesting. The story often employed rapid, montage edits to develop a sense of the pattern and repetition in the main character’s life. The music, composed by Clint Mansell, was upbeat, unique, and kind of awesome. The story, that of a genius mathematician attempting to decode some sort of God equation that makes up life, the universe, and everything could get kind of heady; but it managed to keep itself interesting enough throughout. The real story when I was watching this one was the way in which it was crafted. If I’d had more of a film school 101 base of knowledge at the time, I might have looked at it in context of things like the early Russian montage filmmakers or the aestheic of the French New Wave, but at the time it felt completely unique; and still holds up as a promising look at what Aronofsky had to offer as an auteur.
5-American History X ****
American History X had a really cheesy, melodramatic looking trailer that was nonetheless effective, and had pretty much everybody I knew really pumped to go see it. I wasn’t so much in that crowd, but even going in as a skeptic I walked out of the theater thinking that this one was really well put together, interesting, and far more affecting than I would have imagined. It was just a victim of bad advertising that apparently only I thought was bad advertising. So, I guess not a victim at all. Ed Norton really shone in the lead role and solidified his place as a versatile actor that was willing to take any role and completely disappear into it. A strong crew of young supporting actors that were able to elevate their games to tackle some pretty serious material supported him well. The photography was exceptional. The ending was dramatic and effective without being mundane. This one really has a lot going for it and, from what I can tell, is still remembered fondly by a lot of people.
4-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ****
Senior year of high school was the perfect time for a young punk to discover the writing of the esteemed gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, and it was an even more perfect time for one of his books to get adapted into a film. That the guy who made 12 Monkeys was making it, and an insane looking Johnny Depp was settling back into Ed Wood territory by playing the Thompson inspired character was the hallucinogenic icing on the depressant cake. Terry Gilliam, as you might imagine, seems to have a lot of fun crafting the visual style of the manic, hallucinatory perspective of the two main characters, and the results are a constantly entertaining, visually dense filmgoing experience. Depp and Benicio Del Toro acting like complete madmen while traversing these dreamscapes takes the usual interesting Gilliam experience and augments it by making it the most comedic thing that he has done since his early Monty Python work. Throw in a million fun cameos and a script that is able to excise some of the more poignant monologues from Thompson’s book and present them in a new context, and you end up with a smart, funny, unique film that a fan of any of the people involved wouldn’t be disappointed in.
Happiness is certainly director Todd Solondz’s masterpiece, and it may be the most disgusting movie that I’ve ever really loved. A lot of people probably wouldn’t be able to get past the subject matter, rape, pedophilia, ennui, loneliness, etc… without having to turn the film off at some point; but if you’re able to suffer through the experience, what you find at the end is a beautifully told tale about struggling to find yourself in a cruel world and the dark side of human nature lurking just beneath all of our carefully manicured surfaces. Sprawling and Altman-like, the narrative follows several different plot lines that all become loosely related. If 97’s Gummo was a frank, disgusting look at a lower class world that I’ve never been a part of, then Happiness is an equally disturbing portrait of the world that I inhabit every day. A cavalcade of important actors come together to bring the intersecting stories together; this really can be viewed as the Laff Olympics of indie filmmaking, and everybody is excellent in their roles. The script is clever, subversive, and manages to remain subtle while dealing with very explicit material. Warning: don’t watch unless you’re willing to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman masturbate.
2-The Big Lebowski *****
The fact that The Big Lebowski didn’t make number one on my list is astounding. I can’t imagine many other years where this would have happened, as it is one of my very favorite films, and I wouldn’t have this much trouble ranking my year’s number one and number two again until 2007. The thing that I find most interested about this film is how universally beloved it is, but how I still feel that it is in a way criminally underrated. While people will talk your ear off about how much they love this film, it’s still looked at as a trifle, a diversion, a step back into absurdist material for the Coens after making a more “important” film in Fargo. I disagree. I think that if you look at Lebowski closely, it really starts to reveal itself as one of the most tightly written, intricately constructed films that I’ve ever seen. From the carefully crafted give and take of the dialogue, to the interesting, deliberate way everything is filmed from scene to scene, to the unfolding of a plot that hilariously feigns complexity but reveals simplicity under advanced scrutiny, Lebowski is in fact one of the most difficult pieces of filmmaking that I’ve seen attempted and one of the biggest successes when judging it by what it attempts and what it accomplishes. That it’s tone is more light-hearted and comedic than many other films that achieve critical acclaim shouldn’t be important. The Big Lebowski, apart from being wildly entertaining, infinitely quotable, and so memorable that it has become an ingrained part of pop culture, is also a technical achievement of the highest degree, and should be recognized not just as everyone’s favorite comedy to watch when they have their buddies over, but also as one of the truly great films from anytime in cinematic history. Ever.
1-Rushmore *****
Rushmore didn’t look like any other film that I had completely loved up to that point. There was no action element whatsoever. There were no guns, there were no drug deals, there was nothing edgy or controversial about it’s content, whatsoever. What was there was a dry wit that I’d never seen in a mainstream American anything ever before, a beautifully crafted aesthetic that looked like old school Hollywood but never felt like it was trying to be anything but itself, a soundtrack that went beyond just being a collection of underappreciated British invasion songs and actually worked to score the scenes in which they appeared better than any other music choices might have. The characters were quirky, but delightfully so. Their interacting dysfunctions could be at the same time heartbreaking and hilarious. It launched the career of Jason Schwartzman. It morphed everyone’s love of Bill Murray from the kind you have for your goofball uncle to the kind of embarrassing manlove you hold exclusive to your most intense mancrushes. If I had known what a hipster was at the time I probably could have felt myself turning into one. At one point the girl I was with and I were the only two people who laughed at one of the more subtle gags. I instantly decided that she was perfect. Rushmore felt smart, exclusive, something that could only be enjoyed by an elite group of people that I wasn’t aware of until this moment. It may have been my last real eye opening shock at discovering something the world had to offer that I was previously unaware of. Did I grow up during my viewing of Rushmore? Eegads, maybe that’s true! It’s something that’s rather embarrassing to say as an adult, but watching this movie had a huge part in making me who I am today. I love it dearly and it’s something I will take great joy in re-experiencing over and over again for the rest of my life. Just don’t tell anybody I said that, it’ll be our secret.
