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The Year in Movies
Hollywood followed the lead of trailblazing independents, producing a slate of dark, edgy films
DESPITE THE TYPICAL deluge of summer high-octane blockbusters, Hollywood finally got it in 1999: bigger does not always mean better. It only took a century of filmmaking for the suits in Tinseltown to realize they can make it big by thinking small.
Miramax, the semi-independent studio owned by Disney, has defined itself with a steady slate of highbrow, often controversial films and has thus been perennially rewarded at Oscar time. This year many studios have started to reinvent themselves to look more like indies and have released more quirky films and less formula-driven drivel.
Dark, Edgy Cinema
INDEED, 1999 WAS NOT a stellar year for feel-good cinema; dark, edgy
comedies ruled the roost. DreamWorks’ scathing look at materialism and
suburbia, American
Beauty, boasted impeccable acting and writing and fully realized
characters. David Fincher’s homoerotic, ultra-violent Fight Club (Fox
2000) also unapologetically examined materialism 1990s-style, with risky,
decidedly unglamorous turns by pretty boys Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.
Paramount’s Election,
starring Reese Witherspoonand Matthew Broderick,broke the teen-film mold, perfectly capturing the cynicism and ruthlessness of
high school.
Films don’t get much darker than Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr.
Ripley, starring Gwyneth
Paltrow and Matt
Damon. Damon plays a desperate social climber who stops at nothing to be
perceived as one of the beautiful people. David O. Russell’s Three Kings casts a
cynical eye on the Gulf
War and manages to attack Arab stereotypes, the media, and President Bush’s
handling of the war, while maintaining stylized visual flair.
The Independents
DESPITE THE DARK FILMS produced by the major studios, the independents haven't lost their edge. Fox Searchlight earned wide praise for Boys Don’t Cry, the
raw, powerful fictionalization of the real-life story of Teena Brandon, a young
Nebraskan who transformed herself into a man with seamless transvestism. In his
directorial debut, Being
John Malkovich, revered video director Spike Jonze took viewers on a
madcap surreal comedy straight into John Malkovich's consciousness.
And who can forget the summer event? No, not Star Wars Episode I: The
Phantom Menace. That other sure-to-be-cult-classic, The Blair Witch Project.
Like it or hate it, the film redefined the horror genre.
Blockbusters Move Beyond Formula
THE HANDFUL OF BLOCKBUSTERS that reaped big profits in 1999 looked
beyond formula. Ultra-sleek cyberthriller The Matrix, one of
the year’s top-grossing films with a $171 million box office, was keenly
forward-thinking and demanding of its vast audience. M. Night Shyamalan
perfected writing, setting, and pace in the eerily symbolic The Sixth Sense. How
often can one say that Bruce
Willis gave an emotionally rich performance?
Toy
Story 2 managed to surpass the original, both in storytelling and
technology and took in a whopping $80.5 million in its five-day opening
weekend. Who would’ve thought that such blatant product placement could be so
much fun? Disney also realized that music doesn’t have to overpower their
animated extravaganzas. In Tarzan, Phil
Collins' score subtly complemented the action and the lush visuals.
The Stars are Dimly Shining
Nevertheless, studios found once again that big-name
bankable stars, such as Mel
Gibson, Harrison
Ford, Tom Cruise,
Sandra Bullock, and Julia Roberts, don’t
automatically fill multiplexes. Indeed, Gibson’s Payback didn’t pay
off at the box office, and interminable buzz couldn’t open eyes to Stanley Kubrick’s last
film, Eyes Wide Shut,
which starred husband and wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Does
anyone even remember Bullock’s Forces of Nature?
In 1999, audiences, studios, and theater owners triumphed;
film fans actually had several options at theaters; and the 1999 box office is
expected to shatter all previous records. So far, there has been no runaway hit
the likes of Titanic.
American Beauty, The Insider, and Three Kings have
all deservedly won best movie honors. While the last year of the century will
not crown a new King of the World, it has made the aristocrats more aware of
the peasants.
[ The Movies of 1999 ]
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