He Can Only Do This Ten Times

I'll soon be posting my eagerly anticipated film year in review. I tend to do it a few weeks into January so I can catch up on all the holiday films.

Meanwhile, my friend Jesse Walker has started his annual look back at previous decades' best. Right now, he's got up the best for 1999, which looks like a pretty good year. (Why is it the further away, the better they look?)

First off, Jesse sniffs at American Beauty, the Best Picture Oscar winner. He didn't like it on second viewing. Here's my opinion of a second viewing.

I agree with many of his picks (though not necessarily the rankings). I liked Election, The Limey, Mr. Death, Toy Story 2 (though I think it's absurd to rank it higher than the first), South Park and Being John Malkovich.

On the other hand, Magnolia was a huge disappointment. I'd loved Boogie Nights, and eagerly awaited PTA's next. Turned out he was great showing the mindless hopes of the inarticulate, but having allegedly intelligent, sensitive people making big speeches, in the middle of absurd plot mechanics, was dispiriting. I tried to watch Magnolia years later and couldn't make it all the way through.

As for Fight Club, I've written in the past how I consider it an interesting failure.

I like John Sayles more than Jesse does, and liked Limbo less. And I'm sorry, the title doesn't excuse the ending.

Didn't see Belfast, Maine.

I also liked many of his honorable mentions, including Ghost Dog, All About My Mother, Boys Don't Cry and Audition (is "like" the right word for Audition?). I'm still on the fence about The Matrix, and I positively despise Three Kings. Still don't get Jesse putting TV shows on the list.

Here's some stuff he missed from that year (according to my records--perhaps they're not 1999 films for him), at least a few of which would have made my top ten:

Princess Mononoke, Go, Run Lola Run, Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (rotten title), Galaxy Quest, Topsy-Turvy (which I've grown to like more and more), The Dinner Game (a fine farce), Office Space (even if it falls apart) and The Green Mile (underrated, though not as underrated as Shawshank is overrated).

Other movies that year he didn't mention which many think of highly:

The Sixth Sense, Man On The Moon, Cider House Rules, Eyes Wide Shut, The Thin Red Line, The Blair Witch Project, The Insider (the story of how the tobacco industry managed to hide that cigarettes are bad for you--in the 1990s), The Iron Giant, The Straight Story.