1999--The Year in Review

Some time ago, I launched a series on this site called The 9 Years, calling attention to the final years of each decade as, possibly, the most cinematically fruitful of their times. Though 2009 disappointed me in this regard, I still think that the last year of the 20th Century's filmic decades constituted the most valuable of their periods due to an almost subliminal call for its filmmakers to underline their previous works, or to at least make a mark on the decade. The famed movie year 1939 was a bear to overcome in quality, yet 1969 and 1979 did so quite surely. But 1999 is indubitably in the running for the greatest movie year ever. It took a long time for me to decide which film from this fantastic year should come out on top--I really had to review all the top 20. But, finally, I could not settle on anything other than Paul Thomas Anderson's effusively emotional, mindbending omnibus Magnolia, which feels like it encapsulates the entire 20th Century in its three-hour running time. It lushly calls back to previous decades while perfectly encapsulating that point where we, frankly, still remain. Its cast is an Altmanesque collection of the era's finest actors, backed by a wave of powerful, image-driven feeling that still is nearly unprecedented. It stands as gold medal to Mr. Anderson, a newly-minted master of filmmaking.

This is such a landmark year that I had to expand my nominations lists to include everything I thought was worthy, including: Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh's effervescent look at Gilbert and Sullivan's building of their chief work The Mikado; Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick's divisive but as yet misunderstood inspection of the deceit incipient in marriage; Alexander Payne's Election, a slyly insightful dissection of political play commanded by Reese Witherspoon's searing lead; three of the finest animated films ever made in Toy Story 2, The Iron Giant, and South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut; The Matrix, the Wachowski's gateway smash into a digitally-driven filmworld; David Fincher's bold and unflinching social critique Fight Club; The Insider, Michael Mann's tense, thriller-like audit of the tobacco lobby's legacy; Pedro Almodovar's masterpiece of gender-bending drama All About My Mother; Richard Sandler's brilliant and largely undiscovered The Gods of Times Square, a searching document of faith draped over a sketch of a valued world destination's transformation; Mike Judge's surprise video hit Office Space, which redefined modern worklife in depressing but wonderfully comedic ways; the eventual Oscar winner American Beauty, an exactingly wrought suburban drama that's fallen in popular estimation while remaining stark and insightful; David Lynch's stunningly restrained yet decidedly dark Disney production The Straight Story, with its supreme lead performance by Richard Farnsworth; Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich which, armed with an adventurous Charlie Kaufman screenplay, shattered the rules on where film could venture; American Movie, Chris Price's raucous peeling away of the popular desire for fame and success; The Talented Mr. Ripley, Anthony Minghella's gapingly eerie remake of the already brilliant Purple Noon; an edgy, brutally comedic look at the US involvement in the Middle East named Three Kings; and Werner Herzog's My Best Fiend, a familial assessment of his connection to his famously wild collaborator Klaus Kinski. And, in all of this, I'm not even touching on a third of the remarkable works that make 1999 so astounding. It was a truly incredible year, with prodigious, hysterical, moving things around every corner. We can only hope we'll see its like again. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: MAGNOLIA (US, Paul Thomas Anderson)
(2nd: Topsy Turvy (UK, Mike Leigh)
followed by: The Insider (US, Michael Mann)
Eyes Wide Shut (US, Stanley Kubrick)
Election (US, Alexander Payne)
The Iron Giant (US, Brad Bird)
All About My Mother (Spain, Pedro Almodóvar)
The Matrix (US, Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski)
The Gods of Times Square (US, Richard Sandler)
The Straight Story (US, David Lynch)
Office Space (US, Mike Judge)
Toy Story 2 (US, Ash Brannon and John Lasseter)
American Movie (US, Chris Smith)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (US, Anthony Minghella)
Three Kings (US, David O. Russell)
Fight Club (US, David Fincher)
My Best Fiend (Germany, Werner Herzog)
American Beauty (US, Sam Mendes)
Being John Malkovich (US, Spike Jonze)
Kikujiro (Japan, Takeshi Kitano)
Public Housing (US, Frederick Wiseman)
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (US, Trey Parker)
Galaxy Quest (US, Dean Parisot)
Rosetta (Belgium/France, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne)
Ratcatcher (UK, Lynne Ramsay)
Buena Vista Social Club (Germany/US/UK/France/Cuba, Wim Wenders)
Titus (US, Julie Taymor)
The Limey (US, Steven Soderbergh)
The Wind Will Carry Us (Iran, Abbas Kiarostami)
Limbo (US, John Sayles)
Mystery Men (US, Kinka Usher)
eXistenZ (Canada, David Cronenberg)
The End of the Affair (UK/US, Neil Jordan)
My Voyage to Italy (US/Italy, Martin Scorsese)
The Virgin Suicides (US, Sofia Coppola)
Beau Travail (France, Claire Denis)
L’Humanité (France, Bruno Dumont)
The War Zone (UK, Tim Roth)
Sweet and Lowdown (US, Woody Allen)
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (US, Errol Morris)
The Color of Paradise (Iran, Majid Majidi)
The Last Days (US, James Moll)
Cremaster 2 (US, Matthew Barney)
One Day in September (Switzerland/ Germany/UK, Kevin Macdonald)
Bringing Out the Dead (US, Martin Scorsese
The Winslow Boy (US, David Mamet)
Genghis Blues (US, Roko Belic)
The Girl on the Bridge (France, Patrice Leconte)
Go (US, Doug Liman)
Bowfinger (US, Frank Oz)
Audition (Japan, Takashi Miike)
Boys Don’t Cry (US, Kimberley Peirce)
The Blair Witch Project (US, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez)
A Map of the World (US, Scott Elliott)
Dick (US, Andrew Fleming)
Cookie's Fortune (US, Robert Altman)
October Sky (US, Joe Johnston)
The Cider House Rules (US, Lasse Hallström)
Judy Berlin (US, Eric Mendelsohn)
The Sixth Sense (US, M. Night Shyamalan)
Mansfield Park (UK, Patricia Rozema)
An Ideal Husband (UK/US, Oliver Parker)
Ghost Dog: The Way o f the Samurai (US, Jim Jarmusch)
Wisconsin Death Trip (UK/US, James Marsh)
Aimee and Jaguar (Germany, Max Farberbock)
Cradle Will Rock (US, Tim Robbins)
Mifune (Denmark/Sweden, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen)
Felicia's Journey (Canada/UK, Atom Egoyan)
Three Seasons (Vietnam/US, Tony Bui)
A Walk on the Moon (US, Tony Goldwyn)
Jesus' Son (US/Canada, Alison Maclean)
Life (US, John Landis)
Fantasia 2000 (US, James Algar, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, et al)
Guinevere (US, Audrey Wells)
Dogma (US, Kevin Smith)
Ride With the Devil (US, Ang Lee)
10 Things I Hate About You (US, Gil Junger)
The Ninth Gate (Spain/France/US, Roman Polanski)
American Pie (US, Paul Weitz)
Romance (France, Catherine Breillat))

ACTOR: Richard Farnsworth, THE STRAIGHT STORY (2nd: Russell Crowe, The Insider, followed by: Matt Damon, The Talented Mr. Ripley; Kevin Spacey, American Beauty; Terrence Stamp, The Limey; Jim Broadbent, Topsy-Turvy; Al Pacino, The Insider; Matthew Broderick, Election; Ray Winstone, The War Zone; Sean Penn, Sweet and Lowdown)



ACTRESS: Reese Witherspoon, ELECTION (2nd: Annette Bening, American Beauty, followed by: Nicole Kidman, Eyes Wide Shut; Cecelia Roth, All About My Mother; Julianne Moore, The End of the Affair; Hillary Swank, Boys Don’t Cry; Sigourney Weaver, A Map of the World; Diane Lane, A Walk on the Moon; Edie Falco, Judy Berlin; Janet McTeer, Tumbleweeds)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Tom Cruise, MAGNOLIA (2nd: John C. Reilly, Magnolia, followed by: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Magnolia; Harry Lennix, Titus; Christopher Plummer, The Insider; John Malkovich, Being John Malkovich; Alan Rickman, Galaxy Quest; Timothy Spall, Topsy-Turvy; Haley Joel Osment, The Sixth Sense; Sam Rockwell, Galaxy Quest)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Melora Walters, MAGNOLIA (2nd: Julianne Moore, Magnolia, followed by: Leslie Manville, Topsy-Turvy; Catherine Keener, Being John Malkovich; Samantha Morton, Sweet and Lowdown; Chloe Sevigny, Boys Don’t Cry; Janeane Garafalo, Mystery Men; Sissy Spacek, The Straight Story; Helena Bonham Carter, Fight Club; Toni Collette, The Sixth Sense)



DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson, MAGNOLIA (2nd: Mike Leigh, Topsy-Turvy, followed by: Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut; Michael Mann, The Insider; Richard Sandler, The Gods of Times Square; Alexander Payne, Election; Pedro Almodovar, All About My Mother; Brad Bird, The Iron Giant; David Lynch, The Straight Story; Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich)



NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (Spain, Pedro Almodóvar) (2nd: My Best Fiend (Germany, Werner Herzog), followed by: Kikujiro (Japan, Takeshi Kitano); Rosetta (Belgium/France, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne); Buena Vista Social Club (Germany/US/UK/France/Cuba, Wim Wenders); The Wind Will Carry Us (Iran, Abbas Kiarostami); Beau Travail (France, Claire Denis); L’Humanité (France, Bruno Dumont); The Color of Paradise (Iran, Majid Majidi); The Girl on the Bridge (France, Patrice Leconte); Audition (Japan, Takashi Miike); Aimee and Jaguar (Germany, Max Farberbock); Mifune (Denmark/Sweden, Søren Kragh-Jacobsen))

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: THE GODS OF TIMES SQUARE (US, Richard Sandler) (2nd: American Movie (US, Chris Smith), followed by: My Best Fiend (Germany, Werner Herzog); Public Housing (US, Frederick Wiseman); Buena Vista Social Club (Germany/US/UK/France/Cuba, Wim Wenders); My Voyage to Italy (US/Italy, Martin Scorsese); Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (US, Errol Morris); The Last Days (US, James Moll); One Day in September (Switzerland/ Germany/UK, Kevin Macdonald); Genghis Blues (US, Roko Belic); Wisconsin Death Trip (UK/US, James Marsh))



ANIMATED FEATURE: THE IRON GIANT (US, Brad Bird) (2nd: Toy Story 2 (US, John Lasseter), followed by: South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (US, Trey Parker and Matt Stone))



ANIMATED SHORT: THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (Russia, Aleksandr Petrov) (2nd: My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts (Canada/Norway, Torill Kove), followed by: When the Day Breaks (Canada, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby); 3 Misses (Netherlands, Paul Driessen)

LIVE ACTION SHORT: GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE (US, Joe Nussbaum) (2nd: All is Full of Love (UK, Chris Cunningham), followed by: My Mother Dreams the Satan's Disciples in New York (US, Barbara Schock); Chrono-Perambulator (Ireland, Damian O'Donnell))

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Paul Thomas Anderson, MAGNOLIA (2nd: Mike Leigh, Topsy-Turvy, followed by: Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich; John Ridley and David O. Russell, Three Kings; Pedro Almodovar, All About My Mother; David Howard and Robert Gordon, Galaxy Quest; Alan Ball, American Beauty; John Roach and Mary Sweeney, The Straight Story; John Sayles, Limbo; Steve Martin, Bowfinger)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, ELECTION (2nd: Mike Judge, Office Space, followed by: Eric Roth and Michael Mann, The Insider; Anthony Minghella, The Talented Mr. Ripley; Tim McCanlies and Brad Bird, The Iron Giant; Jim Uhls, Fight Club; John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Ash Brannon, Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlin and Chris Webb, Toy Story 2; Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael, Eyes Wide Shut; Matt Stone and Trey Parker, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut; John Irving, The Cider House Rules)



CINEMATOGRAPHY: Conrad Hall, AMERICAN BEAUTY (2nd: Larry Smith, Eyes Wide Shut, followed by: Freddie Francis, The Straight Story; Robert Elswit, Magnolia; Newton Thomas Sigel, Three Kings; Richard Sandler, The Gods of Times Square; Bill Pope, The Matrix; Dante Spinotti, The Insider; Luciano Tavoli, Titus; Dick Pope, Topsy-Turvy)



ART DIRECTION: TOPSY-TURVY, The Matrix, Titus, Eyes Wide Shut, Mystery Men, Sleepy Hollow 

COSTUME DESIGN: TOPSY-TURVY, Titus, Mystery Men, Sleepy Hollow, William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sweet and Lowdown



FILM EDITING: THE MATRIX, Magnolia, The Insider, Fight Club, The Gods of Times Square, Three Kings

SOUND: THE MATRIX, Magnolia, The Insider, Fight Club, Toy Story 2, The Iron Giant

SOUND EFFECTS: THE MATRIX, Fight Club, The Iron Giant



ORIGINAL SCORE: Thomas Newman, AMERICAN BEAUTY (2nd: Angelo Badalamenti, The Straight Story, followed by: Pieter Bourke and Lisa Gerrard, The Insider; Gabriel Yared, The Talented Mr. Ripley; Jon Brion, Magnolia; Carter Burwell, Being John Malkovich; Randy Newman; Toy Story 2; Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, The Virgin Suicides; Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman, Ravenous; Michael Kamen, The Iron Giant)



ADAPTATION SCORE/SCORING OF A MUSICAL: Gary Yershon, TOPSY-TURVY (2nd: Marc Shaiman and Trey Parker, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut) 





ORIGINAL SONG: (TIE) “When She Loved Me” from TOY STORY 2 (Music and lyrics by Randy Newman) and “Save Me” from MAGNOLIA (Music and lyrics by Aimee Mann) (2nd: “I Can Change” from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Music and lyrics by Trey Parker), followed by: “Wise Up” from Magnolia (Music and lyrics by Aimee Mann); “Beautiful Stranger” from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Music and lyrics by Madonna and William Orbit); “Uncle Fucka” from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Music and lyrics by Trey Parker); "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan (Music and lyrics by Phil Collins))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: THE MATRIX, Fight Club, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Stuart Little, Magnolia

MAKEUP: TOPSY-TURVY, Titus, eXistenZ, Galaxy Quest, Life

2013 Atlanta Film Festival: Opening Night, and MUD

March 15th of this year marked the debut of 2013's Atlanta Film Festival and, per usual, it means (1) a generous host of boisterous parties, (2) a buncha Atlanta- and Georgia-based movies of sometimes impressive, sometimes dubious quality, the inclusion of whom is meant to scratch the backs of those filmmakers that work in the region, and (3) sometimes truly great film product--often NOT based in the Southern United States--that might not get public viewings any other way (I should point out that there are VERY few non-English-language titles programmed here, because they are inevitably low-attended by the locals, who presumably do not cotton to subtitles).   What that means for someone like me, who's always into watching something superb, is that (1) I cannot go to too many of those wild parties, because the free-flowing liquor can hobble clear-headed assessment, (2) I need to avoid most Atlanta- and Georgia-based productions because they're accepted without regard to quality, but instead on the basis of which of the AFF film festival programmers/board members they know personally, and, as a result (3) I have to choose my screenings VERY carefully, in the hopes of being able to deliver a kind number of favorable notices and to, thereby, have an enjoyable time myself (since all I really care about here is seeing good movies, as watching a bad movie is quite painful to me).  But, really, at the point that I am writing this, I suppose I have picked correctly, because 90% of everything that I have seen at this year's Atlanta Film Festival has been unwaveringly splendid. 

As always, I attended the opening night film (hosted at the city's oldest continually running movie theater, the recently--and fabulously--refurbished Plaza Theater--where I personally worked from 1992 to 2001) and festivities (the inaugural party, at Atlanta's amazing Paris on Ponce, is always an immense treat).  But I didn't talk to too many attendees, because I don't want to set them or myself up for disappointment.   Always at a film festival like this one (and it's similar to many film fests all across the U.S.), if you meet too many filmmakers (who are all, I believe, genuinely nice people), a serious film maven can find themselves committing to see some movies that might be of a lesser quality than other works that do not have their makers in attendance.   The flip side of that coin is that sometimes you meet a filmmaker that is so vociferous about the quality of their movie that you can be swayed to see it, and be pleasantly surprised at the fact that their show is as good as they hype it.  The more experience you have at a festival, the better one is at figuring out who has the goods and who doesn't.   As for me, I would have to characterize myself as someone who is informed, but still able to be deceived (because, really, I want to believe every movie out there is a masterpiece). 

One thing I can confidently say about the AFF is that it's very much fun to attend (for those with Filmmaker, Staff, and All-Access badges; those with Press badges like myself, perhaps a little less so, as they're not really used to press coverage here).   There are get-togethers galore, a fine set of informative seminars (on producing, screenwriting, and technical concerns), and one really gets the impression that the festival heads really care about showing their attendees a good time.   But, though I've seen 90% terrific stuff this year, I still have to wonder if the heads at this festival are totally committed to showing the best of the best out of their 2000+ entrants.  Still, I realize they are programming for a local audience, and that they are looking to get butts in seats and, in Atlanta, that means focusing IN on Atlanta product.   This is a landlocked city in more ways than one.

The opening night movie this year was a mostly tasty but briefly ever-so-sour plum.  Jeff Nichols' follow-up to his breakthrough feature Take Shelter (a film that was highly praised, and rightly so, for Michael Shannon's lead performance, but which left me with a WTF reaction, and not in a good way) is a film called Mud.  In it, Matthew McConaughey plays the title character, whose name is Mud both literally and figuratively.  He's a starving man living in isolation on a wooded island, whose prized possessions are his shirt and his pistol, and who is seeking shelter from the crime boss (a bulldogish Joe Don Baker) who's after his hide after he killed his son, a man who raped Mud's estranged lifelong love (played by Reese Witherspoon, in a largely insubstantial role for an actress such as she).  All that know Mud characterize him as an imbalanced, unreliable, habitual liar.  But the viewer get to know him in a different light.  (McConaughey's performance here, by the way, is quite respectable, but not on that Magic Mike level, though still it's one that let's us know that the actor's mind is currently on much more serious footing.)

Thankfully, Mud is entirely, and very wisely, shot through the eyes of its true main characters: pre-teen newcomers Tye Sheridan as Ellis (the film's extraordinary and true lead actor) and his adventurous co-hort Neckbone (played by first-time actor James Lofland in a fun performance).   They are Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, in a way, and their presence makes this film into a Southern-fried boy's adventure story, but with heart and realistic sentiment.   Ellis and Neckbone run across Mud after investigating a mysterious boat that's caught up in the trees of this deserted island (a wonderfully surreal image, that).  Upon noting the boys' intrusion, Mud comes out of the woodworks and asks what they are doing messing around in his boat, and then quickly forges a friendly bond with the boys that thrust them into the middle of the drama he himself (he's a boy, too, at heart) is caught up in.   In this way, the film owes a debt to Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, another story in which a criminal gets a boy to do his bidding (though here the deed is done with friendship rather than fear as a motive).

Nichols' film has a notable cast that includes Sam Shepard as a hermetic old coot who may or may not be Mud's father (the actor totally owns a few of the movie's best moments), Michael Shannon (as Neckbone's offbeat uncle and guardian), and Ray McKinnon as Ellis' dad.  McKinnon is terrific here, in a larger role than has ever been won by this Georgia-born filmmaker/performer (who won an Oscar in 2001 for his--and his late wife, actress Lisa Blount's--short film The Accountant, after which McKinnon became further recognized for roles in The Blind Side, Take Shelter and HBO's Deadwood). As you might be able to tell, this is very much a story about fathers and sons, and that makes it a very male-oriented tale; the females in Mud, including Witherspoon's femme fatale Juniper, Ellis' dissatisfied mother (Sarah Paulson), and Ellis' older first love May Pearl (a very fine Bonnie Sturdivant) are portrayed as largely distrustful harpies. 

Still, Mud is satisfying Saturday-afternoon fun, and this is almost completely because of the lovely performances given by Sheridan and Lofland, who are clearly the stars here.   Adventurous and randy, Lofland gets many of the laughs in the film (I love his line deliveries, even if they sometimes feel charmingly stilted, as might be expected from a newly-minted actor), and Sheridan completely steals the movie in every scene.   I'm remembering now his blushing glow as his receives his first kiss from Sturdivant, his honest back-and-forth while confiding with dad McKinnon in the family truck, and his stultifying heartbreak at the realization he's been deceived and used by Mud (this is a really GREAT scene--perhaps the film's pinnacle--and one can chalk it up to Sheridan's preternatural acting). 

Nichols should be commended here, too, for constructing an utterly credible Southern atmosphere that never feels insulting to the region or its people, while being absolutely true to its Arkansas locale (in that way, the film reminds me a little of Billy Bob Thornton's Sling Blade, another Arkansas-based personable epic, to which Mud is indebted but cannot hope to match).  The art direction is realistically grimy, the locations are naturally breathtaking, the cinematography--by Adam Stone--sports equal moments of credible degradation and glorious beauty (I love the sun-dappled look of this movie, and it has a quite moving final shot) and Nichols' screenplay deftly walks a delicate line between grubby pulp and genuine sweetness.   In this way, I'm forced to wonder if Mud will appeal to those who loved Take Shelter, as this is a much less cynical story.  But I surely hope this perfectly entertaining little film brings fans over to that island where Nichols' generous head currently resides.