Part I: A Day in the Life
Step with me into the patent-pending InQua time machine please. Keep your hands and feet inside the DeLorean at all times. We’re going 20 years into the past. 1999. To the day. Set the dials to nostalgia. Let’s go.
Do the people around know that they are in the middle of the greatest single year in cinema history. Hollywood has been making movies for a while, and will for a while more, but one year has to be the best. Why not ’99? The top end of 1994 makes a decent case, ’82 turned genre movies iconic, and 1939 gets nominated from the Veterans Committee, but I’ll take 1999 everytime. And you’re about to find out why.
Hindsight is 20/20 so before 2020 gets here I’ll be looking back 20 years to my favorite year in movies. This will be a series because no one article can capture a whole year. I’ll be examining franchises and the death of original ideas in Hollywood, how we invent conflict in a time of prosperity, and trope trends that were born and killed leading up to the new millennium. But first, let’s get a feel for the year.
Our time machine dropped us on August 6, 1999. Let’s go to the movies.
The Sixth Sense (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
There are four movies hitting wide-release today and they couldn’t be any more different, and yet all great.
First, a winner at the box office this week, the next four weeks (including what is still in 2019 the second highest Labor Day weekend take. Sure not a milestone weekend on the box office calendar, but it was also Sixth Sense’s fifth week of release. Impressive.), and the eventual second highest grossing movie of the year.
You can care about box office numbers or not, but I think it’s relevant when talking about this movie in particular because of the kind of movie that it is. The Sixth Sense is a top 10 atmospheric supernatural thriller before it gets to the twist that everyone knows by now (but remember we’re in a time machine so I’ll try not to spoil the most spoilable movie of all time). After you watch it your mind is blown, it becomes the best atmospheric supernatural thriller, and then you need to watch it again. M. Night Shyamalan’s debut* movie is second only to Shrek when it comes to second weekend drops at the box office, among movies that were top their first weekend AND didn’t have a Christmas bump in that second weekend. Why? Because people needed to see it again with that new perspective. Unlike some of his later films that are hamstrung by the twist on repeat viewings, this is the epitome of a movie that is better the second time around. It stood the test of time in theaters in 1999 and holds up still today.
It’s not very often, and even less often outside October, that horror movies sit at numbers one and two at the box office, but welcome to Summer ’99. The cult phenomenon in the making The Blair Witch Project is in its second week of wide release. Teens and young adults everywhere were sucked in by the viral marketing and stories of what really happened. Or maybe you’re looking for the counter programming of Runaway Bride, a Julia Roberts/Richard Gere throwback rom-com. If none of that strikes you, check out the fourth biggest movie of this weekend 20 years ago.
The Thomas Crown Affair (dir. John McTiernan)
Yes, Bruce Willis fans from the last movie, that John McTiernan. Less Predator though and more, well Eyes Wide Shut to use an example from the year. This is an erotic heist movie about art starring James Bond. And honestly it’s Brosnan’s best Bond movie (admitted weakness of ’99 as The Best Year In Cinema: a bad Bond movie).
It opens with an elaborate heist of a priceless Monet from the New York Met. We don’t have to wait long to see that it was all orchestrated by Pierce Brosnan’s titular Thomas Crown. The theft is investigated by the police with assistance from art insurance lady Rene Russo. In a kind of sexy Columbo fashion, the tension isn’t built finding out who done it, but more the interaction between two people and an audience who all know who done it and enjoy the dance of proving it.
The classic Bond movies weren’t action adventures, and James wasn’t a hero. What he was, was a charismatic ass that always came out on top. The enjoyable action scenes in The Thomas Crown Affair aren’t about set pieces and car chases. They are about the sexual and professional tension between Brosnan and Russo in simple scenarios where they take turns outwitting each other. And always outwitting Detective Denis Leary.
It could get lost in such a great year, but it helps build the depth that makes 1999 the best year.
Deep Blue Sea rounded out the top five at the box office this weekend, but it’s the action-comedy that came in sixth we need to talk about next.
Mystery Men (dir. Kinka Usher)
Yup it only took 20 years for Hollywood to go from Mystery Men to Avengers: Endgame. It doesn’t seem like a long time, but anything can happen if you believe.
Also even though it seems an eternity away now, the people next to where this time machine landed just saw Batman & Robin two years ago and are still a year away from the serious black leather of X-Men. Mystery Men is a kind of relic of The Forgotten Age of the comic book movie.
So sure it didn’t spawn the Flaming Carrot Cinematic Universe, but it is a hilarious subversive look at the superhero world. In 2019, movie watching people are ready for Deadpool to deconstruct the comic book world and its superhero landings, but Deadpool was born on the page in the 90’s. An age where comics were looking in the mirror and poking a little fun.
It is cliched and often just wrong analysis when someone says anything was ahead of its time. Often that thing being ahead of its time, caused the time you think it was ahead of to arrive. Mystery Men was ahead of its time. It perfectly parodies superheroes, their alter-egos (that the MCU does not care a lick about), and their villains. Now that everyone is familiar with the comic book format more people should join me in the time machine to see Mystery Men.
Also in case you forget that it was ’99 it stars young Kel Mitchell and takes you to credits with All-Star by Smashmouth. So I guess not too ahead of its time.
The Iron Giant (dir. Brad Bird)
The mystery of the whole year is what people were watching instead of the best animated movie of all time. It’s not like people couldn’t find it. It’s playing in more theaters this weekend than The Sixth Sense or Mystery Men. It’s not like it didn’t have star power. It had the voices of Harry Connick Jr. and peak-Friends-era-Jennifer Aniston. It’s not like it didn’t get great reviews. Ebert gave it 3.5 stars (out of 4 in case you aren’t familiar with the great one’s method).
It just wasn’t Disney.
One thing that hasn’t changed from 1999 to 2019 is that Disney owns the world. It was different then, and it wasn’t always true in between, but it certainly was the case. 1999 was actually a time of transition for the Mouse House. They might not have known then, but their Renaissance would end this year with the release of Tarzan. Sure I love Atlantis, The Emperor’s New Groove, and Treasure Planet more than half of the actual Renaissance era movies, but it is clearly a different time for the studio.
The Iron Giant meanwhile wasn’t a musical, had no talking animal sidekicks, took place in Red Scare America, and had a rougher animation look than the smooth Disney princesses. It was very not Disney.
But it was a great movie.
They took the boy and his dog story and gave the dog the power of a nuclear warhead. It is perfectly reminiscent of E.T. but with the more imaginative look and action that animation can provide. It captured the helplessness of being a kid and still had the kid be the hero, not by having any special power or chosen-one-ness, but by being nice and teaching the giant that it’s bad to kill and we have the power to choose who we become.
I’m a crier in movies. It’s very easy to get me to well up. But this one deserves it. The way they set up everything early and pay it off at the end makes for a tight script. Honestly when I was crying during the first Wreck-It Ralph it’s because it reminded me of The Iron Giant.
Emotion and a perfect story with a clear message. One of my favorite movies of all time.
Next Time on The Greatest Year in Movies
Alright folks pack it up, the time machine is headed back. Hope you watched a couple movies over the weekend and had tons of fun enjoying the 90’s again. Heck and that was just one weekend of movies, there were 51 others that we need to talk about too.
The Iron Giant isn’t the only flick of 1999 on my top 30-whatever list. (It started as 25 but then I watched more great movies). In Part II I’ll talk about my favorites of the year, the awards winners, and the weird thread they share.
Feelin’ nostalgic with all that talk of 1999? Check out his article ranking of Pixar’s movies over the years.