Having reached the end of the year, I thought I'd go back and jot down brief notes about all the 161 films I saw this year. Those notes follow. I had set a goal of seeing 200, but a summer's sabatical in Memphis and a fall spent traveling and working too much conspired against me. But hey--there's always next year! Note that many of these films were not new in '99--the list is "movies I saw," not "new movies I saw," meaning there are films here that were released many years before. If it's here, it just means that I watched it in 1999. Many of these I'd also seen before, and some I saw multiple times in '99, but my tally is by number of titles, not number of viewings. Films are listed in the order I saw them.

Army of Darkness
Sam Raimi's wacky comedy-action-horror flick remains a treat. Its charm fades on repeated viewings--this was probably the fifth time I've seen the damn thing--but lines like "Listen up, you primitive screwheads!" retain their audacious pleasure.

Thin Red Line
I was knocked out by the sensory overload and soft-hearted schmaltz of Saving Private Ryan, but went to this film with open eyes. I rented Malick's Badlands a while beforehand ('98) and found it amazing. Line was a pleasure to watch in the theater. It wasn't much of a story, but as a series of vignettes it was magical, and it succeeded in putting me into a sort of zen state for a couple hours, awash in the beautiful imagery. Some could call that zen state "boredom" but it was a pleasant-enough state that I'm willing to give this one good marks.

Midnight Cowboy
My first viewing of this classic, which lived up to its reputation. It also helped me finally and retroactively get a lot of jokes and visual references that had heretofore eluded me. Well worth watching, and it was interesting seeing Jon Voight as a young man--I've mostly seen him in his comeback phase of the last few years. The Warhol-esque party scenes were a hoot.

Twelve Monkeys
I dig Terry Gilliam, and this movie is reasonably enjoyable, but it just doesn't grab me the way his other films do.

Out of Sight
One of the very best films I saw this year--I actually watched it three times in one week. Stunning film-making, funny scripting, winning performances.

Double Indemnity
Enjoyable noir classic. Didn't really stick with me, but I had a good time watching Fred MacMurray tough-talk his way through a flick.

The Year of Living Dangerously
One of my very favorite movies, this was the first time I've seen it in widescreen. A wonderful, wonderful romantic movie.

Metropolitan
Barcelona
Last Days of Disco
I'd been meaning to check out this Whit Stillman guy, so I rented his first three films and watched them over a weekend. Great, fun stuff. Barcelona features a comedic actor whose name escapes me, but whose work in this film and in Kicking and Screaming has been a pleasure to watch. He's now on some sitcom called It's Like, You Know, which hasn't done much for me.

A Taxing Woman
Passably entertaining flick about a female tax investigator in Japan and the crook she's investigating. Not as charming as I'd hoped, but pretty enjoyable.

Rasputin
Droning, listless Russian biopic of the famed royal-family interloper. Worth points for a jarring historical realization: freaking mystic Rasputin used the telephone! The Russian royal family was rich enough to have telephones installed in their palace, so you get weird scenes where the guy picks up the phone and says "Hello, Rasputin." Totally threw my sense of history, in which Rasputin was linked with 19th-century weirdness and never 20th-century technology. Also good for the ending scene, where they bury Rasputin to the sounds of him kicking at the lid.

High and Low
Interesting Kurosawa crime thriller, based on an Ed McBain novel. The premise is great: a wealthy businessman's son is kidnapped for ransom, and paying the huge ransom will sabotage his current make-or-break investment, with ruinous effects on his family. Even so, he's more than willing to sacrifice everything and pay--until it turns out the kidnappers got his chauffeur's son by mistake, and his own son is safe... This intriguing idea is played out in the first act, unfortunately, but the rest of the film is still interesting on its own merits as a good thriller.

City on Fire
Famous Ringo Lam actioner with the inestimable Chow Yun-Fat, perhaps known best for the bleeding chunks of plot and action that Quentin Tarantino ripped off for Reservoir Dogs. Although the thefts are obvious, Tarantino's film remains excellent on its own merits for the original bits. City on Fire is pretty typical Lam fare, meaning it's got lots of great action and melodrama. Nothing wrong here, but it didn't blow me away, so to speak.

A Taxing Woman Returns
Sequel to the film mentioned earlier. More of the same, this time with a weird religious sect attracting the attention of our fearless female tax investigator. Pretty fun.

Living in Oblivion
Enjoyable if indulgent movie about an indie-film maker. Lots of in-jokes for cineasts, which is a stupid word meaning people who take movies too seriously, like me. Not something you need to see, but if you catch it on cable like I did, it's worth a lazy afternoon.

Exotica
Excellent flick about intrigue at a strip club, filled with strong characters and a complicated plot. This director also did the superior The Sweet Hereafter; I thought Hereafter and The Ice Storm were the finest horror films of 1998, though neither are considered to be of that genre.

The Forbidden Quest
Amazing, chilling mockumentary from Denmark (I think) about a fictitious Antarctic expedition from the early 1900s. The story is told through interviews with the elderly sole survivor and his long-lost primitive movie footage of their exploits into the unknown. Includes references to Lovecraft, Poe, and T.S. Eliot, all brought together into a powerful vision of subtle, cosmic horror. This is a real must-see.

Rushmore
One of the best films of the year, from the creators of one of my very favorite movies, Bottle Rocket. Funny, charming, and amazingly inventive.

Repo Man
I finally saw this classic of indie cinema and it was a treat.

Chinese Ghost Story III
Fun, cool supernatural action in 19th-century China.

Heroic Trio II: The Executioners
Wacked-out near-future actioner from Hong Kong. The original is also entertaining.

Bride With White Hair II
Another fun, cool supernatural action flick in old China, with a strong emotional thread.

Alice
Jan Svankmayer's amazing adaptation of Alice in Wonderland employs live action and stop-motion animation to render his vision of a frightening but still childlike Wonderland. This is a film I've seen a half-dozen times.

Payback
Mel Gibson in a gritty-funny revenge flick. Pretty entertaining.

Down By Law
The first film by Jim Jarmusch, who also made the excellent Mystery Train, Night on Earth, and Dead Man. A winsome and friendly shaggy-dog story of low-rent criminals on the run.

Dark Intruder
Delightful 1960s flick starring Leslie Nielsen from the Naked Gun movies. By day, he's a playboy in 1890s San Francisco; by night he's a master of disguise who fights occult menaces. Terrific, suprisingly twisty story with Lovecraft elements.

American Graffiti
Another classic I finally saw. Wonderful stuff from George Lucas, proving that he does have a very human heart. Cindy Williams was awfully lovely.

The Spanish Prisoner
Excellent, twisty thriller from David Mamet, a worthy follow-up to his classic intrigue/con-game flick House of Games. Steve Martin is marvelous as a calculating scam artist.

Dreamchild
Speaking of Alice in Wonderland, this is the fascinating and little-seen account of the real-life Alice's journey to America as an elderly woman, traveling to 1920s America to accept a collegiate award on the anniversay of Wonderland's first publication. As the story unfolds, her childhood memories of Professor Dodgson/Lewis Carroll and his Wonderland creatures begin to merge with present reality. Charming, mysterious, and ultimately good-hearted, with marvelous Wonderland critters by Jim Henson's crew circa 1986.

Ran
Another Kurosawa flick, but one I'd seen in high school. It was marvelous to see it on DVD widescreen. Amazing battle scenes, wonderful King Lear story, terrific through and through.

Scarface
Al Pacino, in another pseudo-classic I hadn't seen before. Decent flick, though it's hard to imagine how allegedly ground-breaking DePalma's obsessive, over-the-top violence must have been at the time of its release.

The Corruptor
Chow Yun-Fat's first really good American flick, a surprisingly low-action tale of intrigue and corruption. Mark Wahlberg did a fine job in this film.

U.S. Marshals
When I got my DVD player for Christmas, I also got a coupon for some free movies by mail. Unfortunately, I didn't get to choose the films. Here's the first. It's a dogshit thriller with a good performance--like there's any other kind--by Tommy Lee Jones.

Ronin
The first two-thirds are excellent stuff, with standout performances by the entire cast. The last third is a train wreck of a plot twist, reeking of the worst James Bond flicks. But the first two-thirds remains excellent, and there are great car chases throughout. The muted color palette also stands out as notably good.

Sphere
Another free DVD, and the worst film I saw this year. In fact, it's the worst big-budget Hollywood film I've ever seen.

Black Mask
Passable Jet Li action flick from Hong Kong. I saw this on DVD prior to its American theatrical release.

Easy Money
Listless Michelle Yeoh vehicle from Hong Kong, circa the late 1980s. It looked like she married a Triad and he gave her this as a wedding present--full of "glamorous, exotic" locations but lame story and pacing.

Waiting for Guffman
Very funny and well-observed comedy about a small-town musical production.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Spot-on popcorn thriller from Britain with loads of style. Not much substance, but pure entertainment.

A Perfect Murder
Another free DVD, and another terrible film. Interestingly enough, the DVD included the original ending, which was rejected because it actually made Gwynyth Paltrow's character interesting--and explained the title, which otherwise makes little sense.

From Dusk Til Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
Caught it on cable. Vigorously terrible B-movie, full of over-the-top cinematography and massive bloodletting. A moron movie that wanted to revel in its stupidity but instead drowned in it.

2001: A Space Odessey
Hadn't seen this in years, enjoyed it greatly. Duh.

2010
Possibly the best film that long-time "journeyman director" (read: talented hack) Peter Hyams ever made, thanks to a good Clarke story and the talents of Roy Schieder, John Lithgow, and Bob Balaban.

Body Heat
Another classic I'd never seen. Hot, hot, hot! Good stuff, and my, Kathleen Turner was quite fine.

Cube
Nifty indie sci-fi flick about political prisoners imprisoned in a diabolical and murderous maze. Quite clever.

Palmetto
Wonderful, wonderful twisty neo-noir set in Florida. Woody Harrelson plays a clueless moron who gets pulled six different ways by the other characters, all of whom are far smarter than he is. In the end, it's his hilarious performance as a total idiot who constantly makes the wrong decision that makes this a rewarding guilty pleasure. The climax gets a bit silly, but it's still well worth watching.

Public Access
The first film from Bryan Singer, the director of The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil (and soon, The X-Men). Good craftsmanship and an interesting story, but the conclusion of the film is a complete flat tire.

River's Edge
An indie classic of murder and adolescence that I've seen before. Very interesting to see loony tune Crispin Glover playing a loony tune in this flick.

The Matrix
Well, duh. Wildly entertaining piece of popcorn. I thought it was interesting that it was made by two former Marvel Comics writers, because it demonstrates an advanced degree of coherent conception and plotting rarely seen in genre films but pretty commonplace in modern comics.

Horatio Hornblower: The Duel
I love the books, and this A&E flick was pretty enjoyable. I skipped the rest of the series, though.

Crash
For me, this is tied with Dead Ringers as David Cronenberg's finest film. Breathtakingly visual exploration of sensuality and technology that actually develops character through sex scenes, a feat I wouldn't have thought likely. Haunting music, stunning images, and all told one hell of a fascinating film. I don't know that it necessarily makes its thesis and follows it through, but it's well worth watching for mood junkies.

The Cheyanne Social Club
Kicky old Western I caught on cable.

Jerry Maguire
Better than I feared, worse than I hoped. Cameron Crowe has a history of interesting movies behind him and he certainly didn't strike out with this one. Tom Cruise's character makes a couple of big, dumb interpersonal mistakes that I wouldn't have expected in a typical big-star movie.

Blade
Yum! Saw this one several times. Kick-ass vampire thriller with great fight scenes.

Six-String Samurai
Clever indie action flick about a post-apocalypse Buddy Holly on his way to Lost Vegas to battle for the throne of rock-and-roll. Better ideas than execution, but they're great ideas.

eXistenZ
Mediocore Cronenberg movie, with enough freak ideas to be worth seeing. I found Jennifer Jason Leigh amazingly sexy in this flick for some reason.

Go
Terrific! Tarantino-esque fractured storylines and recurring characters, with lots of humor and inventive situations.

A Bug's Life
Pixar rocks. Between this and the Toy Story movies, they have yet to hit a wrong note. Funny and original and heartfelt, and also a very well-crafted film.

The Most Dangerous Game
One of the many versions of this story, it's an enjoyably creepy old B&W hokefest that made me want my own private island.

The Opposite of Sex
Very funny, very caustic tale of romance and manipulation. Lisa Kudrow proves once again that she's a freaking talented comedic actress, as does Christina Ricci, who seems to be taking all the roles Winona Ryder should have been taking all these years. Martin Donovan, a favorite of mine from Hal Hartley's flicks, does constipated exasperation well here.

The Graduate
Yet another in Rev's classic-film-first-sees, and like Midnight Cowboy, watching this suddenly made sense of twenty-eight years' worth of in-jokes and visual references. Terrific film, and very interesting to watch with the PC '90s in our wake.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars
One of my childhood favorites, this corny sci-fi flick has some interesting stuff about a guy marooned on Mars. Plus a funny pet monkey.

American History X
Beautifully made film, but flawed by an overly-Hollywood script. Excellent performances by everyone.

Our Man in Havana
The impeccable Alec Guinness in a mannered comedy set in Cuba. Pioneering TV comic Ernie Kovacs is fun as a Cuban military leader.

Pecker
Excellent John Waters movie, with lots of heart and humor.

The Mummy
Reminescent of too many Call of Cthulhu sessions, I found it fun but could have done with less humor and more grit. The day I see a truly frightening period horror-adventure will probably be the day pigs fly.

Blade Runner
I caught this director's cut at the Cinerama, the biggest and best theater in town. Wonderful to see it on a huge, huge screen.

The Seige
Better than expected. Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington in a tale of terrorists in New York. Ultimately kind of ehh, but has some wonderful scenes. Willis's character is unusually interesting for a film of this nature.

Buttoners
Very funny and clever film from eastern Europe. It melds various overlapping storylines regaring the Enola Gay, infidelity, and a man with a fetish for stealing buttons into a surprising and enjoyable movie.

True Mob Story
Some Hong Kong flick that I have completely forgotten about. Oh, wait. Maybe this was Japanese. The point of the film was to de-glamorize gangsters, and it succeeded, but wasn't otherwise very memorable.

Killer
I don't think this was the John Woo flick, and I don't think it was the James Woods flick, so I have no idea what this thing was. Oh, wait. This must be a terrible film I saw at the Seattle Film Festival from eastern Europe about a luckless Russian who has to commit a murder for the mafia to get out of debt. Awful, dull movie that took pains to avoid any semblance of emotion or empathy. The lead character is killed at the end in a scene so completely listless as to be welcome merely because it means you can leave the theater. There is a nice depiction of the poverty and desperation of modern Russia, but the characters are so lifeless and impenetrable that you can't really give a shit.

Clay Pigeons
Enjoyable but flawed comedy-thriller. The lovely and talented Janeane Garofolo made this worth watching.

Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
I love this movie and I love Jar Jar Binks and SCREW EVERYONE WHO DOESN'T. (Bwah hah!) I couldn't count the number of hard-hearted over-cynical hipsters I know who wanted this to be some kind of gritty Pulp Fiction flick and whined about Jar Jar, who was totally great. Me and my inner seven-year-old were happy as could be and saw this four times. If you bitched because this movie seemed to be geared at kids, you're a whiny loser and you really should lighten the hell up. Grrr! Flame on! I'm not a mindless Lucas drone, just a guy who still knows what it's like to be a kid and who thought this was a great kid's flick with a high geek-drool quotient.

Quiz Show
Robert Redford's excellent little movie about corruption on a TV game show. Good performance by Ralph Fiennes, nice period detail. I later caught a documentary telling the real story behind it, which was fascinating and, of course, not nearly as cut-and-dried as the film portrayed.

Arsenic and Old Lace
Whoo hoo! Terrific Cary Grant movie, very funny and fast-paced even today.

Bringing Up Baby
Ditto. I caught these at a double feature in Memphis at the Orphem Theatre, a grand old playhouse.

Saving Private Ryan
I'd seen this a couple times before, but watched it again with my dad. Yeah, it's got a high schmaltz quotient and few narrative surprises, but it's an awesome technical and emotional achievement all the same.

The Newton Boys
This is just a great little flick from the director of Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and that Ethan Hawke flick with Julie Delpy whose name I forget but which was very good. Newton Boys is an amiable true-life crime story about some back-country boys turned robbers who never killed anyone. Among its impeccable cast was Vincent Denofrio, one of my favorite actors.

Rounders
Wow, I loved this flick. Matt Damon, Edward Norton, and John Malkovich in a predictable but terrific story of seedy gamblers. Among its many charms: Damon's law student/card hustler goes for his dream of being a gambler, loses his straight-arrow girlfriend in the process, and they *don't* get back together because she's an idiot! I expected some sort of Hollywood compromise, but in the end he's off to follow his life's calling and she's left behind thinking "Hey, maybe I should have realized this was something really important to him..." HA, HA! I just totally dug the fact that he's willing to follow his life's ambition, and damn the consequences. There's also a great scene with Famke Janssen as a fellow poker geek, who comes to visit Damon when he's watching an old videotape of a famous poker match and instantly recognizes the game; if Famke Janssen walked into my house and went, "Hey, that's Sandy Petersen's roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu!" I'd be a happy man, too.

Dash & Lilly
Great performances by Sam Shepherd and one of my favorite yummy-brainy actresses, Judy Davis, as Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman. The script had problems, but they were terrific.

The Untouchables
A DePalma thriller I loved the first couple times I saw it, but this viewing left me pretty cold.

Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me
More fun with Mike Myers. Not as good as the original, but enjoyable in a second-helping sort of way.

Practical Magic
Terrible, terrible movie I caught on cable with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Godawful. Wretched. Hideous. Aidan Quinn turned up as an oddball romantic lead, just as he did in an excellent thriller about a blind woman whose name escapes me--Second Sight, maybe? Why does he keep getting cast in these things? I suspect that he's hunky enough to qualify, without being such a pretty boy that he upstages the lead actresses or something. I like him, though, and his bumbling character was one of the few tolerable aspects of this otherwise hateful Hollywood product. The scenes with Bullock's daughter and ex-husband are particularly mean-spirited and insulting.

Godzilla
Speaking of terrible movies, here's another. I did enjoy the suspense of the baby-zilla scenes, even though they were lifted from Aliens and Jurassic Park--I still found the prospect of being trapped in a building with those critters to be pretty frightening.

Henry Fool
Great Hal Hartley movie, about a janitor whose poetry rocks the world and his would-be writer friend whose novel never will. Terrific stuff.

The General's Daughter
A John Travolta movie that I sort of enjoyed while I was watching it, but which I ultimately came to loathe. The mystery was poorly executed, and the key crime was a typically indulgent example of American entertainment's obsession with exploitive sex & violence. Nice performances by Travolta and especially James Woods, and some excellent music.

Cold Fever
Very interesting, offbeat flick about a Japanese man's journey through Iceland to make peace with his dead parents. Humorous and enjoyable. If you like Jim Jarmusch's movies, you'll like this.

Pirates of Silicon Valley
Made-for-TV tale of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, with the lead actors doing some eerie impersonations. Ultimately something of a failure--far too much material and too many years to cover coherently, with the entirety of the 1990s being essentially skipped over. Still interesting for geeks.

Dr. Strangelove
On the big screen, baby. Wonderful.

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
Ditto! The South Park guys hit a home run with this hilarious parody of big musicals. If you enjoyed this, check out their first film: Cannibal, the Musical, which is *also* a dead-on parody of big musicals with lots of scatological humor. "Fudge, Packer?"

MST3K: The Touch of Satan
Some awful flick I saw on Mystery Science Theater 3000. I don't recall the movie, but I'm sure the MST version was funny as hell.

Eyes Wide Shut
I enjoyed this quite a bit. The scenes at the sex club had a wonderful Robert W. Chambers vibe, and I liked how as soon as Cruise flirts with infidelity, a whole subculture of seamy weirdness opens up all around him like a gaping infernal chasm. Not perfect, but better than commonly reviewed.

A Simple Plan
Chilling thriller from Sam Raimi, with dead-on performances by the whole cast. This one crept right up my spine and freaked me good.

The Producers
Ah, yes. One of my favorite flicks, and the best (and first) movie Mel Brooks ever made. Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel are awesome as Broadway producers out to make the biggest flop they can as part of a scam. They end up with Springtime For Hitler, a riotous musical that has to be seen to be believed. My housemate Dennis Detwiller and I quote lines from this film on a regular basis whenever we're feeling particularly unwealthy: "I'm wearing a cardboard belt!"

Gods and Monsters
Great flick about the director of Bride of Frankenstein and other films. I thought Brendan Fraser distinguished himself in this flick, and the final scene of him walking like Frankenstein while taking out the family garbage was wonderful.

The Man Who Came To Dinner
A terrific comedy from the 1930s, starring the inestimable Monty Woolly as a famous but stuck-up writer who breaks his leg and has to spend the Christmas holidays with a hapless midwestern family. Riotous, with lots of great zingers--Monty's character is a classic wit in the Dorothy Parker vein.

A Life Less Ordinary
Entertaining mess from the Trainspotting guys. Pretty good for most of its length, then suddenly veers into train-wreck territory towards the end. Flawed but fun.

Hellcab
Released in theaters as Chicago Cab, this ensemble indie comedy features a series of wacky characters who all get into the same poor cabbie's car. Very well done, and well worth seeing. Adapted from a play. The soundtrack includes a song by the Grifters, amazingly enough.

Mystery Men
I'm a fan of Bob Burden's comics, and of Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofolo and William H. Macy, so this movie had a lot going for it. Ultimately I think it got distracted by big special effects, and I wound up a bit disappointed. Fun to see once.

Free Enterprise
Very enjoyable movie for geeks. It's essentially Swingers retold with Star Trek fans--a great romantic comedy for those who laugh at Logan's Run jokes about turning 30, like me. Now on video.

Sweethearts
My darling Janeane Garofolo in a movie whose video box suggested a cynical romantic comedy. In fact, it's a cynical romantic comedy that spirals down into a black pit of depression. Terrific flick, but not recommended for lonely hearts looking for some light relief.

Dragon Inn
Enjoyable Hong Kong actioner. I got a little bored at times, but some fun stuff in there.

The Impostors
The guys who made the wonderful Big Night return with another humorous period flick. A bit flat, a bit indulgent, but still a fun time.

The Blair Witch Project
Just as scary as promised; the concluding image has drifted before my eyes every single night since I saw this movie, and I'm not exaggerating. Terrifying, assuming you can relate to the experience of being cold, lost, and in the woods.

The Thirteenth Warrior
This long-delayed Viking-era action flick based on a Michael Crichton book promised to suck ass; instead, it kicked it, at least in comparison to what I was expecting. A surprisingly enjoyable romp with a nice sense of grit and a couple of genuinely impressive sequences.

The Sixth Sense
About the most successful film of the year, and deservedly so--wonderfully written, acted, shot, and directed. A second viewing proved to be just as intense as the original, proving to me that this film didn't rest on its acclaimed twist ending. It's memorable even without it.

The Underneath
Ho-hum film from brilliant director Steven Soderbergh, so recently excellent with Out of Sight and The Limey (and Schizopolis and Sex, Lies, and Videotape before that, among others). Here, Soderbergh develops his style in a way that comes to fruition with Sight and Limey, but does so in a way that drags this neo-noir drama down into the doldrums. An interesting struggle long since overcome.

The Parallax View
Warren Beatty in a semi-classic of conspiracy movies, made in the days of Watergate. Kind of ehh, but has some great scenes.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Wow! I finally saw this scorched-earth domestic drama and man, what a piece of work. Great stuff.

Affliction
One of the year's most acclaimed films left me ambivalent. Great performances by Nick Nolte and James Coburn, but the script didn't quite sell me on the story.

Casablanca
Great on the big screen, great on the little screen. Holds up wonderfully, unlike a lot of wartime movies.

Happy Together
Wong Kar-Wai's enjoyable but somewhat unengaging flick about a gay Hong Kong couple adrift in Brazil. I think my problem with the film was that the boyfriend of the main character was such a jerk that I had little interest in their cyclical break-ups/reunions; I just wanted the main guy to find somebody worthwhile instead of this dork. Nicely made.

Ashes of Time
Early Wong Kar-Wai Hong Kong flick, this one an artsy 19-century fantasy story. Confusing, often boring, but filled with beautiful images. He pulled all his influences and ideas together in the later, brilliant Chungking Express.

Fallen Angels
Another Wong Kar-Wai flick, and a great one. It began as part of Chungking Express, but ended up as its own movie. It's essentially a second helping of the kinds of characters and stories that made Chungking Express my favorite movie. Now, Fallen Angels is tied with Chungking for my #1, because they're essentially one big movie. Great stories, great characters, great film-making, great romance. Beautiful, beautiful stuff. Rent 'em!

Stir of Echoes
Above-average little creepfest overshadowed by the similar The Sixth Sense. Kevin Bacon and Illeana Douglas are both terrific. It's a good story that ends up rather pedestrian.

Magic Cop
Wacked-out Hong Kong flick about a cop who fights magick with magick. Lots of fun, lots of old-style Chinese magick which is wildly different from the Hamlet/Exorcist models of the West.

Friday
Very funny movie written by and starring rapper Ice Cube. Lowbrow and laugh-worthy.

Bowfinger
Decent if somewhat shambling Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy movie. Lots of great bits, but kind of eh overall.

Homicide
Very surprising movie from David Mamet, telling a story I could not have begun to predict. Mamet is obviously a great talent, and I was familiar with his House of Games, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Spanish Prisoner. This one looked like a straightforward cop story but veered wildly. Excellent.

The Big One
Rabble-rouser Michael Moore goes on the road to expose corporate injustice and brings his usual round of creative laughs. Good stuff.

Happy, Texas
Wacky high-concept Hollywood story of two escaped convicts who pose as a gay couple that manage grade-school pageants in rural Texas. I had a free pass and figured I'd try it out. Better than I feared, but nothing special. Illeana Douglas is, again, terrific.

Titanic
James Cameron scored with this one. I loved it in the theater and I loved it here on video. It's got its share of dorky moments, but even when his reach exceeds his grasp he's still a very talented film-maker.

Lulu on the Bridge
Novelist and screenwriter Paul Auster writes & directs this strange little tale that ultimately doesn't work out. The cast is great, and there are lots of terrific scenes, but it just sort of ambles to a disappointing conclusion. Still interesting, but I'd recommend his vastly superior film Smoke (directed by Wayne Wang).

The Limey
Steven Soderbergh follows up his archly humorous new-wave film Out of Sight with this archly intense new-wave film, starring Terrance Stamp. Absolutely superb. I saw this three times in the theater. Probably the best new film I saw in 1999.

Mallrats
Having followed Kevin Smith's career since Clerks, I went back and checked this sophomore slump out again on DVD. It's still pretty ehh, but also has plenty of funny bits.

The Hot Rock
I was interested in catching this early-70s Robert Redford heist flick after enjoying Sleater-Kinney's album of the same name. The film is an enjoyable, escalating caper movie where each heist leads to another, and another, each more difficult than the last. A fun trifle.

Waking Ned Divine
Slick, sentimental, and manipulative, this low-key comedy about an Irish village and the fortune it's trying to win nevertheless fires on all cylinders and ends up being thoroughly worth watching.

Run, Lola, Run
Wow! One of the most flat-out entertaining pieces of movie-making I've ever seen; I caught this twice in the theater. Lola has twenty minutes to raise a big bunch of money or her lover gets wacked by the mob. The story is told three different times, with three different endings, and never lets up its kinetic pace. Outstandingly well made, 100% pure fun.

Fight Club
A big sprawling mess with strong ideas, strong performances, and strong film-making. It sort of limps into home base, but is still worth the trip.

From Beyond
Wacked-out Lovecraft movie by Stuart Gordon. Quite a hoot. I saw this at the HPL Film Fest in Portland, Oregon, with director Stuart Gordon hosting the screening.

The World According to Garp
Like the novel on fast forward. Well done, but no match for the source.

Bringing Out the Dead
I was really looking forward to this flick, but Scorcese didn't pull it off, and I think it's Nicholas Cage's fault. He just seemed to limp along through this film, and his voiceover was laughable. Lots of great stuff, but didn't work out.

Heat
One of my favorite movies; this was probably the seventh or eighth time I've watched this three-hour monster. A terrific writer's movie, filled with great characters and stories, with a real novelistic feel to it.

Being John Malkovich
Just as clever and funny and amazing as everyone says. The monkey flashback and the office training video were highlights. It's a pleasure to see bizarro, well-made films such as this and Three Kings and The Limey and Run Lola Run all in the same year, and there were more besides.

Three Kings
Hey! I just mentioned this one above. The trailers made this film look lame, and I was going to give it a pass despite the excellent cast. But I saw it and man, am I glad. Great style, great story, great characters. The bleached-out feel of everything in the desert was a wonderful aesthetic choice, and the initial gunfight brought home the terror of violence better than any ten other action flicks.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Animated film from the folks who make the TV cartoon--a show that regularly trumps all of the movies and most of the comics for originality, emotional content, and faithfulness to the core concept of the character. The film was lots of fun, with some great set pieces and some creepy goodness, plus a score that, in the words of a friend of mine, sound like "a choir of the damned."

200 Cigarettes
Ensemble comedy from MTV that was better than I feared, thanks to an excellent cast. The storyline with Courtney Love and Casey Affleck (I think) was especially enjoyable. Lots of talented performers on display.

American Beauty
A good but not great film, rather overpraised. The cast was terrific, and there were some scenes that achieved what they set out to achieve. But all told, this alleged expose of suburban angst was too hyperbolic and exaggerated to be credible; the Columbine shooters certainly didn't have this ludicrous level of dysfunctional neighbordom to influence them to a far worse end than this movie dares to posit. Too much, too soon.

The Insider
Ultimately, I think this was a story that should not have been made a film. The reality of the tale does not unfold neatly or dramatically enough for the sake of cinema, and the creators' attempts to fudge reality for the sake of storytelling undercut the validity of their viewpoint. Michael Mann is a brilliant storyteller, but he should stick to fiction where he can control the events as surely as he controls the camera. Terrific, complicated performance by Russell Crowe, however.

Dogma
Kevin Smith kicks ass with this boisterous comic fantasy. Fine performances, both comedic and dramatic, and more interesting ideas executed well than any fantastic film this year save The Matrix and Phantom Menace--and this film was certainly funnier than either of those. A bit draggy in spots, but well worth the trip.

The World is Not Enough
On the other hand, this new Bond flick sucked rocks. Brosnan is born to the role, and Marceau & Carlyle were reasonably good, but the story was six ways from stupid. It *is* possible to make a coherent, exciting Bond flick that doesn't insult your intelligence; the producers just aren't up for the task. Denise Richards may be easy on the eyes, but her role was embarrassing and her performance wasn't much better. Does she actually see herself as an actress, or is this some kind of a lark for her?

Election
Outstanding black comedy with far more credibility and truth to it than American Beauty--a point made to me by Ken Hite and he's dead right. The narrative dares to be messy in the way real life usually is, and gives solid portrayals of real people and the stupid things they do. Great movie.

Notting Hill
I was encouraged to see this after enjoying My Best Friend's Wedding; it doesn't match up. Lots of enjoyable scenes, but some strained my credulity and the climax was stupidly contrived. Better than many, but still a letdown.

The Castle
Wow! Wonderfully observed family comedy from Australia. The main characters are lowbrow dorks but the movie guides us skillfully beyond condescension and into full empathy with their life and struggle. Lots of laughs, and a thoroughly winning true story about fighting city hall.

PCU
Okay, it really is just Animal House retold for the '90s--it's that simple. But you know what? Animal House was a funny movie and this is, too. The film takes a lot of great potshots at collegiate life and political correctness, but doesn't skimp on the fart jokes either. Lots of fun. It also stars Jeremy Piven, so good as John Cusack's buddy in Grosse Point Blank and so many other movies.

End of Days
Honk. Big stupid movie with Arnold vs. Satan. Lots of awful, annoying Hollywoodisms. Gabriel Byrne is terrific, of course, but the movie is terrible.

Man of the Century
Charming little romantic comedy about a '90s newspaper columnist who lives life as if it's the '20s, down to his clothes, slang, and apartment. It's not some intentional affectation--it's just how he sees things. And best of all, the world tends to reshape itself along his perceptions. Funny, fast, and Rrrrromantic, it's one of the most enjoyable films I saw in '99.

The Day the Earth Stood Still
Klaatu barata nikto! Hoary sci-fi flick still holds up better than its contemporaries and succeeds in generating a real feel of weird menace.

Institute Benjamenta
The most beautiful boring movie I've ever seen. The Brothers Quay, reknowned for their Jan Svankmeyer-influenced stop-motion animation, turn to live action for this surreal, haunting film about a school for servants. Mysterious, freaky, and stunningly beautiful, it's also dull, dull, dull. Yet the visual aesthetic at work here is so luminous and so deftly executed that it's worth putting up with.

To Die For
Gus Van Sant and Buck Henry's clever story of television, ambition, and murder. Justly praised as a hip, rich piece of work, I still found Kidman's character to be impenetrable; her swings between naive careerist and cold-blooded mastermind just didn't gel for me.

Misa the Dark Angel
Schoolgirls-in-peril flick from Hong Kong is an Asian answer to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; this is the first in a series of movies about Misa, the mysterious schoolgirl who shows up to fight outbreaks of occult horrors. Far too much blood and short dresses for my taste, Misa is creepily fetishistic in its dispatching of young girls. A few oblique Lovecraft references in the demon-summoning rituals. Not recommended.

Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris
Gamera rocks! Japan has been busily cranking out a new series of Godzilla/Mothra/Gamera movies throughout the 1990s, films that have been little-seen in this country. Which is a shame, because they marry modern special effects with great stuntwork and terrific, Quatermass-worthy scifi stories. Yes, there's guys in rubber monster suits, but they're really great rubber monster suits! And they're joined with incredible action thanks to the latest in optical and computer effects. The result is a whole series of movies that easily trump the likes of the American Godzilla, Independence Day, etc. This one is an especially worthy entry, with its focus on, yes, the human cost and collateral damage done by the battles of these titans.

Iron Giant
Whee! The best animated movie of '99, and I didn't see it in the theater because I'm a dumbass. Wonderfully made. See it.

Cookie's Fortune
Robert Altman recovers from his John Grisham stumble and hits his stride with this wonderful Southern ensemble tale. As good as Short Cuts without the SoCal nihilism, Altman turns in a sweet, enjoyable tale full of great characters and some wonderful actors. Charles S. Dutton is superb--as is Liv Tyler, suprisingly enough.

The Green Mile
Stephen King wears mainstream drag again, with decent results. The book is quite good; it was the first thing by King that I read in years, and it was a solid piece of character work. I liked the film, but it follows the book so closely that I remained stuck in movie/book comparisons as I watched, never really breaking free to just enjoy the story. Perhaps it's a weakness of the film; I don't know.

New Rose Hotel
Awful, awful movie based on a slight little William Gibson cyberpunk story. Christopher Walken and Willem Defoe star in this tale of near-future corporate espionage. A decent little 45-minute film is completely sabotaged with a 30-minute epilogue consisting of flashbacks to the first 45 minutes! And no, I am *not* exaggerating. The movie is over after 45 minutes, and then Williem Defoe lies in bed and thinks over everything that just happened, without learning anything we didn't already know at minute 45. The greatest train-wreck of a film I've seen since Sphere, and a shame because the first part was an interesting exercise in low-budget futurism.

Zeder: Voices From the Grave
Awful Italian zombie movie. Has some interesting occultic bits in it, including a group of monster-hunters who use a young psychic girl to find evil, but ultimately it's just dull and pointless.

Anna and the King
Chow Yun-Fat kicks all kinds of ass as the charismatic ruler of Thailand; Jodie Foster simps along but delivers a somewhat brittle, lackluster performance. However, it's a real big-screen treat with great imagery, adventure, and romance. Ultimately, I enjoyed it.

The Talented Mr. Ripley
The last good movie I saw in '99, and one of the best of the year. Matt Damon plunges headfirst into a difficult and probably unpopular role and emerges with a first-rate performance, playing a guy so terrible that we cannot help but empathize with his awful worldview. Beautifully filmed, great locations, the kind of glamorous film Hollywood used to make only with a cutthroat existential story of ambition and mayhem. Fantastic.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Clint Eastwood steers this tale off the tracks, though I gather the faults of the film are also the faults of the book. He compounds them, however, with a pointless romantic subplot starring his daughter. The best scenes in the film are those with either Kevin Spacey or the Lady Chablis; the rest of the movie is largely a waste of time. Promising first half gives way to Hollywoodese and inanity. A sad way to end the Revland year in movies, but you buys your ticket and you takes your chances.