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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
I was 13 in 1999 so I’ve seen many of the movies discussed in this book. I was surprised by how many of them weren’t successful when they were first released as they are so widely known now. I recommend listening to the audiobook, enjoyed the narrator.
This book both is and isn't about what I thought it would be. Yes, it talks about the movie scene of 1999 but it really only focuses on the making of the movies, not so much the cause and effect of them. And for a year like 1999, there are films left out of the book that cause me to scratch my head over their absence.
If all you want from this book are old interviews that you can find on Wikipedia, than maybe it will do it for you. I was just hoping for something a little more substantial.
If all you want from this book are old interviews that you can find on Wikipedia, than maybe it will do it for you. I was just hoping for something a little more substantial.
informative
inspiring
reflective
I finished the book and fell to my knees in a Walmart parking lot. God, I love the movies. I hope that their future is bright.
Took a bit longer to finish this one since I watched a few of the movies Raftery writes about that I hadn’t yet seen before reading the chapters on them. Really is incredible how impressive a year 1999 was for movies as a whole
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
I loved this trip down memory lane. I have vivid memories of waiting in a long ass line to see The Phantom Menace and sitting in near-empty theaters to catch Fight Club and Office Space. I had no idea so many great films came out that year and this book gives a fantastic account of the making of each of these films.
Spoiler: it's not. This is an interesting look back -- sort of a laundry list, but interesting.
Fantastic deep-dive into 1999, a truly great year for cinema. I was fortunate to see many of these films in the theater, some more-than-once, and it was a fertile, febrile, all-to-brief era of unbridled cinematic freedom and pre-millennium tension. I appreciate how the author embraces a diversity of films head-on, weaving a complex story of each film’s genesis, production, immediate impact, and subsequent legacy. At no point (other than the epilogue) does it feel like this book trades on nostalgia. I appreciated that approach and would gladly read more film criticism from this author.
This was so fun for a movie geek like me, who also carries a good amount of 90's nostalgia. It gave a good glimpse into how the movies of 1999 got made and also weaved in some of the current events of the time to explain why the stories resonated with audiences. The chapters toward the end of the book were my favorites because Raferty seemed to dive deeper, which is what I was craving throughout the beginning of the book-- which felt just a little bit more shallow.
With regards to whether I think 1999 was the best year for movies? Maybe. I mean, so many of my favorites did come out that year (10 Things I Hate About You, The Blair Witch Project, the debut of my favorite director, Christopher Nolan). What I don't agree with is that movies have gone downhill today. Sure, you have to comb through the bombardment of sequels, but God knows I'd make an argument for 2017 being one of the best movie years ever. It featured originals like Lady Bird, adaptations like Call Me By Your Name, and overlooked, political mysteries like Wind River. Certainly, directors are creating the same amount of powerful films, you've just got to (in the words of the American Beauty, a 1999 favorite, tagline) look closer.
With regards to whether I think 1999 was the best year for movies? Maybe. I mean, so many of my favorites did come out that year (10 Things I Hate About You, The Blair Witch Project, the debut of my favorite director, Christopher Nolan). What I don't agree with is that movies have gone downhill today. Sure, you have to comb through the bombardment of sequels, but God knows I'd make an argument for 2017 being one of the best movie years ever. It featured originals like Lady Bird, adaptations like Call Me By Your Name, and overlooked, political mysteries like Wind River. Certainly, directors are creating the same amount of powerful films, you've just got to (in the words of the American Beauty, a 1999 favorite, tagline) look closer.
Lots of great interviews in here, lots of well-drawn connections (my favorite is the interviews with Chris Klein about his roles in both "American Pie" and "Election"). Though some of these movies randomly came out in 1999 ("Eyes Wide Shut") and some of them seemed destined to become millennial fairy tales ("Fight Club," "The Matrix," "Office Space") it is kind of spooky how great these directors were in that particular year. There were so many good movies that he can only spare a sentence for Scorsese's "Bringing out the Dead" (not as good as Casino, better than Cape Fear) and Almodovar's "All about my Mother" (best of the 90's for him). Raftery doesn't shy away from the ugly side of the movie business at the time but justifiably marvels at the way that indies in the nineties broke open the door for big studios to give new directors a lot of free reign like they had in the seventies and taken away in the eighties and early nineties. He also correctly identifies how the poor box office of many of these films led their auteurs to take their talents to television and begin the Golden Age. These were the movies I loved in the early '00s, and Raftery's insightful book brings them all together. No complaints.