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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
First, the elephant in the room: was 1999 the best movie year ever?
Yes, IMO. I said so at the time. When I saw this book, I ordered it through Amazon, then ran around to all my friends and family waving it about and loudly declaring "Remember how I always said 1999 was the best movie year ever? Well someone else agrees with me!"
On Criticker.com (my equivalent of goodreads, I use it to track what I've seen and how much I liked it, and it recommends new films for me) it divides my films into 10 tiers, tier 10 being the set of films with my highest ratings. Of those 129 films in tier 10 (I watch a lot of films, I've rated about 1,600) 12 of them were from 1999 alone (my next fave years would be 1997 and 2001, both with 7 apiece).
My 1999 feeling was that each weekend I would see a film (or two), and it would be great. And every other weekend I would see something especially great, and about once a month I'd see something that jumped up to personal favourite, or instant classic. Raftery actually doesn't even cover some of my all-time favourites from 1999: the outrageous musical South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut, my fave Mike Leigh film Topsy Turvy, the incredibly well-cast The Talented Mr. Ripley (Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffmann, and a new-on-the-scene Cate Blanchett), or Toy Story 2, my favourite of the Toy Story films, complete with the Saddest Song of All Time.
So I'm firmly on board behind the premise of the book.
And then, rather than tell me a bunch of facts I already knew about the films (I am, after all, somewhat well-read and somewhat of a movie buff), he told me a bunch of facts that were mostly new and interesting. Hurrah! A well-written, well-researched book on a subject near-and-dear to my heart? What's not to love.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
Yes, IMO. I said so at the time. When I saw this book, I ordered it through Amazon, then ran around to all my friends and family waving it about and loudly declaring "Remember how I always said 1999 was the best movie year ever? Well someone else agrees with me!"
On Criticker.com (my equivalent of goodreads, I use it to track what I've seen and how much I liked it, and it recommends new films for me) it divides my films into 10 tiers, tier 10 being the set of films with my highest ratings. Of those 129 films in tier 10 (I watch a lot of films, I've rated about 1,600) 12 of them were from 1999 alone (my next fave years would be 1997 and 2001, both with 7 apiece).
My 1999 feeling was that each weekend I would see a film (or two), and it would be great. And every other weekend I would see something especially great, and about once a month I'd see something that jumped up to personal favourite, or instant classic. Raftery actually doesn't even cover some of my all-time favourites from 1999: the outrageous musical South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut, my fave Mike Leigh film Topsy Turvy, the incredibly well-cast The Talented Mr. Ripley (Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffmann, and a new-on-the-scene Cate Blanchett), or Toy Story 2, my favourite of the Toy Story films, complete with the Saddest Song of All Time.
So I'm firmly on board behind the premise of the book.
And then, rather than tell me a bunch of facts I already knew about the films (I am, after all, somewhat well-read and somewhat of a movie buff), he told me a bunch of facts that were mostly new and interesting. Hurrah! A well-written, well-researched book on a subject near-and-dear to my heart? What's not to love.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
Набор лонгридов в стиле Vulture, Vanity Fair и прочих Entertainment Weekly про истории создания и наследие топовых фильмов конца миллениума. Мой максимальный комфорт ридинг, могу поглощать такое вечно. Да что там, у меня прямо сейчас в хроме открыто несколько похожих статей.
Вообще у этой книги есть концепция: 99-ый был совершенно ломающим годом в плане кино. Штука в том, что как-то осмыслить этот тезис автор пытается лишь в эпилоге, но выходит у него с переменным успехом. Любой год крутой, просто нужно глубже нырять.
Вообще у этой книги есть концепция: 99-ый был совершенно ломающим годом в плане кино. Штука в том, что как-то осмыслить этот тезис автор пытается лишь в эпилоге, но выходит у него с переменным успехом. Любой год крутой, просто нужно глубже нырять.
informative
fast-paced
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
i am the target audience for these nostalgic, trivia nugget, oral history-ish, deep dives into pop culture and their context. shout out to amma for the rec.
Author sure likes The Blair Witch Project....
Good collection of reviews and light "making of" histories of 1999s most notable movies. No real argument made to sustain book title.
This reads like a script for a podcast series. Not a negative for me, just saying.
Good collection of reviews and light "making of" histories of 1999s most notable movies. No real argument made to sustain book title.
This reads like a script for a podcast series. Not a negative for me, just saying.
really fun portrait of 1999, great thematic and production ties among movies of that year. was hard to read about movies I didn't already know or know *of*, because i was afraid of spoilers. but i watched the matrix, blair witch, and virgin suicides immediately after reading this.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
If you like movies, this was a great read! I didn't realize how many huge movies came out in 1999 and I love reading about how different movies got made. It was easy to read full of interview clips and seemingly well researched history.
A rabbit-hole experience akin to a deep dive on a Wikipedia article. For films I recognized and had watched, the behind-the-scenes offered additional insight to the making of the film. For films I was not familiar with, the chapters were either hit or miss in peaking my interest.
This is a brilliant overview and analysis of late 1990s cinema, and social/pop culture. Raftery gets great access to film makers and expertly provides detailed context to the movies’ productions. I devoured it.