Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by prax150
Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery
3.0
Brian Raftery makes a compelling case for 1999 as one of the best movie years. You truly forget how many original, underrated movies (as well as some huge blockbusters came out that year, and how influential many of those movies have been over the course of the next two decades. A lot of great directors got their big breaks that year. Any movie fan will appreciate this book.
I do have my fair share of issues with the style and tone of the book, however, as Raftery starts by making these lofty claims about why 1999 is so influential and important but never really backs up those claims directly. He lets the stories of each movie in each chapter stand mostly on their own. It's especially frustrating since a lot of the same actors and directors/writers/producers come up in future chapters and he seldom tries to tie it all together, only tying together certain movies in a chapter thematically or because it makes for a good transition or segue way.
I also didn't like how Raftery's conclusion was that 1999 was the apex of film and how movies supposedly suck now. He spends the entire book building up these young filmmakers on their way to do magical things and concludes that it was all for naught because studios are obsessed with blockbusters and sequels, ignoring not only how many of the filmmakers he talks about get to make great, original movies but also that many of them have indeed done their fair share of blockbusters, and that blockbusters can be good. There's also bizarre ignorance of the TV industry until literally the last few pages of the book, where Raftery correctly points out that the 2000s and especially the 2010s saw a huge migration towards the small screen. I understand this is a book about movies but you could have maybe devoted at least a chapter to how 1999 brought up the first season of The Sopranos, The West Wing, Futurama, Family Guy, Spongebob, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, SVU, and so much more. If this is a book about how the media of 1999 parallels some forthcoming cultural shifts thanks to the dawn of a new century, the Bush presidency, Y2K, 9/11, etc, then ignoring until the episode how 1999 also brought on the dawn of prestige TV seems rather odd.
I enjoyed Best Movie Year Ever and you better believe I'm going to reference it in a lot of casual conversation this year, it just feels more like a disparate collection of movie essays about a particular year rather than a book with an actual point, which is frustrating because the points are all right there.
I do have my fair share of issues with the style and tone of the book, however, as Raftery starts by making these lofty claims about why 1999 is so influential and important but never really backs up those claims directly. He lets the stories of each movie in each chapter stand mostly on their own. It's especially frustrating since a lot of the same actors and directors/writers/producers come up in future chapters and he seldom tries to tie it all together, only tying together certain movies in a chapter thematically or because it makes for a good transition or segue way.
I also didn't like how Raftery's conclusion was that 1999 was the apex of film and how movies supposedly suck now. He spends the entire book building up these young filmmakers on their way to do magical things and concludes that it was all for naught because studios are obsessed with blockbusters and sequels, ignoring not only how many of the filmmakers he talks about get to make great, original movies but also that many of them have indeed done their fair share of blockbusters, and that blockbusters can be good. There's also bizarre ignorance of the TV industry until literally the last few pages of the book, where Raftery correctly points out that the 2000s and especially the 2010s saw a huge migration towards the small screen. I understand this is a book about movies but you could have maybe devoted at least a chapter to how 1999 brought up the first season of The Sopranos, The West Wing, Futurama, Family Guy, Spongebob, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, SVU, and so much more. If this is a book about how the media of 1999 parallels some forthcoming cultural shifts thanks to the dawn of a new century, the Bush presidency, Y2K, 9/11, etc, then ignoring until the episode how 1999 also brought on the dawn of prestige TV seems rather odd.
I enjoyed Best Movie Year Ever and you better believe I'm going to reference it in a lot of casual conversation this year, it just feels more like a disparate collection of movie essays about a particular year rather than a book with an actual point, which is frustrating because the points are all right there.