Top 7 - Best Films That Are Turning 20
Here we are then, on the five year anniversary of me starting this blog, and I figured I would do something big to celebrate. What with it being 20 years since one of the greatest years in cinema (and the births of me and probably many of you), I thought I'd do a really extensive list of the best films. What you get on the blog is going to be the same as usual (7 honourable mentions, 7 main films) but attached here is a list on my Letterboxd of everything from 1999 that I watched. That way, if you think there's something I missed, just double check it. I haven't made an entirely exhaustive list but it's certainly been an exhausting list and hopefully that is enough. If you want to read more about my thoughts on these films or any others on this list, most have at least one review so feel free to check those out. For the record, anything above Cruel Intentions I recommend, Wonderland and above are highly recommended and once we get to Election, they're all must watches. https://boxd.it/1YfcG
So what made 1999 such an interesting year at the cinema? Well, let's start with some of the people involved. It was a year when already legendary directors like Martin Scorcese, David Lynch and Claire Denis, none of whom are even in the top part of my list. We also had plenty of new faces debut, of which just the directors list includes Spike Jonze, Sam Mendes and Lynne Ramsay, all making their feature film debuts. Even more excitingly, this was also the year where Jake Gyllenhall got his first starring role, Amy Adams made her screen debut and we were all first exposed to the madness of a Charlie Kaufman screenplay. A lot of fascinating trends made up this year, many of which are detailed in much more depth in these articles from The Guardian and BFI, as well as this video essay from Now You See It:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/10/magnolia-to-the-matrix-was-1999-the-greatest-year-in-modern-cinema?
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/millennium-anxiety
https://youtu.be/RuZKG77vANU (why all movies from 1999 are the same)
As I read the films I've seen though, three themes prevail. The first, and easily the most obvious, is that of men trying to reclaim control in some way. Sometimes it's in response to new waves of feminism, sometimes it's from being crushed under the wheels of late capitalism, others it's simply examples of a mid-life crisis. Whichever it is, you can read male crisis into almost every film I'm going to talk about here and all of them that tackle it do so in multiple nuanced ways. Cinema isn't just about the dudes though, it's also about other people with other interests and that's why I was amazed when I realised how many prevalent LGBTQ narratives there are. Again, there are a bunch of films I'm going to talk about that explicitly or implicitly engage with them but to give examples of films that won't come up here that I'd still recommend, it's worth checking out kitsch lesbian flick But I'm A Cheerleader, as well as transsexual stories from Spain, in All About My Mother or in the American deep south in Boys Don't Cry. Finally though, this does feel to me like a year of ends. Clearly, it's at the end of a millennium and that impacts it but this is also the year when Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest directors of all time, released his last film. We then too start to see movies that are the last of their kind, films (that I'm not going to bring up because we'll get to them) emblematic of studios taking big risks on talented directors with some very strange ideas. I mean, imagine something like Dogma being released today, it just wouldn't happen! This mood of endings feels like the perfect time to wrap up this overly long intro and get into the films starting, as ever, with a list of very honourable mentions.
At times it's a film that is patchy and uneven but ultimately, a heart of gold, delightful animation and an absolutely stellar third act elevate The Iron Giant to the level of an animated gem.
The second film from the director who brought us the stellar Burning this year, Peppermint Candy is a very different film. It's rare for a film to start with the suicide of the main character and then slowly descend into a complex pit of misery but Peppermint Candy does it brilliantly.
Jim Carrey would go on to deliver a better dramatic performance in a later film but his interpretation of Andy Kaufman gives this delightfully playful biopic its buzz.
A political satire that is actually set in a high school, Election is simply a delight. The combination of voice over narration from all the characters and witnessing their foibles outside their heads make Election as funny as it is cutting.
More than simply a feature length episode, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut is one of my favourite musicals ever made (seriously) but also brings in the big laughs by taking pot shots at the show itself and the people who criticise it.
An underappreciated gem, I don't know how much I want to say about Ravenous. What I do feel comfortable saying is that it is a gonzo Western that looks like it's going to some strange places, before it goes to some even stranger places.
Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut is a very strange beast that it's taken me two watches to even begin to get my head around. It's not an erotic thriller, rather a thriller about how one man can get so derailed by his own sexual inadequacies.
With those incredibly honourable honourable mentions out the way, it's time to get to the big seven of one of the biggest years in cinema.
In the book The Disaster Artist (about the making of The Room, I highly recommend it), Greg Sestero frames the story of him and Tommy Wiseau's friendship through two films: Rebel Without a Cause and this film. I mention it for two reasons. First off, the character of Mark in The Room is named after Matt Damon and any chance I get to tell people that I take. Secondly though, I think it makes for an interesting case study of looking at relationships between men to look at The Room and The Talented Mr Ripley together, although The Room feels entirely accidental in its craft. Anyway, seeing as it's a fairly well known but little talked about nowadays, I didn't have the highest of hopes for The Talented Mr Ripley. And then, as the film began to roll, all my doubts melted away as I realised just how hand made this film is for me. It's what I refer to as an airplane thriller done right (think classy trash on the level of Gone Girl or Stephen King), set in gorgeous Italy and it deals with the theme of identity and its malleable nature. Frankly, I don't know why this film doesn't get more love. It's a story of one faker becoming obsessed with a man he's never met, whose elegenace lies in its simplicity. Plus, with standout performances from Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman (who will return later), there's plenty here I find to adore.
Despite not being around to go to the cinema when The Matrix came out, I still have such a vivid memory of seeing it for the first time. I was at my dad's house and he promised to put on this really cool film, of which I'd heard bits and pieces about, but I didn't know what the Matrix was. So we started watching it, there's a lot of leather, some weird sci-fi motifs and a bit of cool action. I was digging it at that point. And then Neo chooses to take the red pill and we learn what the Matrix is. To describe how that revelation changed my worldview would be a cliche, anyone who saw The Matrix as a teenager had that exact same experience, but it's why it still stays with me so strongly. I take this piece of shit blog seriously though and so I rewatched The Matrix recently, terrified that it wouldn't hold up. While that moment of revelation was obviously not as ground breaking this time around, the action, the plot and even the philosophical leanings still held up very well, meaning I feel no guilt whatsoever for putting this film on the list. I think other people love it way more than I do (it's 19 on the IMDb Top 250 which feels way too high) but The Matrix is as iconic and revolutionary as it is deservedly.
About this time last year, I rewatched the entire Toy Story trilogy because it had been so long since I'd seen them all and was surprised to find that while Toy Story 3 could still make me weep with a click of the fingers, it was Toy Story 2 that sat head and shoulders above the other two (and is also much better than Toy Story 4, not that I feel that's a particularly notable accomplishment). Really, the thing that holds up least well is the digital animation, and even that looks surprisingly great for a 20 year old film. Otherwise, it is the perfect example of what a sequel can do: with the characters already established, you can challenge them with more nuanced plots and throw in new characters for them to interact with and what characters they introduced! Bullseye, Stinky Pete and Al (of Al's Toy Barn) are characters who have stuck with me since little baby Henry saw them but the real feather in the cap is Jessie. On paper, she is just a female version of Woody but underneath that brighter smile is a far sadder story, as that heartbreaking montage set to "When She Loved Me" shows. Nostalgia maybe blinds me a little when it comes to Toy Story but for what is considered one of the strongest trilogies in cinema, this is the crowning jewel. You can gather together the whole family to laugh, cry and connect, all thanks to some digital recreations of toys. That is movie magic embodied.
Let's get the elephant in the room a seeing to straight away: yes, this is a film starring (alleged) paedophile Kevin Spacey, in which one of his major character drives is attempting to have sex with an underage girl. That aspect of the film has aged really, really badly and in the two times I've seen the film since the allegations, that plot line is incredibly uncomfortable. That is why I think it's so notable that American Beauty can still make it so high up a list like this because this is something of a masterpiece in my eyes. It fits squarely into two of my favourite niche genres, those being "Man has crisis and attempts to reclaim his masculinity" and "it ain't all good in the American suburbs", genres that it near perfects. The satirical scalpel with which this film approaches middle America is superbly precise, breaking apart the characters in ways that are devastating and hilarious in equal measure. I'm going to hone in on that last part again, because this film is really, really funny. I love plenty about it, from the cinematography to the score that I still listen to regularly, but it is that humour that always sticks with me. When a man has absolutely nothing to lose anymore, he will say and do outrageous things. Not all of those are advisable things (a message Mr Spacey should have carried through to his personal life) but so many of them make me laugh out loud with nervous guilt. American Beauty is a hard film to recommend nowadays after the #metoo movement, but if you're willing to distance it from that real world connection, there is a wealth of riches to be found.
Second flower film in a row here, albeit a super different one, the favourite film of a wonderful friend of mine from Uni. A couple of years prior to this, amazing fantastic brilliant director Paul Thomas Anderson made Boogie Nights, a swirling ensemble film that I think could be his masterpiece, although I have to revisit that and finish watching his catalogue to confirm that. He followed that already sprawling ensemble with one that expanded on it in every way, pushing that scope from the porn scene into all of Los Angeles, bumping up the emotional range and adding even more characters and yet, it doesn't lose focus. Despite a real linearity, there is an intangible majesty to Magnolia. I remember reading a review that described it as trying to connect a bunch of pieces of spaghetti on a plate: they intersect, they are all noticeably have their own strands but to try and do that would be the task of an insane man. Call P.T.A. a maniac then because not only does he try it, he knocks it out the damn park. It isn't all down to him though, there are some amazing actors delivering his lines and instructions here, with Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman being brilliant carryovers from Boogie Nights and Tom Cruise coming in and giving a performance so honestly deranged, it may be his greatest ever. Defining the movie most though is this stunning montage in the latter third of the film, in which all the characters sing "Wise Up" by Aimee Mann, a moment that has no right to work, yet gives me goosebumps from the mere thought of it. That is Magnolia epitomised there: it should not work and with a three hour runtime that makes you want to just give up on paper, it feels like it can't. And then from the sky, falls a miracle. Trust me, those three hours will fly by and you will not regret it.
Of all the films on the list, Being John Malkovich was the film that most benefited from me watching it twice. It's the directorial debut of Spike Jonze, a director whose film her charms my soul, as well as the first script from Charlie Kaufman, whose work on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York rank among all time favourites of mine despite (or maybe because, I can be like that) how weird their titles are and what a calling card it is. The story is of a puppeteer who, while working on the 7 1/2th floor of an office building, discovers a door that leads anyone into the mind of John Malkovich for 15 minutes at a time. Like most Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze films, it does not sound like anything ever made and it is credit to the both of them that it manages to raise the weirdness and the stakes. There are also many amazing thematic layers to peel back with Being John Malkovich, I think the thing that make this film so worth revisiting. For example, on my most recent watch, I picked up a heavy theme of trans-sexualism, with Cameron Diaz's character suffering from a loss of identity even more than the male lead. Much of this film is so weird that if I tried to explain it or pitch it to you, you wouldn't believe that the film I'm describing is real, so please, trust me when I say that Being John Malkovich is one of the most incredible films I have ever seen. Who knows, in a couple of years time, this could knock the top film off this list. It grows on you, hopefully not to the degree where I will run around shouting "MALKOVICH" at strangers.
I think most of you knew that Fight Club was going to top this list, although I admit that with my second watch of Being John Malkovich, the future of Fight Club looked shaky. As we stand now though, it remains my favourite film from 1999. Much goes into making Fight Club what Fight Club is. The thing I was drawn to that first time I fell in love with it was the two leads, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. I have never seen them do better, Norton owning his narration with dry monotony, Pitt swaggering around with a delicious swagger that should not be mistaken for likeability. As my knowledge of film making grew, I then gravitated to director David Fincher. Fincher has since become my favourite director (because I am a basic film bitch) and Fight Club is a great example of his style. There is that subtle and boundary pushing use of computer effects, superbly precise attention to detail and that recurring theme of men in crisis that turns into men in catastrophic free fall, all combining for a delicious cocktail. Then when I rewatched Fight Club again a couple of days ago, I really felt the impact of author of the original novel, Chuck Palahniuk. I've been reading a lot of his books recently and he has a very dry style of dissecting the structures around society (many of which that don't exist but that adds to the charm) that is very compelling and comes across a lot in the narration of the film. By combining these three aspects, along with aspects I am too dense to comprehend like production design, cinematography and score, you create a film that is over 140 minutes long, yet flies by with a cheeky charm and subversive charm that I can't help but fall for every time. Maybe you disagree but I believe that Fight Club is indeed the best film from 1999.
Thank you for making it to the end of this, today does officially mark the day that, five years ago, I started writing this blog which is overwhelming. The amount of people that read my ramblings always fluctuates but through these last five years, it has been a pleasure to write for whoever is out there and willing to read it. So again, thank you, and don't forget to check back on Tuesday for the peak of the anniversary celebrations: my long awaited review of Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw.
So what made 1999 such an interesting year at the cinema? Well, let's start with some of the people involved. It was a year when already legendary directors like Martin Scorcese, David Lynch and Claire Denis, none of whom are even in the top part of my list. We also had plenty of new faces debut, of which just the directors list includes Spike Jonze, Sam Mendes and Lynne Ramsay, all making their feature film debuts. Even more excitingly, this was also the year where Jake Gyllenhall got his first starring role, Amy Adams made her screen debut and we were all first exposed to the madness of a Charlie Kaufman screenplay. A lot of fascinating trends made up this year, many of which are detailed in much more depth in these articles from The Guardian and BFI, as well as this video essay from Now You See It:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/10/magnolia-to-the-matrix-was-1999-the-greatest-year-in-modern-cinema?
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/millennium-anxiety
https://youtu.be/RuZKG77vANU (why all movies from 1999 are the same)
As I read the films I've seen though, three themes prevail. The first, and easily the most obvious, is that of men trying to reclaim control in some way. Sometimes it's in response to new waves of feminism, sometimes it's from being crushed under the wheels of late capitalism, others it's simply examples of a mid-life crisis. Whichever it is, you can read male crisis into almost every film I'm going to talk about here and all of them that tackle it do so in multiple nuanced ways. Cinema isn't just about the dudes though, it's also about other people with other interests and that's why I was amazed when I realised how many prevalent LGBTQ narratives there are. Again, there are a bunch of films I'm going to talk about that explicitly or implicitly engage with them but to give examples of films that won't come up here that I'd still recommend, it's worth checking out kitsch lesbian flick But I'm A Cheerleader, as well as transsexual stories from Spain, in All About My Mother or in the American deep south in Boys Don't Cry. Finally though, this does feel to me like a year of ends. Clearly, it's at the end of a millennium and that impacts it but this is also the year when Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest directors of all time, released his last film. We then too start to see movies that are the last of their kind, films (that I'm not going to bring up because we'll get to them) emblematic of studios taking big risks on talented directors with some very strange ideas. I mean, imagine something like Dogma being released today, it just wouldn't happen! This mood of endings feels like the perfect time to wrap up this overly long intro and get into the films starting, as ever, with a list of very honourable mentions.
The Iron Giant
At times it's a film that is patchy and uneven but ultimately, a heart of gold, delightful animation and an absolutely stellar third act elevate The Iron Giant to the level of an animated gem.
Peppermint Candy
The second film from the director who brought us the stellar Burning this year, Peppermint Candy is a very different film. It's rare for a film to start with the suicide of the main character and then slowly descend into a complex pit of misery but Peppermint Candy does it brilliantly.
Man on the Moon
Jim Carrey would go on to deliver a better dramatic performance in a later film but his interpretation of Andy Kaufman gives this delightfully playful biopic its buzz.
Election
A political satire that is actually set in a high school, Election is simply a delight. The combination of voice over narration from all the characters and witnessing their foibles outside their heads make Election as funny as it is cutting.
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
More than simply a feature length episode, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut is one of my favourite musicals ever made (seriously) but also brings in the big laughs by taking pot shots at the show itself and the people who criticise it.
Ravenous
An underappreciated gem, I don't know how much I want to say about Ravenous. What I do feel comfortable saying is that it is a gonzo Western that looks like it's going to some strange places, before it goes to some even stranger places.
Eyes Wide Shut
Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut is a very strange beast that it's taken me two watches to even begin to get my head around. It's not an erotic thriller, rather a thriller about how one man can get so derailed by his own sexual inadequacies.
With those incredibly honourable honourable mentions out the way, it's time to get to the big seven of one of the biggest years in cinema.
7. The Talented Mr Ripley
In the book The Disaster Artist (about the making of The Room, I highly recommend it), Greg Sestero frames the story of him and Tommy Wiseau's friendship through two films: Rebel Without a Cause and this film. I mention it for two reasons. First off, the character of Mark in The Room is named after Matt Damon and any chance I get to tell people that I take. Secondly though, I think it makes for an interesting case study of looking at relationships between men to look at The Room and The Talented Mr Ripley together, although The Room feels entirely accidental in its craft. Anyway, seeing as it's a fairly well known but little talked about nowadays, I didn't have the highest of hopes for The Talented Mr Ripley. And then, as the film began to roll, all my doubts melted away as I realised just how hand made this film is for me. It's what I refer to as an airplane thriller done right (think classy trash on the level of Gone Girl or Stephen King), set in gorgeous Italy and it deals with the theme of identity and its malleable nature. Frankly, I don't know why this film doesn't get more love. It's a story of one faker becoming obsessed with a man he's never met, whose elegenace lies in its simplicity. Plus, with standout performances from Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman (who will return later), there's plenty here I find to adore.
6. The Matrix
Despite not being around to go to the cinema when The Matrix came out, I still have such a vivid memory of seeing it for the first time. I was at my dad's house and he promised to put on this really cool film, of which I'd heard bits and pieces about, but I didn't know what the Matrix was. So we started watching it, there's a lot of leather, some weird sci-fi motifs and a bit of cool action. I was digging it at that point. And then Neo chooses to take the red pill and we learn what the Matrix is. To describe how that revelation changed my worldview would be a cliche, anyone who saw The Matrix as a teenager had that exact same experience, but it's why it still stays with me so strongly. I take this piece of shit blog seriously though and so I rewatched The Matrix recently, terrified that it wouldn't hold up. While that moment of revelation was obviously not as ground breaking this time around, the action, the plot and even the philosophical leanings still held up very well, meaning I feel no guilt whatsoever for putting this film on the list. I think other people love it way more than I do (it's 19 on the IMDb Top 250 which feels way too high) but The Matrix is as iconic and revolutionary as it is deservedly.
5. Toy Story 2
About this time last year, I rewatched the entire Toy Story trilogy because it had been so long since I'd seen them all and was surprised to find that while Toy Story 3 could still make me weep with a click of the fingers, it was Toy Story 2 that sat head and shoulders above the other two (and is also much better than Toy Story 4, not that I feel that's a particularly notable accomplishment). Really, the thing that holds up least well is the digital animation, and even that looks surprisingly great for a 20 year old film. Otherwise, it is the perfect example of what a sequel can do: with the characters already established, you can challenge them with more nuanced plots and throw in new characters for them to interact with and what characters they introduced! Bullseye, Stinky Pete and Al (of Al's Toy Barn) are characters who have stuck with me since little baby Henry saw them but the real feather in the cap is Jessie. On paper, she is just a female version of Woody but underneath that brighter smile is a far sadder story, as that heartbreaking montage set to "When She Loved Me" shows. Nostalgia maybe blinds me a little when it comes to Toy Story but for what is considered one of the strongest trilogies in cinema, this is the crowning jewel. You can gather together the whole family to laugh, cry and connect, all thanks to some digital recreations of toys. That is movie magic embodied.
4. American Beauty
Let's get the elephant in the room a seeing to straight away: yes, this is a film starring (alleged) paedophile Kevin Spacey, in which one of his major character drives is attempting to have sex with an underage girl. That aspect of the film has aged really, really badly and in the two times I've seen the film since the allegations, that plot line is incredibly uncomfortable. That is why I think it's so notable that American Beauty can still make it so high up a list like this because this is something of a masterpiece in my eyes. It fits squarely into two of my favourite niche genres, those being "Man has crisis and attempts to reclaim his masculinity" and "it ain't all good in the American suburbs", genres that it near perfects. The satirical scalpel with which this film approaches middle America is superbly precise, breaking apart the characters in ways that are devastating and hilarious in equal measure. I'm going to hone in on that last part again, because this film is really, really funny. I love plenty about it, from the cinematography to the score that I still listen to regularly, but it is that humour that always sticks with me. When a man has absolutely nothing to lose anymore, he will say and do outrageous things. Not all of those are advisable things (a message Mr Spacey should have carried through to his personal life) but so many of them make me laugh out loud with nervous guilt. American Beauty is a hard film to recommend nowadays after the #metoo movement, but if you're willing to distance it from that real world connection, there is a wealth of riches to be found.
3. Magnolia
Second flower film in a row here, albeit a super different one, the favourite film of a wonderful friend of mine from Uni. A couple of years prior to this, amazing fantastic brilliant director Paul Thomas Anderson made Boogie Nights, a swirling ensemble film that I think could be his masterpiece, although I have to revisit that and finish watching his catalogue to confirm that. He followed that already sprawling ensemble with one that expanded on it in every way, pushing that scope from the porn scene into all of Los Angeles, bumping up the emotional range and adding even more characters and yet, it doesn't lose focus. Despite a real linearity, there is an intangible majesty to Magnolia. I remember reading a review that described it as trying to connect a bunch of pieces of spaghetti on a plate: they intersect, they are all noticeably have their own strands but to try and do that would be the task of an insane man. Call P.T.A. a maniac then because not only does he try it, he knocks it out the damn park. It isn't all down to him though, there are some amazing actors delivering his lines and instructions here, with Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman being brilliant carryovers from Boogie Nights and Tom Cruise coming in and giving a performance so honestly deranged, it may be his greatest ever. Defining the movie most though is this stunning montage in the latter third of the film, in which all the characters sing "Wise Up" by Aimee Mann, a moment that has no right to work, yet gives me goosebumps from the mere thought of it. That is Magnolia epitomised there: it should not work and with a three hour runtime that makes you want to just give up on paper, it feels like it can't. And then from the sky, falls a miracle. Trust me, those three hours will fly by and you will not regret it.
2. Being John Malkovich
Of all the films on the list, Being John Malkovich was the film that most benefited from me watching it twice. It's the directorial debut of Spike Jonze, a director whose film her charms my soul, as well as the first script from Charlie Kaufman, whose work on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York rank among all time favourites of mine despite (or maybe because, I can be like that) how weird their titles are and what a calling card it is. The story is of a puppeteer who, while working on the 7 1/2th floor of an office building, discovers a door that leads anyone into the mind of John Malkovich for 15 minutes at a time. Like most Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze films, it does not sound like anything ever made and it is credit to the both of them that it manages to raise the weirdness and the stakes. There are also many amazing thematic layers to peel back with Being John Malkovich, I think the thing that make this film so worth revisiting. For example, on my most recent watch, I picked up a heavy theme of trans-sexualism, with Cameron Diaz's character suffering from a loss of identity even more than the male lead. Much of this film is so weird that if I tried to explain it or pitch it to you, you wouldn't believe that the film I'm describing is real, so please, trust me when I say that Being John Malkovich is one of the most incredible films I have ever seen. Who knows, in a couple of years time, this could knock the top film off this list. It grows on you, hopefully not to the degree where I will run around shouting "MALKOVICH" at strangers.
1. Fight Club
I think most of you knew that Fight Club was going to top this list, although I admit that with my second watch of Being John Malkovich, the future of Fight Club looked shaky. As we stand now though, it remains my favourite film from 1999. Much goes into making Fight Club what Fight Club is. The thing I was drawn to that first time I fell in love with it was the two leads, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. I have never seen them do better, Norton owning his narration with dry monotony, Pitt swaggering around with a delicious swagger that should not be mistaken for likeability. As my knowledge of film making grew, I then gravitated to director David Fincher. Fincher has since become my favourite director (because I am a basic film bitch) and Fight Club is a great example of his style. There is that subtle and boundary pushing use of computer effects, superbly precise attention to detail and that recurring theme of men in crisis that turns into men in catastrophic free fall, all combining for a delicious cocktail. Then when I rewatched Fight Club again a couple of days ago, I really felt the impact of author of the original novel, Chuck Palahniuk. I've been reading a lot of his books recently and he has a very dry style of dissecting the structures around society (many of which that don't exist but that adds to the charm) that is very compelling and comes across a lot in the narration of the film. By combining these three aspects, along with aspects I am too dense to comprehend like production design, cinematography and score, you create a film that is over 140 minutes long, yet flies by with a cheeky charm and subversive charm that I can't help but fall for every time. Maybe you disagree but I believe that Fight Club is indeed the best film from 1999.
Thank you for making it to the end of this, today does officially mark the day that, five years ago, I started writing this blog which is overwhelming. The amount of people that read my ramblings always fluctuates but through these last five years, it has been a pleasure to write for whoever is out there and willing to read it. So again, thank you, and don't forget to check back on Tuesday for the peak of the anniversary celebrations: my long awaited review of Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw.
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