1999's Best Movies: 25 Years Later

The runners up:

2022	2023	Belfast, Maine	Wiseman, Frederick	1999	USA	245
2092	2075	Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai	Jarmusch, Jim	1999	USA	115
2099	1999	Peppermint Candy	Lee Chang-dong	1999	South Korea	129
2199	2246	Pola X	Carax, Leos	1999	France	134
2257	2488	Notting Hill	Michell, Roger	1999	USA	123
2311	2445	South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut	Parker, Trey	1999	USA	81
2386	2365	But I'm a Cheerleader	Babbit, Jamie	1999	USA	85
2434	2352	Wonderland	Winterbottom, Michael	1999	UK	108
2443	2369	Compensation	Davis, Zeinabu irene	1999	USA	95
2525	2510	Three Kings	Russell, David O.	1999	USA	115
2590	2600	Boys Don't Cry	Peirce, Kimberly	1999	USA	118
2687	2695	Mission, The	To, Johnnie	1999	Hong Kong	84
2840	2750	When the Day Breaks	Forbis, Amanda & Wendy Tilby	1999	Canada	10
3143	3162	eXistenZ	Cronenberg, David	1999	Canada	96
3274	3214	Buena Vista Social Club	Wenders, Wim	1999	Germany	104
3380	3318	Limey, The	Soderbergh, Steven	1999	USA	88
3527	3414	Kikujiro	Kitano, Takeshi	1999	Japan	122
3570	3529	Man on the Moon	Forman, Milos	1999	USA	118
3590	3629	South	Akerman, Chantal	1999	France	71
3677	3550	Time Regained	Ruiz, Raúl	1999	France	162
3834	4267	Galaxy Quest	Parisot, Dean	1999	USA	102
3837	4170	My Best Fiend	Herzog, Werner	1999	Germany	95
3879	3754	Clouds of May	Ceylan, Nuri Bilge	1999	Turkey	130
4004	4004	Lettre, La	Oliveira, Manoel de	1999	France	107
4112	4419	Julien Donkey-Boy	Korine, Harmony	1999	USA	99
4213	4100	Sleepy Hollow	Burton, Tim	1999	USA	102
4215	4217	Taboo	Oshima, Nagisa	1999	Japan	100
4439	4387	Mighty Spirit, The	Coutinho, Eduardo	1999	Brazil	80
4532	4399	Life Doesn't Scare Me	Lvovsky, Noémie	1999	France	111
4579	4435	One Day in September	Macdonald, Kevin	1999	UK	94
4604	4459	Holy Smoke	Campion, Jane	1999	USA	115
4628	5277	10 Things I Hate About You	Junger, Gil	1999	USA	97
4796	4650	Farewell, Home Sweet Home	Iosseliani, Otar	1999	France	118
4842	4710	M/Other	Suwa, Nobuhiro	1999	Japan	147
4985	4863	Romance	Breillat, Catherine	1999	France	98

To avoid a Beau Travail blow-out -- a movie I first about in the January 2001 issue of Film Comment -- I'm going to vote for All About My Mother.

not much worth a vote here tbh

sleepy hollow saves the wider list i spose

AMERICAN BEAUTY (Sam Mendes; USA) [#947]

This remains the worst movie I've ever seen. I was so angry that I didn't walk out like I should have 20 mins in.

What kind of glutton for punishment sits through that entire shitty film? Me... gah.

Anyhoo, voted for The Little Girl Who Sold The Sun with a caveat write-in for Rang-e Khoda/Color Of Paradise (dir. Majid Majidi, Iran, 90mins)

Being John Malkovich is the one I find myself coming back to on here.

American Movie. (Toy Story 2 as a runner up.)

I want to vote for American Beauty, but I can't. It'll be The Virgin Suicides or The Straight Story. Nothing on the runners-up list means anything to me. Not sure why this is considered such a landmark year. (Found a used copy of Joshua Clover's Matrix book last week, maybe I'll find out why there.)

My favorite film of 1999 was and remains The Dreamlife of Angels.

My top ten and runners-up:

1. The Dreamlife of Angels (Erick Zonka)
2. Election (Alexander Payne)
3. Rosetta (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
4. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar)
5. Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh)
6. The Insider (Michael Mann)
7. The Straight Story (David Lynch)
8. The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami)
9. The Limey (Steven Soderbergh)
10. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (Matt Parker and Trey Stone)

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Three Kings (David O. Russell), Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)

eyes wide shut. runner up: the matrix. a great year for american mainstream cinema.

clem, none of these other films meant anything to you?

Toy Story 2 is the best sequel ever made.

well thats just not correct

It was either Beau Travail or Eyes Wide Shut. I went with Beau Travail - her best film IMHO and I still remember how it blew my mind, I hadn't seen filmmaking remotely like it before.

Kubrick's film didn't do anything for me when I first saw it, but I think I was too young to really get much from it. It may have been sold as artful erotica or something like that back then, but it's much more than that. A lot of it resonates much more now as a very complex story about social mobility, success as it's defined by status, how the perception of social mores is tied into that and how that's complicated by sexuality and various sexual desires among many other things.

I like a good number of these but not a hard call — I love Topsy Turvy so much. I'm not even totally sure why, it's such an immersive film. A great period piece that is also a great backstage drama that is also a great contemplation of art and artists and how they work. It's one of those movies I could happily watch any time. Jim Broadbent is especially good, but the whole cast is terrific.

Topsy Turvy is close to my favorite Mike Leigh film. (There may not be one particular film that I prefer over it, but collectively I probably love his '80s work even more.)

sicilia then beau travail then the little girl who sold the sun.

really have no time for peter tscherkassky, a lot of other exp filmmakers of his generation more deserving of the notoriety

i really like 5 or 6 of these. in the end came down to a straight choice between melora walters expression when john c reilly visits her at the end of magnolia and edward norton's line reading of 'this chick marla singer did not have testicular cancer'. going with fight club.

Minority opinion: I've nothing against Beau Travail but she's matched or bettered it several times since.

I voted for the Wind Will Carry Us, should have gone with Sicilia!

Sicilia! for me.

no eXistenZ?

American Beauty is so bad it is offensive. One of the most smug movies ever made.

I don't often feel the need to praise David Lynch - I like him plenty but it feels like he's been a consensus fave in every community I've been in, never in need of extra boosters - but The Straight Story really is a powerful film imo.

Topsy-Turvy a lot of fun but I wonder how it would feel to someone who's indifferent to its subject matter.

(Straight Story managed to win the last '99 poll fwiw)

Topsy-Turvy a lot of fun but I wonder how it would feel to someone who's indifferent to its subject matter.

― Daniel_Rf,

Those people would be less likely to top ten it.

can't not vote Audition. those final 20 minutes, just....yikes.

props to Miike for basically making a film in an entirely different genre for the first hour before really leaning into the horror.

Topsy-Turvy a lot of fun but I wonder how it would feel to someone who's indifferent to its subject matter.

That's me and I love it.

Not sure why this is considered such a landmark year.

The number of films that had a big cultural impact is pretty wild.

This is American Movie for me. Runners-up: The Matrix, eXistenZ

There are some crazy forgotbusters in that top 20:

1	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace	$431,088,295 	3,126	$64,820,970 	15%	Twentieth Century Fox
2	The Sixth Sense	$293,506,292 	2,821	$26,681,262 	9.10%	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
3	Toy Story 2	$245,852,179 	3,257	$300,163 	0.10%	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
4	Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me	$206,040,086 	3,314	$54,917,604 	26.70%	New Line Cinema
5	The Matrix	$171,479,930 	2,903	$27,788,331 	16.20%	Warner Bros.
6	Tarzan	$171,091,819 	3,131	$34,221,968 	20%	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
7	Big Daddy	$163,479,795 	3,254	$41,536,370 	25.40%	Sony Pictures Releasing
8	The Mummy	$155,516,138 	3,411	$43,369,635 	27.90%	Universal Pictures
9	Runaway Bride	$152,257,509 	3,240	$35,055,556 	23%	Paramount Pictures
10	The Blair Witch Project	$140,539,099 	2,538	$1,512,054 	1.10%	Artisan Entertainment
11	Stuart Little	$140,035,367 	3,151	$15,018,223 	10.70%	Sony Pictures Releasing
12	The Green Mile	$136,801,374 	2,875	$18,017,152 	13.20%	Warner Bros.
13	American Beauty	$130,096,601 	1,990	$861,531 	0.70%	DreamWorks Distribution
14	The World Is Not Enough	$126,943,684 	3,163	$35,519,007 	28%	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
15	Double Jeopardy	$116,741,558 	3,002	$23,162,542 	19.80%	Paramount Pictures
16	Notting Hill	$116,089,678 	2,786	$21,811,180 	18.80%	Universal Pictures
17	Wild Wild West	$113,804,681 	3,342	$27,687,484 	24.30%	Warner Bros.
18	Analyze This	$106,885,658 	2,537	$18,383,507 	17.20%	Warner Bros.
19	The General's Daughter	$102,705,852 	2,858	$22,332,053 	21.70%	Paramount Pictures
20	American Pie	$102,561,004 	2,544	$18,709,680 	18.20%	Universal Pictures

The General's Daughter is the last time I remember John Travolta as mass-cultural star before his uh tastes clouded his judgment permanently.

Runaway Bride, the Pretty Woman reunion that used "Every Breath You Take" in the trailer, signifying the filmmaker's complete misunderstanding of that song.

Also, that top 10 has fully five films not based on any kind of pre-existing IP

Double Jeopardy, based on a hilarious misunderstanding of what Double Jeopardy is

However, the film does confirm that the Double Jeopardy Clause is not put into effect at all. Libby is only under the impression that this is how the clause works because she is told so by a disbarred lawyer, and later her crimes are fully pardoned due to her prior unjust imprisonment, meaning that the Double Jeopardy Clause is not misrepresented, but merely misunderstood by central characters in the film.

I'm picturing the writers coming up with the concept for this film, struggling with how to make it make sense, and deciding to blame the confusion on the characters instead.

Burn After Reading's all-timer ending is built on the characters admitting that none of it makes any sense

I did find the movie Fracture w/ Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling humorous because the same thing essentially happens - he's arrested for the attempted murder of his wife, then takes her off life support after acquittal, and says "you can't try me again, that's double jeopardy", and Gosling is all like "lol u stupid fuck, no it isn't, you let her die so now it's a murder charge, new charges, new case".

actually that was kind of a big letdown cos a dude as smart as Hopkins would have known that. or should have.

I am def voting for Outer Space but American Movie also has been gaining in my estimation incredibly in recent years, and I was already a pretty huge fan of it back then

My love for The Iron Giant knows no bounds.

Audition was horrifying and has stayed with me for 25 years.

Iron Giant >>> Toy Story 2

https://i.ibb.co/wrJDfDC/img-3817.gif

the wind will carry us

Beau Travail, probably. The Insider isn't far behind tbh, when you think about what kind of absolutely pedantic and mediocre film could have been made from the same material, for Mann to turn it into something like this is vv impressive. Really like Being John Malkovich, Ripley is solid, Eyes Wide Shut is great, Matrix is almost good enough to make you forget the rest of the series.

actually the runner-up list has films i like even more than most of my faves from the main list -- Ghost Dog, Three Kings, The Limey, and maybe especially The Mission (it's where Johnnie To really came into his own, just such a disciplined and unusual action film.)

I'm surprised to not see Bringing out the Dead on the runner-up list but i guess it really is considered an also-ran in Scorsese's filmography, even if it is arguably the best film he made between Casino and The Departed, though i'd probably rather rewatch it than anything else made between Casino and The Irishman, bc it's a very dynamic and off-kilter oddity that was the last time he made a film that seemed like a quick and fast, zero expectations project.

My favorite film of 1999 was and remains The Dreamlife of Angels.

This feels like a movie time forgot and I wonder why. (Never saw it, myself.)

I ... don't get this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VNFuc5cfZ0

Three Kings and The Limey are still my favorite films from those two directors. The Insider is easily my favorite Michael Mann film that has nothing to do with bank heists. While I'm at it, Magnolia is probably my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movie before he broke new ground for himself with There Will Be Blood. And Being John Malkovich is definitely my favorite Spike Jonze movie. Amazing to think those were all major studio films - how times have changed.

Love Ghost Dog too, and The Wind Will Carry Us is a masterpiece by one of my favorite filmmakers. I can't remember if it was the first one I saw by him (I saw Taste of Cherry at virtually the same time), but the idea of a filmmaker with the moral sense to consider how filmmaking (or rather a film being made) impacted everyone around it was amazing. It really was a great year for a lot of reasons. My favorites were still outside of Hollywood, but it's just sad what used to be considered viable at a place like Warner Bros.

I can’t with their movie drafts - I don’t get the point.

Right? The movies are old, they've had their box office day, their overall place in the cultural canon is pretty much set (at least in the short range) ... what the hell are the stakes here?

For years after I saw L'humanité I thought that it was the last film I saw that was both highly original and also touching, in its very cold way (its only competition was probably In Vanda's Room). I felt completely attuned to the main character and the point of view of the film. In the years since, I found some of Dumont's other films pretty good but none reached me half as much.
I finally decided to watch the film again last year and it had nearly gone dead on me, which is rare (I usually appreciate most films more on a second viewing). I would still recommend it, but most of the transcendence behind the everyday setting had gone. So I’m voting for it, but mostly on behalf of my past impressions.

I remember being very impressed by l'humanité when I saw it at the time. It was a police procedural, but not much happened except internally with the main detective character Pharaon, who had experienced a great loss but only slowly revealed himself. It felt profound, and I would like to see it again

Rosetta by the Dardennes was a pretty great film, maybe their best. It starred Émilie Dequenne (most recently seen in Close), who was 17 when it was filmed and who portrayed a teenager desperate to lead a normal life and care for her alcoholic mother. It was very memorable

I would vote Office Space if available, but I'll go with Being John Malkovich.

I guess you like movies about offices

xxp Rosetta is my favorite Dardennes film. Incredibly powerful, and also a great example of how well the Dardennes understand the effect socioeconomic forces can have on morality - not in broad, simplistic terms but what happens when it's inextricably tied to one's survival in an unforgiving and uncaring society. I think the first retrospective I attended here in NYC was for their films - what a run they had, from 1996's La Promesse through 2014's Two Days, One Night. The revelation was how they changed their entire approach to filmmaking with La Promesse - if you didn't know the credits, their earlier films are unrecognizable as their work. They haven't had the same reception in recent years, but even if their later films aren't on the same level, they can be still be fairly potent, particularly the last one Tori and Lokita.

pretty sure i voted for malkovich which completely blew my mind when i was 14 or so

Going with Beau Travail but that was a film I encountered years later, and have still never seen on the big screen... but holy shit, Blair Witch Project sure made an impression in the theater, in those innocent days before found footage became the budget horror filmmakers' crutch

I thought Beau Travail was interesting but inconsequential when I first saw it, but it has really grown in my estimation, and it is interesting now to see it in the light of all of Denis' other films

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Outer Space over Eyes Wide Shut. American Beauty is the worst one.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

American Beauty voter, step forward!--I've got your back. (Thought about it, but think I went with The Virgin Suicides in the end.)

Most of those films feel like 25 years ago for me, but I had to check Mr. Ripley... I honestly thought it was more recent that '99, like 2006 or something

and I'm sorry to see that Ratcatcher attracted no votes, including my own

The Sixth Sense was probably the highest grossing of the poll choices, yeah? I mean The Matrix ended up becoming a huge film in afterlife, but that movie was huge at the time

the worst is definitely american beauty

Three Kings, the last good David O Russell movie

If I'd known Malkovich was going to win I would've voted for Election.

jesus, awful result that

not sure whether the 12 votes for that or the 1 for american beauty is the worse

how is it worse

im not sure i said

make yr case!

Interested to hear the case that Being John Malkovich is not a significantly better film than American Beauty, on any level.

haven't seen them in 25 years, neither of them are films I would have picked out as great, but I'm interested in rewatching both of them

No judgement but the fact that one person on this board voted for amer. beauty and no one voted for 6th sense is interesting to me

Ratcatcher's the real one that got robbed here.

not sure whether the 12 votes for that or the 1 for american beauty is the worse

― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Tuesday, May 14, 2024 7:21 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

lol, see how those two in an isolated poll turn out

It’s not in the same league as the best films in the poll, but I still like it - very likely my favorite Spike Jonze feature-length film.

Interested to hear the case that Being John Malkovich is not a significantly better film than American Beauty, on any level.

― chap,

bizarre reading tbh

I missed this poll, really wouldn't have expected Being John Malkovitch to win, but can't really think of any good argument against it, I remember being amazed by it when I saw first (and possibly the only time?) saw it in a packed theater. It has a kind of wackiness which is generally confined to TV these days, which is a shame because seeing something like it in a crowd is a lot of fun.

I like that it is kind of melancholy and utterly ridiculous at the same time

Yeah, its balancing act has a higher degree of difficulty than I think it's generally given credit for these days

I picked up the BJM Criterion when it came out and showed it to a friend who hadn't seen it before (I myself hadn't seen it since the VHS days); we were both knocked sideways by how dark it was, particularly all the Cusack-Diaz marriage breakdown stuff (the cage, my god).

And the least optimistic (read: grossest) reincarnation scenario imaginable

Topsy-Turvy a lot of fun but I wonder how it would feel to someone who's indifferent to its subject matter.

That's me and I love it.

― Chris L, Tuesday, April 23

Same, largely for the reasons omar posted upthread - its very immersive in a way that makes you really feel like you're watching people & events in another time, which is a tough trick to pull off.

I dont really care about Gilbert & Sullivan one way or the other, but when it comes to movies about artists, particularly with music, I usually could care less about whether I like the actual art being created in the story - if the movie's good that should be totally beside the point imo. If thats all I was looking for, I would watch an actual concert film or something.

I usually laugh at #eureka moments in movies but Gilbert's here works.