After the 2000s I was really wondering if I should do like a ranking for each category and maybe sum up each decade I do but I decided against that. I might do that after I'm done (if that ever happens!) or just one big summary of my thoughts on the whole thing. I mention this because entering a new decade - and century! - is awesome but also kind of daunting. I have so much more to go so maybe breaking it up would have been one thing to do. But I think just diving in and keeping it going is the way to go. I did a basic calculation of one movie a day for 365 days and figured it'd net me 18 years which would put me into the early 80s. I'd love to be in the 80s at the end of the year but I don't know how realistic that is with life getting in the way. Also, I'd only be in the 80s after doing this for almost 7 years and that seems awful! Oh well. I'll just have to stay motivated and realize this is a marathon project. On to the films though!
1999 Best Picture
American Beauty
This was a strong winner back in 1999 and people loved it. Nowadays, you can read a lot online and anywhere else that say this film is highly overrated and how it shouldn't have won Best Picture and that it's one giant cliche. I think that's a case of we loved it so much for awhile that now we have to find a way to tear it down to make us not seem so persuaded by it's charm. American Beauty is a wryly comical film that makes fun of middle American
ideals and has some really funny moments that don't call attention to
themselves. It's about a man undergoing what you could call a mid-life crisis in response to his family being all kinds of screwed up. I love that the film skewers so much of society in one fell swoop and does it with such ease and intelligence. It makes fun of everything from the phony working woman, loveless marriages, the retired military man who can't adjust to real life, to the woman who sits in a near catatonic state who apologizes for no reason who is married to said military guy, the corporate world, high school popular kids, and a whole bunch of other little things. It takes aim and lets fire at a whole magnitude of the American population which is why I think the film is relatable. I also feel like it hit very close to home for a lot of the Academy voters and they thought it was an important film based off that reason. I don't believe that it's a very important film, it just peels back the cover and shines a light on what life is like for lots of people and let's you gaze on in horror and wonder and disbelief and hilarity. And I think that works right near the turn of the Century, as we were a bit more introspective going into a new Millennium and it gave us a good idea of our true selves - to some degree. I like American Beauty as a Best Picture winner because it's so different from what the Academy normally goes for. As a matter of fact, I saw that it was only the 2nd film of the 90s that wasn't a period piece. I would prefer more films like this one, especially if it meant fewer films like The Cider House Rules. I'd say American Beauty is a worthy winner.
The Cider House Rules
I'm struggling to come up with a reason as to why this was nominated. I feel I might sit here for eternity and never know. I mean, I don't know...besides it's cloying, cliche story what does it say? Oh, it talks about abortions? Ooohhhoohhhhhh! That's just cosmetic bullshit. It could have been polio or SARS or that disease from Soderbergh's Contagion. Point being this is one of the worst Best Picture nominees I've encountered so far. It's so obvious in it's desire for a nomination anywhere that it boggles my mind how they didn't see that back in 1999. There are some real human moments scattered throughout the film, but they are few and far between. It's like you start to say okay, here's something decent and then they pull the laughtastic Negro knife fight. Like where did that come from and who approved it?? There's many other scenes that just land with a thud and you wonder is this actually a serious Oscar movie? Because there's a lot of cringe worthy scenes that I know I would have cringed at just as hard back then as I did now. And this isn't just a generational thing, this is a truly bad movie. Fuck it. I'm done pretending for tonight that there's any merit to this movie because there isn't. This is laughable, right down to the paralyzed Paul Rudd, the apple picker leader who bones his daughter and gets her preggo, the whole Michael Caine terrible accent Dr who does ether. There's just so many cliches in this film that I can't believe people actively defend this. I still read about this film getting warm accolades and I wonder what the hell those people were watching. That's why I think the actual Oscar race is just people hoping they are the first to pimp a film so they can brag about that on the way to a website or a column. Anyway, The Cider House Rules does not rule. I saw this was a Miramax film and that seems to explain everything, since the Weinstein Bros can buy anything, especially during this time period. What a truly awful nomination.
The Green Mile
At first, you glance through the list of Best Picture nominees and you see The Green Mile on it and you're like, okay yeah that seems like a no brainer. I like Tom Hanks and it's a feel good movie and I like Stephen King's work. And you convince yourself it belongs and you move on down the list. But then you really think about it and does this movie scream Best Picture to you? It does have all the hallmarks of one but is the sum greater than it's parts here? I kinda think so but 1999 is such an odd year when you really look into it. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike The Green Mile. I find it to be quite an enjoyable watch for long stretches, though I wouldn't want to sit down and just watch it start to finish. That's one of the knocks I have is that it is so long, over 3 hours, and could be trimmed down to make a tighter, possibly better paced film. There are times where it feels glacial but then the acting hooks you and you keep sitting there watching. The acting is indeed pretty good in this, from Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan to all the supporting guys and gals who probably do elevate the film above what it really is. It's a very Stephen King non-horror story film, too, where it's fantastical and magical in a sense and very visual. You just know that reading some of the scenes in the book must have been quite an immersive and engaging experience. Sometimes that translates here onscreen, other times it falls a little flat. The story can be a little too cutesy and on the nose sometimes as well, which almost disrupts the flow of the film. There's a whole lot going on here which is why I kinda find this an odd choice for Best Picture. At it's core, The Green Mile is an emotional film, somewhat manipulative, but with a good heart. It's easy to see why the Academy was swayed by it.
The Insider
It had been a long time since I saw this film and didn't know it was directed by Michael Mann. After watching it for a bit, I really was enjoying the direction and camera work and looked up the director and saw it was Mann and it made sense. While at times the direction feels showy, there's other times where it really suits the intense nature of the film. The camera gets right in the face of characters and falls them around for a bit and adds another element to the final product. The Insider tells the story of a whistleblower who leaks some info about tobacco being addictive when Big Tobacco has been denying it for years. A 60 Minutes producer catches wind of this and convinces Crowe's character to talk about it and it eventually snowballs from there. It's a very serious subject and it's treated as such in the film, which is intense from the acting right down to the music and cinematography. I think if done just a little bit wrong, The Insider would have failed miserably because it is so serious and important feeling. All the characters seem angry and on edge and it makes the world seem like such a terrible, greedy place where the truth costs you everything. But it has some energy that helps keep it from being so dour and boring. Plus, it's got some really great acting, especially from Al Pacino and Christopher Plummer, that keeps you really engaged with the story. One odd thing I noticed about the film is that 2005 Best Picture winner, Crash, steals some dramatic flourishes from the film such as a character driving by a burning car seemingly out of nowhere and the vocal music that plays occasionally throughout. When I noticed this it kinda pulled me out of the film a little because it seemed to me like Crash blatantly ripped it off, since I don't know if it's an honest nod to this film or not. Watch them and tell me that doesn't strike you as similar. But besides that issue, I could see myself wanting this film to win back in 1999 because it's the type of film I generally like. It certainly makes my decision for this year a tough one.
The Sixth Sense
I can remember watching this one in theaters and what a cultural phenomenon it became. Something about it just pressed the right buttons with the public and soon it was everywhere. You couldn't escape the "I see dead people" phrase no matter how hard you tried. I think that America was just hungry for a good ghost story again and something fresh in the horror/ghost/mystery genre was exactly what they wanted. This is of course before the public became aware of every M. Night Shyamalan film having some twist, so the ending wasn't expected and probably hit that much harder because you weren't looking and waiting for it. The Sixth Sense also offered up a really great performance from Haley Joel Osment who made the film what it was. It also benefited from being a great second watch film because you can pick up on all the things you missed the first time around after you found out what the twist was. So I think that helped add to the love the film received. The story itself is pretty good but I do think it loses steam at the end when we see that the ghosts are using him to tie up their loose ends and let loved ones know things. That clashes with the overall horror feel that the ghosts are evil and bad and here to take away Osment or at least torture and torment him that keeps getting alluded too. I'm also not a fan of the jump scares that films like to use which this one does, as well. But that's probably because I'm not a big fan of horror/scary films in general. I'm not sure The Sixth Sense is a great film. I think it's a very good genre film that exceeded expectations and gave us a great child actor performance but I think the hype certainly elevated it past where it should be. I remember there being a lot of Top 100 Film lists coming out at the end of the decade and The Sixth Sense kept getting mentioned as one of the best films ever after it had just come out, which even then I thought was absurd. So that's what I mean when I say the hype got out of control and people kept making it out to be better than it really was. I'm actually happy that it's included in this category, though, because the Academy is so adverse to genre films. So while I don't think it's a great or even Oscar caliber film, I'm fine with it's inclusion for Best Picture simply because it's such a different choice for Oscar, especially at that time.
Not sure why the winner couldn't have been called The American Beauty, ya know, for continuity sake. Not a bad year if you don't include The Cider House Rules which is a really terrible movie that seems more like a parody than a legit Oscar film. Blame Miramax for that one. The other 4 are all good and provide an interesting group. You've got a Stephen King adaptation, The Green Mile, that's like magical realism which would be my 4th. Then you have a kind of mystery/horror/thriller in The Sixth Sense that I'm not sure the Academy will ever go with again, if so it will be awhile anyway. Then it's a hard choice: American Beauty or The Insider. Honestly, it's a toss up. I like each of them for different reasons and wouldn't mind re-watching them both. Slight edge to American Beauty for being unique and different, though, at least for now. Pretty good year that I wish I could replace the bottom feeder with a legit Oscar film.
Oscar Winner: American Beauty
My Winner: American Beauty
The Insider
The Sixth Sense
The Green Mile
The Cider House Rules
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