The Aisle Seat Blog

Revisting the Ten Best Films of 1999

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:16:51 +0000

Right now, many critics are unveiling their lists of the ten best films of the decade. Not me. I have no intention of doing such a list. Oh sure, it seems simple: take my #1 movie from each of the last ten years, rank those ten pictures, and be done with it. The task is not that easy, though. For example, I'd rank my #2 movie from 2007 (No Country For Old Men) over my #1 movie from 2005 (King Kong). When you get into those kinds of logistics, it becomes something of a nightmare.

But the bigger reason why I'm not doing a Best of Decade list (unless I change my mind between now and January 1, 2010) is that I've had more time to think about the pictures that came out earlier in the decade. Year-end Ten Best lists are, in a way, knee-jerk. They are a critic's immediate impression of the twelve months just past. While I rarely (if ever) change my opinion about a film, time certainly does shape the proportions of those opinions. Some movies grow in staute as I think about - or re-watch - them; the impact of others may fade slightly, or perhaps the films themselves grow dated.

In any event, rather than trying to cobble together a list of the best pictures of 2000-2009, I thought it would be more enlightening to reflect back on my ten best list from a decade ago. How do the movies I chose as the best of 1999 hold up in my mind today? Here are a few quick thoughts about them.

10. The Insider - Michael Mann directed Russell Crowe and Al Pacino in this true tale of a tobacco company whistleblower. This is one of only two films on this list that I never saw again after my initial viewing. Still, I remember a very good film - a little long, perhaps, but still solid.

9. The Legend of 1900 - Honestly, I remember almost nothing about this movie. I do recall that Tim Roth played a pianist working on a cruise ship, and the standout scene had him trying to play while a storm rocked the ship, sending his piano flying back and forth across the ballroom floor. I was obviously pretty enamored with the film in 1999 to have put it on my list. Interestingly, neither Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia nor David Fincher's Fight Club appear on this list. I love both of them and probably should have given this slot to one or the other. For that matter, I should have bumped off The Insider for one of them as well.

8. Bringing Out the Dead - Martin Scorsese directed Nicolas Cage in this tale of an EMT suffering a personal crisis of conscience. There are many critics who think this is one of Scorsese's weakest efforts. I think it is underrated in that sense, but it certainly isn't in the same league as his best work. This one seemed like a big deal to me at the time; today, it's not the first one I'd pop in were I in the mood for either a Scorsese or a Cage flick.

7. Toy Story 2 - Well, I definitely called this one right. An all-time classic. I re-watched it this past May, as a matter of fact, and was delighted all over again. If anything, it belongs higher on the list.

6. Three Kings - David O. Russell's Gulf War drama is another solid choice. Russell and star George Clooney may have physically come to blows during production, but the film they ended up with is smart, funny, and appropriately cynical about war. These qualities make it at least as relevant in 2009 as it was in 1999. I may be due to re-visit it again soon.

5. Man on the Moon - This Andy Kaufman biopic was never the box office hit I really thought it would be, but then again, Kaufman was a very acquired taste. Jim Carrey gave a performance that went beyond brilliance as both Kaufman and alter ego Tony Clifton. My wife absolutely hates this movie and can't understand my love for it. As someone who found Andy Kaufman endlessly fascinating, I think the picture gets a lot of stuff right about the nature of his genius.

4. American Beauty - Here's another one time hasn't been kind to in the eyes of some critics. More than once, I have heard it referred to as "one of the worst Best Picture winners in Oscar history." Granted, it may have tapped into the cultural mood (and millenial fears) circa 1999, but I think it holds up. To me, the story was about how your life is doomed if you don't find try to find beauty wherever you can (even if it's just watching a bag blow in the wind). That message is timeless. My belief is that the backlash is merely a product of Right Now, and American Beauty will regain its reputation over the long haul.

3. Being John Malkovich - Ten years on, this still looks like a masterpiece. Others have tried to imitate the quirky, mind-bending qualities of this Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman collaboration, but none have pulled it off. On the modern movie landscape, this is undoubtedly a touchstone.

2. Dogma - For many years, I had a policy of making my #2 film a personal favorite - some movie that I really cherished for whatever reason. Kevin Smith's satire of Catholicism (which nevertheless contained some pretty sincere devotion to faith) was my 1999 choice. Putting a bunch of big stars in a movie whose content was both controversial and non-commercial was brave then and it's brave now. That said, I think perhaps I'd put it slightly lower on my list were I making it today. Still top ten - maybe even top five. My love for Dogma remains strong. It just doesn't feel like an almost-the-best-film-of-the-year kind of choice. Needless to say, I've scrapped that old policy for #2 films in the last decade.

1. The Blair Witch Project - Yeah, I'm the guy who picked this as the year's best. I think we all know what the blacklash has been on this low-budget horror pic, and it's the kind of thing that has come to represent the phrase "can't match the hype." I saw it before the hype really hit, and was blown away by the creativity of the low-budget asthetic. In awarding it my top slot, I was recognizing the then-novel idea that innovative filmmakers could pick up a home video camera (of all things!) and use their creativity and ingenuity to give us something we hadn't seen before. Of course, the use of digital video cameras has become commonplace; we've even had movies co-opting the Blair Witch style, Paranormal Activity being chief among them. I actually think this was a solid choice for 1999. After all, it was new and fresh and different at the time. Also, the flick was absolutely a harbinger of low-budget filmmaking to come. So I stand by my initial ranking. Today, though, Being John Malkovich looks more like the #1 film of 2009 to me.

The "Twilight" Saga - A Celebration of Pedophilia?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:27:50 +0000

I'll admit that I enjoy making fun of all things "Twilight." I often make comments (in jest) that I know will rankle all my adult female friends who are as obsessed with Stephenie Meyer's novels (and the two movie adaptations) as the young girls at whom the series is aimed. It started out as a joke: ha ha, I'm a guy and I don't get it, ha ha. Then it morphed into simply being amused by the offended reactions I would get. In fairness to myself, I've made these jokes with friends who completely get my sense of humor and know that I am not really being condescending.

For example, yesterday morning I was making my weekly appearance on a local radio morning show, discussing the new films opening this weekend. New Moon was, of course, on that list. Knowing that the female co-host of the show (and a longtime personal friend) was a "Twilight" fan, I referred to it as "the phenomenon that has turned millions of teenage girls into raving lunatics." Her response was, "It has not!" I quickly replied with, "Yes it has," and moved on to the next thing. We all had a good laugh about it as soon as the microphones were off.

Then today I posted what I thought was a ridiculous Facebook status update, knowing that all my "Twilight"-loving friends would see it, chuckle, and make some smart-ass comment back to me. When I walked away from the computer, I started to think about what I'd written. That's when it dawned on me: That wasn't just a snarky little comment after all. It was kind of true. This realization disturbed me a bit, and also put its finger on what I think I have subconsciously resisted about the whole "Twilight" sensation thus far. Here's what I wrote:

"If Edward Cullen is hundreds of years old, and Bella is a teenager, then doesn't that make him a borderline pedophile for dating her?"

Stop and think about it for just a second. The books (and their subsequent movie adaptations) have made a big deal about the fact that the vampire Edward has been around for hundreds of years. Bella is seventeen when they meet. We therefore are left with a radically age-imbalanced relationship. Forget that Edward is several hundred years old. Reduce his age to, say, sixty. If a sixty year-old man was dating a teenager, what would you think of that? Would you think he was a pervert? Because I sure would. Would you read and cherish a novel that asked you not only to condone this relationship but also to hold it up as a thing of beauty? As far as I know, no one has ever walked around wearing a T-shirt that read "Team Humbert Humbert," and there are no fawning websites devoted to the "perfect romance" of Nabokov's "Lolita."

I know what some of you may be thinking: Edward was turned into a vampire at a young age, and so he remains that age for eternity. Perhaps that is so; nevertheless, age is ultimately about much more than physical appearance. Age is about experience and evolution. We grow old not simply by how our appearance deteriorates. It's not just about gray hair, and failing eyesight, and loss of hearing, and brittle bones. We grow old because we are literally around longer, able to go places, do things, and experience the world - and its remarkable cultural, technological, and political changes - to a greater degree.

Edward Cullen has totally done all of these things, and that makes him substantially older than Bella, in both the developmental and emotional senses. There is a scene in New Moon (and it's probably in the book too, although I wouldn't know since I didn't read it) where Edward is in English class and the teacher thinks he is not paying attention. He puts Edward on the spot, asking him to recite a monologue from "Romeo and Juliet." The vampire does it perfectly from memory. The joke of the scene is that we know Edward has been through school multiple times over the centuries. Bella, on the other hand, is here for the first time. A man who has already completed his schooling is far "older" than a girl who is still in the midst of it.

Consider as well the fact that Edward must have been romantically and/or sexually involved with other women over the course of his long undead existence. (Whether or not he admits that to Bella is another matter.) He is therefore more experienced than the virgin Bella. Edward is often shown agonizing over whether or not to "drink her blood." Taken in this line of interpretation, one could reasonably suggest that Edward is, in reality, fighting off the urge to molest this beautiful, much younger, much less worldly girl. His holding back is an acknowledgement that his deepest, strongest, most passionately held desires are wrong in the eyes of society.

So many women and girls I know refer to this saga as a "beautiful love story." They swoon over Edward and fantasize about finding a man just like him. More than once, I have heard him described as the "perfect man." Are these females in essence saying that they yearn for a man to take advantage of them, to strip them of their innocence prematurely? To exploit their naiveté? To overstep a societal/legal boundary in the name of "true love"? If Edward really is a dirty old man who wants date and possibly have his way with a teenage girl, how can he possibly be a symbol of male perfection? Personally, I think the dude is a sicko.

Now, in fairness, I'm 100% certain that Stephenie Meyer did not intend for her story to be a celebration of pedophilia. "Twilight" is obviously a metaphorical story about teen chastity and the pull between wanting to lose one's virginity and the fear of what that action will bring. There is another way to read this story, however, and the fact that it wasn't intentional does not invalidate it. When you get to the heart of things, the "Twilight" saga is, in some ways, a very creepy story about an old man's attempts to exploit a young girl for his own pleasure, and a young girl who is willing to let him do it. There's nothing "beautiful" about that.

My Own Paranormal Activity

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:34:19 +0000

Paranormal Activity is the out-of-nowhere movie sensation of 2009. I love when a little film manages to break through just on the sheer force of invention and imagination. In a time when it seems like most hit movies are "packaged" to the hilt, it's reassuring to know that audiences will still respond to a good, well-executed concept, even if the picture has no stars.

But what is it about this particular film that has allowed it to jump to the top of the box office charts when so many low-budget, independently-financed features are lucky to even get a marginal DVD release? Surely the clever (anti-)marketing campaign from Paramount helped, as did the fact that Paranormal Activity is genuinely scary. However, I think there's another reason this movie is striking a chord: many of us have experienced something unexplained in our lives. That includes me. I've never discussed this publicly, but now seems like the time.

Let me preface by saying that I do not believe in ghosts. Never have. Nor do I believe in UFOs, Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster. When it comes to paranormal stuff, I've always found it fascinating simply because I believe in it. If "Ghost Hunters" is on TV, I will totally stop and watch, just to once again see them fail to gather any definitive proof of the supernatural. Nevertheless, I once witnessed something for which I have no rational or logical explanation - something that creeps me out to this day.

It was late winter 1989. I was a college student coming home for the weekend. My parents made themselves scarce so three of my still-in-high-school friends could come over. It was one other guy and two girls. (I won't name names, as I have not asked any of them for permission to tell this tale.) One of the females was developing something of an interest in the paranormal and had subsequently been fooling around with a Ouija board. On several occasions, she had told me about her communications with a spirit through the board. Yeah, right was my oft-repeated response. So what does she do? She shows up at my house with the board in tow, of course.

I took this as my opportunity to cry foul once and for all. I made my friends, whom I trusted completely, solemnly promise not to do anything to fake or cheat. That was my stipulation for participating. They agreed. Lights were turned out. A candle was lit. The four of us sat around the board and very lightly put our fingertips on the pointer. My friend summoned the spirit she'd allegedly been talking to.

At first, it was easy to believe that the pointer's movement was unconsciously directed by us. Someone asked if the spirit was angry, and the pointer moved to the YES space on the board. Other questions, which I no longer remember, were asked; somehow it was determined that this particular spirit was the ghost of an aborted baby. When asked where it was at the current moment, the spirit "told" us that it was in the bathroom. Somehow - and I really wish I could remember the precipitating context here - the phrase "Satan's earwax" was presented to us.

Honestly, I wasn't buying a minute of this. While I trusted my friends not to cheat, it was pretty clear that this interaction was incredibly silly (Satan's earwax?! Come on!). More likely than not it was nothing other than four kids creeping themselves out.

And then it happened.

The pointer started making a figure-8 on the board, slowly at first and then more rapidly. It began going so fast that I was having trouble keeping my fingertips on it. My natural assumption was that one person in the group was simply moving it faster than the others - except that I noticed everyone having trouble keeping their fingertips on it. The pointer went so fast that none of us could keep up. Then, suddenly, the thing violently flew off the board and across the room.

Everyone was stunned. What remained unspoken was the fact that if someone had intentionally flung the pointer, it would be obvious; we all would have seen one person flick their wrists pretty noticeably in order to achieve the kind of force that propelled it across the room. That didn't happen. And everyone was surprised when it took place.

Do I believe that we were in communication with a ghost or, worse, a demon of some sort? No, I do not. That said, to this day, I cannot explain how this happened. I wouldn't know where to start. That was the last time I touched a Ouiji board, and I have no intention of ever touching one again. There is memorable sequence in Paranormal Activity that deals with a Ouiji board. As you can imagine, I found this particular scene to be especially disturbing.

Over the years, I have talked to others who have seen or experienced unexplainable stuff. It happens. Maybe the reasons are simple and we just never know them. Regardless, we experience these things deeply. Paranormal Activity may be a fantasy, but on some level, it still seems oddly, uncomfortably identifiable.