Thank you for not being afraid to acknowledge the greatness of American Beauty. I think people have unjustly downgraded that movie recently, specifically only because of Kevin Spacey's personal issues. It is still my favorite film from 1999. Absolute masterpiece.
It is my favorite movie of 1999 also. Spacey’s crimes aside, there is SO much to admire with the simplistic beauty of the film: the direction, the score, the cinematography, the fantastic dialog, the satire. It’s an amazing movie and still one of my all time favorites.
To me 1967 is the ultimate year!! Bonnie & Clyde, Belle De Jour, The Graduate, Cool Hand Luke, Two For the Road, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, Wait Until Dark, Playtime.. it was a truly revolutionary year for film
I agree! I actually recently read Pictures at a Revolution, a fantastic book that focuses on many of these films and makes your point too :) If you haven't read it, I definitely recommend it!
THIS was everything! I've often said that 1999 was a monumental year for film, but you hit all the nails on all the heads! I graduated high school in '99 and started college at NYU that fall, so I saw SO many of these movies in theaters, both in the suburbs of NYC that summer while I was home, and many more in the village of NYC with my then-new college friends who loved film. One of my dearest friends who ended up being one of my college roommates the next year, we STILL talk about December 17, 1999 being "Magnolia Day," cuz we went to see it that afternoon together even though classes had ended a week earlier, but we knew that if we went home to the suburbs, we wouldn't have a chance to see it for a bit. And it never felt like 3 hours - and as many times as I've seen it, it still doesn't. Magnolia, American Beauty, Being John Malkovich, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Matrix, Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, Eyes Wide Shut, Drop Dead Gorgeous (talk about a cult classic!), Blair Witch, Summer Of Sam, Boys Don't Cry, Girl Interrupted, The Straight Story (and I'm a massive Lynch fan and only recently watched this as well), Sleepy Hollow, All About My Mother, even popcorn fare like Deep Blue Sea and American Pie - not to mention the queer classic Trick - it was such an amazing year and such a time of my turning into a young adult with opinions (well, I always had opinions lol). This video really made me smile, so thank you!
So glad you ended with Magnolia, the ultimate end-of-the-millennium movie. I’m partial to 1975, but you and Brian Raftery make a strong case for 1999 as the best year in movies. Hard to deny. And I *love* the Best Original Screenplay lineup for that year. One of the best lineups in any Oscar category ever.
100% in agreement Brian. I have been thinking this since the year 1999 itself. The whole year is great but from September through December it was like a Murderer’s Row of great films every week.
What I like most about this year is how open the Academy was to recognising a wide range of films. American Beauty is not your typical Best Picture winner, Being John Malkovich getting a Director nomination, The Sixth Sense getting into Best Picture and even Election getting into the Screenplay category. The Academy (mostly) seemed to be in touch with what audiences were into at the time - arguably something that they have since lost.
Movies from that year that weren’t mentioned that I like are Run Lola Run, The Limey, Girl Interrupted and Angela’s Ashes. I also really liked the film Go, which you mentioned. I saw that in an empty movie theater.
Julia Robert’s had double back to back box Office hits with notting hill and runaway bride … and another film that was a 1999 classic was the iconic teen film jawbreaker!l
Great video, Brian! The amount of collective nostalgia that wallowed up in me everytime you mentioned a stone cold classic: Talented Mr. Ripley, Magnolia, The Matrix, Sixth Sense, Being John Malkovich, Fight Club, American Beauty, Election and so many others! I get so nostalgic around everything involving 1999, the movies, the TV shows, the pop music, and even the crazy Y2K hysteria (HBO has a great documentary now talking about this called "Timebomb Y2K" on Max). 1999 is such an amazing year that I will always hold very highly and fondly. Wonderful video!
THANK YOU for bringing up Go! It’s such a fantastic movie and a wonderful undiscovered gem. Some other of my favorite unrecognized gems from that year include: The Insider Three Kings The End of the Affair Run Lola Run (American theatrical release) Man on the Moon The Red Violin Topsy Turvy And some great fun movies: Sleepy Hollow The Mummy Analyze This Nothing Hill Galaxy Quest Bowfinger Dogma It would be impossible to do a Top 10 list of this year. It would have to be a top 25 at least.
Always a well balanced video Brian. Now, I was a smidge older than you in 1999, but I remember so many great films. Magnolia, Election, and The Sixth Sense are my favorites. But went to school around Rittenhouse Square, so it adds a bit of personal nostalgia. If Tom Cruise deserved an Oscar for a role, it was definitely for Magnolia. I’m iffy on Eyes Wide Shut though. Cheers!!
Office Space was a movie that I received as a Supervision 101 course assignment and boy it did not disappoint. I went on and watched it multiple times. The Matrix is one of my favorite movies of all time. At the 72nd Academy Awards, the film won all four categories it was nominated for; Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing. Loved The Blair Witch Project! It is a great example of how great marketing combined with filmmaking was able to produce one of the most profitable movies of all time, specially at a moment when Internet was still in its infancy. I too think American Beauty deserved the Best Picture Oscar that year. Amazing script and amazing performances. Same can be said about Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and many others in 1999. Difficult to argue but 1999 may very well be the best year for movies.
1999 was a gift to movie going fans. I remember having moving moments with Aimee Mann's Wise Up in Magnolia and the twist endings of Sixth Sense and Fight Club... but my ultimate personal movie moment that year was finishing The Matrix standing inside of a jampacked theater with my parents in Manila. Such a special year. Thanks for this, Brian!
Thank you for a wonderful list of a spectaluar year in the movies! I would like to add a personal favourite, Piedro Almodovar's "All About my Mother" - a beautiful film in my opinion.
Love this film and its characters so much. It is endlessly rewatchable, I don’t know how. 🫠 It also happens to be the film that opened my eyes to Spanish and Spanish language films. 🥰
This is why we love your channel... We learn so much about movies we(I) love. The Iron Giant is such a great movie its totally underrated and i had NO idea it was 1999 😮
Agree with you 100%! My favs from ‘99 are Election, American Beauty, The Matrix, Boys Don’t Cry, The 6th Sense, and Magnolia. All ones you mentioned. Truly a great cinematic year. I saw someone mention Girl Interrupted and had to throw that out there too. ❤
Thanks once again, Brian, for your excellent commentary. I'm a lot older than you, so I remember stellar movies in the 60s & 70s before you were born, such as "Network" and "China Town." My favorite movie in 1999 was "The Insider." I believe it was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and it not win a single one! I was devastated when I watched the awards show on TV. Also, the film did not earn much money at the box office. I recently watched it on UA-cam and loved it as much recently as I always have.
10:35 Speaking of animation, I keep bringing up to people how 1999 was also the year that a Hayao Miyazaki film got a (relatively) large release in America with Princess Mononoke. So we had Tarzan, Toy Story 2, South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut, The Iron Giant, AND Princess Mononoke. Those five alone would make up one of the best lineups for Best Animated Film ever. If the category existed in 1999 and those were the nominees, that would be the best lineup for that category.
OH NO! How could you omit Toni Collette's only Oscar nomination when talking about The 6th Sense? That darn bumblebee pendant😭! Such a great year for film! Magnolia crushed me. Plenty of these films, I didn't see right then and there. I believe I was 12. Sadly, I didn't get to see The Matrix in all its glory in theaters. My brother took me to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I remember wanting to see The Matrix; something was drawing me to it. Right afterwards, instead of The Matrix, we snuck into seeing South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Hilarious and at the peak time when immature me was into South Park. Over the years, it's staying power with me lessened so much I don't see it nearly at all. I saw The Matrix at a friend's house on VHS, and it blew my mind. I think Stir of Echoes is better than many give it credit for. Just revisited that, and it was so much more than some lesser 6th Sense. While The 6th Sense is overall is the more quality film, Stir of Echoes has its merit from a different perspective in a much more singular thread. Fight Club is great, but it sucks that both Fight Club and The Matrix have spurred alt-right trolls with the wrong takeaways with recently one of the Wachowski sisters agreeing to the trans allegory reading of the franchise. Fight Club is great, but I feel The Social Network might be my favorite of his filmography. American Beauty is a great domestic dark dramedy that unfortunately is marred by Kevin Spacey's involvement and even win. Honestly, Denzel Washington should have won over Spacey that year in a much more powerful performance in The Hurricane. Yes, he would go onto win for being a crooked cop in Training Day, but The Hurricane, and especially most recently his Fences performances were peak Denzel. Being John Malkovich is chef's kiss! It upsets me how Cameron Diaz didn't receive an Academy Award nomination for her unrecognizable turn as Lotte that was so much more than makeup and hairstyling change, but her big swing as a dramatic actress. Great mentions. Such a year for film, indeed!
Blair Witch Project was a life changer 🌟 I remember my friends hating on me for "overselling it", but I stood by my first impression and at age 12 that means personal growth
Tom Cruise was amazing in Magnolia. He absolutely should have won the Oscar for it. I don't always love PTA but Magnolia is the exception. That is a movie that I have never been able to stop thinking about.
I loved your list. I so agree that 1999 was one of the best years. There's a few titles you did not mention from that year that I also thought was worthy. All About My Mother, Titus, Flawless, Three Kings, and The Cider House Rules should get some recognition.
You know that a part of your life was impactful when you try to relive it (in this case rewatching movies from 1999) and it’s as though time never passed: you are transported right back to that sense of awe and wonder and excitement one should feel in the movies, a feeling that comes rarer and rarer with each passing year. Totally agree with everything you said here!
I was 14 in 1999. I looked old enough to get into any movie at that point. I remember watching almost every great movie on the big screen. It is the year that cemented my love for cinema. I watched The Matrix at a midnight showing on opening weekend Thursday, so before anyone knew “What Is The Matrix”. I left that theatre changed.
I totally agree 1999 was incredible. Probably the year that I most watched movies in theaters and home video and I don't remember regretting any of the ones I've watched. I remember following the box office in the last 3 months of that year and I was like: gosh... Look how beautiful it looks! People really enjoyed good stories at that time no matter the genre.
So glad you mentioned The Straight Story, as an Iowan I’m super biased but I have no shame calling it one of my favorite movies. Farnsworth really sells it all.
everyone will have differing opinions no doubt, but have to admit that 1999 has so many movies that have stuck with me over 20 years later: The Matrix Fight Club Three Kings American Beauty The Green Mile Being John Malkovich The Sixth Sense plus so many others that you can name…
Other films that I absolutely love that came out that year include: 🌸 The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami) 🌸 All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar) 🌸 The Color of Paradise (Majid Majidi) 🌸 Not One Less (Yimou Zhang)
Magnolia is my all-time favorite film, and I’m grateful that you acknowledged it on its own . It is a very difficult category to put that film in. It seems like it’s in its own corner. 😊
@@nattycozy1 Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules. I mean I remember him being good in that movie but I barely remember the film itself. Compared to Haley Joel Osment, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Tom Cruise, especially, they got it wrong that year.
I think particularly cool that a number of movies really stretched/combined genres like American Beauty, Being John Malkovich and Election between comedy and drama, The Sixth Sense between horror and drama.
I also like 1994. It's the year my second favorite movie of all time came out - Quiz Show. Oh and good on you for giving a shout out to the soundtrack when you were talking about Magnolia. I love Aimee Mann. And not just because we have similar songwriting styles. But that certainly helps. 😊
Go and The Talented Mr. Ripkey are my 2 favorites from that year. Both masterpieces of filmmaking imho. Great video! How about a video of the best films of the 70s? Arguably the best decade of American films.
Great Vid! Gotta agree that 1999 is also my favorite year for movies, I'm sold on any title out of that year Here's a couple more honorable mentions: Ratcatcher American Movie Beyond the Mat Audition Rosetta The Wind Will Carry Us But I'm A Cheerleader Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Warrior Man On The Moon Detroit Rock City
I think we're movie soul mates lol. Go is my go-to Christmas movie, and I can practically quote Election, Drop Dead Gorgouse, Eyes Wide Shut, American Beauty and Office Space word for word
Thank you. Some of the best lines of all times. In Toy Story 2: You killed my father. I am your father. Then, at the end, Zonk and Buzz are playing catch as dad and son.
the year that i take the red pill and waked up for films of course that most important film of year to me was matrix remember going to cinema to watch it but ended watching ten things that i hate about you because a issue in the theater it won four oscar i remember to had the time of my life also Magnolia i wached this drama thousend times and every single film of this list to me is really awesome. This turn around the century was fenomenal and i with only 15 years old 😭
I adore so many of the movies here: office space, go, boondock saints, fight club, the matrix, being John malkovich. You’re right. 1999 was an all timer for film
It was an extremely rich year for movies ..so much so that 5 of the best, Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out The Dead, Spike Lee's Summer Of Sam, Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, David O Russell's Three Kings and Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil, aren't even mentioned here
I mean the that year felt so special. There were some very unique and groundbreaking films back then. I mean Being John Malkovich and The Matrix came out in 1999. There was just SOO much that year, banger after another. I don't really understand why there's so much buzz about 1939 being the best year in film. I don't know, I just feel like there's no other year better in film than 1999 in my opinion
The Matrix was so groundbreaking - I remembering leaving the movie and feeling like a kid - totally immersed in that world, The Red pill blue pill motif shows up in the Barbie movie .it’s a classic well done.
The Matrix is one of my favorite movies of all time. At the 72nd Academy Awards, the film won all four categories it was nominated for; Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing. And yes, even Barbie acknowledged it.
I too was at the formidable age of 14 in 1999. It was a time when I was starting to get into “grown up” movies and discovering classic films like The Godfather. I’m not one of those people who rag on about “they don’t make em like they used to” but I believe that 1999 is the best year for movies in my lifetime. Being John Malevich was my favourite movie of 1999. Bringing Out the Dead, a movie where Nicolas Cafe plays a burnt out paramedic haunted by a girl he couldn’t save was the first Martin Scorsese picture I saw. It hardly gets the recognition it deserves and to me it’s up there with the likes of Taxi Driver (both films’ screenplays were written by Paul Schrader). Dogma was a hilarious and scathing religious satire that unsurprisingly caused controversy(as a joke writer/director Kevin Smith joined a protest against this movie). And of course my favourite Austin Powers movie: The Spy Who Shagged me. There are plenty other films I probably forgot to mention. If you haven’t check out the book mentioned in this video Best Movie Year Ever. It truly was.
The 1990s is an iconic decade. You need big movie franchises for iconic movies or characters. Titanic Terminator 2 Forrest Gump The Shawshank Redemption Pulp Fiction Schindlers List Braveheart Dances With Wolves The Silence of the Lambs Goodfellas True Lies Eyes Wide Shut Unforgiven Saving Private Ryan The Matrix Seven Jurassic Park Jerry Maguire Good Will Hunting LA Confidential Fargo As Good As It Gets Beauty and the Beast Fight Club American Beauty Tombstone The Matrix Notting Hill The Lion King The Cider House Rules The Green Mile Speed Die Hard With A Vengeance Little Women A Few Good Men Heat The Sixth Sense Pretty Woman Crimson Tide Dark City Sense & Sensibility The Hunt For Red October The English Patient Kindergarten Cop Mission Impossible Liar Liar Sleepless in Seattle The Fugitive Apollo 13 Total Recall Theres Something About Mary The Fifth Element Edward Scissorhands Shakespeare in Love You've Got Mail Star Trek: First Contact Ghost The Usual Suspects Scream The Ice Storm Mrs. Doubtfire GoldenEye Contact Ed Wood Four Weddings and A Funeral The Truman Show Independence Day An Interview With A Vampire Men in Black Jackie Brown Thelma & Louise Reservoir Dogs Aladdin Gross Point Blank Leaving Las Vegas While You Were Sleeping Dazed and Confused Casino City Slickers Demolition Man Rainmaker Falling Down Fried Green Tomatoes Leaving Las Vegas Clueless True Romance Leon: The Professional Con Air Election The Firm Who Framed Roger Rabbit 12 Monkeys Misery Galaxy Quest Newsies The Fisher King Pleasantville The Insider Legends of The Fall Far and Away Dracula Home Alone Groundhog Day Back to The Future: Part III A League of Their Own The Nightmare Before Christmas Backdraft Cape Fear Blast from The Past The Rock Conspiracy Theory Robin Hood: Men In Tights What About Bob? Sneakers JFK Cop Land My Cousin Vinny Sister Act Home Alone 2 The Mask What's Eating Gilbert Grape Days of Thunder The Thin Red Line The Doors In The Line of Fire American History X Rudy Stargate Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dumb and Dumber Grumpy Old Men Awakenings Hot Shots Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country White Men Cant Jump The Pelican Brief Point of No Return Dave The Last of the Mohicans Army of Darkness Forever Young Father of The Bride A River Runs Through It The Age of Innocence The Last Action Hero Doc Hollywood Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Buffy The Vampire Slayer Thats just off the top of my head. The 1990s is truly one of the greatest decades in film history.
Another great film that was also released in 1999 called Bringing out the Dead, a film that Martin Scorsese made and has fallen under the radar but it's still a great film. It starred; Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, the late Tom Sizemore, Marc Anthony among others. Its a wonderful movie that I recommend.
I totally agree that the Hollywood believed the world was going to end! There were so many people talking about Y2K back in the day that even I believed, but also I was just a child
I would have also put up 1994 as a tremendous year for movies, but 1999 has a heck of a lot to recommend it. We were all operating under millennium anxiety, and it showed in the efforts to get takes on the human condition in under the wire possibly before the world ended.
Don't like Fight Club or Magnolia but still love 1999, also think it is probably the best year for movies, really a lot of variety, creativity, ambition, passion, daring, but it could also be 1993 or 2004.
‘99 was a good year for horror too: Blair Witch, The Bone Collector, In Dreams, Stir of Echoes, Stigmata, The Sixth Sense, Sleepy Hollow, The Haunting, House on Haunted Hill, End of Days, Deep Blue Sea, Lake Placid. Many of these movies were hollow but were still entertaining nonetheless.
2013 was a great year Her Blue jasmine 12 years a slave Captain phillips Nebraska Wolf of wall Street Gravity Short term 12 Before midnight Frozen Dallas buyers club American hustle Frances ha Fruitvale Station Don Jon The hunt Blue is the warmest colour The spectacular now
2004 also was a phenomenal year in films. A lot bangers were put out that year. Such as: Collateral, Man On Fire, The Incredibles, SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, Million Dollar Baby, Ray, The Aviator, Polar Express, etc.
“American Beauty” was absolutely deserving of all Oscars it won. Don’t ever discount Kevin Spacey’s talent as an actor. His personal life is his own. Actors are there to entertain us, and he has done his job in spades.
Thank you for not being afraid to acknowledge the greatness of American Beauty. I think people have unjustly downgraded that movie recently, specifically only because of Kevin Spacey's personal issues. It is still my favorite film from 1999. Absolute masterpiece.
Indeed! That Best Picture win was very well deserved.
Of course ❤️❤️😘😘🥰
Agreed.
It is my favorite movie of 1999 also. Spacey’s crimes aside, there is SO much to admire with the simplistic beauty of the film: the direction, the score, the cinematography, the fantastic dialog, the satire. It’s an amazing movie and still one of my all time favorites.
Totally agree, it's one of my favorite films of all time
1999 had such an iconic year with 10 Things I Hate About You, Cruel Intentions, Virgin Suicides, She’s All That, Drive Me Crazy and Election!
Girl interrupted 😊
Election!
The Sixth Sense
Cruel Intentions is my favorite underrated movie of 1999.
To me 1967 is the ultimate year!! Bonnie & Clyde, Belle De Jour, The Graduate, Cool Hand Luke, Two For the Road, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night, Wait Until Dark, Playtime.. it was a truly revolutionary year for film
I agree! I actually recently read Pictures at a Revolution, a fantastic book that focuses on many of these films and makes your point too :) If you haven't read it, I definitely recommend it!
@@rebeccag8589 Thank you for the rec!! That sounds so cool i'll have to check it out:)
Oh my goodness! I've never stopped to think that ALL those movies were in the same year! Holy cow! Thanks for this.
I think Election is Reese Witherspoon’s best film. Her performance in Election was just brilliant 🤩
THIS was everything! I've often said that 1999 was a monumental year for film, but you hit all the nails on all the heads!
I graduated high school in '99 and started college at NYU that fall, so I saw SO many of these movies in theaters, both in the suburbs of NYC that summer while I was home, and many more in the village of NYC with my then-new college friends who loved film. One of my dearest friends who ended up being one of my college roommates the next year, we STILL talk about December 17, 1999 being "Magnolia Day," cuz we went to see it that afternoon together even though classes had ended a week earlier, but we knew that if we went home to the suburbs, we wouldn't have a chance to see it for a bit. And it never felt like 3 hours - and as many times as I've seen it, it still doesn't.
Magnolia, American Beauty, Being John Malkovich, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Matrix, Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, Eyes Wide Shut, Drop Dead Gorgeous (talk about a cult classic!), Blair Witch, Summer Of Sam, Boys Don't Cry, Girl Interrupted, The Straight Story (and I'm a massive Lynch fan and only recently watched this as well), Sleepy Hollow, All About My Mother, even popcorn fare like Deep Blue Sea and American Pie - not to mention the queer classic Trick - it was such an amazing year and such a time of my turning into a young adult with opinions (well, I always had opinions lol). This video really made me smile, so thank you!
Awww..Trick, I forgot about that film ❤ 1999 was the year my fourth son was born. He just so happens to be in love with Film xx
So glad you ended with Magnolia, the ultimate end-of-the-millennium movie.
I’m partial to 1975, but you and Brian Raftery make a strong case for 1999 as the best year in movies. Hard to deny.
And I *love* the Best Original Screenplay lineup for that year. One of the best lineups in any Oscar category ever.
100% in agreement Brian. I have been thinking this since the year 1999 itself. The whole year is great but from September through December it was like a Murderer’s Row of great films every week.
American Beauty made me fall in love with cinema.
What I like most about this year is how open the Academy was to recognising a wide range of films. American Beauty is not your typical Best Picture winner, Being John Malkovich getting a Director nomination, The Sixth Sense getting into Best Picture and even Election getting into the Screenplay category. The Academy (mostly) seemed to be in touch with what audiences were into at the time - arguably something that they have since lost.
Really good point !
Well said!
American Beauty makes me want to cringe so much now ugh
@@nattycozy1 why is that?
Movies from that year that weren’t mentioned that I like are Run Lola Run, The Limey, Girl Interrupted and Angela’s Ashes. I also really liked the film Go, which you mentioned. I saw that in an empty movie theater.
Wasn't Run Lola Run 1998?
Julia Robert’s had double back to back box Office hits with notting hill and runaway bride … and another film that was a 1999 classic was the iconic teen film jawbreaker!l
Agree 100% - some honorable mentions for me:
Twin Falls Idaho
Topsy Turvy
Tumbleweeds
Mansfield Park
Sweet and Lowdown
October Sky
Just so so so many!
Great video, Brian! The amount of collective nostalgia that wallowed up in me everytime you mentioned a stone cold classic: Talented Mr. Ripley, Magnolia, The Matrix, Sixth Sense, Being John Malkovich, Fight Club, American Beauty, Election and so many others! I get so nostalgic around everything involving 1999, the movies, the TV shows, the pop music, and even the crazy Y2K hysteria (HBO has a great documentary now talking about this called "Timebomb Y2K" on Max). 1999 is such an amazing year that I will always hold very highly and fondly. Wonderful video!
I liked that MAX doco too. Crazy how we all thought planes might fall from the sky, and all our money was going to disappear.
THANK YOU for bringing up Go! It’s such a fantastic movie and a wonderful undiscovered gem.
Some other of my favorite unrecognized gems from that year include:
The Insider
Three Kings
The End of the Affair
Run Lola Run (American theatrical release)
Man on the Moon
The Red Violin
Topsy Turvy
And some great fun movies:
Sleepy Hollow
The Mummy
Analyze This
Nothing Hill
Galaxy Quest
Bowfinger
Dogma
It would be impossible to do a Top 10 list of this year. It would have to be a top 25 at least.
I remember watching the Blair Witch Trail in the movies and I was cracking up watching - it didn’t scare me at all - but it’s iconic .
I read the Brian Rafetery book- he does a great job of connecting all these great films into unexpected themes and narratives
Always a well balanced video Brian. Now, I was a smidge older than you in 1999, but I remember so many great films. Magnolia, Election, and The Sixth Sense are my favorites. But went to school around Rittenhouse Square, so it adds a bit of personal nostalgia. If Tom Cruise deserved an Oscar for a role, it was definitely for Magnolia. I’m iffy on Eyes Wide Shut though. Cheers!!
Office Space was a movie that I received as a Supervision 101 course assignment and boy it did not disappoint. I went on and watched it multiple times.
The Matrix is one of my favorite movies of all time. At the 72nd Academy Awards, the film won all four categories it was nominated for; Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing.
Loved The Blair Witch Project! It is a great example of how great marketing combined with filmmaking was able to produce one of the most profitable movies of all time, specially at a moment when Internet was still in its infancy.
I too think American Beauty deserved the Best Picture Oscar that year. Amazing script and amazing performances. Same can be said about Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and many others in 1999. Difficult to argue but 1999 may very well be the best year for movies.
One of my favorite comedies from 1999 is drop dead gorgeous🙌so underrated
1999 was a gift to movie going fans. I remember having moving moments with Aimee Mann's Wise Up in Magnolia and the twist endings of Sixth Sense and Fight Club... but my ultimate personal movie moment that year was finishing The Matrix standing inside of a jampacked theater with my parents in Manila. Such a special year. Thanks for this, Brian!
Thank you for a wonderful list of a spectaluar year in the movies! I would like to add a personal favourite, Piedro Almodovar's "All About my Mother" - a beautiful film in my opinion.
Love this film and its characters so much. It is endlessly rewatchable, I don’t know how. 🫠 It also happens to be the film that opened my eyes to Spanish and Spanish language films. 🥰
I actually really like Stir of Echos. I've watched it recently and it still holds up
Yes! I've been trying to get reactors to watch it 😉
The entire back end of the 90s had bangers 🏆
This is why we love your channel... We learn so much about movies we(I) love.
The Iron Giant is such a great movie its totally underrated and i had NO idea it was 1999 😮
Election is one of my favourite Reese Witherspoon movie and it's the second favourite of Alexander Payne movie for me. Dare I say that it's a classic
Agree with you 100%! My favs from ‘99 are Election, American Beauty, The Matrix, Boys Don’t Cry, The 6th Sense, and Magnolia. All ones you mentioned. Truly a great cinematic year. I saw someone mention Girl Interrupted and had to throw that out there too. ❤
Couldn't agree more. 1999 was the best
Yes. Magnolia is the masterpiece of 1999! It was my first PTA film I saw and was absolutely blown away at the scope of it all.
Exceptional video. Spot on. Thank you.
Thanks once again, Brian, for your excellent commentary. I'm a lot older than you, so I remember stellar movies in the 60s & 70s before you were born, such as "Network" and "China Town."
My favorite movie in 1999 was "The Insider." I believe it was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and it not win a single one! I was devastated when I watched the awards show on TV. Also, the film did not earn much money at the box office. I recently watched it on UA-cam and loved it as much recently as I always have.
10:35 Speaking of animation, I keep bringing up to people how 1999 was also the year that a Hayao Miyazaki film got a (relatively) large release in America with Princess Mononoke. So we had Tarzan, Toy Story 2, South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut, The Iron Giant, AND Princess Mononoke. Those five alone would make up one of the best lineups for Best Animated Film ever.
If the category existed in 1999 and those were the nominees, that would be the best lineup for that category.
Omg, you just reminded me of YET another masterpiece, that I completely forget about
OH NO! How could you omit Toni Collette's only Oscar nomination when talking about The 6th Sense? That darn bumblebee pendant😭! Such a great year for film! Magnolia crushed me. Plenty of these films, I didn't see right then and there. I believe I was 12. Sadly, I didn't get to see The Matrix in all its glory in theaters. My brother took me to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I remember wanting to see The Matrix; something was drawing me to it. Right afterwards, instead of The Matrix, we snuck into seeing South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Hilarious and at the peak time when immature me was into South Park. Over the years, it's staying power with me lessened so much I don't see it nearly at all. I saw The Matrix at a friend's house on VHS, and it blew my mind. I think Stir of Echoes is better than many give it credit for. Just revisited that, and it was so much more than some lesser 6th Sense. While The 6th Sense is overall is the more quality film, Stir of Echoes has its merit from a different perspective in a much more singular thread. Fight Club is great, but it sucks that both Fight Club and The Matrix have spurred alt-right trolls with the wrong takeaways with recently one of the Wachowski sisters agreeing to the trans allegory reading of the franchise. Fight Club is great, but I feel The Social Network might be my favorite of his filmography. American Beauty is a great domestic dark dramedy that unfortunately is marred by Kevin Spacey's involvement and even win. Honestly, Denzel Washington should have won over Spacey that year in a much more powerful performance in The Hurricane. Yes, he would go onto win for being a crooked cop in Training Day, but The Hurricane, and especially most recently his Fences performances were peak Denzel. Being John Malkovich is chef's kiss! It upsets me how Cameron Diaz didn't receive an Academy Award nomination for her unrecognizable turn as Lotte that was so much more than makeup and hairstyling change, but her big swing as a dramatic actress. Great mentions. Such a year for film, indeed!
So cool to know my birth year was a great year for film!
There was another election movie that never really got traction, but is a comedy gem. Dick, with Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams and Dan Hedaya.
Blair Witch Project was a life changer 🌟 I remember my friends hating on me for "overselling it", but I stood by my first impression and at age 12 that means personal growth
It's still oversold lol
But it was good for its time, nowadays it's just the nostalgia
Tom Cruise was amazing in Magnolia. He absolutely should have won the Oscar for it. I don't always love PTA but Magnolia is the exception. That is a movie that I have never been able to stop thinking about.
I loved your list. I so agree that 1999 was one of the best years. There's a few titles you did not mention from that year that I also thought was worthy. All About My Mother, Titus, Flawless, Three Kings, and The Cider House Rules should get some recognition.
You know that a part of your life was impactful when you try to relive it (in this case rewatching movies from 1999) and it’s as though time never passed: you are transported right back to that sense of awe and wonder and excitement one should feel in the movies, a feeling that comes rarer and rarer with each passing year.
Totally agree with everything you said here!
I was 14 in 1999. I looked old enough to get into any movie at that point. I remember watching almost every great movie on the big screen. It is the year that cemented my love for cinema. I watched The Matrix at a midnight showing on opening weekend Thursday, so before anyone knew “What Is The Matrix”. I left that theatre changed.
I totally agree 1999 was incredible. Probably the year that I most watched movies in theaters and home video and I don't remember regretting any of the ones I've watched. I remember following the box office in the last 3 months of that year and I was like: gosh... Look how beautiful it looks!
People really enjoyed good stories at that time no matter the genre.
So glad you mentioned The Straight Story, as an Iowan I’m super biased but I have no shame calling it one of my favorite movies. Farnsworth really sells it all.
Love the videos, man. Keep it up!!!
Glad you brought up Go. It's one of the funnest movies ever. It's so underrated.
everyone will have differing opinions no doubt, but have to admit that 1999 has so many movies that have stuck with me over 20 years later:
The Matrix
Fight Club
Three Kings
American Beauty
The Green Mile
Being John Malkovich
The Sixth Sense
plus so many others that you can name…
Other films that I absolutely love that came out that year include:
🌸 The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami)
🌸 All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar)
🌸 The Color of Paradise (Majid Majidi)
🌸 Not One Less (Yimou Zhang)
Don't forget 2 other great foreign films from that year: Xiu Xiu and Run, Lola Run
So cool that you mentioned go, I also love it, but nobody talks about it, also love no doubt's song new from the soundtrack.
Magnolia is my all-time favorite film, and I’m grateful that you acknowledged it on its own . It is a very difficult category to put that film in. It seems like it’s in its own corner. 😊
Decades later I still say Tom Cruise was robbed, I mean who the heck did he lose to??! Going to look it up lol
@@nattycozy1 Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules. I mean I remember him being good in that movie but I barely remember the film itself. Compared to Haley Joel Osment, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Tom Cruise, especially, they got it wrong that year.
Yikes yes they made a huge mistake with that one. That movie was so odd, it made no sense lol@@madgang201
It's infuriating that Sixth Sense is Toni Collette's only Oscar nom to this day, but it's a heartbreaking performance regardless
I think particularly cool that a number of movies really stretched/combined genres like American Beauty, Being John Malkovich and Election between comedy and drama, The Sixth Sense between horror and drama.
I also like 1994. It's the year my second favorite movie of all time came out - Quiz Show. Oh and good on you for giving a shout out to the soundtrack when you were talking about Magnolia. I love Aimee Mann. And not just because we have similar songwriting styles. But that certainly helps. 😊
Go and The Talented Mr. Ripkey are my 2 favorites from that year. Both masterpieces of filmmaking imho. Great video! How about a video of the best films of the 70s? Arguably the best decade of American films.
Thank you for giving love to Go! I love it. Sarah Polley was great
Election (1999) is excellent! Teen movies of that year is amazing too!
All about my Mother is my Pick for best film of 1999
Great Vid!
Gotta agree that 1999 is also my favorite year for movies, I'm sold on any title out of that year
Here's a couple more honorable mentions:
Ratcatcher
American Movie
Beyond the Mat
Audition
Rosetta
The Wind Will Carry Us
But I'm A Cheerleader
Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Warrior
Man On The Moon
Detroit Rock City
I think we're movie soul mates lol. Go is my go-to Christmas movie, and I can practically quote Election, Drop Dead Gorgouse, Eyes Wide Shut, American Beauty and Office Space word for word
You didn't even mention my favorite film of 1999. Girl, Interrupted is so freaking underrated. I completely adore that film.
1999 was also the year that Family Guy and Batman Beyond debuted
I think Batman Beyond would have gotten more attention, probably more like if it started a few years later.
Thank you.
Some of the best lines of all times. In Toy Story 2:
You killed my father.
I am your father.
Then, at the end, Zonk and Buzz are playing catch as dad and son.
Just seeing that little clip of the ending of The Iron Giant I get choked up and tear up.
the year that i take the red pill and waked up for films of course that most important film of year to me was matrix remember going to cinema to watch it but ended watching ten things that i hate about you because a issue in the theater it won four oscar i remember to had the time of my life also Magnolia i wached this drama thousend times and every single film of this list to me is really awesome. This turn around the century was fenomenal and i with only 15 years old 😭
My personal Best Picture nominees that year:
All About My Mother
American Beauty (WINNER)
Being John Malkovich
The Insider
The Iron Giant
I adore so many of the movies here: office space, go, boondock saints, fight club, the matrix, being John malkovich. You’re right. 1999 was an all timer for film
It was an extremely rich year for movies ..so much so that 5 of the best, Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out The Dead, Spike Lee's Summer Of Sam, Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, David O Russell's Three Kings and Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil, aren't even mentioned here
Also love Three Kings and Summer of Sam.
Other movies of note from that year that were fun: Cruel Intentions, Deep Blue Sea, Star Wars Episode I
American beauty ❤️❤️😘🥰
I mean the that year felt so special. There were some very unique and groundbreaking films back then. I mean Being John Malkovich and The Matrix came out in 1999.
There was just SOO much that year, banger after another. I don't really understand why there's so much buzz about 1939 being the best year in film.
I don't know, I just feel like there's no other year better in film than 1999 in my opinion
It was great but I think 1993 and 2004 are at least up there too.
Truly a legendary year
The Matrix was so groundbreaking - I remembering leaving the movie and feeling like a kid - totally immersed in that world, The Red pill blue pill motif shows up in the Barbie movie .it’s a classic well done.
The Matrix is one of my favorite movies of all time. At the 72nd Academy Awards, the film won all four categories it was nominated for; Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing. And yes, even Barbie acknowledged it.
Being John Malkovich was such a hoot...
I too was at the formidable age of 14 in 1999. It was a time when I was starting to get into “grown up” movies and discovering classic films like The Godfather. I’m not one of those people who rag on about “they don’t make em like they used to” but I believe that 1999 is the best year for movies in my lifetime. Being John Malevich was my favourite movie of 1999. Bringing Out the Dead, a movie where Nicolas Cafe plays a burnt out paramedic haunted by a girl he couldn’t save was the first Martin Scorsese picture I saw. It hardly gets the recognition it deserves and to me it’s up there with the likes of Taxi Driver (both films’ screenplays were written by Paul Schrader). Dogma was a hilarious and scathing religious satire that unsurprisingly caused controversy(as a joke writer/director Kevin Smith joined a protest against this movie). And of course my favourite Austin Powers movie: The Spy Who Shagged me. There are plenty other films I probably forgot to mention. If you haven’t check out the book mentioned in this video Best Movie Year Ever. It truly was.
Great year generally but he should have also mentioned Dogma, wow.
Happy new year doll
1994 is so good.
The 1990s is an iconic decade. You need big movie franchises for iconic movies or characters.
Titanic
Terminator 2
Forrest Gump
The Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Schindlers List
Braveheart
Dances With Wolves
The Silence of the Lambs
Goodfellas
True Lies
Eyes Wide Shut
Unforgiven
Saving Private Ryan
The Matrix
Seven
Jurassic Park
Jerry Maguire
Good Will Hunting
LA Confidential
Fargo
As Good As It Gets
Beauty and the Beast
Fight Club
American Beauty
Tombstone
The Matrix
Notting Hill
The Lion King
The Cider House Rules
The Green Mile
Speed
Die Hard With A Vengeance
Little Women
A Few Good Men
Heat
The Sixth Sense
Pretty Woman
Crimson Tide
Dark City
Sense & Sensibility
The Hunt For Red October
The English Patient
Kindergarten Cop
Mission Impossible
Liar Liar
Sleepless in Seattle
The Fugitive
Apollo 13
Total Recall
Theres Something About Mary
The Fifth Element
Edward Scissorhands
Shakespeare in Love
You've Got Mail
Star Trek: First Contact
Ghost
The Usual Suspects
Scream
The Ice Storm
Mrs. Doubtfire
GoldenEye
Contact
Ed Wood
Four Weddings and A Funeral
The Truman Show
Independence Day
An Interview With A Vampire
Men in Black
Jackie Brown
Thelma & Louise
Reservoir Dogs
Aladdin
Gross Point Blank
Leaving Las Vegas
While You Were Sleeping
Dazed and Confused
Casino
City Slickers
Demolition Man
Rainmaker
Falling Down
Fried Green Tomatoes
Leaving Las Vegas
Clueless
True Romance
Leon: The Professional
Con Air
Election
The Firm
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
12 Monkeys
Misery
Galaxy Quest
Newsies
The Fisher King
Pleasantville
The Insider
Legends of The Fall
Far and Away
Dracula
Home Alone
Groundhog Day
Back to The Future: Part III
A League of Their Own
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Backdraft
Cape Fear
Blast from The Past
The Rock
Conspiracy Theory
Robin Hood: Men In Tights
What About Bob?
Sneakers
JFK
Cop Land
My Cousin Vinny
Sister Act
Home Alone 2
The Mask
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Days of Thunder
The Thin Red Line
The Doors
In The Line of Fire
American History X
Rudy
Stargate
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Dumb and Dumber
Grumpy Old Men
Awakenings
Hot Shots
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
White Men Cant Jump
The Pelican Brief
Point of No Return
Dave
The Last of the Mohicans
Army of Darkness
Forever Young
Father of The Bride
A River Runs Through It
The Age of Innocence
The Last Action Hero
Doc Hollywood
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Thats just off the top of my head. The 1990s is truly one of the greatest decades in film history.
Another great film that was also released in 1999 called Bringing out the Dead, a film that Martin Scorsese made and has fallen under the radar but it's still a great film. It starred; Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, the late Tom Sizemore, Marc Anthony among others. Its a wonderful movie that I recommend.
One of the best romcoms Nottinghill was released in 1999 too
tarzan was great that was a great year for animation
I totally agree that the Hollywood believed the world was going to end! There were so many people talking about Y2K back in the day that even I believed, but also I was just a child
I just have to put in a word for my favorite Mathew broaderick performance 🎭 the colonel in Glory
Definitely another great one, and a great drama.
Agree best year for movies, i also enjoy girl interrupted, the virgin suicides, the mommy, sleepy hollow, audition, and boys don't cry
I thank the gods that I was a 15 year old film geek in 1999. The Matrix, Blair Witch, Sixth Sense, Fight Club and American Beauty all blew my mind
Watching Eyes Wide Shut at 14 is mad
I would have also put up 1994 as a tremendous year for movies, but 1999 has a heck of a lot to recommend it. We were all operating under millennium anxiety, and it showed in the efforts to get takes on the human condition in under the wire possibly before the world ended.
I still love Election so much
Reese Witherspoon's best performance by far, she should've won the Oscar for that instead
I have the DVD for Being John Malkovich and it is one of the most enjoyable time fillers.
Great list, but you forgot The Mummy.
Don't like Fight Club or Magnolia but still love 1999, also think it is probably the best year for movies, really a lot of variety, creativity, ambition, passion, daring, but it could also be 1993 or 2004.
‘99 was a good year for horror too: Blair Witch, The Bone Collector, In Dreams, Stir of Echoes, Stigmata, The Sixth Sense, Sleepy Hollow, The Haunting, House on Haunted Hill, End of Days, Deep Blue Sea, Lake Placid. Many of these movies were hollow but were still entertaining nonetheless.
The Haunting was terrible (but rest various good).
I would also say the year 2002.
Didn't like Chicago from then.
You: the masterpiece Magnolia
Me: standing o
Election is fantastic. Not a big Reese fan though. Fight Club also fantastic.
2013 was a great year
Her
Blue jasmine
12 years a slave
Captain phillips
Nebraska
Wolf of wall Street
Gravity
Short term 12
Before midnight
Frozen
Dallas buyers club
American hustle
Frances ha
Fruitvale Station
Don Jon
The hunt
Blue is the warmest colour
The spectacular now
Also loved Inside Llewyn Davis, Prisoners, The Lunchbox, Le Passé, Omar, The East, Enough Said, and Wolf from that wonderful year! 🏆🥳
2004 also was a phenomenal year in films. A lot bangers were put out that year. Such as: Collateral, Man On Fire, The Incredibles, SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, Million Dollar Baby, Ray, The Aviator, Polar Express, etc.
And kill bil vol 2
Sponge Bob for real? Lmao
@@Indomita506 Opinions exist
@@Indomita506 Yep
@@syria0110 no shite Sherlock
On a side note, what is the worst film of 1999? My pick is Baby Genius. Need I say more?
Disliked Fight Club, haven't seen that one, I think the only terrible ones were The Haunting and Wing Commander.
Brian, No mention of Topsy Turvy?!?! Please explain yourself. How about a whole video on TT?
What about Cruel Intentions (1999) ? Best Kiss in MTV Movie Awards ! 😃
Did I miss where you mentioned The Insider...
“American Beauty” was absolutely deserving of all Oscars it won. Don’t ever discount Kevin Spacey’s talent as an actor. His personal life is his own. Actors are there to entertain us, and he has done his job in spades.