Best. Movie. Year. Ever.
Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen is culture writer Brian Raftery's tribute to and analysis of what he considers a year of the most visionary films in the history of American cinema. In terms fitting of the topic, our Best. Movie. Year. Ever.
At first you might read the book's title and be like, 1999? Best ever? That's just, like, your opinion, man. That's what I thought anyway. But then I read Best. Movie. Year. Ever's table of contents, divided into 4 seasons and 17 chapters, each of the latter covering one or more of the year's pivotal films. You start in winter with The Blair Witch Project, Office Space, and The Matrix. And that's just winter. Do I even need to go on?
Remember, when we're talking about How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen, we're talking more than movies we loved and that were blockbuster hits. Some of these, with their feats of filming, technology, and storytelling, extended or eliminated the previous boundaries of filmmaking and box offices. Fight Club came out in the fall of 1999. The year also saw American Beauty. Being John Malkovich. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The Sixth Sense. The Virgin Suicides. Magnolia.
Best. Movie. Year. Ever. delves into how the films it covers were made, and how they affected not only the films, but also the century that followed them. Raftery also scores 130+ new interviews with some of the films' actors and directors, including Edward Norton, Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, M. Night Shyamalan, David O. Russell, James Van Der Beek (Varsity Blues, baby!), the Office Space dudes, and the guy who played Jar-Jar Binks.
DudeIWantThat.com is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more.
Kobayashi Mug
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that...he's gone...
/bucket-list-scratch-off-31083.jpg?mode=crop "Bucket List Scratch-Off Posters")
Bucket List Scratch-Off Posters
If you have any kind of bucket list, Gift Republic probably has a bucket list scratch-off poster for you. Each piece in the series of 23" x 16-1/2" trackers contains 100 silver-covered boxes with the name of a place under...
/lg-stanbyme-go-briefcase-61381.jpg?mode=crop "LG StanbyME Go Briefcase Design Touch Screen")
LG StanbyME Go Briefcase Design Touch Screen
This briefcase contains over $1,000 in cash...spent on LG's new StanbyME Go Briefcase Design Touch Screen. Designed for tailgates, camping trips, outdoor movie nights for two, and handcuffing to your wrist, the StanbyME...
/single-sentence-film-summary-15418.jpg "Single Sentence Film Summary T-Shirts")
Single Sentence Film Summary T-Shirts
You might think cinematic masterpieces such as Rocky, Star Wars, Back to the Future, and The Karate Kid are too densely packed with plot and profundity to encapsulate in just one sentence, but Mike Joyce's Stereotype...
Prima Cinema - Theater Releases at Home
Because I can't afford to pay $15, much less $500, to see a movie on the day it comes out in theaters, I'll still get my in-home new releases from bootleggers and watch Django Unchained between the heads of people who...
/national-lampoons-christmas-29878.jpg?mode=crop "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Village")
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Village
You can go all out Clark Griswold and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on your holiday decorating this year without risking falling off the roof or running up a thousand-dollar electrical bill. Just make yourself...
Movies R Fun: Iconic Scenes as Children's Art
Josh Cooley's book Movies R Fun: A Collection of Cinematic Classics for the Pre-(Film) School Cinephile takes iconic and cult (mostly) R-rated movie scenes as inspiration for artwork styled after children's storybooks...
Life-Size Exorcist Regan Doll
The only thing worse than a Monday is clicking on a link that brings you to a life-size replica doll of possessed Regan from The Exorcist. It just happened to me, and since misery loves company, here you go, dudes. I'm...
Inception Coffee Table
Designer and model maker Stelios Mousarris calls this coffee table his Wave City, but you know this stellar assemblage of a city folding on top of itself comes straight from the trippy scenes of the movie Inception. Mousarris...
/die-hard-advent-calendar-56696.jpg?mode=crop "Die Hard Advent Calendar")
Die Hard Advent Calendar
Yippee Ki Yay, motherfu- uh...dudes, it's a Die Hard Advent Calendar! Leatherhead Laser Work even laser-cut his clever, original countdown design to depict one of the best scenes in the movie: Hans Gruber plummeting to...
Plotagon - Make Your Own Instant Movie
You know the millions and millions of words of fanfic piled up across the Internet? Thanks to Plotagon, they're about to be joined by millions and millions of seconds of fanflick. Not that I'm complaining. I like a good...
/life-size-alien-head-27020.jpg?mode=crop "Life-Size Alien Head")
Life-Size Alien Head
When the staff at the H.R. Giger Museum in Switzerland saw this life-size replica head of the monstrous Alien their namesake created you could literally see the pride and joy bursting from their chests. (Good luck to...