(no subject)

[proximoception]

Stirred by the AV Club best '90s movie list to wonder whether I could make one, the '90s being roughly the time when I watched almost everything decent-sounding that became available. So I'll try. Taste caveats here include that I of course haven't seen most of these in 12.8 to 22.8 years, and that I've missed everything relevant by Yang, Tarr, Kiarostami, Hsao-Hsien (sp?) and others I've lacked access to.

Loved enough that I still watch them now and then:

The Straight Story, Lost Highway, eXistenZ, The Ninth Gate, Titus, My Best Fiend, Glengarry Glen Ross, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, 42 Up, 35 Up, Showgirls, the Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing, Fire Walk With Me, Dazed and Confused, The Edge, Waiting for Guffman, Office Space

Was highly affected by at the time (not necessarily a lesser category - some of these feel too precious or traumatic to revisit):

Heavenly Creatures, An Angel at My Table, Slacker, Schindler's List, Nil by Mouth, Saving Private Ryan, All About My Mother, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Dreamlife of Angels, The Ice Storm, Quiz Show, The Thin Red Line, Eyes Wide Shut, Secrets and Lies, Naked, Goodfellas, Age of Innocence, The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica, Before Sunrise, Short Cuts, Toy Story, Election, Jesus' Son, Howard's End, Not One Less

Admired but a bit less, or less personally: American Movie, Time Regained, The Piano, Schizopolis, Bulworth, Naked Lunch, Fargo, Lone Star, White, Topsy-Turvy, The Player, Homicide, Twelve Monkeys, Ride with the Devil, Sense and Sensibility, Jackie Brown, Toy Story 2, The Insider, Henry Fool, Red Rock West

So that's more like sixty. A similar number of others got into a question mark pile, whether because my reaction had been more mixed, or I didn't remember them well enough or couldn't assume I'd still like them. And I'm probably getting some years wrong, forgetting tons of movies - none of this was science. Nice to remember, though.

Comments

[grashupfer.livejournal.com]

Say something about Showgirls.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

It's fucking hilarious.

[wolodymyr.livejournal.com]

Whatever's going on with Paul Verhoeven, he's not phoning it in.

Of course he went to the Razzies to accept that worst director award.
ETA, which is just by way of saying, I haven't seen Showgirls or Basic Instinct, but I imagine at least the first would be fun to watch with you.

And the director's commentary on Starship Troopers is hilarious, btw.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Oh dude watch Showgirls now. I can add nothing to it.

It's a measure behind Road House, which is a measure behind The Room, but it's still awesome. The bad-unto-good genre is mostly pretty depressing - too much blah-bad mixed with great-bad, like with Hideaway, Gymkata, The Happening. But these three are relentless.

Starship Troopers and commentary added to see-list.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Should probably add The Wicker Man to those three. Though with that one I had to work through my hate before I could start to love.

[wolodymyr.livejournal.com]

I think this is where company helps. Although it might have been that one of us was dead set on the Christopher Lee of it, tugging the rest in his wake, I can't entirely remember.

And it did later set me up to appreciate this, part of which subsequently entered household usage. Whenever one of us realizes we've asked a question (like, say, where are the keys?) more than three times, HOW'D IT GET BURNED? has some chance to follow.

[wolodymyr.livejournal.com]

What was the hate?

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Of LaBute for the decisions he was making. Turn off the "what was the point of this" portion of your brain and it all becomes delightful.

So much post-exam netflixing I'm stocking up.

[wolodymyr.livejournal.com]

I actually thought you were talking about the original movie, which is its own diverting carnival of mawkable awful. I haven't seen the remake in its entirety, just the clip reels.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Original you giggle at, remake you howl.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

Fire Walk With Me is actually really good! More people need to know this.

I didn't see it until last year, but for me the best movie of the 90s is Derek Jarman's Blue. Back in the day I put quite a lot of stock in Kieslowski's Blue. The Thin Red Line is also great, but I didn't see it until 2003.

I remember doing the same thing you did, watch everything that seemed any good, but I can't remember whether there was any movie that made me think, yes, this is the stuff. I was very into the Coen brothers, but I didn't love them as much as appreciate them. Egoyan, Lynch, Cronenberg, Campion, Hartley, Leigh. Yes. I'd add Greenaway, though I know his limitations. Haynes, Wong. I fell for and rejected Trier. But what was the stuff? I can't recall. Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control? Magnolia?

Now I'm looking at all these 90s best-of lists, and no, I don't seem to be forgetting anything. But I loved movies back then. I lived for them. But what was the stuff?

Maybe it's just that these movies are very, very good, but I expect more from them now. I don't know. Maybe I'm just in a mood.

It's very strange to read through these lists and see how clearly there was a before and after with Pulp Fiction.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

No, I completely agree. I'd thought of the '90s as a great film decade but there's surprisingly few I absolutely love. Even the rewatch list is packed with play adaptations, 7 Up entries, light comedies. A lot, maybe most, of the rest I wouldn't dream of seeing again for fear they'd prove drab. I think the 2000 decade will age better.

I think if anything I'm overrating the fun White because I feel I should like something by Kieslowski. He wasn't bad or anything, but I've never understood the awe.

Haven't seen The Baby of Macon but Prospero's Books and 8 1/2 Women both amused me. I don't think I ever made it very far into a Jarman movie. Wong I'm not sure.

I'm not sure I see the influence of Pulp Fiction on non-crime films? It and Magnolia have some great scenes, despite some annoying aspects; perhaps they should be on here. And maybe Velvet Goldmine.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

I think Jarman is overrated.

Ever see Sydney/Hard Eight? It's arguably better than Magnolia, but in a completely different way. Both beat Boogie Nights.

I love Prospero's Books, but I turned 8 1/2 Women off in the middle.

City of Lost Children I've been meaning to rewatch. There.

On the best-of lists, the pre-Pulp movies are these slightly staid, slightly literate well-shot Hollywood films, maybe period pieces, maybe on important topics, with respectable actors. After Pulp, the movies, Hollywood or not, tend to be stylized, edgy, youthful, and wrestling with genre. This could be a reflection of a change in the listmakers as much as in the films being made.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

It's not clear to me what innovations Tarantino made that Wild at Heart (above all), Blue Velvet, Goodfellas and the early Coen movies hadn't. Wild at Heart even anticipates the liberating absence of point. T. does somehow manage to drain all disturbingness out of transgression - perhaps that's his gift, accessibility. Having awful things happen where you've subtly been reassured it doesn't matter, so your pulse is racing but not in a way where there's much to think about after, like on a roller coaster.

Five-dollar milkshake

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'd call it an innovation, but yes, I think you hit the nail right on the head. The rest of the movie biz reacted to it, so that for seven or eight years you had to have ultracool style and the air of not giving a fuck even to make period pieces. It was all about the thrill and the knowing you were having a thrill. That's just what the 90s were like, I guess.

When I rewatched Reservoir Dogs last year, what really struck me was not the torture scene, or Mr. Orange's agonizing, but the paint-peeling racism of the characters. It's very weird now to think about how it was just supposed to be the height of cool.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Having even racism somehow not matter, yeah! I remember Spike Lee scathingly wondering whether Tarantino wanted to be made an honorary black person. But Tarantino got away with it because the answer was clearly yes. If Lee, Richard Roundtree and Al Sharpton had shown up at his door to give him an honorary black man medal he'd have burst into tears and had the best day of his life. None of his imitators could project that, so they watched their step.