proximoception: (Default)
proximoception ([personal profile] proximoception) wrote2012-10-13 03:33 pm

(no subject)

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.

Five-dollar milkshake

[identity profile] dominika-kretek.livejournal.com 2012-10-15 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] proximoception.livejournal.com 2012-10-15 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
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.