The MoFo 1990s Countdown pt II - Preliminary Thread

For what it's worth, I edited some of my previous posts to include links to reviews

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I like A Perfect Murder too, but it's a version of Dial M for Murder, not Rear Window.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

Oops, yeah. That's what I meant

More from '98 worth seeing:

Blade (Deacon Frost is one of film's great scenery-chewing villains)
Buffalo '66
Out of Sight
Run Lola Run (blew my mind so much I watched it three times in one weekend)
Rushmore
Smoke Signals ("...where it's a good day to be indigenous!")
The General (the famous thief robbed him, so John Boorman made a movie about him. Makes sense)
Waking Ned Devine

And now for some 1999 ponderings and recommendations to close out this!

The Straight Story - The most un-Lynchian film from David Lynch himself. A beautiful story, wonderfully executed.

The Insider - One of those that I'm always amazed isn't mentioned more often. Probably my favorite Mann.

Election - I remember I saw this back in the day, and enjoyed it. Recently revisited it and it hit at a whole different level. I think it's superb.

Ravenous - Such a fun film. Cannibals, banjo music, soldiers running around, what's not to love?

Three Kings - Great film that should be mentioned more often.

Lake Placid - I somehow missed this back in the day. Recently saw it for the first time and loved it.

Bringing Out the Dead - Pretty good film with a great performance from Nicolas Cage.

Pirates of Silicon Valley - TV film, far from perfect but as an IT person, I have a soft spot for it, and how "accurately" it presents the lives of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. I used to show it to my students back when I was a teacher.

The 13th Warrior - Haven't seen this in decades, but I always remember liking it a lot. Should I revisit?

The Talented Mr. Ripley - This is one that I must try to revisit. Like the above, I remember liking it but it's been 20+ years.

The Iron Giant - Been meaning to put this to my kids (and myself for a revisit) but I just haven't got the chance.

The Limey - Another one I should revisit.

Deep Blue Sea - Like Anaconda, I don't care what anyone says, this is a great, fun film.

Boys Don't Cry - Powerful and tough to watch. Not sure if it'll make it to my list but it deserves consideration.

Arlington Road - Yet another one I've been meaning to rewatch. The ending blew me away (ha!) but I haven't gotten back to it.

October Sky - Such a heart-warming movie with great performances from Gyllenhaal and Chris Cooper.

Mystery Men and Galaxy Quest - Similar films? Remember enjoying both, but haven't seen them since.

Storm of the Century - TV movie, but one that kept me on the edge for all its duration. Colm Feore is great in it.

Dick - In a similar vein to Wag the Dog, but it's another one I haven't seen in a long time.

Being John Malkovich - Blew my mind back in the day. Haven't seen it since.

The Mummy - Such a fun adventure film.

Office Space - Probably the most accurate film about corporate environment. It kinda loses itself in the last act, but it still hits hard.

Dogma - Remember not being a big, big fan of it, despite having some interesting ideas.

Go - I remember it as one of the best Pulp Fiction rip-offs, but I haven't seen it since.


Potential locks for me are probably Eyes Wide Shut, Fight Club, Toy Story, The Blair Witch Project... maybe?

If you've never seen a Pedro Almodóvar film, or haven't seen many, 1999's All About My Mother is a great place to start.

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Almodóvar is surely a blind spot for me. I think I saw Bad Education back in the day, but I barely remember it. I did check out a couple of his shorts a while ago and enjoyed them:

The Cannibalistic Councillor
The Human Voice

A few more '99 movies worth seeing:

American Movie ("It's alright, it's okay, there's something to live for...Jesus told me so!")
Bowfinger ("Smashing Pumpkins? I love to do that!")
Dead or Alive (Miike at his craziest)
Felicia's Journey (a must-see for Bob Hoskins fans)
Limbo (one of John Sayles' best yet bleakest movies)
Mr. Death (my favorite Errol Morris doc)
Running Out of Time (the more Johnnie To, the merrier)
The Mission (see above. It is close to being what would happen if Tarantino made a Triad movie)
The Virgin Suicides (discover why there were so many Trip Fontaine user names back then)

Oh great, there's three months to go and I've run out of recommendations.

I feel that everyone who grew up in the US and outside of the big urban areas, potentially would add these two movies in his/hers top 10 of the 90's.
Am I wrong?

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

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Louis Malle's May Fools (1990) is good.
I think the reviews under sell it a bit.

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I think, now is the time everybody to support David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) in the 90's-countdown ballots.

I was massively disappointed by Wild at Heart when it hit theaters. I knew it had won Cannes, it was his follow-up to Blue Velvet, and most importantly that first, wonderful, weird, unsettling, magnificent season of "Twin Peaks" had just aired. And then came Wild at Heart, which felt very much like self-parody, but not in a fun conscious way, just somebody rolling out their familiar bag of tricks with nothing new to say with them. I love road movies, I liked Nic Cage plenty back then, but overall it was just a big "so what?" to this cinemaniac. I have revisited it over the years and my opinion has not changed much.



For my taste, THE David Lynch movie of that decade is clear and obvious: The Straight Story (1999) is a beautiful flick. Un-Lynch-like in many ways, purposefully hitting different notes and using completely different instruments. Funny, sweet, endearing, and emotionally powerful, this is a road movie I can get on board with. And I swear the scene in the bar where two Veterans quietly discuss the horrors of World War II for me is more powerful than anything in Saving Private Ryan. A simple, truthful, very good movie.

Giving this another try right now. Enjoying it actually...

It's literally like a cross between Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive

But not as good as either. Great performance from Dern though.

This just got silly by the end. I ran out of steam with 20 to go and abandoned.

It could have been better going down more of the drama and black comedy route than the silly farce route.

Nice film. Some really touching moments.

You don't get more emotion in a movie, than actors genuinely taking their final looks back at the whole story.

Poignant.

I don't say this often, but I thought it could have done with an extra half hour. Some action on the road as well as the heart stuff. Maybe the old guy was too out of puff.

Rest peacefully.

As things stand I have space for 3 of these:

Toto the Hero 1991 Belgium Jaco Van Dormael
The Scent of Green Papaya 1993 Vietnam Tran Anh Hung
Taste of Cherry 1997 Iran Abbas Kiarostami
Donnie Brasco 1997 USA
The Matrix 1999 USA The Wachowskis
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai 1999 USA

@Robert the List, have you seen Theo Angelopoulos' Eternity and a Day (1998)? It's one of his more accessible pictures, but a very good one, and he seems like a director that would suit your tastes and your movie goals.

Plus, Bruno Ganz is an actor who's always worth watching

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I think Landscape in the Mist is sensational, and like The Travelling Players too.

Actually, I did check it out for about half an hour when I was trying to work out which Angelopouloses I wanted to focus on, but can definitely take another look at it.
Thanks CQ.

But I'm finding The Suspended Step of the Stork rewarding @Captain Quint.
It actually has a Lynch-like or even Cronenbergesque narrative and dialogue (come to think of it, perhaps not unlike the other Ange films I like), but with Antonioni or similar visuals, and a sprinkling of Resnais. To me he has created a dream world, or one where everybody is under the effects of some slightly hallucinogenic substance. The result is that the viewer gently rows their boat down the stream, absorbing the experience as they go.
It's high class, fascinating and absorbing film making.

That's been on my watchlist for a while, but I never could find...

Hello, what's this then, one of the sites I frequent (which I'm not sure I can mention - I know we can talk about YouTube, but other places folks seem to be tight lipped about, so it might be a rule thing) but they posted it last year (edit, 2 years, we're in 2025 now, lol).

Great! I know what I'm watching today.