12/27/99
Best Of
I know you were all worrying about when my top ten movies and albums for 1999 would come out, weren't you? Well, here they are.
Movies
- Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace - I don't care what anyone says. No movie this year thrilled me the way this one did when that crawl started up the screen. Was it as magical as the first three movies? No. But I still thought it was special. I'll be there for the next one, too.
- The Blair Witch Project - I know the hype made everyone thoroughly ill of this movie, but if you got to see it before it was omnipresent you know how bone-chillingly creepy this movie could be. When I left the theater after I saw it the first time I was stunned. I literally couldn't allow myself to think about it until the next day.
- South Park - Uncle Fucka! Uncle Fucka! Uncle Fucka! That most wonderful song and a smart, sharp movie as well. Trey and Matt outdid themselves.
- Sleepy Hollow - Tim Burton's gothic masterpiece. Classic horror. Johnny Depp is the perfect prissy but heroic hero.
- Being John Malkovich - Strange. Cook Thief Wife Lover strange. Like a Peter Greenaway movie without all the gross stuff. Worth seeing for the scene where Malkovich enters his own head.
- Run Lola Run - It's like a music video, but it's a movie! Franke Potente is compelling (and sexy) as the alternafrau on the run, trying to save her boyfriend's ass.
- American Pie - ""This one time, at band camp..." I laughed out loud. Again and again. It was fairly accurate, too, at least from the guy's point of view.
- Dogma - I just love Kevin Smith. He's smart and funny when most directors are unwilling (or unable) to do both. His first three movies mainly worked with interpersonal relationships, but this one goes for the big issues - religion, God, faith, free will...all the issues of belief. And it's a hoot.
- Princess Mononoke - Gorgeous. Is there such a thing as cinematography in animated movies? That's what's so impressive here; grand, sweeping landscapes and majestic, breathtaking panoramas. Plus a hell of a story and those cute little kodama.
- Rushmore - I realize it came out in '98, but I didn't see it until this year. Who knew that Bill Murray had a performance this good left in him? I was pleased.
Honorable Mention
- Detroit Rock City - It was so stupid. And so funny. And such a guilty pleasure.
Tunes
- Len - You Can't Stop the Bum Rush - White people from Canada in the late 1990's sound like black people from Queens in the early 1980's. Rap is fun again.
- Bauhaus - Crackle - Spooky. The definitive collection from the elder statesmen of gothic rock.
- Motley Crue - Live: Entertainment or Death - I saw Motley Crue live twice when I was in high school. This two-disc set replicates the aural experience of a Motley Crue concert perfectly, from the muscular guitars to Vince Neil's inane patter between songs.
- Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing - This is where rock and roll is going. Someday this band will rule the world.
- Switchblade Symphony - The Three Calamities - Funky, also spooky and infinitely danceable. A treat.
- Tori Amos - To Venus and Back - Part live album, part synthesized electronic flourish. Twenty years from now Tori Amos will be recognized as one of the most important musicians of the '90's.
- Beastie Boys - Anthology: The Sounds of Science - This is important music. The Beastie Boys are a genre of one, and this is the definitive document of that genre. Good booty-shaking music, too.
- The Blair Witch Project - Soundtrack - They could have thrown together a collection of b-grade musicians with a new single from the star of the moment, but no. Showing the same class the whole Blair Witch juggernaut displayed, someone gathered up a bunch of goth and industrial classics and arranged them just so. Totally atmospheric.
- South Park - Soundtrack - I repeat: Uncle Fucka.
- Run Lola Run - Soundtrack - Like the movie, but on a CD. It makes me want to run.
Honorable Mention
- DVDA, "Now You're A Man" - "No it's prob'ly the titties!" On the same level of genius as Uncle Fucka.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Album - I'd pay the money for the show's intro music alone. It makes me want to stick a stake in someone.
- Beck - Midnite Vultures - I've only heard it all the way through once, but it really made me happy.
And I was going to put together a list of books, but then I realized I've read a bunch of old shit, genre shit and bestsellers that makes me look shallow when compared to the members of Oprah's book club. At least my movies and music are semi-hip.