Cinematic Throwbacks: September 1994/1999

1994:

The hype is very real. The Shawshank Redemption really is among the very best films ever made.

I came to this film the way most people did: once it was out of theaters. I was aware of it, and by this point, I did go to a lot of movies, albeit usually just once on a Saturday during the school year. This film didn't make the cut.

The film still got a lot of critical acclaim and was even nominated for best picture.

Then it hit video, back when hitting video was truly a second life for a lot of overlooked films. And that's when I saw it.

And it's great. It's really, really great.

Directed by then unknown Frank Darabont, and based on a non-horror story from Stephen King, the majority of the film takes place at Shawshank Prison, where Tim Robbins' Andy is sent on a murder conviction. There, he meets Morgan Freeman's Red, and that becomes the key relationship in the film, and probably one of the all-time movie friendships.

The performances are amazing. This didn't win Freeman an Oscar, but it will always be his crowning achievement. His narration is some of the best ever. Robbins is in peak form, too. 

Every character in this is very vivid and memorable. We get two of the best and most hateable movie villains ever in the warden (Bob Gunton) and prison.guard (Clancy Brown).

The film is a real journey, spanning decades. Nearly every scene is memorable. The score is superb, and when you couple that with Freeman's voice, it's just about the best that cinema can get.

That 3rd act is what brings it all home, with Andy's escape, Red's eventual parole, and then their reunion in the final moments. You can't find a film with a better ending than this has. It is so richly satisfying.

Over the years after its video release, the film grew and grew in popularity. Then it became one of those films that was just always on cable somewhere. Even now, I could probably go find it somewhere at least once a week. It makes sense. It's such an absorbing story.

Unlike most films, this one has never even really been able to grow detractors. Some say it made prison life seem too nice. I mean, Andy dodges rapists and we see people beaten to death. Doesn't sound too nice of a place to me.

The film will live forever, since it was set in the 50s and 60s, so nothing dates it, and its theme of keeping hope alive even in the worst situations will never grow old. 

Tim Burton is a director known for being an oddball who makes oddball movies. Ed Wood was one of the oddest directors of all, and when it came time.to make a biopic of the man considered the worst director of all time, Burton was one of the most perfect matches of director to project of all time. 

For my money, this is Burton's finest film, a wonderfully affectionate ode to a guy who didn't let a complete lack of talent get in the way of living his dreams. 

Now, the real Wood had a kind of rough life, particularly later on, but Burton's film keeps things cheery, focusing on a short period of Wood's life during which he makes a couple of his most notorious films. 

Johnny Depp does some of his best work as Wood, an eternal optimist who gets a terrible review in the paper but shrugs it off, or is told his film was the worst movie ever made and responds with "well my next one will be better."

The re-creations of his films are terrific, and even though the work is obviously terrible, it looks like fun. Wood attracted an eclectic group of people to be in these films: friends, his girlfriend, and even washed up former star Bela Lugosi, played in Oscar winning form by Martin Landau. Yes, Landau won his Oscar over Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction, which was wrong, but Landau is brilliant in the film.

This is probably my favorite film about making a film. 

1999:

Of all the great films to come out in 1999, then one that wound up winning best picture was Sam Mendes' American Beauty, the dark comedy about the seedier side of suburban life.

Might as well get into it now. Yes, the film stars Kevin Spacey in an Oscar winning performance, and while he turned out to be a sicko, this is still a fantastic performance. He's incredibly funny and sarcastic in this, while also extracting all the sympathy for this guy who is rediscovering his spirit for life.

Also nominated was Annette Bening as his wife, and that one I never got. She's genuinely terrible in this movie, completely one note and loathsome. 

Beyond that, the film has a vivid supporting cast. There is the adult storyline but also a lot of rich stuff for the teen characters. Thora Birch as Spacey's Moody daughter, Mena Suvari as her friend, and Wes Bentley as the new kid next door. I was super locked in on Suvari, fresh off American Pie. She spends most of the film as just a bitch, but she nails the turn her character takes late in the film. 

For a drama, American Beauty is also packed with really funny dialogue, much of it from Spacey. The screenplay is fantastic, and deservedly won an Oscar. The cinematography also won.

This film was my first exposure to the now predictable backlash that best picture winners get, since the 2000 Oscars came right after I got home internet. It wins and suddenly everyone says it actually stinks.

People pick at certain things here, like the scene of Bentley waxing poetic about watching a plastic bag floating in the air, or just the premise of the Spacey character crushing on Suvari, and miss the point of all of that. 

There were a lot of imitators in the years after. Dark suburban-set films were a steady presence for quite a few years, and few of them were good. It's not as easy as American Beauty made it look.

I think the Spacey stuff has kind of ruined the film's legacy quite a bit, which is too bad. I mean, him being creepy DOES kind of work for the movie. And I tend to not have much trouble separating the art from the artist. He had a hell of a run in the 90s and I'm not dumping all those films.

Other non-deep dive flicks:

1964:

-Goldfinger: The 3rd Connery Bond film, and the one where they really locked into the formula. 

1984:

-Amadeus: This won a bunch of Oscars. I actually watched this in a music class in school. 

-All Of Me: Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin share the same body. I watched this a fair amount way back in the day. 

1994:

-Jason's Lyric: Back then, it was one of my favorites, cause so many of the black-starring/directed films were. This drama's big draws were Jada Pinkett at her absolute peak, and one of the decade's best soundtracks. I still like the movie, but it didn't hold up as well as others. Some of the acting is pretty bad, and 30 years later, I still have no idea if Bokeem Woodbine's performance is terrible or secretly brilliant. 

-Fresh: One of the decade's most underrated hidden gems. This falls in the hood movie genre, too, following a teenager as he navigates the streets and various drug dealers. Fantastic screenplay worthy of the best twisty dramas of the era. Dynamite few scenes of Samuel L. Jackson. 

-Timecop: One of the better Van Damme flicks. Was very awkward when my mom took me to this and then...oh...gratuitous sex scene 10 minutes in. 😳

-Terminal Velocity: Charlie Sheen skydiving action movie. 

-The River Wild: Meryl Streep terrorized on the rapids by Kevin Bacon. 

-Quiz Show: This got nominated for best picture, which is kind of absurd considering how loaded 94 was. 

-Blue Sky: Jessica Lange won best actress for this. 

-The Scout: A truly wretched baseball movie, where scout Albert Brooks finds wunderkind Brendan Fraser. Fraser's character hits a homerun on every swing and strikes out everyone on 3 pitches. At the end, he signs with the Yankees, which in the real world would render every game he plays in pre-determined. That's even worse than feeding Aaron Judge the goldilocks balls. 

-Sleep With Me: Memorable for 2 reasons: the Quentin Tarantino speech about Top Gun, and Parker Posey (not the performance).

2004:

-Hero: Post-Crouching Tiger, there were a handful of martial arts epics from China that broke through. Zhang Yimou directed 2 of them. In a few months, House of Fying Daggers turns 20, but first came Hero, which actually took a couple of years to hit America. Jet Li and the ever stunning Zhang Ziyi starred. It has all sorts of wondrous fight choreography and cinematography. 

-Resident Evil: Apocalypse: Hated the first one of these (and most of the others) but kind of liked this one. 

-Mr. 3000: Bernie Mac is a retired baseball player who un-retires to get to 3,000 hits. Face the 2024 Twins, and he'd do it in a day. 

-Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow: An early all-greenscreen film. Was pretty bad.

-Wimbledon: Romcom with Kirsten Dunst as a tennis player. 

-First Daughter: The 2nd of that year's romcoms about the president's daughter. This one starred Katie Holmes, and I was still very locked in on her then, but this was just meh. 

-Shaun of the Dead: Okay, people love this movie. It even got an anniversary re-release. It just didn't work for me. Sorry. 

2014:

-The Equalizer: The sequels disappointed, but I still really liked this first entry with Denzel Washington avenging Chloe Moretz, and anyone else done wrong. 

-The Maze Runner: Kicked off one of the more successful YA franchises of the era. I liked this first entry, contained almost fully inside the maze. 

-A Walk Among The Tombstones: A solid Liam Neeson thriller. 

-Tusk: Oh boy. The absolute nadir of Kevin Smith and probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen in a theater. Justin Long gets turned into a walrus in a movie that was painfully out of Smith's element. Not funny, certainly not scary. I cannot believe there are some people out there who like it. 

Coming in October....

It isn't often that 2 movies in my all time top 10 have anniversaries in the same month, but we got one now. Turning 30 in October are both Pulp Fiction and Clerks, which will get their own posts for sure. 

But there's more! So much more in fact that I'm gonna have to skip some.

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre turns 50.

The original Terminator turns 40. I'll be back to talk about it. Ha ha. 

Also rurning 30 is Hoop Dreams, one of the best documentaries of all time.

Friday Night Lights and Team America turn 20. 

And jesus, turning 10 are Whiplash, Gone Girl, John Wick, Birdman, Fury, Nightcrawler...stop! I only have so many hours in the day!

Oh, and Fight Club turns 25.