Cinematic Throwbacks: November 1999/2014

1999:

Of all the great, iconic, formative movies of the 1990s, many of which I know the opening day by heart, few of those days stick in the brain like the single most important DUAL opening day of the decade.

November 12, 1999

As we neared the end of one of the greatest movie years of my life, two of the biggest releases of the year (at least for me) beckoned.

The headliner was clearly Anywhere But Here, because in 1999, there was nothing on earth that mattered more (in a movie sense) than a new Natalie Portman movie.

The undercarriage was Dogma, the 4th movie from Kevin Smith, whose first 3 movies had established him as one of my absolute favorite filmmakers.

I saw both on day one, of course. 

Anywhere But Here, well, it was a new Natalie movie at basically the peak of my head in the clouds fandom. It blew me away. There are some embarrassing writings about my feelings about the film.

By comparison, Dogma had no chance. And on first viewing it definitely was my least favorite Smith film. I saw Dogma a 2nd time in theaters. I saw ABH 6 times, including each of its 1st 3 days of release. Just get out of the way of the Natalie train.

The films are forever linked, but 25 years later are their own things.

So...ABH was a film I knew about long in advance, as it was actually Natalie's 1st project that went through production entirely with me having internet access and being on the Natalie sites. It was originally set to open in the spring, which would have preceded The Phantom Menace, but got moved to fall to have better awards chances and probably try to benefit from Natalie's increased stature. Then it was also supposed to open in October, and ran trailers saying so, but got pushed into November.

It was based on a book, which I went and bought and read before the movie came out. Did the same thing with Where The Heart Is.

I was extra excited for this movie because it was a true leading performance by Natalie, her 1st since The Professional.

The film is a mother-daughter story (Susan Sarandon is the mother) about the pair moving from Wisconsin to Beverly Hills. The plot is very episodic. You can tell it's based on a book, which I think the film was better than.

Every Natalie scene was a religious experience to me in this. It's a fantastic performance, nailing all the big moments and really excelling in the quieter moments. She had her 1st in screen kiss here, which kind of destroyed me at the time (20 year old me was ridiculous). And she acts Sarandon off the screen at times, who has the showier role but at times does go too far into caricature.

It's mostly just the two of them, but the supporting cast does have some highlights. There's a cop character created for the film that has a couple of very funny scenes. Soundtrack is very good, too, with lots of that Lilith Fair era girl rock.

Once the film's release was over, there was the awards season. I have never celebrated harder for a Golden Globe nomination than I did for the one Natalie got for this. And I have never been more pissed at an Oscar snub than when she WASN'T nominated there. That was the Angelina Jolie year, so her winning was unlikely, and the film wasn't a big hit, but I was still irate. I mean, look, she'd have at least a half dozen Oscars by now if I said so.

Now onto Dogma.

Smith's religious comedy came in with all sorts of controversy. It even changed distributors before coming out. Smith got death threats (gotta love those religious zealots) and famously joined one crowd picketing against the film.

That's what happens when you dare to poke fun at religion, and religious hypocrisy. The film isn't even really that bold. It's about a pair of fallen angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) trying to get back into heaven. Trying to stop them are a mortal woman (Linda Fiorentino) and also, because View Askew, Jay and Silent Bob.

And along the way there are some of Smith's regulars (Jason Lee) and a great collection of new to the Askewniverse actors (Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman). 

The film is not a visual feast, but it does look the best of Smith's films to this point. I never thought it was his funniest work, but in terms of originality, it may be. It's really got a point of view, and despite the blowback, the film is not anti-religion at all.

Can you believe a movie with a rubber poop monster led to death threats? 

Fiorentino's often quite bad performance sticks out, but the rest of the cast is great. Affleck genuinely goes villanous here, with Damon being goofy. Rickman is the highlight, delivering many of his lines in a hilariously grumpy tone. The surprise was probably Jason Mewes, who really had to do a real performance this time and not just recite some curses. He's had other leads in Smith films, but this was his finest hour.

The film was, like Smith's others, much more of a cult film than a big hit. It's often cited by people as his best film.

2014:

What was Christopher Nolan going to do now that he was finished with his unimpeachable Dark Knight trilogy?

Well, Nolan was not going to go small. Instead, he went the biggest he ever has, with the outer space epic Interstellar.

It's a wonderful premise. Set an uncertain number of years into the future, Earth has become a dry, dying planet. The human race is still around, but growing food is becoming harder and harder, and something needs to be done to find a new home. I love the world building here. The glimpses we get into this increasingly desolate future world are really interesting, and realistic. Climate change may bring us to this point someday, no matter what the MAGAts want to believe.

So what is the solution? A space mission, launched by what remains of NASA, who work literally underground since in this future it is believed the moon landing was fake. The plan is to travel to one of several potential new worlds for the human race to move to. 

I will not even attempt to get into the how and why and the science of it all. I have seen this movie several times and still don't really get a lot of it. From what I did hear, though, the film is reasonably scientifically sound for this sort of thing.

The mission is led by Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway in a pair of terrific, empathetic performances. The loaded cast also has Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain, and even an early Timothee Chalamet. Plus a mid-film cameo by Matt Damon.

It's a spectacular looking film, with gorgeous outer space shots and incredibly vivid realizations of both these other worlds and the barren earth. I got to see this projected on actual film when it came out. The Hans Zimmer score is fantastic.

There's a lot of people who have this as their favorite Nolan film. I think that's because it IS his most emotional film. There are actual discussions in the film about how love transcends space and time. And there is real emotional pull in the film, seeing the passage of time on earth compared to the astronauts.

The climax of the film merges the scientific jargon and the emotional pull. I have never understood what happens here, but I FELT what happens here, and I think that's more important.

Other non-deep dive flicks:

1974:

-Earthquake: Seen this on TV a few times over the years. For its time, the titular quake sequence was very cool and scary. 

1984:

-A Nightmare on Elm Street: The first and best, although maybe I shouldn't say that since I haven't seen all the sequels. Or the remake. 

1994:

-Star Trek Generations: Not one of the best Trek films. This was hyped up a lot cause it had Kirk and Picard meeting, and was the last film for the original crew. 

-Interview With The Vampire: Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as vampires. This was a big hit, but it wasn't very good. 

-The Santa Clause: Tim Allen becomes Santa. At the time, it was kind of a thing that he was going into movies. 

-Junior: Only in the 1990s could Arnold Schwarzenegger become pregnant. 

-A Low Down Dirty Shame: I was really into this movie at the time, cause I was basically into all the black cast/director flicks, and this one had a feisty Jada Pinkett. It didn't hold up, though. 

-Heavenly Creatures: One of Peter Jackson's earliest movies and one of his best. Plus, it was the debuts for Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. 

2004:

-National Treasure: Nicolas Cage has to steal the Declaration of Independence. I have no idea why they only made 2 of these. They were fun, creative mystery-based adventures, and kind of the last gasp of peak era Bruckheimer. 

-Fade To Black: Jay-Z's concert film chronicling his "final" album. As a time capsule of peak early 2000s hip hop, it can't be topped. 

-The Incredibles: One of the biggest Pixar hits. I was honestly never that into this one. 

-Alexander: Oliver Stone's epic bomb in which Angelina Jolie played Colin Farrell's mom, and Rosario Dawson did some naked wrestling. 

-The Polar Express: Robert Zemeckis' mo-cap Christmas movie with Tom Hanks. Never saw this, but it was a pretty big hit. 

-Finding Neverland: Johnny Depp played the guy who created Peter Pan. This was dull Oscar bait stuff. 

-After The Sunset: Caper flick with Pierce Brosnan and for my money Salma Hayek at peak hotness. 

2014:

-Beyond The Lights: An understanding gem at the time, with the lovely Gugu Mbatha-Raw as an overly controlled pop star. Gugu should have popped huge after this. Watching it now, hell, this could have been easily reworked into a Britney biopic. 

-Dumb and Dumber To: One of those years later comedy sequels that only kind of works. It has some laughs, but it pales in comparison to the first one. 

-Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: It was a massive artistic mistake to split the final film into 2 parts. There's a whole sequence of Katniss looking for a cat. Most of this half is just about filming propaganda videos. 

-The Imitation Game: Good drama about the man who helped crack German codes during WW2. Great performances by Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. 

-Foxcatcher: Steve Carell got an Oscar nomination for this serious turn, in a film I found deeply boring. 

Coming in December...

Well, I *officially* mark 30 years of the GOAT, Leon, aka The Professional. 

And also the 20th anniversary of another Natalie pantheon film, Closer.

In non-Nat anniversaries, The Godfather Part 2 turns 50, Dumb and Dumber turns 30, and a smattering of good ones hit 10 and 20.