Monday, July 27, 2020

15 Off My Head: Siri Says 1998

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Siri is giving me the whiplash! The last few editions of our beloved far and wide "Siri Says When" series -- in which I ask the voice inside of my telephone for a number between 1 and 100 and then use that number to name my favorite movies from the corresponding year -- have taken us from the 1920s to the 1960s to the 1990s to the 1930s and now, today right on back into the 1990s again. I think the fewer numbers that remain the wilder these swings will get, but funny enough Siri gave me a number we've never done on the very first try today -- 98! So I guess Siri really wants us to look at The Movies of 1998 today! Whatever you says, Siri!

And you know, 1999 gets all the credit for being an amazing year of cinema -- which it really admittedly was, and funny enough 1999 remains the only year of the 90s I have yet to do one of these posts for -- but 1998 really should get more credit than it does, because hot damn there are a ton of movies from 1998 that rocked my face off. So many that today's list isn't the usual 5 -- it's not even the occasional stretched-out-to-10. No today we're doing a Top 15 because I couldn't possibly chop off a single one of these 15. I refuse! And unless you can find the secret sub-basement from which I am now posting this post and chop off both of my hands before I hit "publish" you can't make me! Ha!

My 15 Favorite Movies of 1998

(dir. Peter Weir)
-- released on June 5th 1998-- 

(dir. Todd Solondz)
-- released on October 16th 1998 -- 

(dir. John McNaughton)
-- released on March 20th 1998 -- 

(dir. Don Roos)
-- released on May 22nd 1998 -- 

(dir. George Miller)
-- released on November 25th 1998 -- 

(dir. S.R. Bindler),

-- released on July 10th 1998 -- 

(dir. John Maybury)
-- released on October 7th 1998 -- 

(dir. Todd Haynes)
-- released on October 23rd 1998 -- 

(dir. Alex Proyas)
-- released on February 27th 1998 -- 

(dir. Gary Ross)
-- released on October 23rd 1998 -- 

(dir. Sam Raimi)
-- released on January 22nd 1998 -- 

(dir. Steven Soderbergh)
-- released on June 26th 1998 -- 

(dir. Bill Condon)
-- released on November 4th 1998 -- 

(dir. Richard LaGravanese)
-- released on November 6th 1998 -- 

(dir. Wes Anderson)
-- released on October 9th 1998 -- 

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Runners-up: Saving Private Ryan (dir. Steven Spielberg), There's Something About Mary (dir. Farrellys), A Bug's Life (dir. John Lasseter), Shakespeare in Love (dir. John Madden), Apt Pupil (dir. Bryan Singer), Great Expectations (dir. Cuarón), The Big Lebowski (dir. Coens), The Spanish Prisoner (dir. Mamet)...

... Lost in Space (dir. Stephen Hopkins), High Art (dir. Lisa Cholodenko), The Last Days of Disco (dir. Whit Stillman), The X-Files (dir. Rob Bowman), Buffalo '66 (dir. Vincent Gallo), Pi (dir. Aronofsky), Lolita (dir. Adrian Lyne), Halloween: H20 (dir. Steve Miner), Snake Eyes (dir. De Palma)...

... The Slums of Beverly Hills (dir. Tamara Jenkins), Blade (dir. Steven Norrington), Pecker (dir. John Waters), 54 (dir.), Cube (dir.), Your Friends and Neighbors (dir. Neil LaBute), Urban Legend (dir. Jamie Blanks), Beloved (dir. Demme), American History X (dir. Tony Kaye), Psycho (dir. Gus van Sant), Croupier (dir. Mike Hodges), The Faculty (dir. Robert Rodriguez), The Thin Red Line (dir. Terrence Malick)...

... Hurlyburly (dir. Anthony Drazan), I Stand Alone (dir. Gaspar Noé), Ringu (dir. Hideo Nakata), Meeting People is Easy (dir. Grant Gee), Very Bad Things (dir. Peter Berg), Beseiged (dir. Bertolucci), God Said "Ha!" (dir. Julia Sweeney), Hideous Kinky (dir. Gillies MacKinnon), The Butcher Boy (dir. Neil Jordan), Clay Pigeons (dir. David Dobkin), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (dir. Sullivan)

Never Seen: Life is Beautiful (dir. Robert Benigni), Mulan (dir. Barry Cook), Little Voice (dir. Mark Herman), Affliction (dir. Paul Schrader), The Prince of Egypt (dir. Brenda Chapman), Spice World (dir. Bob Spiers), Bulworth (dir. Warren Beatty), He Got Game (dir. Spike Lee), Clockwatchers (dir. Jill Sprecher), Sliding Doors (dir. Peter Howitt)...

... Hilary & Jackie (dir. Anand Tucker), Can't Hardly Wait (dir. Harry Elfont), The Wedding Singer (dir. Frank Coraci), The Boxer (dir. Jim Sheridan), The Celebration (dir. Thomas Vinterberg), Rounders (dir. John Dahl), Henry Fool (dir. Hal Hartley), Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (dir. Tommy O'Haver), Practical Magic (dir. Griffin Dunne)

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What are your favorite movies of 1998?
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7 comments:

ICLP88 said...

Which film is the photo between the Hurliburry and Life is Beautiful paragraphs? Before the Spice World gif.

Jason Adams said...

Do you mean the one of the two men in front of the blue background? That's Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss with Brad Rowe and Sean Hayes

Poli said...

I love Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss! Excited to see it there, along with Pleasantville

joel65913 said...

You were a busy movie watcher in ’98!! So glad to see Croupier listed among these. A wonderful under-known gem with peak Clive Owen. Wild Things is full of marvelous eye candy but I thought it was a mess. I didn’t care much for the overall film but Christina Ricci is great in The Opposite of Sex.

You’ve still got some good films to see from this year. I love The Wedding Singer, especially for an Adam Sandler movie it has such a sweet gentle tone and he and Drew Barrymore radiate chemistry. But I hate, loathe and despise that horrible cheat of a movie Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss.

One I didn’t see listed but would highly recommend is the Irish “I Went Down”.

I’ll follow your example and list my top 15 then runner-ups:

1. Gods & Monsters
2. 42 Up
3. Pleasantville
4. The Wedding Singer
5. Ever After
6. Elizabeth
7. Saving Pvt. Ryan
8. Enemy of the State
9. Primary Colors
10. I Went Down
11. Croupier
12. Out of Sight
13. Dangerous Beauty
14. Run Lola Run
15. The Thin Red Line

Bedrooms and Hallways, Bulworth, Finding North, The Imposters, The Legend of 1900, Living Out Loud, Out of Sight, A Simple Plan, The Truman Show, When Love Comes, Why Do Fools Fall in Love

Anonymous said...

I was about to write "what about spice world man?" And there it was in all its glory!
My guilty pleasure. Terrible but funny at times. I use it as punishment to people who don't behave. It's my threat "I'll bound you in a chair and force you watch spice world!"

Sal

Anonymous said...

Edge of Seventeen was a great coming of age gay film from 1998

Anonymous said...

1. Festen
2. The Thin Red Line
3. Happiness
4. Shakespeare In Love
5. Life Is Beautiful
6. Saving Private Ryan
7. Rushmore
8. Gods and Monsters
9. Elizabeth
10. Children of Paradise
11. Run Lola Run
12. The Opposite of Sex
13. Little Voice
14. The Horse Whisperer
15. American History X