As you’ve no doubt noticed under the Sonic Cinema Podcast, I’ve taken a deep dive back into the 1999 movie year. I did so because it was one of the most impactful years in cinema I’ve experienced, and I know I am not alone in thinking that. Big swings were taken from relative newcomers and established masters alike, the blockbuster landscape seemed to hit a turning point, and major surprises were happening at the box-office. These are all things I’ve discussed on the podcast as I’ve looked at some of the most significant films of the year, like “The Matrix”, “The Sixth Sense”, “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace”, among others.
Going into this year, I had laid out a plan to do 37 deep dive episodes on 1999 movies, each episode devoted to a single movie, although of course others might show up in the discussion. This was ridiculously ambitious- How many weeks are there in a year?- and foolhardy, but dammit if I haven’t done a halfway decent job getting through them, although I wish I had gotten more of them done in the first six months of the year. If I had to do it over, I wouldn’t do it in the same way. I’ve got a few filmmaker guests joining me to discuss three movies- why couldn’t we have made that one episode encompassing all three? Animation delivered at least four stone-cold masterpieces into cinemas- those could have been condensed into one talk. You get the idea. I’ve had at least one person suggest doing a retrospective on the 2001 movie year, as well. I’m tempted, but if I do go about it, oh boy will it not follow the same format.
One thing that became abundantly clear as the year commenced was how many films I was leaving on the sideline being discussed. Some of them, I’d already written about on Sonic Cinema, but there were a ton I had thoughts on and wanted to get represented here as part of the process; I didn’t want to leave them as future to-be “A Movie a Weeks”- they were part of my 1999 then, and I wanted them to be part of my “Class of 1999” now. This is where the “Class of 1999” series turned from madness to full-blown chaos. As I perused streaming sites, I kept finding movies from the year pop up, and I kept finding movies when I’d go physical media hunting. And I finally found our VHS tapes, giving me access to several I could watch that way. Writing full reviews for these films, though, takes time, and some times, I don’t really have as much to say. This is where my Quick Take videos would come into play, giving me a chance to make sure all of these films are represented in a way that is reflective of how I feel about them. I will possible end up watching as many movies from 1999 this year than I did in 1999, on top of the year’s worth of films from 2019 I’ve been watching, and 50-plus “A Movie a Week” films. Like I said, madness turned to chaos.
I will have more to discuss as I close out the “Class of 1999” series, including my updated 10-Best list for the year, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it. It was an insane idea that I’ve loved bringing to fruition.
Thanks for listening,
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
