Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Craig: There is truth, and there are lies, and 

art always tells the truth. Even when it's lying.

Happy 25 to one of the many many 1999 masterpieces, and one of Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's many masterpieces. Doesn't that single line from the film feel like a nice distillation of Charlie Kaufman's ethos? He's always uncovering the deepest truths about humanity through artifice and deception, boxes within boxes, pulling back the telescopic lens on us again and again until he spirals our brains into something like Herzog's ecstatic truth. And this movie is where our journey with that genius began (no The Dana Carvey Show does not count) and I haven't regretted a single second since. Anyway did you see the news that Jonze had apparently been working on a big sci-fi series for Netflix that's just been shelved? Boo, I say -- we need Spike back already! It's been ages and ages. Come back to us! On camera, too -- I like to look at you.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1999

Well the day has finally arrived! The day I have dreaded among all my "Siri Says" series days! Today when I asked my telephone to give me a number between 1 and 100 she responded with the number "99" meaning I've finally got to dive face-first into my favorites from The Movies of 1999, aka the greatest year of filmmaking probably any of us will see in our lifetimes. (Also can I just say that it's super weird to me to think this was 22 years ago now and there are people on this here internet who weren't actually even alive to see it? WTF)

Anyway we knew pretty fast that 1999 was an insane year, quality-wise -- the first big series I did here on MNPP was about how incredible 1999 was, in 2006. Or anyway I knew. I gots my finger on the pulse, yo! Ahem. Anyway 1999 has been talked to death by this point, I don't have a lot to say about it besides, "Wowza!" But before I get to my immense list -- I am naming my 20 favorites because the year demands it -- there's one other piece of business (because this post wasn't already enough work). Whenever I finish an entire decade for our Siri Series I link to all ten years therein. (See also the 1970s, aka the only other decade I have finished.) Well with today's post I've just finished the 1990s! Here's links:

Here are my favorite movies of 1990

Here are my favorite movies of 1991

Here are my favorite movies of 1992

Here are my favorite movies of 1993

Here are my favorite movies of 1994

Here are my favorite movies of 1995

Here are my favorite movies of 1996

Here are my favorite movies of 1997

Here are my favorite movies of 1998

And now without further blathering I give you...

My Favorite Movies of 1999

Go

(dir. Doug Liman)

-- released on April 9th 1999 -- 

Being John Malkovich

(dir. Spike Jonze)

-- released on December 3rd 1999 -- 

The Blair Witch Project

(dir. Myrick & Sánchez)

-- released on July 30th 1999 -- 

The Talented Mr. Ripley

(dir. Anthony Minghella)

-- released on December 25th 1999 -- 

Magnolia

(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

-- released on December 17th 1999 -- 

Fight Club

(dir. David Fincher)

-- released on October 15th 1999 -- 

Election

(dir. Alexander Payne)

-- released on May 7th 1999 -- 

Run Lola Run

(dir. Tom Tykwer)

-- released on June 18th 1999 -- 

Galaxy Quest

(dir. Dean Parisot)

-- released on December 25th 1999 -- 

The Matrix

(dir. The Wachowskis)

-- released on March 31st 1999 -- 

The Virgin Suicides

(dir. Sofia Coppola)

-- released on May 19th 1999 -- 

Ravenous

(dir. Antonia Bird)

-- released on March 19th 1999 -- 

All About My Mother

(dir. Pedro Almodovar)

-- released on November 24th 1999 -- 

eXistenZ

(dir. David Cronenberg)

-- released on April 23rd 1999 -- 

Eyes Wide Shut

(dir. Stanley Kubrick)

-- released on July 16th 1999 -- 

Dick

(dir. Andrew Fleming)

-- released on August 4th 1999 -- 

The Straight Story

(dir. David Lynch)

-- released on October 15th 1999 -- 

The Limey

(dir. Steven Soderbergh)

-- released on October 8th 1999 -- 

Sleepy Hollow

(dir. Tim Burton)

-- released on November 19th 1999 -- 

Audition

(dir. Takashi Miike)

-- released on  October 2nd 1999 -- 

-----------------------------------------

Runners-up: The Sixth Sense (dir. M. Night Shyamalan), Toy Story 2 (dir. John Lasseter), Three Kings (dir. David O. Russell), October Sky (dir.), South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut (dir. Trey Parker), Girl Interrupted (dir. James Mangold), The End of the Affair (dir. Neil Jordan), In Dreams (dir.Neil Jordan), Splendor (dir. Gregg Araki), Cruel Intentions (dir. Roger Kumble)...

... Jawbreaker (dir. Darren Stein), Office Space (dir. Mike Judge), A Walk on the Moon (dir. Tony Goldwyn), Notting Hill (dir. Mike Newell), Summer of Sam (dir. Spike Lee), Lake Placid (dir. Steve Miner), Drop Dead Gorgeous (dir. Michael Patrick Jann), Trick (dir. Jim Fall), Deep Blue Sea (dir. Renny Harlin)...

... The Iron Giant (dir. Brad Bird), Stir of Echoes (dir. David Koepp), House on Haunted Hill (dir. William Malone), Topsy Turvy (dir. Mike Leigh), Ride With the Devil (dir. Ang Lee), Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (dir. Shusuke Kaneko), The Mummy (dir. Stephen Sommers), But I'm a Cheerleader (dir. Jamie Babbit)

Never Seen: Mansfield Park (dir. Patricia Rozema), For the Love of the Game (dir. Sam Raimi), Man on the Moon (dir. Milos Forman), She's All That (dir. Robert iscove), 10 Things I Hate About You (dir. Gil Junger), Tarzan (dir. Chris Buck), Tumbleweeds (dir. Gavin O'Connor), The Insider (dir. Michael Mann), Never Been Kissed (dir. Raja Gosnell), An Ideal Husband (dir. Oliver Parker)...

... Buena Vista Social Club (dir. Wim Wenders), Music of the Heart (dir. Wes Craven), Bowfinger (dir. Frank Oz), Flawless (dir. Joel Schumacher), Titus (dir. Julie Taymor), Jesus' Son (dir. Alison Maclean), Ratcatcher (dir. Lynne Ramsey), Analyze This (dir. Harold Ramis), Payback (dir. Brian Helgeland), American Movie (dir. Chris Smith)

-----------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1999?

10 Off My Head: Siri Says 2013

So I got a new cell phone this weekend and the set-up was creepily easy -- I just had to hold the new phone in proximity to the old one and... shit like transferred right over? Through the air? Technology truly baffles me, but sure, why not, just let it happen even if it makes me skin crawl. (I was reading up on the things my new phone can do and I found out about the "Facetime Attention Correction" which was the creepiest -- you're basically deep-faking your own eyeballs? Ugh!) 

That said it wasn't until this very moment now when I sat down to do this week's entry in our "Siri Says" series -- where I ask Siri to pick a number between 1 and 100 and then tell you people my favorite films from the year that corresponds -- that I suddenly became worried for the sentient being called Siri that lives inside my telephone. Was she transferred over along with my information? Is this some other lady giving me numbers now? Some imposter? If I can't trust my Siri who can I trust? This is like the start of every 90s Erotic-Thriller, I tell ya.

Anyway I asked this "Siri" for my number today and just like last week "she" gave me a usable number on the very first try -- at this point, having done so many of these posts, getting an unused number on the very first try is an outlier. So my point is whether this is "my" Siri or not "she" is doing a good job so whatever -- cut to the "Siri" on my old phone getting bricked, consciousness trapped forever in some nowhere-world, an episode of Black Mirror if ever there was a really boring episode of Black Mirror. (Or perhaps this has all been Performance Art for Spike Jonze's Her, included below.)

Point being the lady inside my phone, whomever she might be now, told me "13" so we're choosing from the Movies of 2013. 2013 was the year that MNPP's annual awards tradition of The Pantys went a little wonky, because I fell down and broke my arm around the time I was meant to post them, and posting anything became difficult for a few months. I only got around to posting a list of My 15 Favorite Films of 2013 in... March of 2014, lol. And looking back today my list is a little different. Our foundations are quaking, y'all. 

My 10 Favorite Movies of 2013

Frances Ha

(dir. Greta Gerwig)

-- released on May 17th 2013 --

The Bling Ring

(dir. Sofia Coppola)

-- released on June 21st 2013 --

Short Term 12 

(dir. Dustin Daniel Cretton)

-- released on August 23rd 2013 --

You're Next 

(dir. Adam Wingard)

-- released on August 23rd 2013 --

12 Years a Slave

(dir. Steve McQueen)

-- released on November 8th 2013 --

Inside Llewyn Davis

(dir. Coens)

-- released on December 6th 2013 --

Stoker

(dir. Park Chan-wook)

-- released on March 1st 2013 --

The Great Beauty

(dir. Paolo Sorrentino)

-- released on November 15th 2013 --

Her

(dir. Spike Jonze)

-- released on December 18th 2013 --

Stranger By the Lake 

(dir. Alain Guiraudie)

-- released on 2013 --

-------------------------------------

Runners-up: Only God Forgives (dir. Refn), The Heat (dir. Paul Feig), Pacific Rim (dir. Guillermo Del Toro) Enough Said (dir. Nicole Holofcener), About Time (dir. Richard Curtis), A Field in England (dir. Ben Wheatley), Nymphomaniac (dir. Lars Von Trier), Snowpiercer (dir. Bong Joon-ho), Tom at the Farm (dir. Dolan), The Past (dir. Asghar Farhadi)...

... The Counselor (dir. Ridley Scott), Captain Phillips (dir. Paul Greengrass), Gravity (dir. Alfonso Cuaron), The Act of Killing (dir. Joshua Oppenheimer), Byzantium (dir. Neil Jordan), I'm So Excited (dir. Pedro Almodovar), Fruitvale Station (dir. Ryan Coogler), Oblivion (dir. Joseph Kosinski), The Place Beyond the Pines (dir. Cianfrance), Filth (dir. Jon S. Baird) 

Never seen: The Grandmaster (dir. Wong Kar-wai), What Maisie Knew (dir. Scott McGehee), The English Teacher (dir. Craig Lisk), Ida (dir. Pawel Pawlikowski), Grace of Monaco (dir. Olivier Dahan), Bastards (dir. Claire Denis), Black Nativity (dir. Kasi Lemmons), The Fifth Estate (dir. Bill Condon)

-------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 2013?

Dance Queens Dance

I haven't checked in with my boyfriend, aka the world's greatest remaining Fred Astaire stan, to see if he finds this casting acceptable or not, but today comes news that Jamie Bell -- who first became famous as the little boy who tap-danced into our hearts with the film Billy Elliot -- is going to play Astaire opposite Margaret Qualley as Ginger Rogers in a bio-pic about the pair called Fred & Ginger. Qualley, recently seen foot-first in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, not to mention even more importantly playing no less than Ann fuckin' Reinking in FX's Fosse/Verdon series, has proven herself a terrific dancer as well -- remember this Spike Jonze video?

Anyway I think this is probably the best casting you could do in 2020 if you're making this movie -- you can't make this movie without hiring dancers, for god's sake. But they're both very fine actors to boot. To boot! Ha, get it! Sorry. The movie will be directed by Jonathan Entwistle, whose credits are all teen-drama TV series with long titles -- specifically I Am Not Okay With This starring Sophia Lillis (which I have not seen) and The End of the F***ing World starring my girl Jessica Barden (which I have seen). I just hope he knows how to shoot a damn dance-sequence, because that's what matters here! And also, in summation... god I love Jamie Bell...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Craig: You don't know how lucky you are being a monkey. Because consciousness is a terrible curse. I think. I feel. I suffer. And all I ask in return is the opportunity to do my work. And they won't allow it... because I raise issues.

Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich, considered by those in the know to be the best movie of the greatest movie years of our lives 1999, premiered on this very day in that very great year at the Venice Film Festival. This was the very first screenwriting credit for writer and personal god Charlie Kaufman -- imagine having something this distinctive, this brilliant, be your very first screenwriting credit?? No wonder Charlie decided from there on out to be rather, uhh, uncompromising in what he slaps his name on. 

Of course that's exactly the mind-set he's poking fun at in the quote from the movie I chose, and the reason we love Charlie so (so so so) much (one of them anyway) is he never takes him own damned self out of his laser-sharp sights. All his best jokes are at his own expense! Well except for all the hilarious shredding of Judd Apatow he did in his recently dropped novel Antkind -- those jokes are definitely at Judd Apatow's expense. 

Have any of you read Antkind yet? I don't purport to be "evenhanded" when it comes to Kaufman's work -- just read my review of his new movie (out on Friday!) I'm Thinking of Ending Things from earlier this week to see how in the tank I am -- but I loved every insane inch of Antkind, even when I had no fucking idea what was happening. Maybe especially when that? I know there are perfectly acceptable other answers to this question but why even engage with a work of art if it's not going to change and challenge you? WHY EVEN???

But back to Being John Malkovich, which I think I can say changed and challenged all of us, meaning you and me and the entire concept of what's possible with telling a story on film. I re-watched BJM along with Synecdoche New York and Anomolisa a couple of weeks back to prepare myself for Kaufman's new movie and Malkovich holds up so well its ridiculous. 

It might feel even more vital now, looking back on it 21 years later, with the ways in which it was prescient about our culture -- like say our enthusiastic willingness to have our selves be swallowed up by a superficially shinier other, where most of the thrill ultimately ends up being the humdrum mundanity of it? Living through someone else's eyes is itself enough -- we'll just eat soup, stare at the wall, as long as we are not we for a single fucking second. 

Anyway before I close this out let me say also Please 

Please make another movie soon, Spike Jonze. (Oh and PS

Adaptation is hitting blu-ray for the first time in October!)

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Judith: Happiness is not always
the best way to be happy.

Happy 10 to my favorite movie of 2009.

(Please come back to us, Spike Jonze.)

.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Three Kings (1999)

Archie: What's the most important thing in life?
Troy: Respect.
Archie: Too dependent on other people.
Conrad: What, love?
Archie: A little Disneyland, isn't it?
Chief: God's will.
Archie: Close.
Troy: What is it then?
Archie: Necessity.
Troy: As in?
Archie: As in people do what is most
necessary to them at any given moment.

David O. Russell's Iraq War flick came out twenty years today, and I can't really say whether it stands the test of time or not or not as I haven't seen it in probably fifteen years? But I sure did like it at the time, and its themes of war profiteering seem awful smart upon reflection, and most importantly I think we can all agree that we're always blessed whenever Spike Jonze decides to act in front of the camera for us.

Have you seen Three Kings recently?

.