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1997/98 Movies |
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The good news is that I haven't seen any really disgusting movie, unlike last year's Crash, for example. However, I have only seen one movie that managed to enter my top 10 list: Lost Highway. It has been very frightening to see this David Lynch masterpiece but for an admirer of mysterious and unconventional movies like me it has also been a unique and unforgettable experience.
Speaking about unconventional movies, Arizona Dream deserves a notice as the most weird movie of the season for all its completely surprising scenes, for the impossible shots, peculiar soundtrack and for the not so obvious inner meaning. Another unconventional movie has been The Sweet Hereafter, its non-linear narration and the strong metaphorical meanings really makes it stand out of the crowd of 'common' movies.
The most famous, successful and award winning movie of the year, Titanic, has been surprisingly a very good movie. Not only the impressive visual effects but also the perfect rhythm of the story made it the most catching 3 hours movie I've ever seen.
In my chart there is a fairly high number of average movies that helped to maintain the overall quality to a medium level. Amongst the other, the conventional Cop Land, the exaggerated but dull U Turn and the weak Boogie Nights, all of them simply lack of something that could make them better, be it a better finale or some really original idea or a stronger and more brave direction.
Looking at the bottom of the chart, it's quite obvious to find the awful sequel of Jurassic Park, two unconvincing action movies The Jackal and Mercury Rising featuring Bruce Willis in his usual role and the useless Feeling Minnesota. However, some of the movies I didn't like received quite a good success both in audience and especially critics. An example is The Big Lebowski by the Coen brothers that discouraged me from seeing their future movies, I simply don't like their style or don't understand them... Face/Off is also a complete mystery to me, I can't figure out what people find positive in such an unlikely and annoying movie.
The romantic and light comedy genre is present in my chart with some good examples, My Best Friend's Wedding, Addicted to Love and The Object of My Affection are all entertaining and interesting. The same cannot be said for the science fiction movies, one of them, Contact, is very intelligent and profound, Alien: Resurrection and Starship Troopers are quite enjoyable although far from perfect, but the silly The Fifth Element and the flawed Sphere are hard to digest.
The experiments I made by watching some independent productions and some scarcely advertised movies ended up in different ways, including a strange but good Japanese movie, Hana-bi, and a peculiar but also slow and boring Australian production, Kiss or Kill.
One of the most deluding movie has been Deep Impact, it is quite hard to believe the writer and the director made such a mess from a potentially good (although not original) idea. I hope that next year's Armageddon (based on the same plot!) will be much better. Another delusion has been Jackie Brown directed by Quentin Tarantino, I expected something less conventional and more interesting from him.
Finally, the only italian movie I've seen this year at the cinema, La Vita e' Bella by Roberto Benigni, has been very nice with its perfect mix of comical comedy and sad drama. I missed all the other italian movies on purpose and next year I'll try to do the same...
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| Updated: 13 Aug 1999 | ||
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