Brian Raftery‘s “Best. Movie. Year. Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen” has been making the rounds at bookstores for two years now. It definitely reignited a conversation around 1999, maybe the best year at the movies … ever? Vulture even ran an entire chapter from the book on “Eyes Wide Shut.”
And so, the inevitable question one must ask is this: Are we heavily overhyping 1999? The short answer is no.
Being John Malkovich, Election, The Matrix, Fight Club, American Beauty, The Limey, The Sixth Sense, Magnolia, The Straight Story, Eyes Wide Shut, Three Kings, The Insider, The Blair Witch Project, Bringing Out the Dead, Boy’s Don’t Cry, Go, The Iron Giant, Toy Story 2, South Park, Office Space, The Talented Mr. Ripley, American Pie, Bowfinger, Dick, 10 Things I Hate About You, Arlington Road, Man on the Moon, The Dreamlife of Angels, Romance, Payback.
So, no, we are not overhyping 1999. It truly is the bees knees. Best movie year ever? Possibly. Is there any other year that comes remotely close? I present to you exhibit A: 2007.
No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Zodiac, 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days, The Assassination of Jesse James By Robert Ford, Superbad, Michael Clayton, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Ratatouille, The Mist, American Gangster, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Sweeney Todd, Juno, Death Proof, Eastern Promises, Persepolis, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Darjeeling Limited, Black Book, Syndromes and A Century, Into the Wild, Knocked Up, The Host.
I think we can legitimately claim that 2007 gives 1999 a run for its money. Jeffrey Wells seems to think so. It’s also the year Paul Thomas Anderson, Joel Coen and David Fincher released the best film of their respective careers.