Editor’s note: We don’t often run letters to the editor these days, but we thought we’d make an exception for this one. But seriously, Mayor Freddie O’Connell is not being paid for this contribution, nor will it impact the Scene’s coverage of his office or his policies. … Unless his takes are really bad. We’re still weighing how we feel about the Malkovich bit.

The Belcourt is taking us deeper into our caves throughout the month of June, so I hope you’ve found your power animals.

In one of the most surreal moments of 2023 — a year full of surreal moments for me — I messaged D. Pat to ask him if I could write an omnibus review of 25 movies from 1999 sometime this year.

And then the Belcourt just … they tweeted it out. 

Anyway, on Halloween, the editor of this publication assented to my offer, so here we are.

1999. A year that occupied the space between the Clinton impeachment and 9/11. A simpler time. A year we used to anticipate partying like, and now remember partying like, wondering if we should again. Maybe it was the end of history but in a different way than Fukuyama imagined. 

Somewhat remarkably, I’ve seen only 15 of the 25 movies screening during the Belcourt’s upcoming repertory collection. Friends of mine know that failure to have seen a movie doesn’t prevent me from having strong feelings about it, but I won’t for the most part subject you to that here — with the one exception being that I think I was already pretty tired of the biopic as a format by 1999 and didn’t care about seeing Man on the Moon (and still don’t). 

Magnolia

Five years before the wrong Crash would win an Oscar for exploring colliding lives in the City of Angels, Magnolia showed us Tom Cruise’s range well before leaked Scientology clips on YouTube. If you had asked me before I was writing this, I might’ve told you that Magnolia came before Boogie Nights, but both really popped in time for me as indications that I would be watching a lot of PT Anderson movies.

The Matrix

Not only will I defend every installment of the Matrix quadrilogy, I will also tell you that the live-action Speed Racer is one of my favorite cinematic experiences of all time. 

The Matrix not only offered us a dystopian glimpse of the coming war with machines but also a wonderland of multiculturalism where shabby-chic was set against a surprisingly metal soundtrack. And the special effects changed cinema in its moment. And it somehow all added up and produced sequels.

I recommend taking the red pill. 

The Iron Giant

This animated feature might still stand as one of the most overtly gun-skeptical pieces of cinema out there. Though the Cold War itself might now seem anachronistic as a backdrop, the political strife and associated paranoia are as relevant as ever.

The Sixth Sense

Two years later, The Others achieved a more effective haunting take on ghosts, but boy, did this one stick in the zeitgeist. If internet memes had been a thing in 1999, this would’ve been the basis for so many of them.

I’d characterize this as the most pop of the entire collection. Spoiler alert: THERE’S A PLOT TWIST AT THE END.

Rushmore

There’s a Wes Anderson Cinematic Universe, and Rushmore was the first official part of the canon. It introduced us to Jason Schwartzman and reintroduced us to Bill Murray well before Lost in Translation. 

Though it’s possible the word “twee” was invented solely to describe the Wes Anderson aesthetic, there’s always something human — and often poignant if not painful — lurking beneath the hyper-stylization. And that’s very true for Rushmore and its examination of school days.

The Insider

Again, so close in time to Erin Brokovich, the idea of exposé on the big screen seems incredibly appealing. And yet there was so little about this that was memorable to me other than a reinforcement of the notion that tobacco companies might be bad. As a fan of Michael Mann, I’d honestly rather watch Heat again while waiting for Heat 2.

Office Space

As someone raised on Beavis and Butthead, I found that this movie was ruined for me by its intense cult fandom by the time I actually got around to seeing it a few years later. I think I would’ve loved to see this some late night on cable the way I often encountered Beavis and Butthead rather than having every high-quality line quoted for me before I could experience it the way Mike Judge intended.

Toy Story 2

Each of the Toy Story movies captures something incredibly different about the magic and sentimentality of toys during and after childhood. In reality, though, Toy Story 2 might add the least to the formula of any of the series. Just go watch the “When She Loved Me” scene on YouTube. Toy Story 4 didn’t happen till 20 years later, but it was worth the wait.

Fight Club

Before there was a dirtbag left or cryptocurrency, Helena Bonham Carter took every young man who would invent or invest in those things by the hand into a fantasia of winning the fights of the mind by imagining the fights of the body. 

Like Civil War, it could easily be claimed by the revolutionary left or right as validating both social critique and tactics.

I think my driving after the movie frightened the friends I went to see it with in college. Don’t tell anybody, but this is still one of my favorite movies.

Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

I had taken a course on Japanese culture and society just a few years before this came out. And a friend had introduced us to Stranger Than Paradise. And the Neil Young involvement in Dead Man had me so ready to rewatch a very slow movie after I saw it the first time. So I was primed to appreciate Jim Jarmusch exploring ideas of bushido. I was not fully prepared for discovering how ready for the silver screen (and invested in it) RZA was, nor how incredible the soundtrack is. This might be the most overlooked film in the collection. Don’t overlook it.

Run Lola Run

This is such a great romp of time and techno. I hadn’t seen a lot of international cinema yet when I first saw this in theaters, and it’s remarkably unlike anything else in the collection. At only 80 minutes, it’s almost like experiencing a fun novella visually. If you’re deciding between seeing Office Space for the 20th time or something new, pick Lola.

The Blair Witch Project

There haven’t been many movies where my excitement to see them wound up so inversely proportional to my ultimate enjoyment of the film. Don’t get me wrong: I liked Blair Witch. But it had been so hyped by everyone around me who had already seen it that I was excited to be terrified by it. I wasn’t. It’s fine. It’s great lo-fi horror. But it didn’t deliver the deep fear to me that it did to friends and colleagues at the time. I suppose I should admit, though, that random piles of rocks in the woods do unnerve me a little still.

Under no circumstances see Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. 

Being John Malkovich

Part of the genius of the Belcourt’s trailer for this whole series is setting it to “Praise You,” a Fatboy Slim song whose music video was directed by Spike Jonze. I think I was fascinated by this movie because it stepped in the direction that my own fanciful ideas about filmmaking were drifting in. But I think I determined that the idea was better than the outcome.

John Malkovich himself — during a period of nearly peak Malkovich — was brilliant, and so it was well-timed, culturally. But the best part of this in some ways was that it made me more interested in Spike Jonze. Ten years later, his Where the Wild Things Are remains, to me, one of the great examples of the total power of cinema. 

Buena Vista Social Club

Though I don’t see many documentaries, this is one that is just infectious. Just like Sideways changed the market for wine and O Brother, Where Art Thou? put Americana on the map in a huge way, this was a movie that had everyone listening to Cuban music. 

Bizarrely, I think it’s the only Wim Wenders movie I’ve ever seen. 

Eyes Wide Shut

I probably shouldn’t reveal this here, but my password for everything is “Fidelio.”

There’s just something about a movie where Greenwich Village is re-created in London that speaks to its intensity. There’s also something about choosing intense subject matter to cast a real-life couple into. I’m a Kubrick fan, and this movie is full of the complexity of the man alongside its subject matter.

Eventually, I’d like to see nine of the 10 movies I haven’t seen from this incredible retrospective. For reasons, it’s possible that I won’t see all of them while they are screening at the Belcourt. But you should see at least 20 of the 25 on the big screen. 

Let us all take comfort that this June — the Belcourt felt like destroying something beautiful.

Find tickets and showtimes at belcourt.org/1999.