Best. Movie. Year. Ever., Brian Raftery
Best. Movie. Year. Ever., Brian Raftery
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Best. Movie. Year. Ever.
How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen

Author: Brian Raftery

Narrator: George Newbern

Unabridged: 10 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/16/2019


Synopsis

From a veteran culture writer and modern movie expert, a celebration and analysis of the movies of 1999—“a terrifically fun snapshot of American film culture on the brink of the Millennium….An absolute must for any movie-lover or pop-culture nut” (Gillian Flynn).

In 1999, Hollywood as we know it exploded: Fight Club. The Matrix. Office Space. Election. The Blair Witch Project. The Sixth Sense. Being John Malkovich. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. American Beauty. The Virgin Suicides. Boys Don’t Cry. The Best Man. Three Kings. Magnolia. Those are just some of the landmark titles released in a dizzying movie year, one in which a group of daring filmmakers and performers pushed cinema to new limits—and took audiences along for the ride. Freed from the restraints of budget, technology, or even taste, they produced a slew of classics that took on every topic imaginable, from sex to violence to the end of the world. The result was a highly unruly, deeply influential set of films that would not only change filmmaking, but also give us our first glimpse of the coming twenty-first century. It was a watershed moment that also produced The Sopranos; Apple’s Airport; Wi-Fi; and Netflix’s unlimited DVD rentals.

“A spirited celebration of the year’s movies” (Kirkus Reviews), Best. Movie. Year. Ever. is the story of not just how these movies were made, but how they re-made our own vision of the world. It features more than 130 new and exclusive interviews with such directors and actors as Reese Witherspoon, Edward Norton, Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, Nia Long, Matthew Broderick, Taye Diggs, M. Night Shyamalan, David O. Russell, James Van Der Beek, Kirsten Dunst, the Blair Witch kids, the Office Space dudes, the guy who played Jar-Jar Binks, and dozens more. It’s “the complete portrait of what it was like to spend a year inside a movie theater at the best possible moment in time” (Chuck Klosterman).

About Brian Raftery

Brian Raftery’s work has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Wired, GQ, and The Ringer. He’s the author of Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen, and the host of multiple podcasts for the Ringer, including the acclaimed Gene & Roger. He lives in Burbank, California, with his wife and daughters, and will never eat meat again.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Gail on January 14, 2022

I’ve decided 2022 is the year I lean into my “fetishistic fondness” (as writer Kurt Andersen describes it) for the ‘90s. Given the uncertain era we’re living through, it feels like a warm hug to “transport” back in time to a decade when our country was prospering on so many levels, particularly the......more

Goodreads review by Keith on June 21, 2019

This book was a very entertaining and nostalgic trip down memory lane. Raftery certainly provides a robust number of exceptional films that made 1999 a great year for movies, examining their importance through the cultural context of the time as well as their lingering influence on films to come in......more

Goodreads review by J Earl on February 24, 2019

Best. Movie. Year. Ever. from Brian Raftery makes a very compelling argument for 1999 being (one of) the best movie year ever. The book is broken into chapters that cover one or a few films, usually grouped by some common element, each. Raftery walks a fine line between being too much film business o......more

Goodreads review by Philip on July 08, 2019

Your level of enjoyment will depend on how old you were in 1999 and how much of a pop culture junkie you are now. While I enjoyed the nostalgia associated with reliving 1999 through the films that were released in that year, I wished the author had delved deeper into the sociopolitical changes of 19......more