#1998 films

[cressida-jayoungr]

One Dress a Day Challenge

November: Oscar Winners

Shakespeare in Love / Colin Firth as Lord Wessex

Year: 1998

Designer: Sandy Powell

I've featured some of the women's costumes from this film before, but the men deserve some attention as well. Lord Wessex wears this magnificent outfit when he comes to inform Viola that a match has been arranged between them. The embroidery on his doublet and cloak is simply jaw-dropping in its variety and intricacy. I've included some closeups to show both the details of the embroidery and the texture of the various materials.

It's a shame we can't see what he's got for footwear, and we also never see him wearing the hat. He also manages to make the ruff look like something a person might actually wear on a regular basis.

[sideshow-tornado]

Rushmore (1998) written by Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson, directed by Wes Anderson

That’s just two things.

[adamwatchesmovies]

I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Jonathan Taylor Thomas was a teen heartthrob in the '90s. Why? I have no idea. He shows no charisma whatsoever in I’ll Be Home for Christmas, which leaves us with an unfunny, contrived script whose characters you wouldn’t like even if the performances were magnificent.

A few days before Christmas Eve, Jake Wilkinson (JTT) receives a call from his father (Gary Cole) begging him to come home for Christmas dinner. Having already traded his ticket to New York for two to Cabo San Lucas so he can take his girlfriend Allie (Jessica Biel), the boy has no plans of seeing his family during the holiday season. When Mr. Wilkinson offers Jake his vintage 1957 Porsche 356 if he arrives by 6:00 PM on December 24th, Jake becomes determined to get home.

You might see the inherent flaw already but if you don’t, let me spell it out for you: Jake is wholly unlikeable. If it weren’t for the bribe, he would’ve happily stayed far away from his father, new stepmother (Eve Gordon) and little sister (Lauren Maltby) despite the upcoming family dinner. He traded in the tickets his father paid for to go on a personal vacation. No matter how hard he tries to get to New York when he misses his flight, despite getting stranded in the desert in a Santa suit and having all sorts of misadventures along his journey, you never cheer for him. Even without the bribery, you wouldn’t champion the… high schooler? College student? (it’s unclear). He happily feeds the school’s cartoonish bullies answers to tests via pager for money. Despite his constant stream of would-be smooth remarks to his girlfriend, you don't pin him as a romantic or find him pleasant in any way. You can see what the concept was. Jake is supposed to be a smooth-talker who can improvise his way out of anything, someone who's cleverer than everyone else and has a smart remark up his sleeve at all times. Taylor Thomas simply isn't up to the task.

But enough about the leading man. There are plenty of dislikes to be passed around. Most deserving of criticism is the limp story, which is filled with contrivances, coincidences and characters that should be eccentrically charming but are merely annoying. Over and over, Jake narrowly misses reconnecting with Allie, who is hitching a ride with the school’s biggest bully, Eddie Taffet (Adam LaVorgna). In no universe in all of the multiverses would this happen but there needs to be some extra tension between the couple so the picture flirts with Jake's girl and his hated enemy getting together. To be fair, Eddie may be stupid and a complete heap of trash but he’s not much worse than Jake. He may be acting nicely towards her in the hopes she'll ditch Jake and like him instead, but Jake's motivation for the whole film is “I want a sweet car”. Sorry, I got back on the Jake hate-train. I meant instead to address the number of crimes committed throughout the film. There’s a “Shut up, don’t worry about it” mentality throughout I’ll be Home for Christmas. If the film were funny and moved quickly, you wouldn’t notice or care. I didn’t laugh once, not even unintentionally.

If a 2/5 seems like a generous rating considering I’ve had nothing nice to say about I’ll be Home for Christmas it’s because the film is wholly forgettable and at its core, buried under mounds of false sentimentality, there is a nugget of a good idea. I’ll Be Home for Christmas was a box office bomb so there’s no way it would ever be remade but if it were, its premise could make for a good movie. (December 27, 2021)

[rookie-critic]

City of Angels (1998, dir. Brad Silberling) - review by Rookie-Critic

The third stop on my Nicolas Cage weekly movie nights was an odd choice. After two absolutely unhinged films like Con Air and Face/Off, why would my friends' next choice be a rom-com between Cage and Meg Ryan that happens to be a remake of a beloved 80s film by auteur Wim Wenders? The answer was simple: The song "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls was written for this movie, and that was intriguing enough to give it a slot, and honestly I'm the kind of person who wants to devour an actor's entire filmography, especially for an actor like Nicolas Cage, so I didn't mind at all. I didn't have super high expectations going into this one, I'd never even heard of it before and, looking at the reviews, they didn't seem too favorable. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how well written, well acted, and just generally well made this was.

Cage and Ryan both give absolutely stellar performances, with Cage actually managing to draw a tear out of me with a line delivered towards the end of the film. Special shout out should also go to Dennis Franz, who is unforgettable as Nathaniel Messinger in the film. While the story may seem a tad ridiculous on the surface; an angel wants to become mortal after falling in love with a human woman, the film does a very good job of bringing that frankly wacky premise down to Earth and making it believable within the rules the movie sets up for itself. I know I've already mentioned that Cage gives a stellar performance in this, but I don't think I've really sold it enough, so I'm going to keep talking about it. This isn't Cage unhinged, this is Cage subdued. It's such a straight-laced, non-bombastic performance that I'm not sure I've ever seen out of him before. Even taking Pig into account, which by all metrics is a more subdued performance from his average outing, still has aspects to it that are wacky, and only one scene in this entire film sees Cage approaching his normal levels of insanity, but even then it fits within the confines of the character. I know that a lot of the charm surrounding Nicolas Cage is his crazed, frantic acting, but when I see him in films like this, like Pig, it makes me a little sad, because I know that he's more than capable of giving a truly incredible performance. One that's memorable for how good his acting is as opposed to how bizarre and bonkers it is, which, again, has its own charm and appeal. I don't necessarily want Cage's reputation as a wildman actor to go away, I don't want his legacy to consider how genuinely talented he is, as well.

While I don't understand the Tomatometer's 57% for this film (inversely to how I don't quite understand Face/Off's 92%), there are aspects of it that don't work for me. For one, while the dialogue is amazing, Ryan and Cage have absolutely no chemistry. Cage is definitely not the rom-com scene partner that Tom Hanks is to Ryan, and it shows. It really is their chemistry because, as I stated earlier, their performances are both stellar, but I just got nothing in the romance department out of them. Another lackluster piece of this puzzle is that it does lean over into overly sappy territory more than once, for sure. A lot of the music cues, while the songs themselves are good, were almost too much. One in particular, when Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" plays during a pivotal romance scene, was actually too much. This very possibly could be because of that song's connection to the ASPCA commercials from the mid-2000s, and if that is that case I can't really hold that against the film, but the on-the-nose nature of the song's titular line and the style of music it is was more of a hindrance than a help, as was the case for the scene where "Iris" plays.

One last thing I'll say in the con category is with a specific scene in the film in which we are shown flashes of black-and-white clips that don't really seem pertinent as well as black-and-white versions of things that had happened earlier in the movie. From what I understand, the black-and-white aspect of this is in reference to original Wim Wenders film, Wings of Desire, in which it is a major plot point that angels can't see color, which is all well and good except for the fact that this had never been established in City of Angels up to that point, which makes it very jarring and confusing as to why that was been presented that way. It also still doesn't answer what those other, unrelated clips were. The closest thing I think for them to be are shots from Wings of Desire that were placed there as a way to homage the original film, but I have no idea if that's true or not, and it still wouldn't make sense as to how they relate to Seth in this film. Regardless, City of Angels was great. It's one of the better genuinely fantastic performances I've seen out of Cage, the writing was awesome despite its leads' lack of chemistry, and most importantly, I had a fun time watching this with friends. What more can you ask for?

Score: 8/10

Currently available for rent/purchase on digital (iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, etc.) and on DVD & Blu-ray through Warner Bros./Regency.

[zegalba]

Yoshitaka Amano: 1001 Nights (1998)

[romancegifs]

You really should get a lawyer's advice before we go any further.

PRACTICAL MAGIC dir. Griffin Dunne

[chronophotographic-gun]

SLC Punk (1998)

[christianbalefanatic]

Christian Bale attends the premiere of Velvet Goldmine at the Village East Cinema in New York, New York (October 26, 1998)

Re: Christian Bale as Arthur Stuart in Velvet Goldmine (1998) dir. Todd Haynes

[edfartwhoreton]

Hard (1998) dir. John Huckert

[shihlun]

Kiyoshi Kurosawa

- Eyes of the Spider

1998

[elephantlovemedleys]

Elizabeth + Robert Dudley's bear and ragged staff emblem chain ELIZABETH (1998) dir. SHEKHAR KAPUR

[adamwatchesmovies]

Ring (1998)

I enjoy comparing original films to their remakes. 90% of the time, the original proves itself the superior film but seeing the same story done by a different set of hands is exciting. In theory, the remake is an opportunity to polish away the blemishes, set up the sequel(s) no one knew was coming, give the standout character more time to shine, etc. I saw 2002’s The Ring by Gore Verbinski before Ring (also known as Ringu), so this was an interesting experiment. This horror film starts with a great premise. This 1998 film is scary and takes some unexpected turns, culminating in a terrific ending. You can immediately see why it was remade by Hollywood four years later - but is it the superior movie?   After her niece’s mysterious death, journalist Reiko Askawa (Nanako Matsushima) investigates an urban legend about a videotape that supposedly kills anyone who watches it. First, you get a phone call, then, one week later, you die. Thinking nothing of it, Reiko watches the tape. After receiving the ominous phone call, she reaches out to her ex-husband, Ryūji (Hiroyuki Sanada). They search for the video's origins, hoping it can save Reiko from the vengeful spirit it unleashes.   One of the film’s big strengths is the killer recording. Before the tape, you see the curse's end results: the victims and their twisted faces. You're curious, so you watch along with Reiko. At that point, your heart sinks. It’s a series of black-and-white, disjointed scenes that concludes with a shot of a well and a screeching sound. "Weird" is an understatement. Where do you even start? Keep in mind, Reiko had to track down the tape in some cabin where its victims stayed a week ago and everyone who’s already seen it is dead. Making things even more dire is that she catches her young son (Rikiya Ōtaka) watching the video one night. Now, if she fails to decrypt this mystery, he'll die too.   The thing with horror films like this is that you want to see what happens, but your instinct tells you to run away. The "danger" is engaging, which makes Ringu a fun enigma. You could ever solve where it came from yourself but you're eager to find answers. Like Reiko and Ryūji, you’re scrutinizing every frame of that tape. Are the contents metaphorical? Is it real footage? Could the people we see be real, but the images be fake? The unique thing about Ringu is that while each clue might bring us closer to the finish line, it doesn’t feel like it’s getting any easier. The more clues we gather, the spookier things become. You know what’s happening is fiction, but there’s a small part of you that can’t help thinking you shouldn’t be watching. If you suddenly received a phone call midway, you'd jump out of your skin.

The biggest difference between Ringu and The Ring is the curse's rules. In some ways, it’s clever. In other ways, it feels like a bit of a cheat. Without revealing too much, the key to solving the mystery in Ringu depends heavily on Ryūji’s psychic visions. With no supernatural abilities, it would be impossible to figure everything out so Reiko’s niece and her friends never had a chance. In a way, that explains why the thing is an urban legend. You only get the phone call under certain circumstances and receiving the phone call doesn't mean you get those much-needed visions - only psychics get those. This means most people would watch the video, go “Well, that was weird” and then die a week later for reasons no one could figure out. The tape is so obscure it would take a long time to make the connection. That makes it feel like a "real" urban legend. The downside is that it makes the scenario feel a tad convoluted. We're asked to believe in 1) cursed videotapes, 2) ghosts and 3) psychic powers. While these do come together during the conclusion, it’s still removed from reality by one more level than the Gore Verbinski film. It also feels much more Japanese than the American version, which is neither a good nor a bad thing, but worth mentioning. This might be controversial, but I like the simplified horror of the American remake better.

I say 2002’s The Ring is an improvement over the original for several reasons, the biggest of which being that the story feels much more universal and its mechanics are less complicated. Don't let that discourage you from viewing Ringu. It’s a more subdued, stranger-feeling horror movie that’s steeped in Japanese culture. It’s also scary and memorable, with a great premise and scares that will stick with you. (Original Japanese version with English subtitles, June 7, 2023)

[quinnigallagherjones]

movie night with buffy [45/?]

⤷ bride of chucky (1998)

oh, chucky look at us. we belong dead. goodbye, darling. i'll see you in hell

[zegalba]

Fujifilm: Instax Mini 10 (1998)

[themitchiemitch]

The Prince of Egypt (1998) dir. Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells

There can be miracles when you believe…

[sapphicweisz]