Film Appreciation Series: 1999: An Exceptional Year in Movies (Part 2)

Appell Center for the Performing Arts is proud to host a new series of six film appreciation classes led by York's own Luke MacCloskey. Join us for part two of an exploration of the exceptional films released in 1999. Comedy, SciFi, suspense, drama, and reality-based fiction by legendary directors are dissected and discussed in this popular workshop series.

Series Fee: $75
Ages 65+: $60

March 4th - Fight Club
(Released 10/6/99) Directed by David Fincher, 139 minutes. An insomniac consumer searches for meaning in his life by founding an underground fight club with a traveling soap salesman. This disturbing and violent film starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, with Helena Bonham Carter, Meatloaf, and Jared Leto, has since become a cult classic and cultural milestone. Much like 1999's The Sixth Sense, Fight Club's surprise ending required at least a second viewing, but the violence and lack of promotion instead caused it to bomb at the box office.

March 11th - Being John Malkovich
(Released 10/29/99) Directed by Spike Jonze, 113 minutes. An unemployed puppeteer discovers a portal that leads directly into the mind of actor John Malkovich. With the help of an amoral accomplice, he decides to sell tickets! John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener star in this unique and strangely affecting film as three corners of a twisted love triangle about obsession and manipulation. The movie stays true to its own bizarre logic and keeps surprising you to its conclusion.

March 18th - The Green Mile
(Released 12/6/99) Directed by Frank Darabont, 189 minutes. Perhaps no modern movie has gained more of a positive reputation over time than The Shawshank Redemption, which was nominated for Best Picture in 1994, but lost to Schindler's List and remained mostly unseen until its release on cable TV and video, probably because of its title and the category of a men in prison film. By 1999 its director Frank Darabont had gained respect and clout in Hollywood for giving us such an uplifting classic. He then turned to another Stephen King story for his second feature. Thanks in part to a stellar cast led by the most popular male star Tom Hanks, audiences overlooked the 3 hour running time and the men in prison theme and made The Green Mile one of the biggest box office hits of the year.

April 1st - Girl, Interrupted
(Released 12/8/99) Directed by James Mangold, 117 minutes. Wynona Ryder bought this popular 1960's memoir as a vehicle for herself and gave Angelina Jolie her Oscar winning role as Lisa Rowe. The resulting film provides women their own version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and is another beloved 1999 classic. Mangold is a director that chooses different genres and refuses to be pigeon-holed.

April 8th - Man on the Moon
(Released 12/22/99) Directed by Milos Foreman, 118 minutes. With 1998's The Truman Show, Jim Carrey was beginning to show a greater depth to his performances and that he was not just the best physical comedian of his time. His portrayal of the late Andy Kaufman is now the stuff of legend on par with a Daniel Day Lewis performance. Great directors can get great performances from their actors, and Milos Foreman has surely achieved that from Jack Nicholson, Tom Hulce, and F. Murray Abraham in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, to name a few.

April 15th - Galaxy Quest
(Released Christmas Day, 1999) Directed by Dean Parisot, 102 minutes. An old science fiction television show is interpreted as historical documents by an alien race who modeled their society after the Star Trek like series. Let's end this look back at 1999 with one of the most delightful comedies of the modern era. Thank goodness Alan Rickman found time away from playing Professor Snape to give us one of his most beloved roles! Who says we have to be so serious at Film Appreciation?

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