One of the great things about films, and aging, is that one can re-watch a movie more than two decades after seeing it and it feels fresh, anew, and triggers recall probably more than any other medium, at least for this writer and many he knows. Then there's commentary by someone who had a similar experience. Reading Charles Bramesco's article in The Guardian on Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, we see his point. If memory serves, the director claimed at the time to "hold up a mirror to society" with the provocative film. It was his most provocative to date, and though the last portion drags, it swirls you up into its hysteria once again.
1994, the year NBK came out, was quite an interesting year for American movies. The mainstream got better, with Forrest Gump, Clear and Present Danger, and True Lies, standing along side Pulp Fiction, Clerks, and The Last Seduction. Moviemaking seemed to be open territory to all who could, and Hollywood directors churned out well-told stories. Looking back twenty-five years later, it appears a romantic time.
Then I see David Fear's article in Rolling Stone on David Fincher's Fight Club after twenty years. 1999 was also a giant year for American movies with American Beauty, the Best Picture winner, showing next to The Insider, Three Kings, Eyes Wide Shut, and Being John Malkovich. Years later I discovered Sharon Waxman's excellent book on what led to that culmination of cinema. So we peel back layers of cinema, and a decade, and a time many still remember, it seems, quite clearly. That is but one of the powers of film's evocation.
1994, the year NBK came out, was quite an interesting year for American movies. The mainstream got better, with Forrest Gump, Clear and Present Danger, and True Lies, standing along side Pulp Fiction, Clerks, and The Last Seduction. Moviemaking seemed to be open territory to all who could, and Hollywood directors churned out well-told stories. Looking back twenty-five years later, it appears a romantic time.
Then I see David Fear's article in Rolling Stone on David Fincher's Fight Club after twenty years. 1999 was also a giant year for American movies with American Beauty, the Best Picture winner, showing next to The Insider, Three Kings, Eyes Wide Shut, and Being John Malkovich. Years later I discovered Sharon Waxman's excellent book on what led to that culmination of cinema. So we peel back layers of cinema, and a decade, and a time many still remember, it seems, quite clearly. That is but one of the powers of film's evocation.
