The year letdowns flowered and scenes were planted for future letdowns. 1999 Letdowns:
The Biggest Letdown Ever!
A Reclusive Genius Returns … for a Letdown!
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The Internet Helps a Micro-Budget Movie Score Big and Unless You Saw It Early…It Was a Letdown!
They Finally Made “Friday Night Lights” Into a Movie — Oh, Wait, No They Didn’t – What a Letdown!
Seeds for Future Letdowns:
Brothers Reinvent Sci-Fi!
What a Great Twist!
The nominees:
“American Beauty” – As pretentious at it is at times, I like the movie. I remember an argument with a conservative friend who hated the Chris Cooper storyline — abusive military type who’s secretly gay. Thing is, I had a guy a lot like the Chris Cooper character in my neighborhood growing up. Only his kid wasn’t the brooding poet Wes Bentley was in the movie. I also remember a liberal feminist friend of mine arguing that the movie was misogynist. Personally, I’m inclined to like a movie that gets people from all sides of the socio-political spectrum in a tizzy.
“The Cider House Rules”– Finally! A feature-length abortion manifesto!
“The Sixth Sense” – Came out of nowhere, hasn’t aged all that well. Not bad, but the stench of Shyamalanga-ding-dong’s career since hangs over even this, his breakthrough movie. Fair or not. Probably not.
“The Green Mile” – My biggest problem with this movie is that the only reason it’s seventeen and a half hours long is to make it feel more like an Oscar movie. I like it, but daggum, it’s ponderously paced.
“The Insider” – Has no business being as good as it is. That said, I’ve never felt the need to see it again.
What Shoulda Been Nominated?
“Election” – Larry, we’re not electing the f*cking Pope, here. Just tell me who won.
“South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” – It’s been six weeks since Saddam Hussein was killed by a pack of wild boars and the world is still glad to be rid of him.
“Three Kings” – No. Not the little cubes you put into water to make soup.
“Being John Malkovich” – Think fast, Malkovich!
“Toy Story 2” – I can’t look! Can somebody please cover my eyes?
The Winner Is…
Tracy Flick is one of the greatest, most memorable characters ever created. She would be a lovable underdog if she weren’t a pompous, conniving, vindictive, obnoxious little twerp. And Reese Witherspoon brings her to life with one of her best performances ever. Witherspoon, at the time an indie darling, doesn’t so much play Flick as embody her. The walk. The speech patterns. The annoyed sigh when her speech is interrupted. She thinks she’s an adult, above her peers, entitled to win the Senior Class Presidency.
But popular teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) has other ideas. He knows of Flick’s dark side. She had an affair with his best friend Dave (Mark Harelik), and when they were found out, Dave got the axe and Flick emerged unscathed, free to annoyingly overachieve for another year. McAllister is that type of teacher we all had. The one who was at all the football games, cheering for the team, the one who went above and beyond. There’s probably only one or two McAllisters in every school. He’s more than a teacher.
McAllister had probably had many students like Flick over the years. But only Flick participated in an affair that got his best friend fired. McAllister fantasizes about Flick – sexually – and he’s as disturbed by the fantasy as we are.
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