I recently finished reading Movie Freak, by Owen Gleiberman, the former lead film critic for Entertainment Weekly. The book itself was mostly a narcissistic rumination on himself, his troubled relationship with his father, and his various awkward sexual exploits. Oh yeah, and how he developed his love for movies. I don't recommend the book, but in one chapter he did bring up an interesting thought for discussion.
Gleiberman described 1986 as a seminal year in his awakening to film. There were several movies out that year that helped shape his love for the physical act of movie watching, as well as his understanding of taste and criticism. So I got to thinking, "What year was that for me?"
I've loved movies for as long as I can remember. Watching Return of the Jedi, Beetlejuice, The Goonies, and Big on the big screen and worn VHS copies of Back to the Future, Rocky III, The Empire Strikes Back, Hoosiers, and Top Gun on our tiny television helped define much of my 1980s childhood. But it wasn't until later that films really clicked for me on an artistic level.
The year in which I realized films were something different for me, more than just popcorn spectacle, would probably be 1995. That was the year I turned 16 and got my driver's license, which offered an entirely new opportunity for hitting the theaters. No longer did I have to wait to see something with my parents, or agree to see something with a friend I had no interest in for the simple pragmatic fact that he or she had a car. I was free. And I started watching more than ever before.
Three films that would soon be on my favorites list, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, and The Shawshank Redemption arrived in the back half of 1994, but I didn't get a chance to see them until they made it to video in 1995. That year was also a quasi-turning point in modern film, as it came to exemplify the types of films that would be prevalent for the next decade and would define my taste from then on. The neo-noir stylings of Se7en, Heat, The Usual Suspects, and Twelve Monkeys all came out in 1995. The epic violence of Braveheart came out in 1995. The historical suspense of Apollo 13 came out in 1995. Gangsters were revered in Casino and mocked in Get Shorty when they came out in 1995. Toy Story and Babe, films that forever changed animation, came out in 1995. Genre-benders like To Die For and Before Sunrise came out in 1995. Era-defining, snarky comedies like Clueless, The Brady Bunch Movie, and Billy Madison came out in 1995. Even famously terrible films like Waterworld, Batman Forever, Cutthroat Island, and Showgirls came out in 1995. That year had everything a film fan could ask for.
And it turned me into the person I am today. 1995 helped me separate the quality from the shlock, clarified for me what great writing and directing look like, and it made me appreciate 1999, perhaps one of the greatest years in the history of film releases, that much more. I would imagine we all have a defining year in movie watching. What's yours?
Gleiberman described 1986 as a seminal year in his awakening to film. There were several movies out that year that helped shape his love for the physical act of movie watching, as well as his understanding of taste and criticism. So I got to thinking, "What year was that for me?"
I've loved movies for as long as I can remember. Watching Return of the Jedi, Beetlejuice, The Goonies, and Big on the big screen and worn VHS copies of Back to the Future, Rocky III, The Empire Strikes Back, Hoosiers, and Top Gun on our tiny television helped define much of my 1980s childhood. But it wasn't until later that films really clicked for me on an artistic level.
The year in which I realized films were something different for me, more than just popcorn spectacle, would probably be 1995. That was the year I turned 16 and got my driver's license, which offered an entirely new opportunity for hitting the theaters. No longer did I have to wait to see something with my parents, or agree to see something with a friend I had no interest in for the simple pragmatic fact that he or she had a car. I was free. And I started watching more than ever before.
Three films that would soon be on my favorites list, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, and The Shawshank Redemption arrived in the back half of 1994, but I didn't get a chance to see them until they made it to video in 1995. That year was also a quasi-turning point in modern film, as it came to exemplify the types of films that would be prevalent for the next decade and would define my taste from then on. The neo-noir stylings of Se7en, Heat, The Usual Suspects, and Twelve Monkeys all came out in 1995. The epic violence of Braveheart came out in 1995. The historical suspense of Apollo 13 came out in 1995. Gangsters were revered in Casino and mocked in Get Shorty when they came out in 1995. Toy Story and Babe, films that forever changed animation, came out in 1995. Genre-benders like To Die For and Before Sunrise came out in 1995. Era-defining, snarky comedies like Clueless, The Brady Bunch Movie, and Billy Madison came out in 1995. Even famously terrible films like Waterworld, Batman Forever, Cutthroat Island, and Showgirls came out in 1995. That year had everything a film fan could ask for.
And it turned me into the person I am today. 1995 helped me separate the quality from the shlock, clarified for me what great writing and directing look like, and it made me appreciate 1999, perhaps one of the greatest years in the history of film releases, that much more. I would imagine we all have a defining year in movie watching. What's yours?