The 1999 Movie Hall of Fame

Hey, I'm Osman Farooqui and this is the drop a culture show from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, where we dive into the latest in the world of pop culture and entertainment. I'm here with Mel Kambouris and Thomas Mitchell. What's up team.

Good Osman, maybe you can solve a debate for us this morning. We've just been to get coffee and the server has asked for the name to go with the coffee order, and I've said it's Mel. Mel and Thomas here has said that the spelling out of the name was unnecessary.

I think when your name is Mel, it's unnecessary.

I think that it's better to be clear to avoid the the follow up question.

I'm the wrong person to ask because I have a name that is often miswritten and mispronounced by baristas. So I use a coffee name and I do spell it out. So I'm definitely on Mel's side. It's, you know, if she didn't spell it out, perhaps the barista might have written it down as Mel. And then you've got a mel Malcolm situation. So how many.

Mal's are out there? Really?

How many Aussies are out there? Not that many. But you still get. You still get.

What's your coffee name cropping up?

Mine is just Oz o Zed, but it occasionally leads to funny situations like a Vietnamese coffee shop I went to once the guy took my order o Zed. He was fine with that. The person reading it out was not the same person who took the name down, so she looked at it and read out zero z, zero z. Um, and it took me a minute to realize she thought you were like.

Elon Musk child or something.

Exactly, exactly. Because good. Other than your coffee mishaps.

Yeah. All good, all good. How are you going? It's been a big week for you.

Yes, I'm on leave. I've sort of come back in specially. Parachuted myself back into the podcast to, uh, keep you guys on track. Clearly didn't trust what you would do without me either. Um, but I got a question for you, Mel. Last week when we talked about Furiosa, the new mad Max movie. You hadn't seen it yet. It's fine. You know, life comes up. That's okay. You have a very busy schedule. You're a busy person. It was a Sydney Writers Festival that wrapped up on the weekend. It's now been a

I'm sorry to confess that I haven't actually seen it yet, but what is this call out culture?

Well, I mean, I think it's important to to just sit on this one for a second, because you might not be aware, but you are contributing to the slow and gradual death of the medium of cinema. Add it to.

The list of the things I'm doing wrong.

Well, well. Last week we talked about how it was one of the few blockbusters on the film schedule of 2024, but despite being the most expensive Australian film ever made and not really having much competition at the box office, it's failed to get big numbers in its opening weekend in America, which fell on Memorial Day, which is historically a pretty big day for the US box office. Furious had just managed to outdo Garfield for the top spot. It took in 48 million AUD over those four days,

No, it's a bit grim. Uh, I love Garfield, by the way. Like, I've always been a fan of the Garfield, so I can see, you know, Garfield's got a big built in audience out there, and George Miller didn't see that coming.

I can feel that you would appreciate Garfield's whole vibe.

Yeah, man, he fucking eats lasagna every day. That's like the.

Dream. Hungry cat.

Uh, yeah. So it is. It is a bit grim. And, you know, we kind of flagged last week that there wasn't a bunch of, you know, big block. There's lots of good stuff to come this year, but not a bunch of blockbusters that level. And I definitely was surprised to see I thought it was going to do, you know, kind of like June numbers. But yeah, here we are. And I think there's lots of people kind of like navel gazing now to be like, oh, what does this

I feel like maybe we've all got a ahead of ourselves with Barbie and Oppenheimer. We were all so excited about the return and the saving of cinema, and then unfortunately, it's not really played out as we would have hoped back then.

This is worse than when I refuse to see anyone but you.

It's been a week. I'm going to see it.

There are so many different factors behind the performance of the box office at the moment. I mean, one of them is just we are living in the shadow of the strikes last year that that took out production for such a long period of time. So we don't have a very busy schedule. You've probably noticed that TV and film is pretty. Quiet. I'm sure like me, you guys have friends in your life that message you when it's the weekend and they're like, hey, what should I see?

So tonight on the party like it's 1999.

One of the greatest years in movie history. We're going to build our Hall of Fame for cinema in 1999. Each of us is going to pick our favorite films of that year. We're going to talk about why we love them, discuss our favorite scenes, what held up the best, what maybe didn't hold up, and whether these movies stand the test of time. It's going to be a lot of fun. And let me just say, there are an incredible amount of like, not just like good, but like

Yes, I am very excited to talk about a bunch of films that Leonardo DiCaprio would no longer date because they are 25 years old. But it is true. Like the more we kind of got into it and we're going through the process of selecting our movies, it became that thing of like, oh my God, how do you just choose three? And I'm sure if you went and looked back at like 98 or 2000, they'd also be

I'm also keen to revisit a time before I single handedly ruined cinema.

Yeah, they're going to talk about you in history, in the history books, Mel. Um, no, I'm really excited about it. It's it's a new format for us, a bit of a risk. Hopefully it pays off. I'm really looking forward to it. But before we get there, a couple of bits of news to talk about. Thomas, our guy, Robert De Niro, managed to involve himself in the Donald Trump trial. Can you tell us what the hell's going on here?

Yeah, I was very excited when my De Niro Google alert went off this morning. Um, it's been.

And it wasn't another.

Trial. It's been pretty quiet. Yeah, I know he's obviously been in the depths of new fatherhood. Uh, at however old. He's 79. Um, so he's really in it just at that and obviously, um, whatever else he has gout, I presume. But but yeah, he rocked up at the Trump trial.

I owe the city a lot. And that's why it's so weird that Donald Trump is just across the street, because he doesn't belong in my city.

And basically gave this really impassioned speech. And he did. He was like, you know, lots of writers are saying this. He went full Goodfellas. Like, this was De Niro at his most gangster. He called Trump a tyrant.

Just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot, a two bit Playboy lying his way into the tabloids.

And that is just like, man, the guys just left Trump for dead there. Uh, and basically, yeah, he he's kind of stolen the limelight out of this insane trial that's happening. Um, but it's very exciting to see De Niro fired up again because he's been in a bit of a run of just like I'm here playing a filthy grandpa again. But now this was the De Niro we know and love. He was impassioned. He was a little bit scary. He was full Italian. I'm fucking here for it.

Oh, and it was so good. Once he had given stopped his actual speech and he was walking back in, the crowd was heckling him and they were like, your movies suck. And he says this line, he's like, we're trying to be gentlemen. You are gangsters. And it's just so good hearing him to call them gangsters.

Also, who are these Trump fans saying De Niro's movie suck? Like they just objectively do not suck?

It's amazing. I've watched it so many times.

He's obviously concerned about, um, you know, the future for his young child and what kind of world they'll be living in. Uh, so yeah, De Niro is back, baby.

I went back and rewatched killers of the Flower Moon a couple of weeks ago, and we we all really enjoyed that movie and thought it was brilliant. I remember at the time, Thomas, you and I were a bit down on De Niro's performance. I think we said that it was maybe one of the weaker ones in the film. I mean, I think that's not totally unfair because the other performances are just so overpoweringly and overwhelmingly brilliant. But I think that was a little bit too harsh on him.

Yeah, I went back and rewatched Bad Grandpa and felt the same thing. Um, and now I mean, look. And now he's taking on a very famous bad grandpa and Donald Trump, so everything comes full circle. Uh, look, I obviously never walk back. My takes. They're always right at the time, and I stand by them forever. But, I mean, you are one of the few people I know that would actually go and rewatch killers of the Flower Moon, great as it is, but it's like, that's that's why

I've just been rewatching that and Eyes Wide Shut, surely.

Oppenheimer.

Um, the the other thing that we wanted to talk about, there was a story in The Hollywood Reporter this week that got all three of us pretty excited. It's called Meet the New A-list. The ten young movie stars taking Hollywood by Storm now, as well as being a list of who The Hollywood Reporter believes are the biggest movie stars of their generation, the story had some pretty interesting insight into how modern movie stars are being made and

Well, the writers obviously watch euphoria because there are three euphoria stars. No, I mean, it's I guess it's the obvious list. Um, I don't know. I think the whole concept is really interesting, but I feel like the list is almost a bit too predictable.

Yeah. My first feeling looking at this list is how little actual acting a lot of these people are doing. Like, I reckon we should look at some of the films they've been in and what they got paid for it, and figure out how much each word a cake like equates for financially. Because a lot of these actors and it's not I'm not saying that they're not also doing kind of more substantial roles, but they're gravitating towards sweeping

It's also odd that The Hollywood Reporter said, you know, unlike previous generations, they haven't turned their indie debuts into big IP backed films. They almost all have, if not literally all of them are either already in or soon to be in big blockbuster franchise kinds of movies. But I guess to me, what the obvious question that it raised was like, what does it mean to be a movie star? Right? Is it to your point, Mel, clearly not just about acting skills and charisma and the ability

Exclusively won't see anything that Paul Mescal is in.

No, I mean, like Paul Mescal is a good actor and Aftersun was a great film, but that didn't blow up the box office because people were desperate to see Paul Mescal. And I think when he's in Gladiator two later this year or next year, people will go see that movie because it's Gladiator two, not because it's a Paul Mescal film.

I think the only two ones on that maybe, like for me it would be probably Timothy. Sydney Sweeney and Zendaya are the three who really have that power. I would say like, no one's rushing off to see a Glen Powell movie, so I don't.

I don't agree with that. I feel like Glen Powell has the most evidence behind him, like Top Gun Maverick and then anyone but two movies. Two. Yeah. Okay. But what does Timothy have?

He's done a bunch of more movies, I would say. And I think.

Timothy has the kind of I don't really know much about Glen Powell off screen. Um, like, I kind of don't know what his personality is, whereas I think Timothy has Paul, like, he's got this personality. He's got a shtick around him that people are drawn to him as a figure. Whereas I think Glen Powell is still kind of an actor. I don't know if he's quite transcended that, and I would probably say the same for Jenna Ortega as well, who I thought was a bit of an unusual addition to the list.

Yeah. Jenna Ortega is someone who is very, very popular amongst Gen Zs, and she's huge on Netflix on Wednesday. I don't think she's she's managed to translate that to like, movie box office success. But do you guys think that Timothy is the reason people are going to see movies that star Timothy? Like, do you think they got to see Wonka because they love Timothee Chalamet? Or they saw Dune because they love Timothee Chalamet?

I definitely think with something like Wonka Dunes will be different because it is such a bigger prospect and people want to go and see that. But I think Wonka like I mean that's probably why they cast him like people went to see it, even though it wasn't meant to be awful interesting. Yeah, yeah, you might be right, Paul. And like the same thing with this Bob Dylan. Like, how many photos from set have we seen of this new Bob Dylan biopic? Because it's like Timothee Chalamet playing him.

Yeah, they kind of have this whole paratext thing going on where they're creating a thing outside of the films that then kind of translates and into interplays with what they're doing on screen.

It's so interesting. Again, just to sit on Timothy on that one, because you're right, there is like this meta narrative around Timothy, but he's like not an online person. Like, it's not like people are reacting to what he's saying. He's just sort of part of the conversation, I guess, partly because of, you know, his relationship with your long lost love.

Thomas. Whereas then I would say, I hate to obviously bring all conversations back to Sydney Sweeney. She is the opposite, in which she is very much an online person. She's like very active on social media and she engages with a lot of like, I guess, the meme and narrative around her and stuff. So they're both, I would say two of the most like prominent and. Powerful young actors in Hollywood, but they have very much taken a different approach.

Yeah, I feel like I've kind of lost track of just how big Sydney Sweeney is, because I feel like it's all we talk about on the podcast that maybe I do sometimes wonder wonder how much she cut like, cuts through elsewhere.

Oh no, she definitely does. I think there's been so many like, articles. You know, we've talked about calling her the new Julia Roberts. She's like producing. Directing, like she's like starring in so many different genres of films. Like, I think we actually, you know, Mel, you'll hate this. Perhaps we're reaching Sydney Sweeney. Saturation.

Yes, of course, we can only let a woman get so successful, but.

Yeah. Interesting. Listen, I guess we'll see where they all are in the next few years. And also, you.

Know what's interesting with Timothy and Sydney in particular, that they're actually really being pulled into discussions about like femininity and masculinity and in this kind of MeToo world, because everyone's talking about Timothy style of masculinity, everyone's talking about Sydney Sweeney's kind of, you know, reclamation of the bombshell figure as feminist empowerment. Um, so, like, I wonder if

Yeah. I mean, hearing you guys talk about this, I'm kind of shifting my view again. I think maybe someone like Sydney Sweeney is someone who people will go to see a movie because it's the new Sydney Sweeney movie, the movie Immaculate, which she produced and starred in the sort of non-horror movie that cost $9 million. It made

Yeah, I mean, maybe that it says something about us and our relationship to Timothy. Well, I.

Guess we can we can revisit Glen Powell next week because he's going to be starring in the new Richard Linklater film about a hit man, which I know we're all quite excited about. It comes out on Netflix next week. So I mean, that's kind of his first big, like, I guess, Glen Powell project. And obviously people there's always going to be a curiosity about Linklater, um, given he releases so few films. So yeah, I guess we'll see.

An annoyingly not being released in cinemas so he won't really be able to track the numbers, which seems kind of crazy and annoying to me. The other thing I just want to say about the list, you know, the real winner of this is Denis Villeneuve. There are five people on this list that were in the last June film.

Yeah, it's pretty stark looking at that list, and it is a reminder that for, as you say, for all the talk of diversity, you know, and including diverse characters, who is actually taking the leading roles, who is actually being cast in the films with the biggest budgets, with the biggest payrolls? Um, and yeah, I mean, you would hope it continues to change.

It's time for the 1999 movie Hall of Fame. I think for a lot of the movies that we're going to talk about, we will probably a bit too young to see them in the cinema for the first time, probably to watch them on DVD. A few years later, when we were all teenagers and had nothing else to do but watch films. But I want to ask you guys, do you have any memories of going to the cinema in this year? Well, I imagine your eyeshadow was blue and Thomas, your hair was gelled and bleached.

I don't know how old you think we are.

My my hair actually was.

I was not wearing eyeshadow then, but I will tell you what I was doing in 1999. Um, Thomas is familiar with the publication. Let me guess. That Thomas is familiar with the publication I ran at the time, the Copy Cove News, which I. Yeah, run it from my cubby house. It cost three gumnuts. I distributed it to the houses in my cul de sac. Um, but I was running a real fear campaign about Y2K. So much so that neighbours intervened because I was causing a level of distress for the children.

You were like a Alex Jones conspiracy blogger before the internet.

I sold those papers. I sold them good.

How did I not know this? You had your own little neighborhood publication absolutely. Decades before you edited Australia's leading cultural.

Section was where I grew my chops. Um, I had to. It was a full end to end operation. Really. I did it all. Um, but yes, it did cause a bit of controversy because children were packing go bags because they thought the world was going to collapse. So unfortunately, much like the sun, we had to close down in disgrace.

Yes. And it's so sad that those small print presses around the country are closing down. And obviously you were part of that movement.

Um, meanwhile, you were getting your hair dyed.

Yeah. Look, I was experimenting with a lot of different things in this age. I desperately wanted to be allowed to actually, like, properly bleach my hair. My mum was like, I mean, credit to her, you look like a fucking idiot. And so I just was allowed to have like, sun in, you know, like the it looked, it also looked bad, but I guess less worse than had I really committed.

And why did you want to go blonde, Thomas? A young Greek boy like you with your Mediterranean features in hair. What was it about growing up in that part of Australia at that point in time that made you feel like you wanted to make your hair blonde?

Well, if you were to look at like the Aryan photo of my year six like cohort at oyster Bay Primary School deep in the Sutherland Shire, famous for the Cronulla riots, uh, you probably understand, but yes, uh, I mean that I can blame on that. I don't know who to blame the S&;P belt on. Uh, and also the shell choker necklace.

What was Baby Osmond doing?

Well, you know, what I was doing this year was watching Star Wars Episode one The Phantom Menace in cinemas. Like, like nine times I went so much.

He went the exact same person then as you are now.

Um, I think, like, you know, when I was a kid, we had the Star Wars films on VHS, and so I just kind of grew up watching them all. And they're from this era. That was clearly before I was around, but they still felt like the coolest, sickest films to me. And then when they announced that this new one was coming, it's like, they can do that. They can like take a franchise that ended two plus decades ago and bring it back in cinemas with a new story and new

It was a special.

Time in pathology. Started young. Yeah.

Um, let's run through the ten biggest films at the box office that year to give us a bit of a sense of the lay of the land. Number one was Star Wars The Phantom Menace. Half of that box office was probably me. Um, just going repeat visits. Uh, number two was The Sixth Sense. Very iconic M Night Shyamalan movie with Bruce Willis, toy story two, The Matrix, Tarzan, The Mummy, Notting Hill, The World Is Not Enough, the James Bond film American Beauty, and Austin Powers The Spy

Oh my God, where to begin? Notting Hill is like. I mean, one of the all time greats, obviously. Uh, The Sixth Sense, I feel like, you know, before, like, meme culture was a thing. It became that before we had a word for it. Like it like just had this chokehold on the pop culture, like people quoting it. And, you know, once everyone knew this, the spoiler, um, it was just like this kind of like language that you would use with people.

Probably like where our generation learnt the idea of a movie twist.

Pretty much.

All the full postmodernism of the 90s with The Matrix and Being John Malkovich coming to the forefront. Maybe the start of the Disney Renaissance with Toy Story two.

I mean, The Matrix was pretty hostile to tech and the internet. Mel, was this something that you wrote about in your music?

Yeah. No doubt, no doubt. Um, also, I feel like it was the last of the kind of real classic rom com Notting Hill. Ten things I Hate About You. She's All That Never Been Kissed. This kind of genre of of rom com that I think so many of us probably watched at sleepovers or I know I did, were on the VHS at sleepovers. I feel like it kind of marked the end of that era as well.

I didn't pick you for getting invited to many sleepovers, if I'm honest.

Well, it was a distribution network for the publication I had to network back then. Was hustle.

The other thing? The other thing that stood out to me looking at this list, we talk a lot now about how sequels and prequels and IP dominate the box office in the kind of the current era of moviegoing, but five of these top ten movies are based on existing IP. They're either direct sequels or, in the case of something like Tarzan, based on earlier films and earlier books and things like that. So it is interesting, isn't it, to kind of we often look back at previous eras

I don't know, but Y2K obviously wiped it out.

Yeah, I think maybe it was that kind of looming sense of the new millennium was going on. And you do see that. I think in a lot of these films that is there, there is a kind of underlying sense of unease and standing on the precipice. Not in all of them, obviously, but in some of them. And also, the other thing I noticed about that list was, um, maybe it's the tech that's coming to the forefront as well. Like CGI is getting way better, which you see in

Yeah, that's a really good point. I feel like we're kind of at this midpoint where we still had in big independent studios, it was easier for writers and directors to get funding for projects that were original and perhaps a bit wacky. And then we had big blockbuster franchise stuff at the same time, too. And it's interesting to

Yeah, it's so true. And you do hear a surprising number of directors and writers talk about setting shows in the 1990s purely for the point of avoiding that.

Mhm. All right. Let's start building our 1999 movie Hall of Fame. Here's how it's going to work. Each of us has picked three films from 1999. We're going to talk about the movie, why we chose it and then break it down into some categories. We're going to talk about the best scene from the movie. What holds up the best since it was released 25 years ago? What doesn't hold up, and if the film could or would

I was briefed. I did not study. I'm not prepared.

It's more just like the occasional question keep you on your toes. You know what I mean? You love. You love like exam conditions.

So I prep hard.

Look, as I said earlier, this is the first time we've done something like this. Hopefully it works. Hopefully, you know, we come up with a great list of films for people to think about and perhaps watch and learn some things along the way, and hopefully we have fun as well. That's the that's the goal of this exercise. Before we get into it, each of us also gets an honorable mention, a film that we didn't necessarily want to totally unpack,

Yes, well, I mean, this one actually ties quite nicely into what we've already discussed on the pod. Now, as you both know, 1999 was the year The Sopranos also premiered. Uh, of course, the story about a mobster who has a.

Great TV show.

Who has a crisis and finds himself, you know, seeing a therapist. But I'm going to take the film version of that, which, of course, is analyze This.

Meet Paul Vitti. I don't.

Feel great. Never felt better.

A mob boss with a problem. Yeah, I got stress.

The Robert De Niro film. Uh, he plays, you know, the classic mobster who then goes to see a psychiatrist played by Billy Crystal. It's a crime comedy. Lisa Kudrow is also in it. Uh, it's such a fun film. It was directed by Harold Ramis. You know, it did crazy numbers as well and then led to the sequel Analyze That. But yeah, my dad, uh, who is really into gangster films, um, we loved this film. We got a chance to meet Billy Crystal, uh, one day. And

Yeah. Good one. Okay, I went with ten things I Hate About You.

It's a widely known fact that the Stratford sisters aren't allowed to date.

For every girl who's ever hoped.

Daddy, as you know, it's the prom.

Every guy who's ever tried.

You never give up, do you? Was that a yes? No.

And anyone concentrating? Awfully hard, considering it's gym class who's ever been taken completely by surprise.

Obviously there's some issues with this film, some emotionally unavailable characters. There's some kind of, uh, adoration of bad boys. But anyway, beside that, well, let's.

Not say canceling movies this early into this process.

But I will say it's hard to get by the piece of modern poetry, the excellence that is that final delivery of I Hate the Way You talk to me and the way you cut your hair, which, I mean, you can't surpass that. So that's my honorable mention, one of.

The best diss tracks.

Just shout out to Drake for bringing that back. Uh, during the Kendrick.

Totally. I also have the other Heath ledger film from this year, Mel two hands.

I got a new job, and, uh, you could say I'm moving on. Yeah.

What are you doing? Everyone's. Damn. There's a fucking hold up.

I'm, um. I'm being a fucking girl. Oh, maybe. Open your drawers. I'm waiting for a guy just doing odd jobs here and there. Right.

Give me a key. I think one of my favorite Australian films, Heath ledger and Rose Byrne. Uh, sort of like a gangster crime caper set across Sydney iconic soundtrack. The Powderfinger song. Amazing performances from people that you just knew were going to be stars, shepherded by Bryan Brown. Like one of the best Australian actors of all time, this is just a really awesome film, and if you've never seen it, go watch it. It's not that long.

Agreed. That's a very good one.

Time to get cracking. Mel, you get to go first. What is your first pick for our 1999 Hall of Fame?

Drum roll straight into the list. Pete Anderson's Magnolia. You can.

Sing it.

I'm Stanley Spector.

There is the story of a boy genius.

Thomas Kid, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Moliere.

And the game show host.

Jimmy Gator live from Burbank, California.

First question for 25, this French playwright and actor joined the bizarre troupe of actors and the.

Ex-boy genius Chris Kid Donnie Smith.

I used to be smart. Now I'm just.

Stupid.

The saddest film potentially ever made. Very miserable. It was his third film. He was only 30 years old when he made it, which is kind of insane. Set over one day in the San Fernando Valley, it is very much about alienation, loneliness, failed connection, which is very kinda Y2K ish end of an era moment. Pretty much everyone's in crisis, so it's multiple stories, all kind of interlinked, loosely around a quiz game show. But the cast is

Great choice, great film, great director, great to have the woman on the pod bring up Paul Thomas Anderson. I've got to say, you know, break, break the expectations.

Well, I was going to pick girl interrupted being my kind of status on the pod, but I thought I'd mix it up.

It's an awesome film. It's like kind of a Boogie Nights reunion in terms of the cast. You know, P.J. going back to the San Fernando Valley. Also, interestingly, like quite a few actors in multiple films this year, Tom Cruise in Magnolia and in Eyes Wide Shut, Philip Seymour Hoffman in this film and in The Talented Mr. Ripley, there's a bit of that going on. It was like a big year for a handful of actors. What is your favorite scene from this film?

Okay, my favorite scene has to be Julianne Moore. She plays a carer for her husband, who is dying of cancer. She goes to the pharmacist to get drugs, and it's quite this monumental scene where the pharmacist is talking to her, and this patronizing tone about the drugs and how strong they are and why are you buying them. And she gets slowly more angry and angry and angry. And then all of a sudden she launches into this kind of

You don't know who I am, what my life is, and you have the balls. The indecency to ask me a question about my life.

What do.

You do? Don't you call me lady.

I come in here, I give these things to you. You check, you make your phone calls, look suspicious, ask questions. I'm sick. Me and you fucking ask me my life. What's wrong? Have you seen death in your bed? In your house? Where's your.

Fucking decency? And then I met fucking questions. What's. Wrong. Suck my dick.

That's what's wrong with you. You fucking call me lady. Shame on you.

It's such a good scene. Like, doesn't make sense that she would do that. Maybe not. Is it a bit overacted and melodramatic? Probably. I mean.

It's one of the most overacted scenes.

I mean, I get it, but still, I think it stands up. I love watching it every time.

Awesome. And what do you think holds up the best?

Tom cruise, for sure. And I actually think that if it wasn't the Julianne Moore scene, I would pick any of Tom Cruise's scenes in this film. I love his respect. The cock moment. I love his deathbed catharsis scene. I

Tom Cruise's filmography. I've just got a I know Thomas is worried that we're going to blow out of time on this segment, but like A Few Good Men, The Firm, interview with the vampire, Mission Impossible, Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, that that's crazy. That's what he was doing in the lead up to this movie. What a guy. Great, great pick for what holds up the best.

Give him give him the Oscar. His best was.

Yet to come as well. Obviously with Mission Impossible two.

And.

Um, Mel Watt doesn't hold up quite as well in Magnolia.

Look, I think it's a very long film, and even P.T. Anderson said it goes for three hours.

Also, I like that you call him P.T. Anderson, like P.T. Barnum. I feel like he's either PTA or Paul Thomas Anderson.

Scored in P.T. Anderson. Is that.

Wrong? I never talk about him. Yeah.

Um, Paul Thomas Anderson. Then to give him his full name. Uh, yeah, it's a long film, and I think even he has said he probably should have cut 35 minutes from it. Some characters, some are less developed than others, and it does stretch on I we've got to talk about the ending. And I think we're allowed to give spoilers on here because you know, yeah.

It's been 25 years. If you don't want Magnolia spoiled, skip ahead.

Here we go. Frogs come down from the sky.

It's very biblical. Yeah, it.

Is biblical, I loved it. I think it was all about kind of cleansing. New beginnings 1999 2000. Um, you know, revelation. I think the frogs worked, but I know a lot of people didn't. Do you guys have a take on the frogs?

I loved it, it was a big swing. It worked for me.

Yeah.

I've actually never seen Magnolia.

Oh, I know.

I thought I might be able to skate by with that if I just laughed along at the right moments. Um, but you mean you forced me right into it by asking me about the frogs? But you had.

Such a strong take on it not being Tom Cruise's best. I know that.

Nothing is better than Mission Impossible two. It's like, I.

Think anyone who mentions a movie that the others haven't watched has to watch it in the next week.

Okay. That's fair.

Yeah. Okay, cool.

And now, final question. Could this film, would this film be made in 2024?

Look, I think it speaks to a lot of themes that are relevant today. You know, there is this kind of idea of abuse of power for men in Hollywood. There's a men's rights thing. Would it get made today? I don't know if we would accept the melodrama of it, and maybe The Frogs and the singalong would kind of look a bit, a bit naff so many years on. Um, so I don't know if we would do that, and

You're right that there was a lot of movies in this year that were very melodramatic, very focused on themes of alienation and kind of suburban malaise. Uh, I feel like one of the movies I'm going to talk about is like that American Beauty is like that, very famously. Don't know what was happening. Maybe it was just like the only people allowed to make movies were men of a certain age and of a certain background, and.

That's all they wanted to talk about.

Um, is there anything else you wanted to say about Magnolia?

Mel, could I give you a fun fact? Absolutely must. So, you know Kevin Smith, the esteemed director of Mallrats, Chasing Amy, dogma. So at the time, Bob. Yeah. At the time that this came out, um, he absolutely destroyed it. He posted it online that he'd received an Academy screener of the DVD, and he'll keep it right on his desk as a constant reminder that a bloated sense of self-importance is the most unattractive quality in a person or their work. And

I can relate to that. I can. We all have dumb takes in our 20s that we probably shouldn't have put on the internet. Really? Well, Mel, I mean, that was for our first entry into the Hall of Fame. I think you nailed it. Great choice, great explanations, great takes. Loved it.

Thank you. It was high risk, but hopefully high reward.

Thomas.

Your turn. What have you got for your number one pick?

Uh, yes. Well, luckily, my first pick doesn't fit into this. You know, kind of like movies being made by men, suburban malaise, disaffected, and, in fact, is a celebration of men's rights. It is Fight club. Uh, look, I think we all knew this movie was going to pop up somewhere,

I want you to hit me as hard as you can. Why? How much can you know about yourself? You've never been in a fight.

Wait. Let me start earlier. Like many of you, I was stuck. You want me to deprioritize my current reports? Until you guys have a status upgrade, make.

These your primary action items I.

Couldn't sleep.

No, you can't die from insomnia.

I'd flip through catalogs and wonder what kind of dining set defines me as a person. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. Welcome. I prayed for a different life.

So it was such a huge, actually flop at the box office. And then it became one of those films that took off on DVD. Um, obviously it follows an unnamed protagonist, played by Edward Norton, who kind of lives this very dull life. His, you know, apartment is famously full of Ikea furniture. Nothing brings him satisfaction. Nothing brings him joy until he meets the mysterious Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, with perhaps the best body ever committed

Well, I mean, just just firstly on that sort of top line, you know, view about it being a MRA, incel sort of film. I think you're right that, like, this film suffers from the fact that its most vocal, the most vocal part of its fan base are the ones that clearly don't understand the movie is making fun of them, and you see this happen time and time again throughout cinema and art as well. I think the movie stands on its own as a, you know, as

And I also don't necessarily know, while he is taking on masculinity, what he's really what is really his target is the society, the kind of alienation created by 1,000,000% capitalism that has created this type of man, which is the real target of what I see as the real target of Fight Club.

Yeah, like it is. And it's so funny. Obviously we live in this era now of like, you know, the Rogans and the Tates and the Petersons who have very much cultivated their own, you know, similar, I guess, communities

And you wanted someone to ask you what your favorite scene was.

Well, I guess it's hard to talk about Fight Club without talking about, uh, you know, the most famous scene, which is. Gentlemen, welcome to Fight Club, gentlemen.

Welcome to Fight Club. The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.

It's such a great scene. It's like firstly the rewatching this. You notice like they really have Brad Pitt eating a lot in this film, which he does in lots of his films. It's become like a kind of trademark. Yeah, the Ocean's films.

He loves to eat.

Yes, he's he's he I don't know, he is quite like watchable when he's chewing. He's actually not eating in this film. Uh, I would firstly. Okay. This is the first of my surprise quizzes. How many rules are there in Fight Club?

Seven two.

There are eight.

Close.

The first rule is that you don't talk about Fight Club. That's also the second rule. Uh, the third rule, if someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. Fourth rule only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule. One fight at a time. Six rule. No shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule fights go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule. If this is your first time at Fight Club, you have to fight. I can't.

Believe you ran through all the.

Rules.

Yeah, I didn't think you would. I thought I did not think he would keep growing.

Thomas has been pointing at his watch when Mel was talking, when I was talking earlier, and he just really wanted to get to listing out every single rule. All eight of the rules of Fight Club.

They're good rules. Um, so, yeah, I think that that scene obviously like it really. We meet Tyler a bit earlier on the plane. You know, he's a soap salesman, but this is really the iconic, you know, Tyler Durden scene. As we touched on earlier, Brad Pitt is there like shirtless smoking just looking like this absolute anti-hero. Um, yeah. Even rewatching it back now, it's still a scene that

Yeah, it's one of my favorite scenes that that needle drop is also.

Surely a beautiful Jared Leto. Having his beautiful face destroyed is. Yeah, yeah, that's a standout scene.

Um, what holds up the best? Thomas?

Well, I think we kind of talked about it, but the fact that, you know, this is released 25 years ago, um, and looking at it through the lens of 2024, the fact that Tyler Durden is kind of this figure who we're supposed to see, as, you know, a symbol of everything that really is wrong with the world, even though

Totally agree. And what? There may be another long list coming. What didn't necessarily hold up so well from this film?

Uh, I mean, look, there are a few things I would say that like possibly when I was rewatching it and like, you know, Edward Norton was talking about his really nice apartment with all the Ikea furniture and, like, he's got a boring night, but nice enough job where he gets to travel a lot. I'm like, man, living in, you know, 2024, the cost of living crisis, everything going on in the world. I'm like this. If this is your biggest problem, perhaps it feels a little.

Bit hollow.

Right now. Like I'm like, he's like, oh, look at all this. Like new shit I've got for my kid. I'm like, look, man, that's not too bad. Like, things could be worse. And again, maybe it does speak to who was really dominating, like the storytelling at that time. You know, obviously it was a big, you know, this whole kind of like emptiness and malaise that everyone was feeling was a big issue. But like, I think now

Interesting that whole era, it felt like if you were a white middle class guy in particular, it's like the end of history. American triumphalism is like the theme of of global politics. What do you have to worry about? You know, the economy is going great. Life's pretty great for me. I might just turn my angst inwards. And that's why you ended up with such a focus on those sorts of issues. Everyone else was not having such a great time, but we didn't let them make movies,

I don't really know. Like, I saw Fincher did an interview with The Guardian last year and he said, um, you know, he talked about the fact that, weirdly, Tyler Durden has been misunderstood and now has, like, seen he's seen as a hero to people who who don't understand him. And he kind of said, it's impossible for me to imagine that people don't understand. Tyler is a negative influence.

I think it could be made. And I think the killer, which was the Fincher film, and we talked about it on the pod that came out in 2023, is just really an updated version of exactly the same themes, you know, masculinity, disassociation, capitalism. I think Fincher still teasing at everything he was doing in Fight Club, just in a more modern way now. I think most.

Of his films have have been exploring those same sorts of ideas, and I think probably doing them in updated and smarter ways that make sense for the for the kind of modern era. Okay, I'm up with my first choice.

Tell me it's not Star Wars.

Could you imagine? Um, so 25 years before Alexander Payne went back to school to make the holdovers, the director did it for the first time with a little film called election, starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick.

In the nation's capital, a new leader has found a place in the halls of power. But her story began. In the halls of high school.

We'll move on now to the presidential race with three candidates running. The first is Tracy Flick.

One thing that's important to know about me is that I'm an only child. My mom is really devoted to me. She likes to write letters to successful women like Elizabeth Dole and Connie Chung and ask them, what advice do they have for me? Tracy, her daughter.

This movie is awesome and completely insane. So Matthew Broderick plays a teacher, Mr. McAllister? Uh, he's a teacher at a high school in Omaha, Nebraska. They're in the middle of an election race to determine who will become the student council president. Unfortunately, Mel Kembery was not available. The front runner is another goody two shoes and seemingly model student Tracy Flick, played by Reese Witherspoon. But after Michaela's best friend's life falls apart when he's caught out having

Yeah, I always really liked it growing up. Um, but it was weird because, like, it was obviously when I revisited, like when I was a bit older and understood it more, I was more like into the Cruel Intentions camp of Reese Witherspoon films at that time. But yeah, uh, I always thought it was really interesting and I guess, like, again, you see this young cast that now we have such a different context for who they are, but it was all kind of there for them.

Yeah. I haven't gone back and seen it in some time, but I reckon it probably would have aged quite well. So I'm interested in hearing what you think worked best, because I remember the darkness of all the characters, and that not a lot of them had redeeming qualities, and that was part of the joy of it was their kind of soullessness.

Yeah, I think when the movie opens, the way that it sort of shot and the way that it looks, it makes you think it's one of these 80s type of high school dramas. And it just is not that at all. It is very like sexually explicit in a quite uncomfortable way, given the ages of of the people involved. And I'm going to talk about that a little bit later in one of the categories. And it is 100% just a movie about how demented the American political system is.

All right, so what holds up the best from election?

I think it is the deep cynicism about the political system. Everyone is either corrupt or a moron. And this is so clearly supposed to be an analogy to the way that US presidential elections work. The only vaguely redeemable character is Peter, who's Chris Klein, the jocks sister. She runs a third party campaign out of spite, and then gets herself expelled so she can go to a Catholic all

There's a lot of that in 1999.

Yeah, and there's some stuff with Alexander Payne. If you look into it, his relationship with, uh, Rose McGowan and how old she was and him sort of saying anytime someone has to say it was legal in this state for us to be in a relationship, you know, that things are like are not going well. This is not a great era for sexual politics.

I'd say taking that on board. Do you think it would be made today?

I don't know, I think it's like exactly the kind of film we need more of, like the kind of mid-budget sort of internal dramedy. I guess The Holdovers was kind of that, and that did pretty well. I would love to see like 20 more of these films in cinemas all the time, but it just doesn't seem like we get them, like we get very like budget versions of this on streamers, or we get giant, expensive films. But this kind of tier of film just seems to have vanished, which is a little bit sad, I think.

It's funny to note that what Clinton was the president in 1999 being impeached. And then here we are.

Hmm.

Another 25 years.

Later. Joy. Joy. More things change.

The more things change. Um, I've got a fun fact for you guys. So Chris Klein, who plays the jock Peter, he was a student at one of the schools, being scouted as a location when he successfully auditioned for the part, which is exactly how Dominic Sessa, who was the lead in The Holdovers, got his part as well. So Payne knows how to find kids in schools, which now, as I say that out loud, is kind of worrying considering

He was in American Pie. Um.

And who did he play in American Pie?

Uh, what's his name? Oz.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that is weird. It is all. I mean, I suppose this is the time to also discuss, uh, his co-star in American Pie, Mena Suvari, who was also in American Beauty.

Well, we've talked about a few of these. I actually started writing a list as I was doing some research. So we mentioned Reese Witherspoon and Cruel Intentions and Election, Chris Klein and this and American Pie. You mentioned Mena Suvari, Heath ledger in those two movies, Tom Cruise in Magnolia and Eyes Wide Shut, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Magnolia and The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tim Allen in Galaxy Quest and Toy Story two. What a fucking year. What was going on?

Yeah, and you know what's actually really weird? This. I mean, I'm going to lift some trivia from one of my later entries, the fact that there was a conversation between the studios because Mena was in both American Pie and American Beauty. Originally American Pie was titled First Piece.

Wow.

But they changed the name to tap into Wow.

The whole America thing going on. Yes, that is so fascinating. I know, fucking.

Fun fact the shit out of it.

So I'm so glad you bump that up.

Yeah, I know, me too.

Great call right in the moment too. But yeah. So that basically explains the origins of American Pie. I imagine it'd been called first piece. We wouldn't have probably had all the other ones that we didn't need. Yeah, good pun though.

I guess.

It is. It is a good pun. Uh, I guess just one other thing I wanted to add. Um, years ago, when I was a young, up and coming journalist, I went to the junket for American Pie reunion or American Reunion, uh, I think possibly the last one in the franchise. All the stars were there. I was obviously desperate to talk to either Mena Suvari or Tara Reid. I fucking got

I think you got exactly what you deserved.

Um, and that is.

Not the last time media junkets will be discussed.

On this podcast.

It's a bit of a clue for a movie coming up. Um, all right, we probably need to be a little bit quicker with these others, even though I'm actually loving this, but I just feel like we need to probably move a little bit quicker. All right. Time for your second pick, Mel Kambouris.

Okay, this is The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola's first feature debut, the OG Sad Girls.

So much has been said about the girls over the years.

Those girls have a bright future ahead of them, but we have never.

Found an answer. Her act was a cry for help. I heard there was an accident.

Even then, as teens.

As we tried to put the pieces together. We still can't.

Get a full tank of gas. We'll take you anywhere you want.

That time. We've been waiting for you guys.

Based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, Five Teen Sisters in Detroit in 1967 are. Kirsten Dunst is probably the biggest star of the film. Plays Lux. This very cool, cold, callous, sexy older sister, and Josh Hartnett plays the heartthrob. Two of the big names that came out of it. A group of men are reflecting on their memories of the Lisbon sisters, the five of them who all killed themselves, which is the part of this film that we probably

I mean, yeah, this will be the breakfast. So. Yeah.

Look, I think it's depicting of adolescence is very good. There's a lot of love, nervousness, awkwardness, the kind of mystery of that time Sofia Coppola does very well. It's got a lot of the kind of interest in suburbia, which we're seeing in a lot of these films, and the kind of darkness behind the picture perfect frame. And also, I really like it because it is a marker of where Coppola goes in her future, her interest in womanhood, her style. Something like The Beguiled is very clearly in

And that's a bit a pretty.

Dark editor's letter in Cubby Cove after your first.

Watch.

Yeah, the there is a kind of suicidal ideation, I think, going on in this film and things like one of the sisters falling on a garden pike. I just can't imagine that shot being made today. There is this kind of idealization of them. They're they're five blonde white sisters all wearing these long white gowns. And there's this weird tone which is part coming of age, part tragedy that is very unusual to watch back now, Wolf.

Yeah, I this is like tricky because I don't when I think about this movie, I don't think of necessarily like a standout, like super fun or, you know, beautifully shot scene. But what is your favorite scene from this film? One of the.

Best scenes is when Coppola is reveling in adolescence, and it's when the group of girls and the group of guys are talking to each other via the phone, and they're playing songs to each other. And it's it's really beautiful, sweet scene where they each play a record to each other, and they sit there over hours and the screen is cut. So you're moving between the two of them. It is a moment that captures the kind of wonder of adolescence and the discovery of it. So it's quite a good scene.

And you kind of ran us through what you thought worked best and held up best and what didn't. So what do you think about whether this movie could or would be made today?

Well, it has been rereleased with a trigger warning. Given the content, would it be made today? I don't are.

We all laughed at that?

Aren't trigger warnings suicide? No, I.

Would it get made today? I don't think so. And I'm not obviously laughing about the suicide. It's just it is a very curious film. And no, I don't think it would be made today because also the point the suicides, I don't know, it's kind of unclear what point they're making in the film. So I don't think this film would get made today. Um, or if it did, it would be obviously a very different film. I had a fun fact, but now I'm going to make it a quiz because, you know, are.

You because you're.

Yeah, we like a quiz. Okay. Sofia Coppola offered an actress a role in the film. The actress considered it, but she thought it was too intense and she turned it down. And she since starred in a Coppola film. Who? I mean, it's a big question. What female actress do you think is.

Worse on some.

Of those windy, good week end quiz questions? The ones that are like, name a thing and then work backwards to just, can you just tell us who this person is?

I didn't know it was so belabored. It was Scarlett Johansson, um.

When I was at school. I don't know if you guys experienced this. There was a whole bit of discourse that, like, this was based on a true story, and people were like, oh, did you hear about those girls up the road that all killed themselves? I'm like, what? That's crazy. It's not right. Like Eugen Eugenides just wrote a fictional story.

I don't know, as discussed on the Baby Reindeer episode, I do not do the fact v fiction, but no, it is a it is just a fictional novel.

Um, okay. Thank you for that, Mel. Great choice. Great couple. Maybe my favorite.

Really? Yeah.

Be cool. What about Lost in Translation?

I think we did this conversation, didn't we? When Priscilla came out. I can't remember what I said, but but when I was rewatching 99 movies and I rewatched this, I was like, this is fucking awesome. Thomas, what have you got for your second choice?

Uh, look, 1999 was a big year for sex bets.

Bets or pests?

Bets, bets and pests.

But sex bets.

In sex bet.

Well, okay, we've all seen She's All That, right, which is essentially a film about how wearing overalls makes you ugly. And Freddie Prinze Jr basically bets his friends that he can turn the ugly girl into a prom queen. And, you know, that's a bit weird, but I will bench that as much as it's a great film and present to you perhaps the most, uh, toxic but sexy film of the 90s. Ladies and gentlemen. It is, of course, Cruel Intentions. You know.

You could be a model. It's too bad you're not sexy.

I can be sexy.

You know what would be super duper sexy?

If you lost all the clothes. Huh?

What a film.

What a what?

A build up to the reveal.

Mhm.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's worth it. It's worth the wait, which is something we learn about a lot in this film. Um, we speak about Reese Witherspoon. She plays the headmaster's daughter Annette. And then basically we meet these toxic stepsiblings. Uh, Mel, this is based on a famous French novel. I can't remember what it is, but you probably know, of.

Course, dangerous liaisons.

Basically, we have Sarah Michelle Gellar, who, of course, was, like, very hot property in the 90s, uh, playing Catherine and Sebastian, her stepbrother, played by Ryan Phillippe, who was very also hot property in the 90s, which ended in like 1999. And then and then he became Reese Witherspoon's husband and then ex-husband anyway. But they play these kind of like, weird Upper East Side toxic stepsiblings. This is well before the days of, you know, um, Gossip Girl and stuff

He wants.

Character.

Description.

And that kind of sums him up. He wants to bed Annette, who is played by Reese Witherspoon. She's a kind of virginal daughter of the headmaster. Annette doesn't want to, like, have sex until she's married. So basically, Catherine makes a bet with Sebastian that he will not be able to have sex with her if Catherine wins. She gets his vintage 1959 Jaguar Roadster. If Sebastian wins, he gets to have sex with his stepsister Catherine, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar.

You say the intentions are cruel here.

The intentions are cruel, but they're also so, so sexy. Uh, it is a strange film. Uh, rewatching it, you can see why people are like, oh my God. But that being said, they did make a second. And of course, Cruel Intentions has now been a stage show. Uh, it is kind of the quintessential 90s film in so many ways. Uh, it was edgy. It was sexy. It was messed up. It is very problematic in the cold light of 2024. But yeah, Cruel Intentions deserves a spot on this list, I would say.

Yeah, it's so interesting because it was not very critically acclaimed at the time, but I think for people of our generation, it just became like one of these really iconic movies. You saw people your age at school living these flashy New York lives with drugs and fancy cars, and it seemed like they weren't really at school. They were kind of adults at the age of school kids. It was kind of weirdly like inspirational in like a sort of fucked up way. Um, yeah, a really good choice.

Yeah.

And I think, I mean, there's no denying that when you're at that age or like, if you're a young person.

I should say aspirational rather than inspirational.

Yeah.

I did wonder.

When you're.

At that age, uh, like when sex is still so taboo and yet, you know, often people think about it a lot. Uh, and a movie comes out like this, which just, like, puts it so front and center and not even just like sex as a concept, but the really kind of fringe areas of sex that you don't normally see in movies, uh, it is like inevitably going to become something that people talk about.

And oh my gosh, the fashion in this is so incredible. And I do think you see the direct influence on this film on things like O.C., Gossip Girl, even more recently, do Revenge. I think it has inspired more than we maybe give it credit for. Yeah, the.

OC coming out like three years after this film. I think it's like it sort of changed what teen dramas could be and how explicit they could be. Thomas. What?

Come on.

Say it so I can say my bit.

What is your favorite scene from Cruel Intentions?

Uh, I mean, this is obviously a no brainer for anyone who was stressed about learning to kiss in the late 90s and early noughties have like, are there five words that had a more of a stranglehold on me than massaged my tongue with yours? Uh, obviously the scene between Selma Blair and Sarah Michelle Gellar where she, uh, Sarah Michelle Gellar teaches Selma Blair to kiss is iconic. Not just in my own teenage mind.

Don't look at me as you're saying this.

Mel is silently judging me. Um, it's I mean, the scene is hilarious. They basically are sitting in a park. Uh, it's funny, I read Sarah Michelle Gellar saying, like, it's, you know, it's one of her favorite scenes, and they often recreated it like MTV Movie Awards and stuff. But like, there were 300 people on set that day watching this play out. Um, but basically, she teaches Selma Blair how to kiss. She says, let's try it again. Only this time stick your tongue in my mouth, massage my tongue

Yeah, I think that that's when people talk about representation of queer characters. That's exactly what they're talking about.

No, I'm not saying that's I'm.

Just saying there are lots of people who said that. Like in terms of what holds, don't sit here.

Done enough, my friend. Yeah. Um, no.

You're a look, this is, uh, everyone's allowed to pick their favorite scenes. It is obviously the most iconic scene from that film. It's not a crazy thing for him to say, Mel.

No, I just don't want you to say massage my tongue again.

Wait. So.

Okay, Mel, you obviously hate this scene.

Then I don't hate this scene.

I can see how you could argue it in all different ways. Am I am I surprised it's your favorite scene?

I'm not well, but, I mean, I haven't seen.

It in ages.

You couldn't choose a different scene from this movie, to be honest.

We have so many more films to talk about. I don't think we can get bogged down into this scene more.

Thomas, why.

Don't you tell us whether sex bits stand up today?

No, no, no. So you've actually kind of touched on what holds up the best from this film. And it actually is the fashion. Uh, these guys look amazing. You know, you've got Selma Blair kind of like, in her J.Crew cardigan very of the time, very preppy. Ryan Phillippe actually had a connection at Prada. So despite the fact that this film, you know, celebrated these rich kids, apparently they didn't really have much budget, especially when it came to Wardrobing.

So what holds up the worst is the entire concept.

Over the film, correct? Yes, correct. Uh, which brings me to, of course.

Could this be released in 2024? Uh, not a chance. Yeah.

All right. That probably I'm loath to say this. Maybe the wildest, uh, conversation will have. Um, my second film. We had to do it, The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Dickie Greenleaf, it's tom. Tom Ripley. Tom Ripley. We were at Princeton together.

Did we know each other? Sorry. What is it, Ripley?

How do you do?

It would just be for a little while.

No, I like him.

Marge, you like everybody, Marge.

You like everybody?

You stay at Dickie's house.

It's kind of become the theme of the year for this podcast. We discussed it first when we were talking about Saltburn, which tried to do the same thing and didn't really succeed, and then more recently with the really incredible, I think, Andrew Scott Netflix series based on the character. This film is one of my favorite films of all time, set in the 1950s. Matt Damon is Tom Ripley, a con artist sent from New York to Italy to try and convince Dickie Greenleaf, a rich Playboy, to come back home.

Oh God, don't you want to fuck everyone when you see just once?

Only once. Absolutely.

Once. Child. Tom. Ripley. Freddy. Myers. Tom.

It is crazy stuff. It is an awesome performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman. I think I give a special shout out to the Naples jazz club scene as well, where the guys are all singing and playing saxophone. That is super fun. That's like from a part of the movie where you're like, this is great. I'm just hanging out with these cool hot people as I have an awesome holiday in Italy. And then obviously the movie gets like significantly darker later on. Um, the hold up the best.

Oh man, this would be probably my number one of the 1999 sect. I just think it's when I think of like if I was to create a work of art, the vibe of this movie, I can't explain it, but the vibe, everything of it, I'm like, that's what I would want. The feelings it gives you, the atmosphere, the tone. I, I love it.

Yeah. We have so much love for Ripley on this pod.

Yeah, I mean, I loved it so much. I went to Ischia, where they shot half the movie last year for a holiday, just because it was where they shot the movie.

Was it as good as it looks in the film? It was.

Amazing. It was amazing. Yeah. The castle is there. Very cool. Mel, we're up to your final pick for the 1999 movie Hall of Fame.

And it's a bit late to kind of get into the terms that were set for our choices, but when we said the kind of famous films of 1999, I took that to also maybe mean infamous as well, because I don't know if this is like one of the best films, but I think it was important and it's worth discussing that is Never Been Kissed.

Welcome to Shakespeare's As You Like It. Are you sure you're 17?

I'm 17.

She's never been hip hop.

This is where the stories are.

She's never been cool.

You'll become friends with these people.

Houston. Kristen. Gibby. What's that girl?

Are you in special ed?

And she's never been sexy.

You will party with them. You'll rave with them. You're going to get jiggy with them.

Until now.

All you need. It was directed by Raja Gosnell, who went on to do Big Momma's House. Smurfs, Scooby-Doo. If that says anything, this is Drew Barrymore. She plays Josie Geller, who's an insecure 25 year old reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. She's never had a relationship, famously never been kissed. She's given an assignment to go undercover at a high school. Off she goes to write about what kids are like today. Now, what is my favorite scene in this film?

Before we get to that, this is another movie where an adult goes to a high school to try and do nefarious things with high schoolers.

Yeah, and I think, what the fuck.

Was happening in America? This is crazy.

Yeah, yeah, you kind of really see, this whole plot is very messed up, and maybe I'll just jump ahead to what doesn't work.

Yeah, start with what doesn't work. Let's do.

That. Yeah.

What doesn't work? Well, yes. It's another situation where maybe the whole plot doesn't work. We've got this 25 year old who goes to a school. She kind of gets the hots for a student at the same time as a teacher, gets the hots for her. And when the teacher finds out she's actually 25, is more upset at her than when she was a student. She's also got her brother, who then somehow enrolls in the school and has a relationship with a student. Again, an adult man.

Yeah. Drew Barrymore was a great part of this movie. Probably the only reason I revisit it. Really. She's awesome in.

It. Yeah.

It's so weird that it was so big on the sleepover roster again. But yeah, I don't know why our parents were letting us watch that.

Uh, what's your.

Favorite scene, Mel?

Uh, I quite like when she's stoned at the party. She goes dancing on stage. She's like riding a feather boa at the same time as she's being covertly. Well, she's being surveilled by her colleagues because she's wearing a camera. It's fun, it's silly. It's a very ridiculous film.

And could it be made today? Probably not. For the same reasons why so many of these movies couldn't.

Yeah, yeah, I think I'm happy to leave this 1 in 1999.

Where it belongs.

Uh, Thomas, your last choice for the Hall of Fame. What is it?

Uh, look, before we get into that, can I just say, sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it. Uh, look, someone had to do it. American Beauty Sam Mendes, famously known as the worst best picture film of all time.

Why does he dress like a Bible salesman?

Today I quit my job, and then I blackmailed my boss for almost $60,000. Pass the asparagus.

My dad's actually kind of cute. I think he and your mother have not slept together in a long time.

Shut up. Do you think you're the only.

It is almost like if you were to type into an AI generator in 2024. Give me a 1999 film. This is what it would spit out. Uh, it kind of like, pulled the greatest trick on everyone at the time into thinking it was this amazing, searing commentary on suburban life and, you know, feeling that you haven't amounted to anything. But really, it was just basically Kevin Spacey grooming, which, as we know, is not that impressive. Um, wait.

You're telling me this is another movie about an older man grooming a high school kid?

Yeah, I know, it's like everyone in suburbia was so bored that they had to fuck teenagers.

So what? What? Despite it being problematic, you recognizing that what holds up for you in this movie? What makes this movie when you watch it in 2024 still feel important or interesting?

Well, I think like for a lot of people, it's probably the fact that you can't divorce the feeling that it had on you at the first time of watching, like it did feel like an important, you know, film at the time. People often refer to it as a deep movie for shallow people, which I need to unpack

Can I tell you that we're running out of time? But in 1999, I did a speech to the Assembly, and I used that scene, and I tied it into a speech about why we should reuse bags, because, like, that bag was indestructible. There you go. Really cut through. I know.

But it's amazing, like, you know, and like that is the famous line about, you know, some, some, like, beauty in the world. And we're just watching this guy film rubbish.

Famously paraphrased by Katy Perry, you know, many years later.

Yes, exactly. Um, so look, it's like it is really funny. 25 years is a long time, but I don't think any Best Picture winner that scooped all the major categories has aged so poorly, and is probably a perfect reflection of just how weird things were in the late 90s. One part I think has aged well, which is, you know, there's a famous scene where Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, his wife, who he hates, who later, you know, spoiler alert,

I'm glad you picked it because we did have to talk about it. It is the Best Picture winner of that year. It is kind of crazy the grip that it had, it deserved to be unpacked. So thank you for stepping up to the plate.

Yeah. Once again, another brave choice from Thomas.

I'm all right, all right, I'm bringing it home. I had to do it. Notting Hill. Yeah.

A very ordinary boy bumps into a girl. Oh my God, and takes her home. The bathroom's on the top floor. It happens all the time. But she is no ordinary girl. She is Anna Scott, the most famous film star in the world. And when they get every.

Couple of years, I set myself the task of trying to decide what is the perfect rom com. I watch them all and I just don't think anything beats Notting Hill. It's the best of Richard Curtis's films. Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts just nail it. The supporting cast is great. The 90s were awesome for rom coms. It feels right to have something as iconic like this on the list. The best scene in this movie I didn't know what a media junket was the first time I saw this film.

Ronan Keating Ronan.

Keating is probably my least favorite on the soundtrack. Um, when I was a kid, we'd go on a lot of car trips and there'd be heaps of arguing about what radio station to listen to, what CDs to put on. But the one thing that the family all agreed on was the soundtrack Elvis Costello, Al Green, The Lighthouse Family, Texas Bill Withers this is like the sound of my early teens in so many ways. Um, what holds up the worst? So there's this modern take that's going around.

Yeah, but he just lives in the bookshop and he has.

His special words.

And, you know, he's like a.

Also, I mean, Notting Hill looks absolutely angelic compared to some of these other films that we've discussed.

Yeah, it's probably Daisy. It's probably got some weird bits to it, but it, it doesn't seem to be as.

Cooked compared to where we've gone.

So if the bar is, uh, young children groomed this well and truly, you know, gets over the line, um, could it be made in 2024? I mean, sort of. We talked about the idea of you, which was basically a gender flipped version of this film. I think, though, what wouldn't be done this way. And we've talked about this a couple of times. This is shot on location in Notting Hill. The script is really great. The cast is really good. Clearly a lot of attention and time

I cannot imagine her in that role though. Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, their chemistry. Yeah, they were the they were the right choice.

Um, we are now actually getting kicked out of our recording because of how long Thomas talked about kissing. Uh, but I wanted to recap on a Hall of Fame briefly, because I think we nailed it. Team, how about this for a list of nine movies from 1999 Magnolia Fight Club election, The Virgin Suicides, Cruel Intentions, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Never Been Kissed, American Beauty and Notting Hill. God damn, that's a list.

It's a good list. But guys, I feel a bit icky now that really unpacking some of those films and what was popular? Uh, it kind of it shocked me hearing all the kind of what was going on in 1999.

It is weird, even though we talked about the strange themes before we listed all the movies, the fact that like American Beauty, Cruel Intentions, election, at least all have these strange themes. Yeah, it's it's it's a weird time. Let's let's leave it with that.

But we've gone there. We've done it for the listeners.

Yes, correct.

Thomas, I think that worked. I think we had fun.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, look, I, I get to have horrors about the discussion around.

Please don't.

Say those words again.

To me.

Massaging terms.

I.

Just.

But yeah. No, I think we nailed it. Yeah.

In lieu of impress Your friends, we've just given you nine awesome and potentially creepy films to rewatch. Um, some homework for us to do, but that was fun. I had a great time, had a great time rewatching these movies. I had a great time talking to you guys about them. Maybe we should do something like this again in the future.

Looking forward to it.

2009 here we come.

Take care guys. Bye. This episode of The Drop was produced by Kai Wong. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode of The Drop, make sure to follow us on your favorite podcast app. Leave us a review or better yet, share it with a friend! I'm Osman Faruqi. See you next week.