Episode 29: 1999 in Film with Taylor Donaldson

On the twenty- ninth episode of ATFT, one of my good friends, lover of movies Taylor Donaldson joins me in discussing 1999 in film! This episode is explicit and contains spoilers for a few 1999 films. 1999 is often regarded as one of the greatest years in cinema. There's even a book written by Brian Raftery titled: Best. Movie. Year. Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen. NPR's Scott Detrow describes 1999 to Raftery in a short conversation, as a year in which "old masters like Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick were still putting out provocative work, while new masters like David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson were pushing the boundaries of narrative and cinematic form." As Taylor describes in the beginning of the episode, it was a very "eclectic" year for cinema. Keanu Reeves took the red pill and learned "there is no spoon", John Cusack along with several others entered the mind of John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie screamed "Where's Jamie?", Brad Pitt and Edward Norton welcomed us to their fight club and Heath Ledger stole all of our hearts. 1999 was certainly an innovative, stand- alone, eclectic year in cinema. This is Taylor’s fourth time on ATFT but first appearance on the wide release! Taylor has been one of my closest friends for four years now and quickly became my favorite person to talk film with. Since this is a special episode, I knew I had to bring on a very special guest and Taylor instantly came to mind. This episode was recorded on September 5, 2024.  In this episode, Taylor and I discuss the films of 1999 with a little help from each and every past wide release guest on ATFT. Since this was, again, a special episode, I wanted to include all the past guests so I asked each of them their favorite film from 1999. After Taylor share our top five favorite films of the year, we go through the list of films chosen by the ATFT guest community. Taylor also shares some hot takes, the most significant probably being The Virgin Suicides is the best film by a Coppola, why she is rooting for Matt Damon's Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley, and the hits and many misses of the 2000 Academy Awards. All this and more on the latest episode of All the Film Things! Background music created and used with permission by the Copyright Free Music - Background Music for Videos channel on YouTube.