Reeling in '98
The Austin Chronicle Top Nine Films of 1998
Fri., Jan. 8, 1999
| 1. The Sweet Hereafter (39)
| 2. Hands on a Hard Body (28)
| 3. Happiness (25)
| 4. Shakespeare in Love (22)
| 5. A Simple Plan (19)
|
| 6. The Big Lebowski (17)
| 7. The Opposite of Sex (14)
| 8. Out of Sight (13)
| 9. Saving Private Ryan (11)
|
|
|
| MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN 1. The Sweet Hereafter 2. The Big Lebowski 3. Happiness 4. The Celebration 5. Hands on a Hard Body 6. A Simple Plan 7. Velvet Goldmine 8. Out of Sight 9. Your Friends and Neighbors | STEVE DAVIS 1. Shakespeare in Love 2. The Sweet Hereafter 3. Hands on a Hard Body 4. The Butcher Boy 5. Out of Sight 6. A Simple Plan 7. Babe: Pig in the City 8. The Apostle 9. Elizabeth | ROBERT FAIRES 1. The Sweet Hereafter 2. Shakespeare in Love 3. The Big Lebowski 4. Oscar and Lucinda 5. The Opposite of Sex 6. Hands on a Hard Body 7. The Apostle 8. Wag the Dog 9. Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 | MARC SAVLOV 1. Happiness 2. A Simple Plan 3. High Art 4. Saving Private Ryan 5. Buffalo '66 6. Still Breathing 7. Out of Sight 8. The Big One 9. Elizabeth | RUSSELL SMITH 1. The Sweet Hereafter 2. Hands on a Hard Body 3. The Opposite of Sex 4. Happiness 5. Wag the Dog 6. Velvet Goldmine 7. Saving Private Ryan 8. Shakespeare in Love 9. Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist |
| NEAR MISSES | Saving Private Ryan; Shakespeare in Love; Henry Fool; Beloved; He Got Game | High Art; The Thief;Without Limits; You've Got Mail; Snake Eyes | Clockwatchers; You've Got Mail, Pleasantville, Moon Over Broadway, Twentyfourseven | The Opposite of Sex; The Cruise; The Butcher Boy; Bulworth; Hands on a Hard Body | Live Flesh; Your Friends and Neighbors; Oscar and Lucinda; Insomnia; Elizabeth |
| MOST OVERRATED FILMS | The Opposite of Sex; Pleasantville; The Spanish Prisoner | Two Girls and a Guy; Deconstructing Harry; The Opposite of Sex | The Waterboy; The Truman Show; There's Something About Mary | Pleasantville; Love Is the Devil; The Spanish Prisoner | |
| MOST UNDERRATED FILMS | Bulworth; Babe: Pig in the City; Velvet Goldmine | Babe: Pig in the City; Without Limits; Snake Eyes | The Big Lebowski; Clockwatchers; Madeline | * (Pi); Six-String Samurai; Can't Hardly Wait | Great Expectations; Lolita; Four Days in September |
| ACTING KUDOS | Julie Christie (Afterglow); Ed Harris (The Truman Show); Warren Beatty (Bulworth); Ally Sheedy (High Art); John Turturro and entire cast (The Big Lebowski) | Robert Duvall, (The Apostle); Holly Hunter (Living Out Loud); Patricia Clarkson (High Art); Billy Bob Thornton (A Simple Plan); Eammon Owens (The Butcher Boy) | Cate Blanchett (Oscar and Lucinda); Robert Duvall (The Apostle); Dustin Hoffman (Wag the Dog); Joan Allen (Pleasantville); Lisa Kudrow (The Opposite of Sex, Clockwatchers) | Ally Sheedy (High Art); Christina Ricci (Buffalo '66); Lisa Kudrow (The Opposite of Sex); Rose McGowan (Lewis & Clark & George); Robert Duvall (The Apostle) | Christina Ricci (The Opposite of Sex); Geoffrey Rush (Elizabeth); Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love); Rona Hartner (Gadjo Dilo); Stellan Skarsgard (Insomnia) |
| BEST DIRECTOR | Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter); Todd Solondz (Happiness); Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight) | Sam Raimi (A Simple Plan); Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter); Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight) | Joel Coen (The Big Lebowski); Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter); Gillian Armstrong (Oscar and Lucinda) | Todd Solondz (Happiness); Vincent Gallo (Buffalo '66); Darren Aronofsky, * (Pi) | Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter); Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan); Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine) |
| BEST SCREENPLAY | Neil LaBute (Your Friends and Neighbors); Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter); Richard Kwietniowski (Love and Death on Long Island) | Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love); Ed Dechter & John J. Strauss (There's Something About Mary); Neil Jordan (The Butcher Boy) | Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love); Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter); Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex) | Todd Solondz (Happiness); James Toback (Two Girls and a Guy); Sherman Alexie (Smoke Signals) | Neil LaBute (Your Friends and Neighbors); Whit Stillman (The Last Days of Disco); Tom Stoppard & Marc Norman (Shakespeare in Love) |
| WORST FILM | Ringmaster: Why go to the theatre and pay seven bucks to buy the Springer cow when you can stay home on the couch and watch the milk curdle for free? | Desperate Measures: Has Andy Garcia ever appeared in a good movie since The Untouchables? He's become the kiss of death for any film he's in. | The second half of Armageddon: What began as a smarter-than-average summer blockbuster goes dangerously wrong after blast-off, devolving into bomb blasts and bombast, an annoying mix of improbable space opera that would embarrass Flash Gordon and sappy, slo-mo "We Are the World" Coke ad. | Godzilla (A Haiku): Godzilla lesson Rubber-suit man was just fine. CGI? That bites. | Almost Heroes (Memo to God: Punch my ticket whenever you want. It's your deific prerogative. But at least grant me the courtesy of a less embarrassing artistic swan song than this one by the late Chris Farley.) |
| WILD CARD CATEGORY | The welcome embrace of genre films by numerous directors of note: Robert Altman (The Gingerbread Man); Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight); Richard Linklater (The Newton Boys); Tony Scott (Enemy of the State); John Frankenheimer (Ronin) | What Were They Thinking?: The talking snowman in Jack Frost; the shot-for-shot duplication of Psycho and the fictionalization of a Jerry Springer show with Jerry Springer in Ringmaster | Most loquacious NYC export: Timothy "Speed" Levitch | Best live concert film of a middle-aged English folk/pop/psychedelic cult-rocker that debuted at the SXSW Film Festival, yet -- inexplicably -- has yet to return for a theatrical showing: Storefront Hitchcock |
Critics'
