So it turns out in 2015 I’m pretty crazy for movies from the 1990s.
I’m not sure how it happened, I’m not sure I want to know, but I’m craving them like a pregnant woman craves loaves of french bread stuffed with pickles and slathered in chocolate and mayonnaise, with Betty Crocker whipped butter cream frosting as a dipping sauce.
FYI, eating one of those is exactly what watching Batman Forever (1995) feels like–I know, amazing, right!
It started early in the year, this succumbing to the decade that’s giving the 80s a run for its money in pop cultural impact. I do have favorites that I go back to often, like The Ice Storm (1997), Affliction (1997), Barton Fink (1991), and other feel good movies like that, but what I was after were the films I remembered enjoying but hadn’t seen since before the millennium. There was Groundhog Day (1993) and Get Shorty (1995), Interview With The Vampire (1994) and Apollo 13 (1995) and then Fight Club (1999) and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996).
And then I came across a pristine used copy of Taschen’s 2-volume Favorite Movies of the 90s. I bought it, took the red pill, and I’ve been in Wonderland ever since.
I’m not trying to revisit or experience for the first time every title featured in the book, it was just that the timing seemed so creepy right. That little whispering voice in my head suddenly got louder and clearer: “Keep going, Bryan, what you’re doing is good, doesn’t it feel good? Yes, go ahead and buy Raising Cain (1992) and Darkman (1990) and The Rock (1996) AND Mars Attacks (1996), and reacquaint yourself with Flirting With Disaster (’96 again!), Lost Highway (1997), and The Fisher King (1991) and In the Line of Fire (1993). Don’t be bashful now, The Usual Suspects was such a good friend to you back in 1995, it’s only been 20 years. And sweet Jesus, Aladdin treated you so well in 1992, surely it hasn’t lost any of its wily charm?”
Yeah, all that is the voice I’m hearing these days.
Now, the big question……………..Do they all hold up? Well…………….what do you say, Darkman? “So far so good, Bryan! Now turn off the #%!$@ light!”
Surely I’m not the only one who’s doing this.
You, yes you out there, don’t you have a 90s movie fetish too?
