Was 1999 the year that changed movies? Looking back a decade later on the year that shook up film

July 16, 6:11 AMAtlanta Movies ExaminerRyan McNally

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Was 1999 the year that changed movies? That was the bold declaration by Entertainment Weekly a decade ago, and it was tough to argue considering the deluge of innovative, quality movies by young directors--spanning genres and budgets—that poured into theaters that year. According to EW, the old auteurs were in decline, with directors like Scorsese (Bringing out the Dead), Lucas (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), Altman (Cookie’s Fortune) and Eastwood (True Crime) fizzling out, while the legendary Kubrick sputtered with Eyes Wide Shut.

In their place, a brash crop of young directors was breaking the rules of film in a way not seen since the rebels of the 1970s. Pushing past the limits of traditional filmmaking, these new auteurs were turning the concept of “making a movie” on its head. As EW wrote:

“Consider the evidence: The whirling cyberdelic Xanadu of The Matrix. The relentless, rapid-fire overload of Fight Club. The muddy hyperrealism of The Blair Witch Project. The freak show of Being John Malkovich. The way time itself gets fractured and tossed around in The Limey and Go and Run Lola Run. The spooky necro-poetry of American Beauty and The Sixth Sense. The bratty iconoclasm of Dogma. The San Fernando Valley sprawl of this winter's Magnolia.”

Ten years later, it’s time to revisit 1999 and consider whether movies really changed, or if they quickly reverted to the same old, same old. And did the budding crop of young directors live up to their potential?

Following are 15 films from 1999 that busted barriers and shook up paradigms. This list doesn’t include all the top-tier films from that incredible year, which gave moviegoers indie veterans producing some of their best works (David Lynch, The Straight Story; Jim Jarmusch, Ghost Dog; Pedro Almodovar, All About My Mother), landmark animation (Toy Story 2, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut) and quality big studio fare (The Insider, The Talented Mr. Ripley). But this list, presented in alphabetical order, covers the films that messed with notions of traditional filmmaking and helped create the feeling that the ‘00s could be a wild decade in cinema, one that rivaled the ‘70s for fearless filmmaking.

See how Sam Mendes, Kevin Smith and others broke new ground in ’99 in “Was 1999 the year that changed movies? (part two)”