1997: The Best Batman

I'm late on this, so let's charge through 2.5 months' worth of 1997 releases, shall we?:

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

release: May 2

dir: Jay Roach

pr: Demi Moore / Mike Myers / Jennifer Todd / Suzanne Todd

scr: Mike Myers

cin: Peter Deming

A rewatch for me, having first watched my sister's VHS around the time I was getting into James Bond, so I was very into this one, even bought the action figures. It's held up surprisingly well, the more obvious jokes like the loooong visual gag of Austin's nudity being obscured by objects like balloons and breakfast sausages are self-aware, part of a tradition of naughty British humor that recalls Are You Being Served?. Dumb fun, but also a great valentine to 60s pop culture kitsch (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls references?). 

The Fifth Element

release: May 9

nominations: Best Sound Effects Editing (Mark A. Mangini)

dir: Luc Besson

pr: Patrice Ledoux

scr: Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen, story by Luc Besson

cin: Thierry Arbogast

A rewatch for me, I think I first saw it just a few years ago, one of those Fathom Events things. Inventive, visually and narratively...well, and aurally, too: I love the score, I love the sound of the Mondoshawn language through their spacesuits, I love Diva Plavalaguna's singing. As a whole, it builds its world convincingly and simply, we understand the rules of this future with its skyscrapers upon skyscrapers, its bank tubes delivering plastic documents to compartmentalized apartments, a system not of efficiency but of anti-socialism. Exciting, fun movie.

 

Nowhere

release: May 9

dir/scr: Gregg Araki

pr: Gregg Araki / Andrea Sperling

cin: Arturo Smith

My first Gregg Araki movie (though I did watch the first two episodes of Now Apocalypse)! A story of hot pansexual youths who may be facing the end of the world. I keep seeing it labeled as a nihilistic film, and while I guess one could make that argument - it is, after all, mostly about late-teens/early-20s losing themselves in drugs, partying, and distractions, with rape, suicide, and random slaughter - its protagonist is so hopeful of connection and so willing to put himself out there, albeit stutteringly, nervously, and, ultimately, to no end, that I can’t help feeling it’s more about living within that milieu and still finding those bonds, those moments of beauty. And did I mention how hot everyone is? Absurdly funny. Something clicked for me with this one.

 

Love! Valour! Compassion!

release: May 16

dir: Joe Mantello

pr: Doug Chapin / Barry Krost

scr: Terrence McNally

cin: Alik Sakharov

An ensemble film about a group of gay friends gathering to celebrate, based on an award-winning, news-making play. Yes, we've seen that before, but whereas something like, say, The Boys in the Band is acid first, Love! Valour! Compassion!'s gaggle may irritate each other sometimes, but love and brotherhood are first. This is a family, even the ones who don't really get along have each other's backs. And you never doubt these relationships. Jason Alexander plays the most "classic" stereotype of the musical theatre-loving fairy, he does an all right job, but I can't help thinking what it would have been like to see his character's original stage assayer: Nathan Lane. 

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

release: May 23

nominations: Best Visual Effects (Dennis Muren / Stan Winston / Randal M. Dutra / Michael Lantieri)

dir: Steven Spielberg

pr: Gerald R. Molen / Colin Wilson

scr: David Koepp

cin: Janusz Kaminski

A rewatch for me, having seen it a few times after first watching it at a neighbor's when it came to VHS. There's a lot of good in it - effects, sound, Spielberg's staging of certain action and horror sequences, Pete Postlethwaite's intense performance as a professional hunter whose soul is stirred by his new quarry - but I'm not sure it's entirely sure of what it wants to do with Ian Malcolm or how it wants to pursue the story. The Godzilla-esque finale feels tacked on, like an idea that no one could resist (or else were required to include for greenlight purposes). 

Con Air

release: June 6

nominations: Best Original Song ("How Do I Live"), Best Sound (Kevin O'Connell / Greg P. Russell / Art Rochester)

dir: Simon West

pr: Jerry Bruckheimer

scr: Scott Rosenberg

cin: David Tattersall

Thought I'd seen this on TV before, but I suppose it was only the one scene where Steve Muscemi's psychopath has a tea party with a child in a drained swimming pool. Now I've seen the whole thing and, oh man, it's so cool. Somehow not a Michael Bay, though clearly "in the style of." Fun ride, great actors given a chance to ham it up together, there's a lot to like!

Ulee's Gold

release: June 13

nominations: Best Actor (Peter Fonda)

dir/scr: Victor Nunez

pr: Sam Gowan / Peter Saraf

cin: Virgil Mirano

A rewatch for me, I first saw it in college with a bunch of classmates because our professor was Victor Nunez, the writer-director of the movie. Victor's got a unique voice, it helps to know he considers himself a Southern writer, his focus being the people of Florida's panhandle. His movies, and this one's no exception, unfold with the patience of a paperback read on a hazy summer day, one you picked up out of curiosity and now have to finish, so engrossed are you by the deceptively simple plot. This one involves a beekeeper caring for his granddaughters while his son sits in jail, their already uneasy world rocked by the son's old accomplices who are after buried goods. How is independent-minded Ulee gonna handle it? A slow burn, a lot of love.

Batman & Robin

release: June 20

dir: Joel Schumacher

pr: Peter Macgregor-Scott

scr: Akiva Goldsman

cin: Stephen Goldblatt

A rewatch for me, I've seen it several times over the years, it's my favorite Batman movie. Yes, my favorite. Is it the best? Yes, it is. It is the movie that brought my favorite tragic villain to the big screen, and even amid a marathon of ice puns ("Ice to see you!"), Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze is grounded in the tragedy of being unable to move forward: his wife trapped in suspended animation awaiting a cure for her rare disease, his crimes financing his research for that cure thwarted by a man the rest of the world counts on to save lives, his mind and body so warped by the accident that made him a human popsicle that he cannot even weep for her without his tears freezing (a moment that many have scoffed at as proof of the film's cheese but which I am moved by every time). It is also the one Batman movie that acknowledges Alfred as not just the dependable butler and trusted confidant, but truly the glue keeping Bruce Wayne and the entire Batman thing together: it is he who guides Robin and Batgirl to their destiny, who pushes Batman to open up and embrace others, who, Bruce finally seems to realize, is the closest thing to a father he's had since his parents' murders; they would be lost without him, and Michael Gough's poignant scenes with George Clooney, set to an emotionally-effecting score by Elliot Goldenthal, are the highlights of the film. Somehow Schumacher and his cast and crew make all that work alongside Uma Thurman vamping like Raquel Welch in Myra Breckinridge saying things like, "Some lucky boy's about to hit the honey pot." This, to me, was what movies should be, and a large part of me still feels that way. George Clooney’s the best Batman!

My Best Friend's Wedding

release: June 20

nominations: Best Musical or Comedy Score (James Newton Howard)

dir: P.J. Hogan

pr: Ron Bass / Jerry Zucker

scr: Ron Bass

cin: Lázsló Kovács

I think this might be my favorite Julia Roberts performance - though I confess, I've yet to see Notting Hill or Erin Brockovich. Here she plays possibly the most calculating, self-sabotaging, selfish person you could meet, a writer who, upon learning her male best friend has fallen in love and is getting married, decides she must stop it so that she ... can what? Does she really want him, or does she just want the option to always be around? Roberts does a magnificent job trying to navigate that for herself without alienating us, an audience who should be frustrated and a little repelled by this. And yet...wouldn't we do anything for love? Isn't that what we grow up hearing, love conquers all? A soundtrack full of bops, Oriana Nudo once argued this as an unorthodox jukebox musical and she's got a point!

Face/Off

release: June 27

nominations: Best Sound Effects Editing (Mark P. Stoeckinger / Per Hallberg)

dir: John Woo

pr: Terence Chang / Christopher Godsick / Barrie M. Osborne / David Permut

scr: Mike Werb & Michael Colleary

cin: Oliver Wood

A rewatch for me, I remember seeing this a couple times in high school and college. Nicolas Cage is the villain and John Travolta is the hero, they get their faces swapped for reasons, and now Travolta's the villain and Cage is the hero. Works as a showcase for the versatility of both actors, as they have to establish distinct characters, then imitate each other's interpretations of those characters. It's a long sit, though, one of those action flicks with a 40-minute "climax" that eventually pummels you into submission.

Hercules

release: June 27

nominations: Best Original Song ("Go the Distance")

dir: Ron Clements / John Musker

pr: Ron Clements / Alice Dewey Goldstone / John Musker

scr: Ron Clements & John Musker and Don McEnery & Bob Shaw and Irene Mecchi

A rewatch for me, my dad took me and a friend to see it in theaters and I'd seen it a few times since. Comes right in between two Disney masterpieces, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mulan. It's an interesting, self-aware comedy about confusing celebrity with heroism, the difference between spectacle and self-sacrifice: a man can risk his life time and again, but what is in his heart when he does it? Who is he doing it for? What makes a hero? Continues Disney's insane 90s run of impeccable songs, "Zero to Hero" and "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" are among the best in the studio's oeuvre.

Men in Black

release: July 2

wins: Best Makeup (Rick Baker / David LeRoy Anderson)

nominations: Best Musical/Comedy Score (Danny Elfman), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Bo Welch / Cheryl Carasik)

dir: Barry Sonnenfeld

pr: Laurie MacDonald / Walter F. Parkes

scr: Ed Solomon

cin: Donald Peterman

A rewatch for me. When did I first see it? Could it really have been a year later, on VHS, during a free period at the end of the school year? That's my memory, at least. I avoided rewatching it for a long time because cockroaches repulse me (naturally), so the very idea of a giant one that crawls about and eats you - ugh, the visual of those bugs crawling out of Vincent D'Onofrio's shirt sleeves - makes me gag. Glad I saw it again, though, it's a good ride and a reminder that Will Smith really was (and is) that guy, truly one of the great movie stars. Witty Danny Elfman score, too.

 

Contact

release: July 11

nominations: Best Sound (Randy Thom / Tom Johnson / Dennis S. Sands / William B. Kaplan)

dir: Robert Zemeckis

pr: Steve Sarkey / Robert Zemeckis

scr: James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg

cin: Don Burgess

Jodie Foster believes she has made contact with extraterrestrials, the government and media get involved, and she gets to debate science and faith with hot pastor Matthew McConaughey. There's not a wasted moment here, not an ounce of fat, 2.5 hours that actually grapple fairly with questions of what lies beyond - not just beyond our own solar system, but beyond mortality, if indeed there is any difference between the two. I love the contrast between two "hearing" sequences, one taking our heroine to task for not espousing a belief in a higher power, another dragging her through the mud for claiming to have experienced contact with some kind of power. It's a masterpiece.

Next time: we get into the first of the year's Best Picture nominees!

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