In 1998, I was living in an apartment in the East Village, with a two-hour commute three days a week to Stony Brook University on Long Island, where I was enrolled in yet another graduate program (if you've been keeping track, my fourth). With commuting, taking classes, teaching classes, and the infinite activity of Manhattan, plus the new freedom to buy movies to watch at home, going to movie theaters was a rather low priority. I only saw twelve, unless my memory is faulty and I saw them on DVD.
August: Dead Man on Campus: two college roommates, a stick-in-the-mud (Tom Everett Scott) and an operator (Mark-Paul Goesselaer of Saved by the Bell) try to find a third roommate who will commit suicide and get them straight As for the semester. Notable for a scene about 1/2 way through where Mark-Paul brings a girl to the room. It's dark, and he's not the focus of the scene, but if you look closely, you can see his penis rising to full attention under the covers.
August: 54: An homage to the infamous disco-era nightclub, with Ryan Philippe as a poor-but-honest (and straight) boy awed by the glitter, and Mike Myers as club owner Steve Rubell, here painted as predatory and doomed. The director's cut, released 10 years later, makes Ryan bisexual and tones down the homophobia.
September: None
October: Pleasantville: Tobey Maguire (four years before I walked out on his Spiderman movie) and his sister are zapped into a black-and-white 1950s sitcom world. While introducing the residents to non-1950s innovations like modern art and sex, he meets the Girl of His Dreams.
November: Gods and Monsters. The aging James Whale (Ian McClellan), director of those 1930s Frankenstein movies, tries to seduce a straight boy, fails, and kills himself. Gay men are all sexual predators, got it. Plot twist: turns out that Whale planned the seduction with the hope that the straight boy would panic and kill him. Gay men are all suicidal, got it. What did you expect in 1998?
November: Velvet Goldmine: A musical about the 1970s glam punk scene, featuring androgynous Brian Slade (Ewan McGregor), who is bisexual and has a destructive relationship with a fellow rock star. Gay relationships are by definition destructive. What did you expect in 1998?
December: The Faculty: Invasion of the Body Snatchers in high school Josh Hartnett and Elijah Wood discover that their teachers are being controlled by aliens. They save the day, and meet the Girls of their Dreams.
At about this time, in the early days of the internet, someone began posting an archive online with dozens of photos of Josh Hartnett and gushing articles telling us how wonderful he was. Like "He is so strong! He can do, like 20 push-ups without stopping!" Big deal, my personal best is 43.
January: None
February: 8mm: Private investigator Nicholas Cage exploits the sleazy world of fetish films, including snuff. I figured that there would be gay characters, but there weren't.
March: Cruel Intentions. Popular teens have fun destroying their classmate's lives. Closeted football player Greg (Eric Mabius) has been having sex with uber-swishy hustler Blaine (Joshua Jackson), who does his nails while getting a blow job. When they try to blackmail Greg (yes, gay blackmail is a thing in this movie), he panicks and throws out all of his Judy Garland records (yes, all gay men are fans of Judy Garland, even those born 10 years after her death). Horribly retro-homophobic, even in 1999.
March: The Matrix. Keanu Reaves discovers that this world is a fake. And meets a girl.
April: Go: Three interconnected couples in a story involving Christmas, Ecstasy, and police stings. One of the couples is gay (Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf) and don't die at the end.
May: The Mummy, because Brendan Fraser (sigh). Who cares if he doesn't take off his shirt, and gets the Girl. And if the plot is really dumb. And if Google lies and tells you that it's a .jpg, but it's really a .jfif. Twice!
May: The Phantom Menace. I think this is the one that introduces Anacin Skywalker, the tyke who will grow up to become Darth Vader and bad-parent Luke and Leia. Maybe I saw it on DVD later.
I spent the summer of 1999 in Paris, and naturally didn't go to many movies.
June: None
July: None
While I may not like his full name, dude in the first pic looks solid 👍🏻😏
ReplyDeletePleasantville reminds me of how really the 50s would get a bad rap. Segregation had existed since Reconstruction ended, and there were all-white country clubs in the 90s. McCarthyism and John Birchism became more powerful as later Reaganite propaganda than they ever were in the 50s and 60s, when John Birchers were seen as the windmill-tilting clowns they were.
ReplyDeleteI think the Red Scare had a devastating effect on the national psyche, introducing the idea that you can't trust anyone; your teacher, your parents, even the mayor may be a closet Commie. The slightest deviation was suspect, which was why you saw films in school on "How to Act Like Everyone Else"
DeleteCruel Intentions was awful. I almost had forgotten about it.
ReplyDeleteNo mention of the Matrix as a trans allegory?
The Mummy was great, even if Brendan Fraser is a tad overdressed.
The Phantom Menace was bad, but we'll see worse. And I loathe how the yaoi fangirls decided all the Jedi were child molesters after this movie.
i was not aware of the trans allegory in "The Matrix" at the time, and still have trouble finding the trans subtexts. You can read it as an allegory for the gay experience: growing up with everyone lying, discovering that the world is not what it seems, and so on.
DeleteHow is the Matrix about trans? Its about dreams vs reality and how what we perceive as real might not be
DeleteTry googling "The Matrix" and "trans," and you'll get about 100 articles about it. Here's one from Pink News: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/12/22/the-matrix-trans-trangender/
DeleteAnd Cinema Blend: https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/the-matrix-and-gender-identity-the-trans-narrative-behind-the-wachowskis-sci-fi-classic
You could also say that Neo is becoming gay but either way it fails to explain why the sequels are so horrendous
DeleteHow is the Matrix about being trans? It's *sums up being trans*
DeleteIronically, Ian McCallen was openly/publicly gay long before 1998. Still, he could only play gay in American cinema like this... In contrast: he was on British TV in late 60s / early 70s in a Shakespeare adaptation as a gay man (lead character!).
ReplyDelete