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Will Hollywood remember the '90s?
This week one of my professors lectured on the not-so-distant history of "Run Lola Run," and filmmaking in the '90s.
He prefaced the discussion with a disclaimer, citing the awkwardness of trying to find perspective on history that isn't well, historic enough yet. He ended class by opening it up to students with the question: "Who do you think will be the directors looked back upon as the greats of the '90s in 20 years?"
I've decided to boldly step out onto that limb into almost sure embarrassment, with a few directors who just might populate pages of "Film in the '90s" textbooks that film students in the year 2020 will begrudgingly fork over exorbitant amounts of money to purchase at their campus bookstores.
I can only hope that my predictions - should someone be inclined to un-earth this issue of the University Chronicle at that time - will not end up looking as comically dated as the hoverboards and flying cars of "Back to the Future 2".
Steven Soderbergh
The work-a-holic (currently listed as producing 12 projects and directing two for 2004-2005) A-list director flexes his mastery of the Hollywood merger of commerce versus art better than anyone working today.
From his glitz celeb-filled capers ("Oceans 11," "Out of Sight") to the stylistic extremes of "Solaris" and "Full Frontal," Soderberg is potent, flexible and cunning. Cunning enough to remake Tarkovsky's "Solaris" with A-list leading man George Clooney and spring it on the "Who the hell is Andrei Tarkovsky?" Friday night multiplex crowd.
Joel and Ethan Coen
Misery and comedy, buffoonery and absurdity collide in the hands of duo who built careers around crimes, quirks and cringes. The Coen's truly dark comedies chart emotional extremes from the frigid horror of "Fargo" to the epic absurdity of "The Big Lebowski." Also, 'Lebowski' may just be the best film ever made about the '90s.
Bobby and Peter Farrelly
Take the Coens and the Farrelly's, add the Simpsons and Mike Judge and you can map the sense of humor of any person who grew up in the '90s. I'm still waiting for something to make me laugh harder than I did the first time I saw "Dumb and Dumber" in the theatres. The brothers wield sticky grossout humor with serious heart time and time again.
David Fincher
With "Se7en," "Fight Club" and "The Game" Fincher crafted machine seared worlds of hot new technology and stone cold humans.
In each, the protagonists have no control over a world that seems programmed to torture and destroy them. But in each case they fight back: violently, blindly and by whatever means possible. Even if the endings seem uplifting, only through the mindset of their fantasy worlds do the heroes really win. The perfect ending for a video game.
In "Se7en" Fincher married the music video with film noir for a nihilistic anti-urban serial killer odyssey. In "Fight Club" he adapted the work of Chuck Palahnuik with a visual style even more accessible to youth than Palahnuik's catch-phrase ridden prose.
Robert Rodriguez
"Film is dead: an evening with Robert Rodriguez," reads a special feature on the DVD of "Once Upon a Time in Mexico." Although not everyone seems to have noticed, digital video is poised to make the term intrinsically connected to the movies obsolete. Rodriguez harnessed the new medium for "Spy Kids 2," "Spy Kids 3-D" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," and vows never to return to film.
Although most will remember Tarantino's rise from store-clerk to A-list jerk as the ultimate Hollywood success tale, Rodriguez made a similar rise with "El Mariachi" in 1989.
The self taught director works with the impulsive zeal of a kid at Christmas with the flamboyantly sloppy "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," And he accomplished something amazing. A true example of what a guy with a camcorder and a mixing stage in his garage, and an editing suite, and another editing suite, can do. - John Behling
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