Clue is an interesting study. It’s a movie set in the 50’s, made in the 80’s, and it bombed in theaters in the 80’s, but the television cut became popular in the 90’s and 00’s. It definitely is a product of the 80’s, I don’t think they would have made it in 1995, but that’s when it landed.
Metropolis might be the ultimate “ahead of its time” movie. It’s nearly 100 years old and still looks mind-blowing.
Falling Down takes place in the 1990’s but feels like a very 1970’s movie.
The Love Witch is a bit of a cheat because it was literally designed to look like it was shot in the 70s (and does an amazing job of it)
Cube was ahead of its time for bizzare setting and body horror.
The Fall by Tarsem. I’ve been so happy the 4k remaster and theatrical re-release has been getting some love now.
Brazil - Made in 1985, feels like post 9/11.
Bladerunner and the sequel
Citizen Kane.
Yes it is circle jerked hard by film lovers… For good reason.
This is what I might consider the first movie shot in what would be recognized as a modern movie format.
It is told non sequentially, the composition of shots is absolutely incredible.
It’s a movie shot in 1941 that looks nothing like the other movies of the time. Literally decades ahead of its time. It looks like it could have been shot a few months ago as a period piece.
There’s good reason for it being one of the most acclaimed movies of all time.
It’s hard to overstate how important the film is to cinema. It pretty much established what the modern movie is.
That said, based strictly off of entertainment value. IMO it is just absolutely terrible.
That’s interesting. I’m not a film guy at all, and it certainly never occurred to me that it pioneered some of the key stuff in modern movies (although that totally makes sense). But I remember enjoying it! The pacing felt quite good, there were some mysteries and character drama. Not a top movie for me personally, but pretty watchable for a B&W movie.
I still can’t believe The Matrix is from '99. The themes and the effects hold up incredibly well, it feels far more modern.
I strongly disagree, Matrix was very much a product of its time, if it had released a decade before or a decade after it would not have had the same impact.
In the 80s as a general rule people didn’t know of the internet nor were they very computer savvy.
In the late 00s cellphones started to be ubiquitous and people were using broadband almost exclusively.
So there was only a small period of time when people were familiar with the idea of telephone lines carrying data, which is a core concept of the movie (exiting the Matrix through your cellphone or laptop is a lot less cool and less prone to plot hooks).
Not to mention that the 90s were extremely gothic and grimdark about the future. I don’t think a movie that the base premise is in the future humans are enslaved to machines and hooked to a large simulation to keep them from realizing they’re slaves would work in any time period besides the 90s.
It’s for sure a product of its time, but it really doesn’t feel like a 1999 movie. Around that time we had
- Sixth sense
- American beauty
- Eyes wide shut
- Being John Malkovich
- Fight Club
Matrix has such a stark level of visual and thematic modernity compared to those. Maybe Fight Club comes near, but the other movies look like they’re from a different decade.
Matrix is a “work sucks” movie the same way that “American Beauty”, “Fight Club”, and “Office Space” was. It is a very 1999 movie.
You’re not gonna believe this but there were movies that are even older.
Surely not?
Day After Tomorrow was about two days before its time
The Man From Earth. It’s always felt out of place to me. I’m not sure if it’s too early or too late, but it doesn’t feel of it’s time to me.
Same vibe for The Discovery of Heaven.
I think that the beauty of it is that it is very time-period agnostic
The first “War of the world’s” movie from 1953.
It’s based on a genius, but quite challenging science fiction novel.
I am sure the people in 1953 liked the movie.
When you watch it today, after you have already seen Spielberg’s version from 2005, then it feels like they were way ahead of their time in 1953 (and you would never believe anyway that the book was written even back in 1898).
You should hear what happened to the radio broadcast of the book.
What happened?
It was read like a news broadcast and many people were unaware it was a fictional reading. The story was re-written for this radio broadcast to sound like a news report and caused mass hysteria.
But the truth is, that’s the fictional story. It’s all hyperbole and a bunch of newspapers at the time ran with it, to have some fun and sell some papers. There was never any mass hysteria as reported. No one killed themselves thinking aliens were invading, the broadcast was only listened to by 2% of the US, and everyone was aware it was fake. It was a regular type of thing on this radio program.
One of the many little details I love about that movie is Pacific Tech, the university where scientists studied the alien hardware. I noticed they used that as the name of the college in Real Genius. Apparently it’s has been in many movies and tv shows.
Brick. By Rian Johnson with Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Lukas Haas was very deliberately a throwback to good ol’ hard boiled detective noir.
I thought it worked quite well. It has an excellent on-foot chase sequence, if nothing else.
Love when he takes off his shoes
Turbo kid
A Mad Max-inspired romp through 80s genre film, where souped up cars have been replaced by BMX bikes and our hero fights baddies with the help of a Mega Man-esque arm cannon. A bizarre and hilarious little film that you should definitely see with an audience.
https://lamplightreview.com/movie-review-turbo-kid/
Came out on Netflix in 2016
Ohhh, this movie is magical. I love it so much!
