Book Review: Best. Movie. Year. Ever explores why 1999 blew up the big screen

In 1999, it seemed American film was on the verge of a bright new era to rival the ‘70s. We didn’t know it at the time, but it turned out that artistically, it was the beginning of the end for Hollywood. Brian Raftery – a contributor to publications such as Wired and Rolling Stone – does a bang-up job of explaining the set of circumstances that led to a crop of classics like Fight Club, Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, Boys Don’t Cry, Election and more.

Best Movie Year Ever also prompts you to reconsider your opinions. In retrospect, American Beauty – acclaimed at the time as the jewel in 1999’s cinematic crown – seems ludicrously overrated. And more than ever, Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut looks a criminally overlooked masterpiece. There is also an undercurrent of nostalgia to the book: with TV now defining the zeitgeist, 1999 is a cinematic era we can never get back to. But what an era.