King of Masks

Bian Lian, 1997, China-Hong Kong (8.4*)
In this true story, Xu Zhu plays an aging master of the ancient art of change, Sichuan Change Art, named Wang Bianlian who is known on the streets as King of Masks. He prefers to perform on the streets rather than seek more lucrative work in theaters or shows, as he seems to be inspired by the children in the crowds.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115669/awards

His wife has long gone, his only child is dead, so Wang has no male descendent to teach his rare art; masters require students trained to keep their craft alive. One night he chances to purchase an orphan boy, and the story of their friendship begins.

For those that want a change of pace from Chinese films which have martial arts, huge casts, and epic feel, this simple, unpretentious story is one of a rare handful. This is a beautifully made and touching story. Winner of 19 awards

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Lawn Dogs

John Duigan, 1997 (8.2*)
Young Mischa Barton (about 11 here) is surprisingly adult in her first starring role, as Devon - here she steals this film from adult actors. Sam Rockwell is Trent, a landscape maintenance worker in an upper-class suburban neighborhood, and oddly, she chooses him to befriend while she's not making any friends at her new school. Her worried dad, Christopher McDonald, even talks to her in private, telling her she can "leave the old Devon behind and create a new one".

Trent is obviously from the wrong side of the tracks, and also has a criminal record, which makes him even more ostracized. Ironically, rich girl, and super film goddess, Angie Harmon comes around after hours to his trailer for a little slumming in the sack. Devon's mom, Kathleen Quinlan, also dallies around, and has a hilarious scene making the salad for a yardfull of friends outside while fooling around inside.

For some odd reason, and maybe this stretches the credibility of the film a little, he grudgingly accepts her friendship - perhaps to get back at the status-minded adults in a small way. However, making bigger enemies of the town and your employers is bound to cause some tension eventually.

The adults, and the 'rich kids' are universally materialistic, self-centered, and bigoted. The frienship between Devon, a child, and Trent, a young adult, is the only healthy relationship shown, as the adults have their own barely-hidden vices.

Winner of 7 awards overall

Mischa Barton, born in London, was just 12

 in Lawn Dogs, is now all grown up at 25

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The Wings of the Dove

Ian Softley, 1997 (8.6*)
Helena Bonham Carter's most riveting and intense performance, an Oscar®-nominated one for best actress, highlights this Victorian tale, from the novel by Henry James, of two poor British lovers and how they attach themselves as best friends to a dying heiress in a scheme to perhaps inherit some money.

Carter plays a conniving woman, Kate Croy, who is being asked to give up her muck-raking journalist fiance (Linus Roache) in order to maintain her lifestyle. She befriends a traveling heiress, played by Alison Elliott, who turns out to be dying. The heiress shows some interest in Kate's fiance, so Kate hatches a scheme to have him court the dying woman with the hopes of gaining financially.

Emotions, however, are not easy to plan or control, and not all goes according to plan. Carter becomes one of the screen's more lovable villainesses, nearly up there with Glen Close in Dangerious Liaisons. Even though this is not a very pleasant romance, it's an incisive and intense one. Helena Bonham Carter turned in her best performance here, and in an interview before the Oscars said "it was my first nude bonk scene - can I say bonk on tv?"

Winner of 16 awards out of 37 nominations. Carter won 13 for her performance, while Alison Elliott won 2 for supporting actress.

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Gadjo Dilo

aka, The Crazy Stranger
Tony Gatliff, 1997, Romania (8.2*)
Now, when have you ever seen a film that shows the passionate lifestyle of gypsies, and not just the gypsy catfight in From Russia With Love? We finally have one, and it full of music, drinking, dancing, and passion. A young Parisian is seen walking in the beginning, and it turns out that he’s a gypsy descendent, and is in Romania searching for the singer of a song that his father loved to listen to while dying. He finds a great drunken musician named Izidor, who takes him under his wing, and begins to teach him the language, so he won’t be a “gadjo”, or outsider. He also meets the seductive beauty played by Rona Hartner, whose dancing, singing, and eroticism steal the film. Hartner, who also records music cds and does paintings, won two film festival awards for Best Actress for this film. Down a star for some unnecessary violence. Winner of 9 international awards.

Awards: Gadjo Dilo Awards

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A Life Less Ordinary

Danny Boyle, 1997 (8.2*)
I always liked this wacky romantic comedy best of all of Boyle's films. The story is just farfetched enough to be unique: two angels, now on probation, hilariously played by Delroy Lindo and Holly Hunter are being forced by the Big Guy to make two loveless people on earth fall in love with each other. Cameron Diaz is a spoiled rich girl, who likes to shoot apples off butler Stanley Tucci's head; her dad, Ian Holm, is a corporate CEO jerk, who fires janitor Ewan MacGregor, who then kidnaps Diaz with a little help.

The crime starts a chase, which maybe starts a romance, which becomes a musical fantasy (Ewan sings Beyond the Sea!), with the angels surveilling the entire story, for if they fail they have to be reincarnated into bodies again, and neither one wants that - especially Holly's angel, which gets banged up somewhat! Some won't like this farce, some will - fluff for sure, but I thought pretty danged hilarious fluff, especially the fantasies thrown in.

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The Sweet Hereafter

Atom Egoyan, 1997 (9.0*)
Cannes Palm d’Or
Best Foreign Film (BAA)
This is an amazing indie film from Canadian Atom Egoyan, not quite like any other. It’s a quiet, almost uneventful film about a small town trying to survive their grief after a school bus accident.

Ian Holm, in his best performance, is a lawyer who comes to town to try to get some financial compensation for the victim’s families. Holm is generally shunned as an outsider with whom the town doesn't want to share it's pain. Sarah Polley plays a teen who may have been an eyewitness to the event’s cause.

It’s amazing that a small, quiet film about loss and grief can even get made; then to have that be a minor masterpiece is even more amazing. This film has a depth and a quietness rarely seen in cinema. Oscar nominations for director and screenplay, a British AA for foreign film, Grand Prize at Cannes (Palm d'Or)

Winner of 30 awards out of 52 nominations

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Contact

Robert Zemeckis, 1997 (9.0*)
Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote just this one novel, which blended science, fiction, and religion into a story of mankind discovering we are not alone in the universe, and it intelligently examines potential consequences and effects on mankind. Jodie Foster, as Dr. Arroway, discovers a signal from space while monitoring radio telesopes; first thought a red herring, careful analysis of the signal detected layers of information, which include a translation key.

Suddenly the news is out, religious fanatics once again decry science as 'devil’s work', corporations race to capitalize financially, while nations are both skeptical and appalled at having to spend any money, in short special interests threaten the entire world-shattering breakthrough from even occurring. Matthew McConaughey is miscast as a priest who is Foster’s friend and romantic interest; Sam Shepherd is a jealous colleague, but the film is all Foster’s, who also produced.

Zemeckis also directed Back to the Future, and in this case shows he can direct serious science fiction as well. A little slow if you expect action SF, but one of a few intelligent adult sf books to film, so add another classic must-see to that genre’s growing list.

If you like this theme, make sure you see Close Encounters, and read Arthur C. Clarke's awesome book Childhood's End, which Kubrick wanted to film and ended up with 2001 instead due to the limited film technology of the time.

Note: For a list of my favorite science fiction-fantasy novels, check here, you'll see that Childhood's End is #1:
Top 100 Science Fiction Books

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Hard Eight

Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997 (8.3*)
A superb cast makes this small indie film a big surprise winner. John C. Reilly, always excellent and an Oscar nominee for Chicago, is a casino newcomer, spotted by seasoned veteran Philip Baker Hall, in his best performance. He shows Reilly how to use the casino perks to rack up free meals and rooms, and other inside info on being a professional gambler. Gwyneth Paltrow even took a supporting role in this due to the excellent Anderson script, who also wrote and directed Boogie Nights. This could be the most revealing look at gambling and casinos on film, definitely from an experienced gambler perspective.

Note: I lived in Las Vegas once for a year, and craps (dice) was the only game where I could regularly win real money - hard for them to cheat you when YOU hold the gambling device itself! (forget ALL card games) A 'hard eight' is simply double fours, which pays ten for one if you hit it, so a $5 bet pays you $50 - and believe me, there are dice rollers out there who seem to ONLY throw doubles, with them you simply bet ALL the hard ways (4,6,8 and 10). I made $1000 off one of them once in about 20 minutes, so did his two buddies, and when he quit, so did I. You look for shooters like that... and you always quit after a hot run, "take the money and run".

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Gattica

Andrew Nichol, 1997 (8.5*)
One of the most intelligent of the science fiction films, not actually based on shootouts or space battles but on stolen identity, DNA, bias, privacy, individualism. Ethan Hawke is a worker who seems to be hiding a mystery, and we later learn that he’s borrowing DNA from Jude Law, whose character is a paraplegic after an accident. Uma Thurman is around for romantic interest. Without spoilers, you’ll have to see this one to uncover the plot, but don’t expect a lot of action here, more of a mystery plot cloaked in a science fiction futuristic environment.

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The Game

David Fincher, 1997 (8.6*)
This is pure adrenaline pumping entertainment. Sean Penn has a wealthy brother, Michael Douglas, who does little but run his corporation. For his birthday (what do you give a billionaire who literally has everything?), Penn enrolls Douglas in a mysterious sounding "Game", which promises unique excitement designed for the participant.

What follows is far more than Douglas bargained for when he signs a release to waive liability in case he dies, which is a distinct possibility. When he tries to investigate 'the company', it's completely disappeared. Debra Kara Unger is the mysterious blonde who helps him escape gunfire and attempt to survive the Game. David Fincher (Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Social Network (2010)) always makes interesting and unique films that keep you glued to the plot, this one could be his best.

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As Good As It Gets

James Brooks, 1997 (9.0*)
Superb acting makes this romantic comedy one of the best of the genre. Oscar®-winner Jack Nicholson plays a near-psycho eccentric romance novelist, who avoids cracks religiously with his feet but apparently not in his head. He’ll only eat at one restaurant, and patient waitress Helen Hunt (also an Oscar®-winner) is the only one who will wait on him, so they sorta have an oddball connection.

Meanwhile, Jack’s gay neighbor, Greg Kennear in a terrific Oscar®-nominated performance, is beaten by robbers and Jack has to take care of Kennear’s dog (great dog acting too!), forming an instant bond, which leads to a friendship with Kennear in return. The best thing about this film is the script, which shows character growth, a willingness to change, and unusual bonds formed by those in need.

Director James Brooks (creator of tv's Taxi, The Simpsons) always makes good films (such as Terms of Endearment, this could be his best. Should have won Best Picture but came out the year of Titanic. Three Oscars

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Good Will Hunting

Gus Van Sant, 1997 (9.0*)
Superb acting and an Oscar-winning screenplay by co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who wrote the screenplay to get parts for themselves as actors, and they end up with an Oscar apiece for writing – now that’s Hollywood! Damon plays a janitor at MIT who solves a difficult math problem left on a hallway blackboard just because he can.

When discovered, the professors get psychologist Robin Williams, in an Oscar winning supporting role, to attempt to pull Damon out of his shell and use his potential. Minnie Driver is excellent as the romantic interest, receiving an Oscar nomination, as did Damon for Best Actor). Affleck is funny in a supporting role. Director Gus van Sant (Drugstore Cowboys, My Own Private Idaho) has made a small masterpiece, and his most appealing film. Two Oscars (would've been more in any non-Titanic year)

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The Spanish Prisoner

David Mamet, 1997 (8.0*)
This is another Mamet con-artist crime classic, like House of Games. Campbell Scott (son of George) has created a valuable formula for a company, who then becomes the target of corporate espionage. Steve Martin has an interesting straight part here, but its hard to describe this film without giving anything away; suffice to say that if you like intellectual puzzle crime stories with twists and turns rather than gunplay, this will be a very rewarding film for you. Some of the acting lacks intensity, but its not that style of film, this is more like a long, slow crime you can savour.

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The Harmonists

Joseph Vilmsmaier, 1997, Germany (7.7*)
This interesting film tells the true story of a 30's vocal group called the Comedian Harmonists, very popular in Germany just before the Nazis come to power. The leader the group is inspired by American music, especially jazz, and creates complex vocal arrangements of popular songs. A kind of "Bavarian Transfer"? There's some great music here, as well as an attempt to show the creative process at work. Of course, eventually everything changes in Germany, and this story was almost forgotten in history. If you like 30's musicals, check this out.

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L.A. Confidential

Dir: Curtis Hanson, 1997 (8.4*)

Director and screenwriter Curtis Hanson has updated the film noir genre to the new millenium while remaining faithful to the period. In one scene, detective Nick Nolte beats a suspect into confession, as this was an era when criminals had no rights yet, and police pretty much had free rein.

The main story involves a police investigation into a mass murder in a restaurant, investigated by Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and resented newcomer Guy Pearce, among others, who also uncovers a deep plot with lots of characters involved. Kim Basinger won an Oscar for supporting actress as a "Hollywood Hooker", without apparently a lot of acting involved, but she did look like 40’s screen siren Veronica Lake, which was her claim-to-fame as a working girl.

This may be a bit complex or slow for some, but the look and feel are straight from classic film noir but with rich, dark colors. Nine nominations, 2 Oscars (Supp. Actress, Screenplay)

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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Dir: Jay Roach, 1997 (8.1*)
This is the first Austin Powers and it remains the best, but its attraction has dimmed in the sequels, and you'll either "get this" or not - perhaps you had to have watched some awful 60's films when they first came out. This one is a riotous sendup of Elvis musicals, bad films, James Bond (the Sean Connery ones, note the patch of glued on chest hair from a yak!), bad British dental work, and even Burt Bachrach, who appears spoofing himself, the way his songs intrude into films. Austin is of course Canadian Mike Myers (who grew up awhile in England), as a super agent chasing his arch-nemesis Doctor Evil (also Myers), and his cartel of international criminals, including Robert Wagner as Number Two (lots of those jokes abound). Mr. Bigglesworth is his cat, Michael York is "Major Exposition" (too funny!), giving Austin and the audience irrelevant plot details. When Dr. Evil cryogenically freezes himself, Powers volunteers as well, and we wait until a time in the future when "there are no ethics and everyone is controlled by major corporate interests: 1997", and they are both unfrozen to continue the chase and the film parodies. Elizabeth Hurley is the sex-kitten interest ("I'll bet you shag like a minx!"), Mrs. Kensington, as a parody of Diana Rigg's "Mrs. Emma Peel" ('m' appeal, get it?) in tv's The Avengers. Produced by Demi Moore, this made tons of green, and as long as you don't expect any intelligence, kinda fun.
Quote: It’s my scene, baby, and it freaks me out! (Austin, upon entering the "Electric Psychedelic Swinging Pussycat Lounge")
Quote2: I put the grrr in swinger, baby, yeah! (Austin)

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