Best Films of 1999 - The Top Five

Mann has given us one of the most honest and interesting films about broadcast journalism in this day and age, which makes it a worthy companion to the 1970's expose of print journalism, All the President's Men. What makes both those films even better is the fact that what happened and the people involved are real.

Stanley Kubrick's 13th film, and his first in over ten years, sadly became his last, as he died shortly after completing the film. The film was released to controversy and not as much box office for a film starring Tom Cruise, but for some critics, Kubrick's final effort was still one of his great films, as for the first time he really delved deep into the human pysche as he done so brilliantly before into technical matters.

Real life married couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman brought a strong sense of realism to a story of what happens in our marriages when jealousy invades, and how our deepest desires and fantasies can cause damage if brought to the surface, or perhaps cause redemption.

Kubrick's visual style was again so brilliant in this film, and he created a thought provoking study of what happens after Alice, played by Nicole Kidman, reveals to her husband how close she came to adultery, fantasizing about one man she just briefly met in passing.

After a frank discussion with Bill while high on pot, in a great piece of acting by Nicole Kidman, she lays bare her soul, and in doing so, sets Bill off into the night fueled by a jealous rage. He continually envisions his wife having sex with this man in his head, and over the next two nights, he will come close to sleeping with a prostitute, coming up front and personal with people whose sexual dealings could be called bizarre, and in the film's most intriguing moments, he attends an orgy in an opulent mansion, where a danger seems to lurk.

The orgy in the mansion is the centerpiece of the film, as Bill experiences a world that he had no clue existed. The sequence is vintage Kubrick all the way, except for the digitized "people" covering some of the more explicit sex acts, but it's shot beautifully and staged so excessively as to suggest a world where people of all kinds come together to experience pure animalistic sex with anyone and everyone.