15 Off My Head: Siri Says 1998

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Siri is giving me the whiplash! The last few editions of our beloved far and wide "Siri Says When" series -- in which I ask the voice inside of my telephone for a number between 1 and 100 and then use that number to name my favorite movies from the corresponding year -- have taken us from the 1920s to the 1960s to the 1990s to the 1930s and now, today right on back into the 1990s again. I think the fewer numbers that remain the wilder these swings will get, but funny enough Siri gave me a number we've never done on the very first try today -- 98! So I guess Siri really wants us to look at The Movies of 1998 today! Whatever you says, Siri!

And you know, 1999 gets all the credit for being an amazing year of cinema -- which it really admittedly was, and funny enough 1999 remains the only year of the 90s I have yet to do one of these posts for -- but 1998 really should get more credit than it does, because hot damn there are a ton of movies from 1998 that rocked my face off. So many that today's list isn't the usual 5 -- it's not even the occasional stretched-out-to-10. No today we're doing a Top 15 because I couldn't possibly chop off a single one of these 15. I refuse! And unless you can find the secret sub-basement from which I am now posting this post and chop off both of my hands before I hit "publish" you can't make me! Ha!

My 15 Favorite Movies of 1998

The Truman Show

(dir. Peter Weir)

-- released on June 5th 1998-- 

Happiness

(dir. Todd Solondz)

-- released on October 16th 1998 -- 

Wild Things

(dir. John McNaughton)

-- released on March 20th 1998 -- 

The Opposite of Sex

(dir. Don Roos)

-- released on May 22nd 1998 -- 

Babe: Pig in the City

(dir. George Miller)

-- released on November 25th 1998 -- 

Hands on a Hardbody

(dir. S.R. Bindler),

-- released on July 10th 1998 -- 

Love is the Devil

(dir. John Maybury)

-- released on October 7th 1998 -- 

Velvet Goldmine

(dir. Todd Haynes)

-- released on October 23rd 1998 -- 

Dark City

(dir. Alex Proyas)

-- released on February 27th 1998 -- 

Pleasantville

(dir. Gary Ross)

-- released on October 23rd 1998 -- 

A Simple Plan

(dir. Sam Raimi)

-- released on January 22nd 1998 -- 

Out of Sight

(dir. Steven Soderbergh)

-- released on June 26th 1998 -- 

Gods & Monsters

(dir. Bill Condon)

-- released on November 4th 1998 -- 

Living Out Loud 

(dir. Richard LaGravanese)

-- released on November 6th 1998 -- 

Rushmore

(dir. Wes Anderson)

-- released on October 9th 1998 -- 

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Runners-up: Saving Private Ryan (dir. Steven Spielberg), There's Something About Mary (dir. Farrellys), A Bug's Life (dir. John Lasseter), Shakespeare in Love (dir. John Madden), Apt Pupil (dir. Bryan Singer), Great Expectations (dir. Cuarón), The Big Lebowski (dir. Coens), The Spanish Prisoner (dir. Mamet)...

... Lost in Space (dir. Stephen Hopkins), High Art (dir. Lisa Cholodenko), The Last Days of Disco (dir. Whit Stillman), The X-Files (dir. Rob Bowman), Buffalo '66 (dir. Vincent Gallo), Pi (dir. Aronofsky), Lolita (dir. Adrian Lyne), Halloween: H20 (dir. Steve Miner), Snake Eyes (dir. De Palma)...

... The Slums of Beverly Hills (dir. Tamara Jenkins), Blade (dir. Steven Norrington), Pecker (dir. John Waters), 54 (dir.), Cube (dir.), Your Friends and Neighbors (dir. Neil LaBute), Urban Legend (dir. Jamie Blanks), Beloved (dir. Demme), American History X (dir. Tony Kaye), Psycho (dir. Gus van Sant), Croupier (dir. Mike Hodges), The Faculty (dir. Robert Rodriguez), The Thin Red Line (dir. Terrence Malick)...

... Hurlyburly (dir. Anthony Drazan), I Stand Alone (dir. Gaspar Noé), Ringu (dir. Hideo Nakata), Meeting People is Easy (dir. Grant Gee), Very Bad Things (dir. Peter Berg), Beseiged (dir. Bertolucci), God Said "Ha!" (dir. Julia Sweeney), Hideous Kinky (dir. Gillies MacKinnon), The Butcher Boy (dir. Neil Jordan), Clay Pigeons (dir. David Dobkin), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (dir. Sullivan)

Never Seen: Life is Beautiful (dir. Robert Benigni), Mulan (dir. Barry Cook), Little Voice (dir. Mark Herman), Affliction (dir. Paul Schrader), The Prince of Egypt (dir. Brenda Chapman), Spice World (dir. Bob Spiers), Bulworth (dir. Warren Beatty), He Got Game (dir. Spike Lee), Clockwatchers (dir. Jill Sprecher), Sliding Doors (dir. Peter Howitt)...

... Hilary & Jackie (dir. Anand Tucker), Can't Hardly Wait (dir. Harry Elfont), The Wedding Singer (dir. Frank Coraci), The Boxer (dir. Jim Sheridan), The Celebration (dir. Thomas Vinterberg), Rounders (dir. John Dahl), Henry Fool (dir. Hal Hartley), Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (dir. Tommy O'Haver), Practical Magic (dir. Griffin Dunne)

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What are your favorite movies of 1998?

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Good Morning, World

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I know I just posted about Go for its 20th anniversary last week, but I only just got around to properly re-watching it last night and when I saw this hysterical throwaway gag from its final few minutes -- Ronna's waking up in the hospital after getting run down and it's Christmas morning and that sight is the first thing she sees across from her -- I knew I had this morning's "Good Morning" post in the bag. This movie is simply perfect -- yes even the Vegas segment, and I won't hear otherwise. (The Vegas segment has a cameo from my beloved Tane McClure of Crawlspace fame, after all.)

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Goddamn everyone is SO PERFECT in EVERY SINGLE LITTLE ROLE in this pic.twitter.com/dHZ8BL5Bml

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 17, 2019

5 Off My Head: New, You're Still So New

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It's the 20th anniversary of one of my favorite movies of all time today! Doug Liman's Go came out on April 9th 1999 -- aka the greatest year of movies in our lives; have you voted in the poll yet? Go often gets lumped in with the Pulp Fiction rip-offs that swamped the cinemas of the late 1990s but timeline jumps and multi-POVs aside it's so much more than that, or it's at least the very best of that. To be honest I like it more than Pulp Fiction and you can stick that in your day-glo alien sippy-cup and smoke it.

Anyway I was in college when it came out and I was doing a shit-ton of drugs at the time (hey kids don't do drugs or whatever) and this movie is my American Graffiti -- my Diner, my Grease. It captured one of the happiest times of my life and turned it into a big fun blast of cinema with a huge cast of characters played by a huge cast of up and coming or perfectly of their moment actors. Sarah Polley, Timothy Olyphant, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, William Fichtner, Nathan Bexton, Scott Wolf, Jane Krakowski, Taye Diggs, Breckin Mayer, James Duval, Melissa motherfuckin' McCarthy! I mean!

Oh and it's got a soundtrack for the ages...

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... I honestly get a little bit of a high just hearing that song. If you guys knew how much ecstasy I took while listening to the Go soundtrack in 1999-2000 you would weep for my brain cells, but I wouldn't trade them back for those memories I barely retain anymore thanks to all the drugs for the world.

Anyway a happy 20 to a still great film, 

and in its honor, a list!

My 5 Favorite Line Readings in Go

"How would you fuck me?"

"Look how far it got you."

"Gay men are so hot. It's tragic."

"So Zach. Would you say

you're open to new things?"

"There was this one time, you missed each other 

by like three minutes. It was SO exciting!"

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How much do you love Go?

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Glen Powell Six Times

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So who's watched our boy Glen Powell charm up a super-storm in Netflix's just-dropped rom-com Set It Up by now? You, you, you? If you follow me on Twitter you know I did because I semi-live-tweeted the experience...

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I am legitimately upset with this movie now for making a joke out of Glen Powell's sexy short shorts - WE MUST ENCOURAGE SUCH THINGS pic.twitter.com/LArg02Inq5

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 20, 2018

... which translates, as you see, to me thirsting for Glen on extreme repeat. As was to be expected, since that's the only reason I watched the damn thing. And I give the film a positive review because it succeeds on that level. (Glen's co-star Zoey Deutch is a total charmer too, though - they have chemistry for miles.)

We're pretty psyched that Glen is breaking out, anyway - we've been running through the streets like it's the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers shaking strangers and telling them to look to the skies and to look out for Glen, that's he meteoring towards us, and it's nice to've been right. Again.

Anyway this photo-shoot is for Flaunt Magazine - if you click on over there's a chat with the actor (one that will give you the visual of him climbing palm trees in swim-trunks) and also a behind-the-scenes video of this shoot to boot. Now, did somebody say leather pants...

Good Morning, Mark Feuerstein

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Mark Feuerstein is hot, we've dedicated a big gratuitous post to him before right here, but he's not hot enough to get me to watch a movie called Larry Gaye: Renegade Flight Attendant - nosireebob is he hot enough for that.

Thankfully it looks as if some kind people (via) have gone and put all of everything Mark-wise worth seeing online already (the movie's out on demand, in case you're... I don't know what the word for that would be) so we'll just share that, admire him, and call it a day.

Yeah that him overdoing a gay kiss (ha ha gay kiss!) with Danny Pudi. Actually before we go can we just take a look at the cast of this movie? Besides those two it co-stars Rebecca Romijn, Stanley Tucci, Marcia Gay Harden, Taye Diggs, Jayma Mays, Patrick Warburton, Jason Alexander, Henry Winkler, and Molly Shannon. Molly Shannon! I hope they all got paid well. Okay try not to be embarrassed for everybody and hit the jump for the rest...

Wicked Little Taye

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You know, I don't go to see Broadway shows all that often. They're expensive and as I've made clear more than is even necessary at this point I'm not the biggest fan of the musical theater. And yet I've been to see Hedwig and the Angry Inch since it started its new run THREE times. I saw Neil Patrick Harris once and I saw John Cameron Mitchell twice. It just sort of happened. And now comes word that beautiful Taye Diggs is taking over the role next and I'll be damned if I didn't feel a twinge of... oh shit, I'd totally see that. He starts the show on July 22nd once Darren Criss finishes up his run, and he'll be at it for 12 weeks. Oh and since we brought it up...

... we should post some of these, 

since we haven't gotten around to it. 

Can you imagine Taye Diggs stuffing all his business into those itty bitty shorts? I can, and I can, and I can, and it's all I can do, for the foreseeable future.

Taye Diggs Finally Realized...

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... what Instagram is for.

It took him long enough.

That's his brother Gabe with him.

Also that's not what I meant when I said 

"Give me a piece, Taye Diggs."

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Good Morning, World

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Oh Taye Diggs, we don't not see enough of you.

These are from the show New Girl this week. (via)