Ah, the 1990s. It seems like only yesterday from 27 years ago. The decade that gave us Britpop, raves, Rachel’s hair, some rather surprising ear nibbling from Mike Tyson, Pulp Fiction, The Simpsons, Courtney Love, Sunny Delight and some rather brilliant art from those naughty Young British Artists. Another opinion, not a fact.
And, in 1997, probably the best film of the decade, and one which is ripe for rediscovery. Which is handy, ‘cos it’s the next Cult Movie Guernsey showing, on Thursday 4 June at 7pm sharp. No ads, no trailers, just the best film of the 90s.
It’s Grosse Pointe Blank.
Yes, it is the best film of the 1990s. Copilot agreed with me.
Have you ever had an invite to a school reunion? Did you go? Was it brilliant/awful? Was everyone the same, or trying to be the same? Did Julie and Ben get off with each other again, like they did in 1987? Did Eric the school moron turn up and try and pick a fight with everyone, like he did in 1987, in order to hide his failure to launch as a grown-up?
Or, did the hitman paid to kill you over an unfortunate incident with a dictator’s dog, sneak in pretending to be someone else? While you are trying to reconnect with the love of your life who you last saw when you disappeared the night of your school prom, because you had a sudden confidence crisis about the rest of your life so you went and joined the army, where they identified that you had a certain ‘moral flexibility’ which indicated that you would be prepared to kill people in very interesting ways, which you then did and eventually moved into a hitman style business while wearing the coolest suits and sunglasses of the decade?
Yep, it’s that old chestnut of a story. Played out as a comedy thriller with genuine laughs, real romantic moments, John Cusack giving probably his greatest performance, Dan Akroyd off of Ghostbusters having the most fun you will ever see with two guns at the same time, Minnie Driver basically stealing every scene she is in through a mixture of wit, style, strength and kookiness off the scale, and the most devastatingly awful attempt at sincere poetry you will ever see in your life.
Grosse Pointe Blank is the 90s masterpiece, in Cult Movie Guernsey’s humble opinion. Whip smart, effortlessly cool, laugh out loud hilarious, stormingly surprising and with the kind of soundtrack that makes you want to take music-choosing team out to Vraic for dinner. The Specials, Grandmaster Flash, Nena, Pixies, Motorhead, The Cure, The Bangles. This is a film so brilliant that Cult Movie Guernsey is willing to put aside it’s well-known and extremely negative view of A-ha’s Take On Me and all music by Guns N’ Roses, and just sit back and enjoy the ride through Grosse Pointe on the night on the school reunion. This is the 90s movie, with that brilliant 90s mix of knowing nods to popular culture while doing something so different and new.
Yep, Cult Movie Guernsey is really thrilled to be showing this.
And while we are on the subject of movies from the 1990s that deserve a much wider audience and appreciation, here are a few to track down (all available on screening services or, if you are like Cult Movie Guernsey, available to own forever on good old fashioned DVD. You don’t really need that Blu-ray, do you, you can’t really tell the difference...
STRANGE DAYS (1995)
Kathryn Bigelow’s completely brilliant sci-fi action thriller sees Ralph Fiennes prove once again that, whenever a new technology comes along, sleazy men will make sure they completely perv it up. Angela Bassett drives cars on fire, Juliet Lewis does a mean PJ Harvey impersonation and Cult Movie hero Tom Sizemore wears an unspeakable wig and looks well shifty. Bigelow saw the future, but we were too busy playing with Tamagotchis.
DARK CITY (1998)
Rufus Sewell might be living in a simulation. Everything around him might be fake and constructed to keep him for asking the really important questions. He is followed by the Strangers, pale, black trench-coated weirdos who rearrange the city every night. A year before another certain film about simulations came out.
Now, I’m a huge fan of The Matrix, but you watch this and think someone involved in this film should have sued.
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994)
Sam Neill starts this film as a smug insurance investigator and ends it laughing hysterically in a cinema with drawings on his face watching his own doom come together on the big screen.
And the villain who turns him into this cackling loon is basically Stephen King, if he leaned fully into being a chaos gremlin. Bonkers, brilliant, and ‘cos it’s the 90s, cheekily self-aware.
THE LAST SEDUCTION (1994)
An absolute 90s masterpiece. Every man in this film is a moron, served up on a platter of embarrassment by Bridget, the film’s central character, master manipulator and devious little devil. The film’s star and Cult Movie Guernsey hero, Linda Fiorentino, glides through the film like a shark who’s learned to smile politely. Fiorentino doesn’t just star in The Last Seduction, she is the greatest villain of the decade, razor-sharp, sexy, blistering intelligent, wickedly funny, and we want her to get away with it.
Well, Cult Movie Guernsey does.
THE GAME (1997)
David Fincher psychologically tortures Michael Douglas for two hours and basically labels it ‘personal growth’. Douglas plays a miserable billionaire who receives the world’s most elaborate birthday present: a paranoia simulator. Another Cult Movie Guernsey hero, Sean Penn pops in to cause chaos, and San Francisco becomes a maze of conspiracies, clues, and increasingly unhinged surprises.
This is David Fincher when he had a real sense of humour, ripped po-faced men to bits (see also the brilliantly hilarious Fight Club which continued the men-as-complete-morons theme). Cult Movie Guernsey really misses funny Fincher movies.
Grosse Point Blank is not to be missed on Screen 1 at the Mallard on Thursday 4 June. The film starts at 7pm and tickets are available via The Mallard website now. If you are old fashioned, you can follow Cult Movie Guernsey on old technology like Facebook.
