SHORTLIST VINTAGE FILM OF 1998

The human price of victory over the Nazis – millions of soldiers and their families, from Australia, Africa, Russia, Europe and North America – is conveyed through the story of a handful of American soldiers landing at Omaha Beach. Twenty years later, Saving Private Ryan should be required viewing for anyone of voting age.

Is it the very best film by the Coen brothers? Is it even the magnum opus of Tara Reid’s acting career? Probably neither, but this mistaken-identity caper is a cult favourite and definitely a must-see film from 1998.

If you say the other 1998 VFA nominees are better than Rushmore, its protagonist might glibly reply: O.R. they? A neurotic coming-of-age tale with a bizarre love triangle, this breakthrough film for Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman is in a class by itself.

And run she does; Franka Potente logs more steps than Daniel Day-Lewis did in Last of the Mohicans and makes Speed feel like Driving Miss Daisy. And when you come up for air after 80 minutes of full-immersion adrenalin, you can speak a bit of German and discuss the merits of free will versus determinism, chaos theory, and “third time’s a charm”.

Fennel and Liquorice in Las Vegas might have been a better title, if only to let would-be audience members know that they would either love or hate this film. As many drugs as the characters ingest during 128 minutes, enough viewers felt it was “a great trip” to qualify it for the VFA shortlist.

This fresh twist on the Cinderella story cuts the magic out, replacing the fairy godmother and midnight pumpkin with historical figures including the Brothers Grimm and Leonardo da Vinci. Best of all are Angelica Huston and Drew Barrymore, so much more human than their animated predecessors.

What if your life was not really yours but instead a staged reality show in which all of your friends were paid actors? While this might be the dream of many Instagrammers today, it was downright scary in 1998 – to the point that many psychiatric patients believed it was happening to them (in a bad, Black Mirror kind of way). A disturbing, yet un-creepy masterpiece.

Denmark is home the happiest people in the world, according to many surveys, with a large and prosperous middle class. The upper class of Danes, if The Celebration is anything to go by, could use a little therapy. The first (and best) film ever made under the Dogme95 “vow of chastity” rules, The Celebration is anything but chaste.

This is one of two 1998 films featuring Joseph Fiennes having a secret affair with a svelte 16th-century Englishwoman of higher class. The other one didn’t make the VFA shortlist (but did, in its day, win Best Picture at the Oscars®). Filled equally with great performances, amazing costumes, luscious sets, and whopping historical inaccuracies, Elizabeth still reigns 20 years after its release.

There are those films you should see because they’re entertaining, those you should see because they are important, and those like American History X you should definitely see because they’re both. On Empire’s list of “22 Incredibly Shocking Oscars Injustices”, the #1 item is Ed Norton’s loss in the Best Actor category for this role.