The best of the Class of 1997, part deux.
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Sure, time flies when you’re having fun, but it’s still hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since these pop culture-defining movies and shows broke onto the scene.
The pickings among the late 90s hits was so good that I’ve expanded my usual Top Five list by doubling the pleasure to double the fun. And so, here are my favorites, Volume Two.
Boogie Nights
Burt Reynolds’ comeback. Mark Wahlberg dropping his Calvin’s for his inaugural lead role. Roller Girl. Prolific director Paul Thomas Anderson’s first big hit. And *THAT* prosthetic. The list of reasons why Boogie Nights made such a sex-soaked splash that has sustained all these years later is longer than Dirk Diggler’s wiggler, but for me, it all comes down to quality: the movie is a mini-masterpiece, with an all-star cast digging into the grit and grime of the 70s porn scene to tell a human tale of loss, love and the journeys we take based on the choices we make. Hitting theaters only two years after Showgirls and proving to be the antidote to that film’s trashily cheesy depiction of lost souls, this was a landmark for how artful edgy storytelling and fake penises could be.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Yes, the 1992 movie starring Kristy Swanson and newly crowned 90210 heartthrob, Luke Perry, started Buffy’s journey, but it was Sarah Michelle Gellar and the Scooby Gang on the WB’s TV version that catapulted the stake-driving teenager to the upper echelons of pop culture history. Stripping away the movie’s over-the-top Valley girl portrayal of the title character, the series was an allegory for being different during high school that made the characters and sci-fi storylines resonate with relatability. I remember watching the first episode and being hooked: I knew these fictitious people and town of Sunnydale, if only as a mirrored touchpoint of some of my own teenage experiences, which is what the best TV teen dramas do. Vampire slaying notwithstanding.
South Park
It’s easy to remember even two decades on how cutting edge, bawdy and controversial South Park was when it hit the scene on Comedy Central, though the show would be considered almost passé if it premiered in today’s crazy-as-a-cartoon world. A study in ribald, everyone-skewing comedy that took no prisoners and made no apologies, South Park was a spawn of the cartoons-aren’t-just-for-kids era that gave us The Simpson and Beavis and Butthead, and itself widened the door to what was possible in animated primetime TV—savaging everything from sex to Scientology along the way. And really, who doesn’t love them a sassy little soulful ditty from Chef? (RIP.)
I Know What You Did Last Summer
1997 was a good year for Sarah Michelle Gellar, who makes a second appearance on the list for being on the other end of the stake (or, in this case, hook) in teen horror movie du jour, I Know What You Did Last Summer. It’s the film on which she met her future husband, Freddie Prinze, Jr., and was joined by rising stars Jennifer Love Hewitt (the day’s other TV ‘it’ girl from Party of Five) and Ryan Phillippe (her soon-to-be Cruel Intentions partner in crime) in running from the everywhere-you-go-he’s-there killer. While it might not be a classic that gets regular rewatches, the movie’s pop culture stock is through the roof for featuring some of the late 90s biggest teen stars on their rise to beyond-slasher-film stardom.
Waiting for Guffman
Released widely in January 1997, this on-the-cusp classic was Christopher Guest’s first big foray into film directing, kicking off what would be a string of great mockumentaries from the same brilliant acting troupe (Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Bob Balaban and Fred Willard, we are not worthy). Waiting for Guffman was comedy catnip for my inner and outer teenage theatre geek, making a meal out of the self-fulfilling satirical stereotypes of community theatre troupes. With elusive Broadway critic Guffman standing in as a not-so-subtle reference to Samuel Beckett’s proverbial Godot, I was happy to wait for as long as it took for him to not show up, as the pain of preparation and anticipation made for some seriously stellar comedic moments. One of my favorites, where director Corky St. Clair describes his New York experience, is below. When you have a dance belt and a tube of Chapstick, every day is the day of the show, ya’ll.