Josie and the Pussycats was lampooning our current celebrity obsessed, “influencer” obsessed, consumer lifestyle 20 years ago. Yes, there was certainly celebrity worship back then. But the way the movie portrayed it and the consumer greed that seeks to profit from it feels even more relevant today.
John Wayne’s ‘The Green Berets’ is an oddity. While it’s not out of its time, since the 1960s was packed with war movies, the fact that it’s a Vietnam movie rather than a WW2 movie gives it a surreal quality. It is filmed with the same tone, style, and music as something like ‘The Longest Day’ but it’s about Vietnam making it a million miles away from the style of most Vietnam movies.
Standout scenes include a green beret ranting at a strawman reporter, and the scene where John Wayne smashes an obviously toy rifle to pieces.
Might be cheating to mention this but most/all Tarantino flicks are meant to feel like 70s movies
Turbo kid
A Mad Max-inspired romp through 80s genre film, where souped up cars have been replaced by BMX bikes and our hero fights baddies with the help of a Mega Man-esque arm cannon. A bizarre and hilarious little film that you should definitely see with an audience.
https://lamplightreview.com/movie-review-turbo-kid/
Came out on Netflix in 2016
Ohhh, this movie is magical. I love it so much!
Napoleon Dynamite, but that’s intentional.
Clue is an interesting study. It’s a movie set in the 50’s, made in the 80’s, and it bombed in theaters in the 80’s, but the television cut became popular in the 90’s and 00’s. It definitely is a product of the 80’s, I don’t think they would have made it in 1995, but that’s when it landed.
“No Country for Old Men” feels like a movie from a previous era.
Day After Tomorrow was about two days before its time
Actually, I believe you’ll find, if you refer to the title, that it is a movie about two days after its time
“Mystery Men” seems to have a lot of themes on super hero fatigue in it that feels like it would be a better commentary in 2019 than 1999.
Jurassic Park 1
Blade runner 1
2001: a Space Odyssey
The Matrix 1
They all hold up so well and in particular their vfx. In the Matrix it’s probably more the plot than the vfx, even though it had merit coining that frozen up bullet time shot aesthetic. But in general every time I watch these I can’t help but marvel at how well put together they are and then I remember when they were released and then I compare them to the mediocre releases decades after that and yeah. I’m in awe.
The anime Perfect Blue. It was ahead of it’s time. 1997 but the parasocial aspect of society it explores was in it’s infancy compared to current time.
The Love Witch is a bit of a cheat because it was literally designed to look like it was shot in the 70s (and does an amazing job of it)
Cube was ahead of its time for bizzare setting and body horror.
2001: A Space Odyssey.
Kubrick gave them fucking iPads. In 1968.
Metropolis might be the ultimate “ahead of its time” movie. It’s nearly 100 years old and still looks mind-blowing.
When I heard about megalopolis I thought Coppola was remaking this movie
Holy crap yes, I watched it a few years back and couldn’t belive not only how good it looked but how good it was in general.
The first “War of the world’s” movie from 1953.
It’s based on a genius, but quite challenging science fiction novel.
I am sure the people in 1953 liked the movie.
When you watch it today, after you have already seen Spielberg’s version from 2005, then it feels like they were way ahead of their time in 1953 (and you would never believe anyway that the book was written even back in 1898).
You should hear what happened to the radio broadcast of the book.
What happened?
It was read like a news broadcast and many people were unaware it was a fictional reading. The story was re-written for this radio broadcast to sound like a news report and caused mass hysteria.
But the truth is, that’s the fictional story. It’s all hyperbole and a bunch of newspapers at the time ran with it, to have some fun and sell some papers. There was never any mass hysteria as reported. No one killed themselves thinking aliens were invading, the broadcast was only listened to by 2% of the US, and everyone was aware it was fake. It was a regular type of thing on this radio program.
TIL. I remember my history book one year in grade school mentioning that show and the hysteria it caused.
One of the many little details I love about that movie is Pacific Tech, the university where scientists studied the alien hardware. I noticed they used that as the name of the college in Real Genius. Apparently it’s has been in many movies and tv shows.
