Vintage '98

The Smackdown of '98 (with special guests) arrives in just one week. Before we get to the main event let's just soak in that year a bit. Were you old enough to be conscious of pop culture in that year? If so, nostalgia warning. If not, here's what people were talking about before your time.

Great Big Box Office Hits: Titanic (1997) reigned long into 1998 as the then the biggest hit of all time. In fact it didn't fully cede the #1 of the weekend placement from Christmas '97 through Easter of '98. What's more it didn't leave the top ten box office chart until JUNE. That kind of run is unthinkable now. But the biggest hits released in the actual calendar year of 1998 were...

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Posterized: Thomas Vinterberg

By Nathaniel R

Vinterberg at the Oscars in 2014When we were first were introduced (not literally) to writer/director Thomas Vinterberg, who turns 48 today (Gratulerer med dagen!), in 1998 we thought "he ought to be in pictures!".

⇱ Just look at that mug!

The Dane auteur IS in pictures, at least spiritually, since he still makes Danish pictures inbetween his English language films and some of them are clearly pulled from his soul. His new film The Commune is a fictional story but the director did grow up in a commune watching the adults struggle with their decisions (The Commune has a key teenage character who is very observant).

So with that film in theaters in select cities and also on VOD (you can stream it for a price on Amazon) let's look back at his career to date via movie posters.

He's made nine features. How many have you seen? 

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Thomas Vinterberg returns with "The Commune"

This review originally ran in September 2016 from the Toronto International Film Festival. With the film finally in theaters in select cities starting today (and available to rent on Amazon), we didn't want you to miss it...

Thomas Vinterberg first came to fame with the Dogme 95 masterpiece The Celebration (1998) which was an international success reaping Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Foreign Film. Oscar famously snubbed it during their long stretch of controversial years in the 90s and 00s where they regularly ignored major critical darlings eventually prompting reforms to the selection process in the late Aughts. Vinterberg was eventually nominated with another international success The Hunt (2012) and after his English language sleeper success Far From the Madding Crowd (2015) it's safe to say he's on quite a roll currently. 

For years people had suggested to Vinterberg that he make a film about commune life since he had grown up in one as a child in the 70s...

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