This is no classic, no deep work of art, and yet it's a fascinating example of how shallow and out of whack from the reality of a film Twitter movie dunks can take the conversation.
There is a scene in this film, a very bad scene, that got clipped and shared and slammed on for a few days. In context, it's really no better than it was out of, and there's no defense to be made for it. Yet: the…
Hey, this was out in 4K, so of course I was going to rewatch it. And it looks fantastic, better than I've seen it since going to the theaters for this so long ago. This remains an all-time favorite of mine, and in the wake of SEA OF TRANQUILITY, a book I feel certain bears some influence from this story's emotional perspective on time travel, it was lovely catching back up with it.
If you programmed a computer to analyze Best Picture nominees across time and algorithmically generate its ideal 90s Best Picture our of the corpses of those films, The Cider House Rules is what you’d get.
This is a film that manages to be thematically and emotionally hollow, whole still managing to be super gross and manipulative. That this got nominated over the piles of great films in ‘99 is truly a thing.
Anyway. The Cider House does not rule, and the rules of the Cider House show up for maybe five seconds of the film, so there you go.
