1999 Was a Great Year for Movies. It Was the Best Year to Write About Them.

The funny guys: Woody Allen, Rob Reiner, Albert Brooks, Barry Sonnenfeld, Harold Ramis, Frank Oz.

The art-housers: Jane Campion, Ang Lee, Giuseppe Tornatore, John Sayles, Mike Leigh, Wim Wenders, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda, David Mamet, Anthony Minghella, Mike Figgis.

The weirdos: David Cronenberg, Hayao Miyazaki, David Lynch, Sam Raimi.

The cool kids: Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson, David O. Russell, David Fincher, Michael Mann, Nancy Savoca, Lana and Lilly Wachowski.

The new kids: Shyamalan, Christopher Nolan, Guy Ritchie, Spike Jonze, Alexander Payne, Julie Taymor, Sam Mendes, Tom Tykwer, Trey Parker.

Within two November weekends of each other: Wayne Wang, Kevin Smith, Atom Egoyan, Luc Besson, Barry Levinson and Tim Burton.

Few of their movies are what anybody would classify as peak them. Many of these names were taking detours, breaking character, trying something. Spike Lee made a serial-killer thriller (“Summer of Sam”); Mike Leigh, a comedy about Gilbert and Sullivan (“Topsy-Turvy”); Ang Lee, a Civil War western (“Ride With the Devil”). Wes Craven tried Kleenexploitation and made a Meryl Streep movie. If they weren’t making their “best” film, a lot of them probably made your favorite of theirs.