10 Underrated Films From 1999

Nicolas Cage rides the line between haunted and manic as Frank, an insomniac EMT going through the motions of the graveyard shift. After failing to save a single patient for months, he’s become consumed by his guilt and spends every waking second ruminating on death.

Though Bringing Out the Dead’s premise sounds bleak, Director Martin Scorsese adds a pulse to the film by injecting his signature flair. He covers the dark New York scenery in white and red lights and speeds the film up when things get out of control. These stylistic choices result in a movie that shifts between a harrowing documentary on the night shift at a hospital and a caffeine trip from hell.

The film manages to say a lot about the nature of life through sickness and death. It doesn’t provide any easy answers to its questions about what it means to be alive, and you feel like you’re in purgatory with Cage, floating through reality in a dream-like state.