1999 AD

Some works actually improve because they've aged badly—badly in the sense that they feel dated or that they now work in a very different way than the creators intended.Though I'll probably get some pushback on this one, I'd argue this is behind much of the appeal of the films of Georges Méliès. Beyond the admittedly still impressive effects work, the charm comes largely from the antiquated costumes and art design, things that probably looked fairly standard at the time. For modern viewers, the combination of fantastic imagery, clever camera tricks, and a tawdry late-19th-century theatrical aesthetic creates something unique.*1999* is a bit like that. Though no masterpiece, it's a great deal of fun for retrofuture buffs, and it tells us something interesting about the way people viewed technology and progress almost 60 years ago.If you've ever taken a deep dive into the techno-optimism of the postwar era (very different from that of today), pretty much every detail will resonate. The…