Thursday, October 16, 2025

SOME RECOGNITION FROM THE BOARD - A Look at the Best Films of 2010


It is time to tackle a decade of film that I don't talk about much on this blog. A lot of that does seem to do with the fact that I tend to be very focused on films from the 50s-90s, but I also feel like the 2010s weren't exactly the strongest decade for film overall. 

While my own personal life in the early 10s kept me very preoccupied (college, theatre, relationships, moving to NY), there was also a noticeable dip in the quality output for me.

However, when the films were good, they were exceptional. 

These posts, at least for most of the years, will be a lot shorter as I only tend to focus on 10 films per year rather than list any Honorable Mentions, but I am going to single out just ONE film as an Honorable Mention for this go-round.

I already discussed 2013 back in 2023 as part of my Anniversary Retrospective series, so you can check out that post here.

While not the strongest year of the decade, 2010 will definitely be on the higher end. In fact, I came into doing this top 10 with the expectation of being slightly contrarian...but that isn't how it will pan out as you shall soon see.

ONE HONORABLE MENTION:

INCEPTION

Written & Directed by Christopher Nolan


I almost feel like I have to mention Inception considering how widely discussed and praised it typically is by people who marvel at its entangled, weaving plotting where you never truly understand what is happening. 

My opinion on the film is pretty in step with most of Nolan's work which is that its good, but it never drives me to a point of passion. However, for what it is, this is clearly a remarkable achievement from a spectacle standpoint. 

AND NOW...

THE TOP 10

#10 - BEGINNERS

Written & Directed by Mike Mills


Mike Mills is one of those filmmakers who seems to be on the fringe in a lot of ways, and I would like to think that he is only a film or two away from having wider recognition bestowed upon him much like Sean Baker recently got for Anora.

I still stand by Mills' 2021 film C'mon C'mon which I absolutely loved and even named the best film of that year...although it was really a tough battle with 2 other films. 

Beginners would've been the first time I took notice of his work as I don't think I had seen his 2005 film Thumbsucker at that point, but what I found was a filmmaker who had such a delicate and humanist voice whose work was brimming with passion.

Inspired by his own life, the film revolves around a graphic designer named Oliver (Ewan McGregor) who is coping with the death of his father Hal (Christopher Plummer in his Oscar winning performance) and navigating a new relationship at the same time with a French actress named Anna (Melanie Laurent, fresh off her star-making turn in Inglorious Basterds). 

The fanciful twist of sorts is that we learn more about Oliver's relationship with Hal via flashback, and that after 44 years of marriage and losing his wife, he comes out of the closet at 75 and lives a gregarious gay lifestyle complete with a younger boyfriend (Goran Visnjic) before dying of lung cancer at 80.

This is such a beautiful and delicate piece of work, which you might not expect when you have an elderly man living a life that some might say would be more appropriate for someone half his age...but Mills is a filmmaker who works with such compassion and heart. 

Sometimes it can feel weird to take comfort in a film where we watch broken people living their lives, but few filmmakers can make that feel like a rejuvenating experience quite like Mike Mills.

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#9 - DOGTOOTH

Written & Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Co-written by Efthymis Flippou


If Mike Mills is someone whose work deals with delicate humanist compassion, Yorgos Lanthimos is out to challenge you and leave you wondering what in the bloody hell is going on. 

Nowadays, Lanthimos has had a bit more acceptance in Hollywood with him and Flippou getting a Screenplay nod for 2015's The Lobster while making a bigger splash himself for directing Best Picture contenders The Favourite in 2018 and Poor Things in 2023. 

Dogtooth would've been my introduction to Lanthimos and what a way to start...

In a 2012 interview, the late great David Lynch called Dogtooth "a fantastic comedy"...seems fitting from his mindset, but regardless of how you may view it, Dogtooth is a subversive and almost diabolical in how it presents this story of a family living in a guarded compound.

The father (Christos Stergioglou) seeks out a worker from his factory named Christina (Anna Kalitzidou), who just so happens to be the only character in the film to get a name, to come to their home to have sex with his son (Christos Passalis). When the son refuses to go down on her, she then turns to the two daughters (Angeliki Papoulia & Mary Tsoni) for sexual assistance. 

Dogtooth feels like an even darker take on familial seclusion than what we would've seen with the likes of The Virgin Suicides. This is as dark and depressing and unsettling as it is absurdist with its introduction. In many ways, it feels like a metaphor for what some children could experience growing up in highly sheltered religious household...and while I wouldn't say my life was anywhere near as severe as some people of a religious upbringing, I can definitely relate to the feeling.

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#8 - ANOTHER YEAR 

Written & Directed by Mike Leigh


Anchored by two wonderful performances from Ruth Sheen and Jim Broadbent, Another Year is one of those Mike Leigh films where you watch it and go "Yep. Another very solid effort". 

The duo plays Gerri and Tom Hepple, a couple facing retirement but are seen as a bit of an anomaly to others in their lives as they are stable and happy. Entering their orbit is their friend Mary, played to perfection by Lesley Manville, who is one of the most insufferable and troubled people you can imagine.

Somehow, Mike Leigh is able to do so much with similar varying themes in a lot of his works, and I do think a lot of that has to do with his love of having the performers improv most of their lines and working closely to plot out the characters' histories with the actors involved.

I do love when Leigh likes to place unlikable but often troubled or even misunderstood characters within the orbit of those who are far more compassionate. You see it with Brenda Blethyn and Claire Rushbrook in Secrets & Lies, you see it with Sally Hawkins and Eddie Marsan in Happy-Go-Lucky, you see it with Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin in Hard Truths...and most certainly between Sheen, Broadbent, and Manville here. 

A simply beautiful, bittersweet, somewhat bleak character study that you can always expect with sterling confidence from Mike Leigh.
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#7 - I SAW THE DEVIL

Directed by Kim Jee-woon

Written by Park Hoon-jung


While this film has since developed a bit of a stronger reputation, the fact I have it as high as I do on this list might be a bit unexpected.

I Saw the Devil is a horror film that is so cold and unforgiving in its approach that it might be one of the very few that I watched that left me a bit unnerved.

We fellow an NIS agent named Kim Soo-hyeon (Lee Byung-hun, who is currently experiencing a bit of a career surge with his work on Squid Game and No Other Choice) who is seeking revenge after his fiancée is murdered by a serial killer named Jang Kyung-chil (Cho Min-sik, playing the opposite end of spectrum compared to Oldboy).

Cho's Jang, as fitting with the film itself, is easily one of the most diabolical, cold-hearted, psychopathic, and evil villains ever depicted in any art form. 

It isn't like the film has a lot of crazy twists and turns, but the simple truth is that if you were to watch a film that could flirt with being an example of the dreaded "torture porn" genre or anything involving a serial killer, this is a great example of how it is done.

Incredibly effective and disturbing to the core. Certainly not for the faint of heart...and not a film I admittedly intend on seeing again.

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#6 - BLACK SWAN

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Written by Andres Heinz, Mark Heyman, & John MacLaughlin


The interesting thing about Black Swan is that it falls into a category of films that I didn't necessarily get the hype of as I watched it, but it picked up in energy as it went along, and I felt more positive of the film's story by the end. Over time, the more I think about the film as a whole, the more I would say it is a defining film for Aronofsky's career, and it seems to be the defining film to date for Natalie Portman as well.

Black Swan also feels like a film that perhaps hit a bit too close to home for me...and no, I have never attempted ballet nor was blessed with the art of the dance. 

However, the performing arts can be a very cruel place where you crave to have a moment in the spotlight but might have someone near you who always gets the roles you crave. You get put under a microscope and you may be told you aren't handsome or pretty enough or maybe you are too heavy, this list goes on...

It can become an obsessive process, and I do think the spiral of Portman's character of Nina and her envy of Mila Kunis' Lily is something that a lot of artists can relate to. 

Portman's performance was highly lauded, and it led her to sweeping the awards season with ease. The rest of the ensemble is strong with Kunis doing good work as Lily the rival; Barbara Hershey as Nina's concerned mother; Winona Ryder in her first comeback role as a former ballerina who was forced into retirement; and the imitable Vincent Cassel as the George Balanchine-esque stand in Thomas Leroy.

In terms of final film acts, I would say Black Swan offers up one of the finest in recent memory. All the tension and the bloodshed until Cassel asks Portman what happened:

"I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect".

In that moment, it was a sentiment very well earned. 

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#5 - INCENDIES 

Written & Directed by Denis Villeneuve 

Co-written by Valerie Beaugrand-Champagne


One of the greatest filmmakers working today is Denis Villeneuve. Considering certain filmmakers like Scorsese and Nolan have finally won their elusive Oscars...and god willing, Paul Thomas Anderson won't be far behind them this year...I think we will be seeing a surge of Denis Villeneuve receiving the "Why hasn't he won?!" talk.

In many ways, he reminds me of Spielberg's track record only in the sense that he received two very high-profile Oscar snubs (for The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun) after already being overlooked over for films like E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters, and not even getting nominated for Jaws.

Villeneuve didn't get nominated for Best Director for Dune or its Part Two, which was honestly some of the finest spectacle direction I think we've ever seen on screen. 

The first film of his I saw would've been Incendies, a gripping drama about twin siblings from Canada who make a trip to the Levant in order to uncover her past as the region is under civil war. 

Some of have criticized the film for dipping its toes into melodramatic territory, but I have always considered this a film that simply took a brash approach at showing the horrors of the violence in the Middle East without trying to sugar coat anything.

I wouldn't say it is Villeneuve's best film, but this is a prime example of a film where you see the master behind it coming into their own. I also still think it is an absolute joke that this film lost the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (now called Best International Film) to In a Better World. Not only that, two films that I have already mentioned (Dogtooth and Biutiful) also lost to In a Better World which is a film that felt a weaker in its approach to trying to tell a darker story.

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#4 - POETRY

Written & Directed by Lee Chang-dong

It is still crazy to me how not a single South Korean film ever received a nomination for International Feature at the Oscars...and I think of that a lot when it comes to Lee Chang-dong as not only is he one of a few Korean filmmakers who consistently turned out ignored work, he has one of the most glaring snubs in that category's recent history...but that's me getting ahead of myself. More on that as we get further into the decade.

This is the second time I have talked about Lee on one of these lists, having called out his film Peppermint Candy as an Honorable Mention for 1999. Poetry is one of his finest works and also one of the best classics to come out of Korean cinema since 2000.

A grandmother named Yang Mi-ja (the late Yoon Jeong-hee) goes to the doctor when she has grave concerns about forgetfulness. After being referred to a specialist, it is determined she is suffering from Alzheimer's. As a way to cope with this diagnosis, she decides to take a poetry class to get her thoughts and feelings on paper.

Mi-ja lives on welfare, but has two jobs caring for an elderly man who had a stroke and her rebellious 16-year-old grandson Jong-wook (Lee David), who has gotten involved with a group of boys who are being pegged for the rape and murder of a teenaged girl.

For all the genre-bending chaos of Bong Joon-ho and the hyper-crazed worlds of Park Chan-wook or the meekly humble Hong Sang-soo, I think there is something so human about the works of Lee Chang-dong. His concepts are often simple but heightened. They don't typically feel crazy, but they hold an intriguing dramatic weight to pull you along. 

With Poetry, he gives such a glorious spotlight to the late Yoon Jeong-hee, who had won a very deserving Best Actress prize from the LA Film Critics that season. It is always fun when Lee tackles themes of putting toxic masculinity to task, but he is often brimming with heart and pathos when he gives a vehicle a female protagonist. 

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#3 - CERTIFIED COPY 

Written & Directed by Abbas Kiarostami


It feels like these lists will never escape Abbas Kiarostami, but the truth is that he had a bit of a slump throughout the 2000s and then gave us his last great film before his death in 2016.

Unlike his other films, Certified Copy steps away from his native Iran to set a film in Tuscany with French actress Juliette Binoche and British actor William Shimell. 

Shimell is a writer named James Miller, who has a book tour stopping off in Tuscany for his new work entitled "Certified Copy", which pushes forth the idea that art authenticity is irrelevant because every reproduction is its own original.

One of the attendees of the event is a French antiques dealer (Binoche) whose name is never given, only being credited as "she". When she has to leave the event early thanks to her 11-year-old son, she is able by chance to arrange a meeting with Miller himself, and they end up spending the day together...though it isn't as bewitching as it might seem. 

The vibe of this film does play into the more naturalistic tone that Kiarostami was known for, but it is as if he was dipping his toes into the style of Roberto Rosellini, but it also has elements of more modern romance films like Before Sunrise and Sunset. 

Our two leads are sublime as well. Shimell has a quiet and sterling restraint, but it is Binoche who steals the show as she so often does. When she won Best Actress at Cannes that year, she took the opportunity in her acceptance speech to call out Jafar Panahi, another Iranian filmmaker who was being held prisoner by the Iranian regime as his works have always challenged their authority. 15 years later, as the head of the Cannes jury, Binoche gave Panahi his long-elusive Palme d'Or win for It Was Just an Accident. 

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#2 - THE SOCIAL NETWORK 

Directed by David Fincher

Written by Aaron Sorkin


Not having The Social Network at #1 is perhaps going to be an eyebrow raiser, but I decided my top 3 placement going with my heart instead of my head this time around. Truth be told, this is a pretty strong top 3, and I think any of them could be justified as a #1 selection.

When The Social Network came out, it was one of those rare films that seemed to be embraced by critics, film buffs, and the general public pretty handily. While at college, even people in the theatre program I was in talked about the film and a lot of them were not as into following film like I was. 

It seemed like a film that was destined not to work: the litigation surrounding the ownership of Facebook between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), and the Winklevoss twins (...gulp...Armie Hammer). Would it really be THAT compelling?

Well, to be fair, the script simply pops. This might very well be Aaron Sorkin at the peak of his writing powers, and then you have Fincher directing, whom up to that point didn't seem like the obvious choice to tackle the project as he had mostly been known for more volatile and grittier works like Se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac. 

The two of them made magic though as this became one of the swiftest and most engaging pieces of film that I had seen up to that point. The dialogue crackled, the performances were simply fantastic, and the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is iconic. They always seem to hit it out of the park and considering this was their first outing working with Fincher, it appeared to be a match made in heaven.

The film was expected by many to be coronated all award season long until, to the surprise of pretty much everyone, The King's Speech snuck in and managed to win Best Picture and Best Director. 

That is a fine film, but there is no way in hell that it deserved to win either of those prizes at the expense of The Social Network, Black Swan, Inception, or the film I will be ranking at #1.

Which film will that be?

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#1 - TOY STORY 3

Directed by Lee Unkrich

Written by Michael Arndt

Story by Unkrich, John Lasseter, & Andrew Stanton


 I wouldn't say it is crazy to rank Toy Story 3 as the best film of 2010, but I will admit that a lot of film people reading this would likely single out The Social Network or Black Swan or even Inception as the bigger achievements of that year.

This isn't the first time I have referenced Toy Story 3 on the blog, but it is one of those films that deserves to have its successes shouted from every rooftop in my book.

When the film was first announced, I rolled my eyes a bit. I have admitted before that I grew to appreciate these films more as an adult than when I was a kid. I think the main theme of this installment, Andy going off to college, made a lot of the emotion hit close to home. More on that in a moment. 

I just wasn't sure a 3rd film was necessary, but then the reviews started coming out and they were positively glowing to the point that it seemed like it surpassed the glory of the first two installments. I went into the film trying to temper my expectations, because I just wasn't sure what to believe.

I will gladly sit here today and say that Toy Story 3 is one of the greatest sequels ever made. It is one of my favorite films of all time. It is practically perfect and hits all of the notes it needs to hit. It would then go on to become only the 3rd animated film to be nominated for Best Picture (and I believe the only film sequel to get nominated without its predecessors doing so). It also remains, as of this writing in 2025, the last animated film to date to achieve that. 

As I stated, Andy is set to go off to college. While the age is a bit convoluted, he was similar in age to me. When the first film was released, I had just turned 7. When this one was released, I was approaching my final year of college.

I really didn't expect the emotional impact this one would have on me. This isn't even getting into the whole plot of the film, which involves Andy's mom accidentally donating all of the toys to a daycare center when they were supposed to just go up into the attic. Oh, and interesting point of note, Andy actually intends to take Woody with him to college as a memento which goes to show with age, he has come around on him in comparison to Buzz Lightyear. 

The whole film is plotted and scripted with such an intriguing story. It also helps they got Michael Arndt to do the script as he was fresh off his Oscar win for the absolutely wonderful Little Miss Sunshine.

However, the addition of Lotso the Bear (voiced by the late great Ned Beatty) as the villain was a stroke of genius with his cuddly appearance and aroma (Rex: "And he smells like strawberries!!"). His final act of sending the toys to burn in the incinerator is pure evil, but what most people remember about watching that scene for the first time was trying to fathom how these toys would survive the predicament.

The setup of the little aliens and the use of a massive claw as a Deus ex machina (and a callback to the original film) was one of the best and most gratifying "saved from disaster" moments I have ever seen in a film. In the screening I saw, it got the loudest gasps, laughs, and then a relieved round of applause. It has got to be one of the best examples of audience response and comradery that I have been a part of.

And that ending? When Andy gives all of his toys to young Bonnie and plays with them one last time, I started to get misty. Then - Andy drives away and the score swells and Woody says "So long, partner"...I broke down into sobs and so did several other people around me: men, women, children. I was still crying when I got in the car to go home!

I have watched Toy Story 3 maybe seven more times in the years since, and EVERY SINGLE TIME, the ending makes me cry. Only a small handful of films have elicited tears or made me feel misty, Toy Story 3 is the only one I can think of that has routinely made me cry every single time. 

That has to count for something.

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FINAL THOUGHTS:


2010 is a small but pretty mighty list. A lot of film fans still think very highly of 2010, and I will have to agree that we do have some strong heavy hitters in this group. I knew 2010 was a good year, but this turned out to be a bit more of a pleasant surprise. I do like when that happens as I go through making these lists. 

As I mentioned before though, I am not really sure I think too strongly about the years to come. 2011 does have some strong efforts, but it and 2012 were years where I ended up struggling to make a top 10 because I wasn't sure if I wanted to include a certain film that high. 

Not a vote of confidence, I will admit...but there are still some films from those years I am very much looking forward to talking about, so please be on the lookout for those soon!

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

"A LOT OF LOVE TO GIVE" - The Best Films from The Epic Year of 1999


This post is actually a year late as I had intended to discuss it in 2024 for what would've been its 25th Anniversary...but for whatever reason, the idea of doing this one felt like a mammoth prospect to tackle.

The legend surrounding 1999 is real. It is easily one of the finest years for cinema in the history of that artform. It very well may be the greatest year for cinema during my lifetime as very few would even come close.

While certain years might have more of my passionate favorites, the overwhelming number of homeruns that occurred in 1999 is nothing short of astounding. 

In the meantime, I will have a whopping 15 Honorable Mentions followed by my usual top 10. As always, some spoilers will likely be sprinkled throughout so you have been warned.

Although, before I get into the official list, I am going to do something a little different. If you were to simply base it off of the Oscars, you would think that 1999 was not exactly stellar.

Only ONE of the nominees is going to make the official list as an Honorable Mention but I want to quickly discuss the four films that aren't and why they didn't make the list.

AMERICAN BEAUTY - That year's winner and a film that was treated as if it were The Second Coming of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ. I have never been as deeply affected by this film, and when I did see it as a young teenager, I was left feeling "...that's it?". I can't even say that Kevin Spacey is a factor because I acknowledge the man (despite his questionable character) is a fantastic actor...but I didn't see him as that remarkable here. If anything, Annette Bening was the one who stole the film. Don't even get me started on the plastic bag moment and how there is "so much beauty in the world", because that made me roll my eyes even as a 14 year old. 

THE CIDER HOUSE RULES - When Michael Caine's character of Dr. Larch dies of an accidental ether overdose; I couldn't help but think "How nice, take me with you". What an absolutely syrupy piece of fluff this is, so banal and trite and the fact that Miramax (Harvey Weinstein) fought so hard for its awards success after they aggressively got Shakespeare in Love the win a year prior, it is a shame that this was the film that was considered to be American Beauty's biggest competitor.

THE GREEN MILE - Much like I revealed when I talked about The Shawshank Redemption in my 1994 post, I am also not the biggest fan of this prison film that also happened to be based on a Stephen King novella. A lot of people do love this one, but I have always found it to be highly overpraised...not to mention the whole "magical negro" trope. Despite that, the late Michael Clarke Duncan did such a lovely job in this.

THE SIXTH SENSE - I have to admit if you had approached me 20 years ago and asked me what my favorite of these nominees was, I easily would've said The Sixth Sense. Truth be told, I do love that this kind of film was able to slip into the race because it certainly wasn't super expected on Oscar morning. It even netted a surprising though very well-deserved nomination for Toni Collette (and I actually would've loved to see her and Haley Joel Osment win). I still admit to liking the film, even if I am not sure it holds up as well these days. I think there is also the unfortunate negative stigma that M. Night Shyamalan failed to live up to his early promise rather quickly.

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MY LENGTHY LIST OF VERY HONORABLE MENTIONS:

#25 - POSTMEN IN THE MOUNTAINS

Directed by Huo Jianqi

Written by Si Wu



A young man is set to become the new postman for a mountainous rural Hunan province. His father, due to retire from the position thanks to a knee injury, wants to accompany him on the journey along with their dog Buddy. 

The son realizes his father shares a deep friendship with so many of the people on his route, and he comes to understand his father a lot better with every passing stop.

A quiet little gem of a film.

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#24 - THE COLOUR OF PARADISE

Written & Directed by Majid Majidi


While maybe not as rapturous as his previous film Children of Heaven, I think he had a very solid follow up with The Colour of Paradise. 

A young blind boy named Mohammad is released from his special summer school in Tehran and he is excited to return home to his widowed father. However, his father hold shame for him being blind and wants to try to keep him in hiding as he is trying to woo a local woman as a mean to get her dowry. Mohammad being blind could be seen as a bad omen to the lady's family. 

Worst father of the year? Possibly. Although another far more despicable father character will be coming up soon.

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#23 - PEPPERMINT CANDY

Written & Directed by Lee Chang-dong


Non-linear storytelling, or in this case, reverse chronology, can either be a gimmick or it can be totally effective. In the case of Peppermint Candy, it might be one of the best examples of such a trope.

The film begins with the suicide of our protagonist, Kim Young-ho (Sul Kyung-gu) and then we proceed to go back through the past 20 years of his life to see what led to that point.

Lee Chang-dong is a wonderful filmmaker. In 2018, he became the first filmmaker from Korea to get a film shortlisted for the Best International Feature Oscar for Burning...which then got snubbed. It is kind of crazy to think he quietly had that moment only for Bong Joon-ho to come along one year later and put Korean cinema on an even bigger world stage with Parasite. 
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#22 - ROSETTA

Written & Directed by Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne


When teenager Rosetta (Emile Dequenne) is chosen to not proceed with the temp position she was hoping would become permanent, she turns to violence, and the police show up on the premises.

Rosetta is a story of desperation and longing. All that she wants is to find a way to obtain a better, stable life as she is currently feeling trapped living in a caravan park with her alcoholic mother.

Winning that year's Palme d'Or and Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, I am not sure if it would've gotten my vote (another film competed that will place very high on my list), but I can't deny that it is still a very good film in its own right.
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#21 - BRINGING OUT THE DEAD

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Written by Paul Schrader


Scorsese has had such an eclectic career in that he will have these very interesting diversions that don't seem as associated with him as the more mobster leaning films he is known for.

He ended the 90s with Bringing out the Dead, with Nicolas Cage playing a paramedic suffering from depression and insomnia and a burnout after he seemingly cannot save any of the patients he comes across.

It was one of Scorsese's least discussed and underrated films, and I would like to see more people give it credit. In a lot of ways, the passion within it is very evident and further proven by how Scorsese has stated in interviews that he really wanted to make a film that focused on these heroes and how they have to persevere despite how much tragedy and horror they often face.

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#20 - THE VIRGIN SUICIDES

Written & Directed by Sofia Coppola


Sofia Coppola began the 90s under intense scrutiny when her father, legendary Francis, decided to cast her as Mary Corelone in The Godfather Part III once Winona Ryder had to drop out due to extreme fatigue. 

Her performance was simply not good. However, time has helped heal the discourse around that as it was clear that she was mostly forced into that role...and it also doesn't hurt that she has a clear eye for filmmaking that feels wholly unique in comparison to that of her father.

The Virgin Suicides, based on a novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, tells the story of a group of male friends who become obsessed with the lives of five Lisbon sisters who are kept sheltered by their strict parents.

Not only was this a film that shows the true horrors of strict, conservative parenting and how it can backfire, but it was also Sofia Coppola proving to the world that her talent was behind the camera. She'd further kick the door down further with the release of Lost in Translation in 2003.
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#19 - TOPSY-TURVY

Written & Directed by Mike Leigh


Easily the most lavish film to date that Mike Leigh ever made, Topsy Turvy goes into the writing partnership of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, played by Jim Broadbent and Allan Corduner. Not a true traditional sweeping biopic, the film focuses on the period of 1884-1885 leading to the premiere of their legendary operetta The Mikado. 

I can't say that I am necessarily a fan of the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, but the film proves to be very entertaining and such a warm-hearted embrace of the artistic process.
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#18 - THE INSIDER

Written & Directed by Michael Mann

Co-written by Eric Roth


As the lone 1999 Best Picture nominee on this list, I find it interesting that this film mostly seems lost to time compared to the other nominees...but then again, so many other films on this list get talked about more than a lot of the nominees.

I have never been the biggest fan of Michael Mann's work. I can't even say I was that big on Heat which a lot of film bros love to worship...but this is likely his best work. 

I also think it may be Russell Crowe's best performance. Based on a true story but still pretty fictionalized, Crowe plays Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, a tobacco industry whistleblower who causes a lot of tension following a 60 Minutes interview segment. 

It is one of the closer examples we've had in the last 30 years of a film to come close to an almost All the President's Men type of strength. 

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#17 - DROP DEAD GORGEOUS

Directed by Michael Patrick Jann

Written by Lona Williams


Back at a time when the mockumentary format was primarily linked to Christopher Guest, Drop Dead Gorgeous crept in quietly and confidentially as one of the darkly funniest films of the 90s as it delves into a small-town beauty pageant in which the contestants could qualify for the national Sarah Rose Cosmetics American Teen Princess Pageant. 

This ensemble is absolute gold.

You have Kirsten Dunst, the late Kirstie Alley, Ellen Barkin, Denise Richards, the late Brittany Murphy, Allison Janney just before she achieved icon status as C.J. Cregg on The West Wing, and Amy Adams in her feature film debut.

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#16 - THE WAR ZONE

Directed by Tim Roth

Written by Alexander Stuart


Quite possibly one of the most unnerving and darkest films I can remember seeing at perhaps too young an age, The War Zone is a film about a power struggle within a family. 

You have a 15-year-old son named Tom (Freddie Cunliffe) who finds out his father (Ray Winstone) is sexually abusing his own daughter Jessie (Lara Belmont). It is one of those films that made me feel so much sorrow after that I couldn't help but admire how boldly it took on this material.

Quick sidenote: the film's producers literally wanted Ray Winstone's actual daughter Jaime to play Jessie to which he absolutely refused. The fact they even suggested that as an idea still baffles me to this day.
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#15 - THE STRAIGHT STORY

Directed by David Lynch

Written by Mary Sweeney & John Roach


What if I told you that in between Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, David Lynch made a G-Rated film about an elderly farmer who rides his tractor from Iowa to Wisconsin to make amends with his estranged brother who just had a stroke?

The Straight Story is a beautiful little film and one that I feel is often left off of Lynch discussions because it just doesn't feel like it is made by the same man. 

Written by his longtime editing collaborator Mary Sweeney, whom he also briefly married, Lynch did direct the film as a favor to her...and it is also the only film from his career in which his name wasn't attached as a writer as well.

Richard Farnsworth does truly lovely work here as Alvin Straight, and I actually would've loved to see him win the Oscar that year.

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#14 - SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT

Written & Directed by Trey Parker

 Co-written by Matt Stone & Pam Brady


Objectively speaking, this film is the prototype of what makes a good, structured musical. A lot of it does borrow from motifs and may parody other famous musicals (Les Miserables in particular), but what I take away from it is the following: it is absolutely funny, a great meta-commentary on the controversy the show itself was facing from more conservative audiences at that time, and a true critique on censorship.

It also doesn't hurt that the songs, with music by Marc Shaiman assisting Parker, who primarily wrote the lyrics, are first rate to the point that Stephen Sondheim himself would express love for this film and the duo's future Team America.
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#12 - THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY

Written & Directed by Anthony Minghella


Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel which had already received a French adaptation in 1960 with Purple Noon, I do recall having a fascination with The Talented Mr. Ripley upon its release as I did love its sleek thriller approach. It also helped that I found it far more palatable to watch compared to Minghella's previous effort, the laborious Oscar sweeper The English Patient.

Matt Damon is Tom Ripley, a con artist who makes the long trek from NY to Italy to get a pampered spoiled playboy named Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) to return back to the states...only to get swept up in his lifestyle to the point of obsession.

You also have the likes of Cate Blanchett and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in supporting roles, so you can't go wrong there!

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#11 - AUDITION

Directed by Takashi Miike

Written by Daisuke Tengan


A controversial and rather grotesque and complicated film to be sure, Audition is about a widower named Shigeharu (Ryo Ishibashi) who enlists the help of his film producer friend to stage a fake audition as a means to find a new girlfriend to cope with his grief.

Some have deemed Audition to be a feminist anthem; others have deemed it misogynistic. It sort of feels like a darker and far more interesting concept in the vein of Fatal Attraction, which mostly got buoyed up by the layered work Glenn Close lent to her character.

Audition has also been linked as a forerunner to the dreaded "torture porn" subgenre of horror of the 2000s that I absolutely abhor. I do think, much like Halloween did for the slashers, Audition is more than just that. 

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#11 - THE MATRIX

Written & Directed by The Wachowskis


I wouldn't be lying if I said putting The Matrix on a list of "best films of the year" feels a little disingenuous. I revisited the film a couple of years ago after only having seen it once way back when it first got released on DVD in 2000. 

I think my "lesser than" response to it was the rarity for me to respond to anything that could be considered "sci-fi" or "fantasy". There were rare exceptions like Blade Runner, the first two Terminators, Alien and Aliens...but I do feel The Matrix deserves a lot more credit from me.

A true colossal achievement in how it advanced technology for cinema. It still holds up a lot in that regard.

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THE TOP 10:

#10 - BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER

Directed by Jamie Babbit

Story by Babbit/Written by Brian Wayne Peterson


I would've already had seen her in a small role in 1993's Dennis the Menace at that point, but this film was where I fell in love with the dynamo that is Natasha Lyonne.

But I'm a Cheerleader is perhaps the one film on this list that has had the biggest reappraisal from critics in the years since its release. Could some of the characters be seen as stereotypical? Yes, I can't deny that. Is it a bit campy and over-the-top in its presentation? Definitely.

In fact, a lot of critics at the time dismissed it as a bad John Waters knock-off, but I have always found it to be a delightful and important film...and unfortunately, it feels very prescient in today's political climate.

Lyonne plays Megan, a 17-year-old high school cheerleader who doesn't seem to be that into her boyfriend. She is more inclined to ogle her fellow cheerleaders. Her parents, played by Bud Cort and Mink Stole (her casting only helps the John Waters comparisons), intervene as they feel her behavior, along with her love of vegetarianism and Melissa Etheridge, is prime for a trip to gay conversion therapy.

While there, she meets a college student named Graham (Clea DuVall, whom I also adore from her work as Marjorie on Veep) and the two form a connection. Perhaps a very interesting stroke of casting is RuPaul as Mike, an ex-gay who was seen as a success story from conversion therapy. 

The crazy thing about But I'm a Cheerleader might be that the MPAA had been adamant that the film would need further edits to avoid an NC-17 rating. What were these edits?

Babitt and her editor Cecily Rhett removed a two-second shot DuVall rubbing her hand over Lyonne's fully clothed body; a panning shot of Lyonne while she masturbates, and the suggestion that Megan "ate Graham out".

It was clear discrimination of LGBTQ+ representation, not to mention the usual nonsense that the MPAA would sooner push forth gratuitous violence with seeming ease but views sexual activity as Public Enemy #1. 

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#9 - BEAU TRAVAIL

Written & Directed by Claire Denis

Co-written by Jean-Pol Fargeau


Beau Travail is a film I came to appreciate more over time as I didn't really give it much thought when I first saw it as a teenager. As of late, it seems like more film historians, critics, fans have responded in a similar manner as Beau Travail was selected as the 12th best film of the 90s by Rolling Stone in 2017 and perhaps even more lofty, it was voted as the 7th best film OF ALL TIME by the prestigious Sight & Sound Poll back in 2022. I am not sure the film would rank that high in my book, but this is clearly strong film nevertheless.

An adaptation of Herman Meville's novella Billy Budd, the film is set around the French Foreign Legion as various soldiers train in the Djibouti desert. We follow Adjudant-Chef Galoup (Denis Levant), who takes an instant dislike towards a new recruit named Gilles Sentain (Gregoire Colin) to the point where he nearly causes his own death.

There has been some criticism towards the film, or at least towards Claire Denis, for appropriating a story that she would know nothing about the story of repressed feelings and emotions in the military for what could be seen as a closeted gay man acting out against someone who is more traditionally attractive and charismatic than him

I call BS on that if only for the fact that I don't know if some of those people would say that if a cis man made the film, but I don't suspect that is as widespread an opinion.

I do think for what it is, it tells the story swiftly, efficiently, and unapologetically.

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#8 - RATCATCHER

Written & Directed by Lynne Ramsey


I always love when a filmmaker hits it out of the park on their first go-round, and that is definitely what Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsey did with Ratcatcher.

This is a film that is not easy to stomach, as one might casually expect from the title, but it is rather beautiful in its bleak presentation.

We are in 1973 Glasgow...and trust me, you might need to use subtitles because the Scottish accents are PROM-I-NENT. We follow James (William Eadie), a 12-year-old who lives in a rather decrepit housing scheme (our equivalent of "the projects") that is getting worse and worse due to a binmen strike that has increased the infestation of rats around the area. Glasgow might be a beautiful city, but some of these schemes were among the poorest in Western Europe. A lot of them didn't even have hot water or proper bathing or toilet facilities.

This is a film that is unapologetic. It isn't looking to make you feel great about life...unless you want to feel grateful for what you do have...but this isn't the kind of film you want to put on if you are looking for something light.

Ramsey is a very interesting filmmaker who tends to come out with something new every few years, including (as of this writing) Die, My Love which will be coming out pretty soon.

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#7 - TOY STORY 2

Directed by John Lasseter

Story/Written by Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlain, Chris Webb, Pete Docter, & Ash Brannen


The success of Toy Story 2 becomes all the more impressive when you realize what was stacked against it. When the film was first being conceived, Disney had envisioned it as a direct-to-video sequel a la The Return of Jafar or Simba's Pride. The production was smaller as all of the Pixar team was busy working on their next big outing following the first Toy Story: 1998's A Bug's Life. 

However, as the story of the sequel began to develop more, Disney decided it was worth pursuing as a theatrical release, but it meant condensing the whole process into 9 months rather than the years it typically takes. Lasseter had even said that they all had to sit down over one weekend to completely revamp the storylines.

The fast-paced production led to workers developing conditions such as Carpal Tunnel or RSI and then to further cause chaos, one of the animators accidentally deleted all of the work done on the film. They also discovered that the system was faulty, and they lost a lot of work they had been doing in general beyond Toy Story 2.

A miracle occurred when technical director Galyn Susman, who was working from home on maternity leave, had all of the work saved on her home computer. The moral of the story? LESS IN-PERSON WORKING AND MORE REMOTE WORKING! Down with the 5-day work week! Vive le Revolution!!

Where was I? Oh yeah! Toy Story 2 was seen as a major success in every respect. Not only was it one of the highest grossing films of 1999 but it was seen as creatively better than its predecessor which is typically a rare feat for a sequel to achieve.

That trend somehow gets surpassed again with the 3rd installment, but we will get to that later.

I haven't even said anything about the plot of this film yet, but honestly, I just want to call out one moment: the "When She Loved Me" montage.

The addition of Jessie to the plot, along with the history of Woody as a character, was a major reason why this sequel worked so well. However, this sequence where we learn Jessie desperately longed for her owner to play with her for years before donating her to a toy drive has pretty much left all millennials scarred for life. 

I think the Toy Story series makes us all want to hoard our toys.
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#6 - FIGHT CLUB

Directed by David Fincher

Written by Jim Uhls


I will admit that putting Fight Club at #6 feels a tad disingenuous for me as well. When I first saw the film years ago, I just remember thinking "That was good" and sort of leaving it at that. I think part of me just didn't respond to the machismo energy of it at a younger age. 

However, it is clear looking back on this film that David Fincher had come into his own as a filmmaker. Sure, he had Se7en prior to this which I am a big fan of, but this film shows such a distinct and chaotic voice that felt very new at that time. I would even argue the energy he achieved was more kinetic than that of Tarantino's works of the era.

I think the sad truth is that Fight Club has become rather prophetic in today's world in which we have incels and men's rights groups where they claim they are not receiving what they deserve from the world...and it leads to violence and misogyny. 

The thing about Fincher is that as a filmmaker, he can be rather cold or calculating in his approach. I think it is a reason why I don't always respond to most of his films with the same kind of passion that a lot of other film people do, but you can feel a certain pulse bursting with Fight Club that is a little unique for him. 

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#5 - MAGNOLIA

Written & Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson


The fact that I am ranking Magnolia at #5 feels kind of ridiculous. It just goes to show what an embarrassment of riches that 1999 actually was.

If you may be reading this beyond the year of 2025, I am writing this just upon the release of PTA's 10th film One Battle After Another, which I think is one of his absolute best works. A film like Magnolia would likely stand out as being the best film for a majority of filmmakers, but that also goes to show...much like 1999...what a treasure trove his filmography actually is.

How does one talk about Magnolia? 

 I did recently talk about it in a post in which I ranked PTA's 10 films from "worst to best"...which was essentially "rank his one very weak film and then primarily struggle to rank the rest". 

This is what I wrote there about Magnolia:

"As his third film following Boogie Nights, PTA has tapped into that ensemble vibe yet again which gave him an extra dose of Robert Altman comparisons to go along with the Scorsese ones. 

Magnolia is sprawling and chaotic and messy, but usually in the best possible ways. I don't even know where to begin to even explain exactly what Magnolia is.

One phrase I often see offered up to describe the film is "an epic mosaic". We have several people whose lives are intercepting and connected in various ways as they try to cope with life's struggles in the San Fernando Valley. 

We get strong work from the likes of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Phillip Baker Hall, William H. Macy, and Julianne Moore but the big story at that time was how this felt like the career best work of Tom Cruise who had a big year in 1999 having also starred in Stanley Kubrick's swan song Eyes Wide Shut. 

Many expected Cruise to win the Oscar but the Academy ended up embracing Michael Caine's work in The Cider House Rules...don't get me wrong, I adore Michael Caine but that film getting nominations let alone winning anything was a joke. 

Magnolia was one of the many classic films from 1999 that got mostly shafted at the Oscars in favor of lesser films...something that will be discussed further when my 1999 post comes out sometime this week.

PTA did get a Screenplay nom, but the film was not in sight for Best Picture or Best Director. The messy chaotic nature of this film makes it feel like a feverish modern-day opera with Aimee Mann interjecting with the vibe. Even though PTA felt that he would never make a better film than Magnolia, I do feel like he clearly excelled in the years after."

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#4 - EYES WIDE SHUT

Written & Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Co-written by Frederic Raphael


Time has been a bit kinder to Eyes Wide Shut. At the time, most people thought of the film as a laborious effort from Stanley Kubrick who obsessed over the film in only such a way that he could. To this day, it remains in the Guinness Book of World Records as the film with the longest continuous film shoot: 400 days.

To add to that, the legendary Kubrick died six days after he showed the final cut to the executives at Warner Brothers. The film was released to mostly positive reviews but polarized a lot of critics and audiences alike.  

Eyes Wide Shut is also unique in that it is the one film by Kubrick that feels pretty modern. Considering he would often go for gaps of time without making a film, this was the only film he made during my lifetime...and there is something about having Cruise and Kidman in this that adds to that effect.

Most people know this as being "the orgy film", and truthfully, that is barely even a factor in the long run...but it does take a fascinating look at sexual relations within a marriage as Kidman's character Alice reveals to Bill (Cruise, both of them still married in real life at that point) that she considered cheating on him the summer prior which leads him to go on a bit of an odyssey that takes him out to an orgy in the Hamptons. 

It is also crazy to think that all of the scenes on the streets of Greenwich Village were recreations done at Pinewood Studios in England as Kubrick was still terrified to commute via plane to the US, after having lived in England since the 60s.

While Kubrick had apparently said that this was his greatest film, I am not sure I agree with that. I do think it holds up to repeated viewings, but it also just has the misfortune of being a mild masterpiece in a field of about a half dozen more that reach above it.

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#3 - ELECTION

Written & Directed by Alexander Payne

Co-written by Jim Taylor


She may have had Man in the Moon and Cruel Intentions, and she would eventually become an icon two years later for her work as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. 

For me though, the legend of Reese Witherspoon as a force to be reckoned with was her performance as Tracey Flick in Election, the quirky dramedy about how a High School Student Body President election is sent into turmoil when a teacher (Matthew Broderick) feels compelled to push for someone to challenge the snooty, know-it-all Tracey. 

We live in a world where Reese Witherspoon can win an Oscar for a relatively okay performance in a biopic but can't get nominated for a performance like this one where we have to be invested in such a rather unlikable though complex character and have us flip between hating her and empathizing with her and rooting for her. 

Broderick's McAllister is also someone we both root for but also question their tactics. Like sure - Tracey is a know-it-all and she is very annoying, and it may be true that his personal life/marriage/affair is eating away at him...but does he really need to actively sabotage a teenaged girl's campaign for a high school elected position?

It is such an entertaining but darkly off-beat film that I have revisited many times. 

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#2 - ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER

Written & Directed by Pedro Almodóvar


If you may recall way back near the beginning of the post, I made a comment that I wished another film had won the Palme d'Or over Rosetta.

All About My Mother was that film.

Almodóvar is one of those filmmakers who has had such a strong catalog of work, and therefore, he is one of those where you might be inclined to have a few films of his lined up for a "Best of" list or have a ranking of what you consider to be his best work.

If you were to ask me what his best film in his illustrious career would be, I would cast my vote for All About My Mother, which focuses on an Argentine nurse named Manuela (Cecelia Roth) who supervises organ transplants at a Madrid hospital. She is a single mom to a son named Esteban, who is hit by a car and killed on his 17th birthday as he chases after his favorite actress, Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes). 

Manuela grants permission for Esteban's heart to be given to a patient and promptly resigns from her job in order to fly to Barcelona to search for Esteban's other mother Lola, who is a trans woman. Manuela also reunites with an old friend named Agrado (Antonia San Juan), a transgender sex worker; she even meets Huma and her lover Nina (Candela Pena) who is a heroin addict; and lastly Rosa (Penelope Cruz) a young HIV-positive nun who runs a home for battered women and just so happens to be pregnant with Lola's child.

The remarkable thing about the work of Almodovar is that a lot of his films take on storylines that are clearly flirting with melodrama, or even something in line with being a telenovela. I don't know how he does it, but there is always a layer of humanity and reality within his colorful worlds.

He recently had his first English-language film entitled The Room Next Door which I frankly didn't care for at all, but for whatever reason, I really didn't care for his style done in an American setting. It felt very forced, and I frequently felt pulled out of the story.

Something like All About My Mother feels like Almodovar's answer to pulpy Douglas Sirk films from the 50s but with his usual bravado that could almost be seen as a more modern-day Federico Fellini. There are also heavy influences of Tennessee Williams, even down to Huma having played Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.

There is an element of the style that could be "likened" to camp, but this is far from camp. All About My Mother is emotionally potent, but it is presented in such a glorious and glossy manner that it keeps you from getting TOO down despite the heightened dramatic weight.

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#1 - BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

Directed by Spike Jonze

Written by Charlie Kaufman 


Every now and then, a film comes along that grabs your attention and makes you passionate about cinema when you truly need it most.

However, it is interesting to think back on the films that made us want to take on filmgoing as a hobby and if those films stand the test of time.

When I wrote about The Truman Show for 1998, I stated that it was the first film to truly make me go "I want to see even more films like this! What else is out there?!". If that was what The Truman Show did, then Being John Malkovich was the glorious mindfuck to follow.

I don't think I can properly express what an absolutely bizarre and original and creative and diabolical piece of work that Being John Malkovich is. This was the first film to be written by the mad genius that is Charlie Kaufman. I will openly admit that I started to write a synopsis, and I fell down such a rabbit hole trying to go into all the details that I am not sure this post needs THAT much more length added to it!

Let me put it this way simply focusing on the main plot itself.

Imagine watching a film where your protagonist finds a small door that leads to a portal where you can live inside the head of esteemed character actor John Malkovich...but only for 15 minutes, and when you are done, you are ejected out into a ditch on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. 

I had only seen this film twice but revisited it a third time this past summer and was still in awe with everything about it. The script, the direction, the performances (while Cusack does well in his role, it is really Cameron Diaz, Cahterine Keener, and John Malkovich himself who shine the brightest), it's simply a work of creative genius.

Not surprisingly, the film was not nominated for Best Picture even though it managed to get Director and Screenplay nominations (which both were won by American Beauty), plus a nomination for Catherine Keener. It is a shame that Diaz and Malkovich also weren't recognized. 

People may talk about the spectacle of a film, especially something that has an epic size with scenery and cast and story that drives them to say, "THIS is cinema".

I am not going to begrudge that thought process because there is a clear truth that film (and even TV these days) can provide a level of technical spectacle that you can't help but be astounded by.

However, I am one of those people who will sit here and say that Being John Malkovich IS cinema. I want creative and subversive ideas; I want to be challenged with what is in front of me. Sure, maybe sometimes it is nice to have a nice, breezy film to watch...but the thrill that I got watching Being John Malkovich for a 3rd time is why I became a film buff in the first place. It is a gift that can keep on giving, and while I may often get frustrated with the kinds of films that get more widespread attention these days, I am always on a quest to find gems like Being John Malkovich.

Not everything could flirt with that level, but I definitely value all the ones that can at least come close.

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FINAL THOUGHTS:


I wonder if you feel as exhausted reading all of this as I did preparing and rethinking and analyzing all of my choices and their placements. It was a PROCESS to be sure!

With that, the 1990s come to a close. What a truly dynamic and vibrant decade and it is a shame that we have really hit a consistent peak in the decades since.

I do love doing these lists and I am still going to continue going through all of the decades! I am not going to be going in any chronological order; it's more what will strike my fancy as I go along. I decided I am going to tackle the 2010s next primarily because I do think the recency of it might help grab a bit more views, but that is only a minor reason.

If anything, the 2010s are the decade of film I have discussed the least on this blog. I didn't start writing my blog until 2018 and I haven't really talked about many films made between 2010-2017 on here. Although the real truth is that due to a combo of life status changes mixed with seeing a dip in quality with films coming out in the first half of the 2010s, I became very disenchanted with following film for a few years. It wasn't until the latter half of that decade that I began to follow it all again.

So be on the lookout for those posts soon!

We are also approaching the 2025-26 Award Season so there will be first-time reviews coming up very soon as well! 

SOME RECOGNITION FROM THE BOARD - A Look at the Best Films of 2010

It is time to tackle a decade of film that I don't talk about much on this blog. A lot of that does seem to do with the fact that I tend...