The 1990s are basically getting a second life currently as many aging millennials, like myself, sort of long for various aspects of that time as our current world just seems to be descending into chaos. Then you have Gen Z which seems to be taking on a lot of the styles and trends that my generation did.
As a decade, there was a lot of turmoil that can't be ignored (particularly the Rodney King riots in LA) but in terms of pop culture, I honestly kind of miss the 90s.
Films of the 90s perhaps took a more consistently artsy tone than that of the 1980s and a lot of that was due to the continuing resurgence of such indie filmmakers as The Coen Brothers, Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith, Mike Leigh, and Gus van Sant.
There was a quirkiness and irreverence to the 1990s that I very much liked and I also felt that we began to see a strong showing of films from filmmakers who represented countries we hadn't really seen a strong showing for at that time like Krystof Kieslowski from Poland, and also Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg from Denmark...although the latter country had significant success with Babette's Feast in the 1980s.
I think this could end up being one of the more eclectic lists of this series, so let's see what I will zero in on this time around. You will see that I am still fairly evenly split between English and Foreign language films but I do think I am going to give the former a stronger spotlight this time.
25 Honorable Mentions:
Days of Being Wild (1990)
Raise the Red Lantern (1990)
Barton Fink (1991)
Beauty & The Beast (1991)
The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Malcolm X (1992)
Groundhog Day (1993)
The Piano (1993)
The Remains of the Day (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
Chungking Express (1994)
Clerks (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Toy Story (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Funny Games (1997)
Happy Together (1997)
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Gods & Monsters (1998)
Rushmore (1998)
All About My Mother (1999)
Election (1999)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
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#10 - Central Station (1997)
Directed by Walter Salles
A lot of attention was given recently to Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro thanks to a comment made by Glenn Close when she was doing press for the abomination that was Hillbilly Elegy. Close has been nominated for an Oscar a whopping 8 times without a single win...but despite the fact she would probably welcome a win, she knows the awards process is political and flawed.
She stated how ridiculous it was that Gwyneth Paltrow won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love while Montenegro was ignored. Frankly, it is still somewhat surprising the Academy even nominated her but there she was...far superior to Paltrow and not only that, her film Central Station was far superior to Shakespeare in Love. Though if we are being honest, many films are far superior to Shakespeare in Love even in the year it was released.
Central Station is a about Dora (Montenegro), a retired school teacher who is spending her life writing letters for the illiterate. However, she has become jaded with life and impatient with the people around her which leads her to either tearing up the letters she writes or never mailing them and leaving her clientele in the dark.
One of her clients is the poor single mother of a boy named Josue, who is 9 years old. When his mother is killed in bus accident, Dora is forced to take the homeless child into her home...but first she tries to traffic him into a family only to feel immense guilt for it and she takes him back.
From there, we get one of those classic tales of someone older and bitter having their life changed by someone younger as they search to see if Josue's father is still out there. Think of it as an artsier and Brazilian Punky Brewster but with the gender roles reversed....yes, I actually went there.
Montenegro's performance is a gift and it truly is a shame that she (or even Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth) were steamrolled by the Harvey Weinstein campaign for the CEO of GOOP.
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#9 - Magnolia (1999)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
I honestly struggled with this because I felt like my top 10 was getting cramped and I wanted to single out one of the great outings by Paul Thomas Anderson from the 1990s. Who knows what I might think a week from now...or even tomorrow...but I decided to place Magnolia on the list and leave Boogie Nights as an honorable mention.
I will make the bold claim now that out of all of the filmmakers working today, Paul Thomas Anderson might very well be my favorite. His films are so consistently good and while some may very on the level of greatness, I feel like he is the closest filmmaker we have that gives us something that is quite good to magnificent every time out of the gate much like Ingmar Bergman or Stanley Kubrick.
With Magnolia, he delves into a big ensemble piece that feels sort of reminiscent of films by Robert Altman...but I would Magnolia has a more...abstract approach? We will go with that word.
Many have described Magnolia as a mosaic of character and situations with a lot of them only really linked by a common theme rather than as people...and due to its length and rather bombastic tone at times, some have called it overlong and pretentious and melodramatic.
I never disliked Magnolia but it was certainly a movie I appreciated more on a rewatch than when I first saw it years before.
I am not even sure how to go about even talking about the film's plot because there are just so many different threads to the story...but I will say that as an ensemble, these actors are truly wonderful...even the relatively one-note Tom Cruise gives perhaps the greatest performance of his career and just barely lost the Oscar to Michael Caine which, for the record, I love Michael Caine but winning for the syrupy The Cider House Rules was a joke.
Magnolia was one of many stellar films that came out in 1999, which is one of the greatest years for film in the history of cinema. You will notice there are three films in my honorable mentions from 1999 and there will be another one coming up higher on this list.
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#8 - Secrets & Lies (1996)
Directed by Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh has often been described as the British equivalent of Woody Allen and while I can see the comparison, there is something often darker and drearier about his films. Also, one major difference about Mike Leigh is that he is a bigger fan of improv and often encourages actors to do scenes based off of an outline and coming up with the dialogue themselves (which is also similar to how Larry David has Curb Your Enthusiasm structured).
I tend to be drawn to the Brits for their dry humor and also for how they tend to perceive a lot of their surroundings, and I think that was one of the major reasons why I responded so strongly to Secrets & Lies.
The film begins with a funeral as Hortense Cumberbatch, a very successful Black optometrist (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is mourning the loss of her adoptive mother. One of the ways she chooses to cope is to see if she can possibly track down her birth mother, and surprisingly enough, she learns that her mother is a white working class woman named Cynthia Purley (Brenda Blethyn).
At first, Cynthia has no interest in meeting Hortense and there is certainly some resistance based on the fact that Hortense is black, but then Cynthia realizes that it is true and while it is not said explicitly, it does seem implied that Hortense may have been conceived either in rape or in just a one-night stand.
The two do manage to form a relationship while we also navigate the lives of other members of Cynthia's family, such as her brother Maurice (Timothy Spall) and sister-in-law Monica (Phyllis Logan) who are having trouble conceiving a child and then the other illegitimate daughter of Cynthia named Roxanne (Clair Rushbrook), with whom the two share a rather volatile relationship.
In a career of very sturdy films that often waver on a line between comedy and tragedy, I do think Secrets & Lies remains Mike Leigh's strongest work to date.
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#7 - La Haine (1995)
Directed by Matthieu Kassovitz
La Haine is French for "hate"...so right off the bat, I think you can assume that we have a very volatile film ahead of us.
Set in a poor immigrant-heavy suburb in Paris, La Haine is about three young friends: one Jew, one Black, and one Muslim and follows them over the course of one day and one night.
Much like Do The Right Thing, I would say La Haine is a film that really took on a deeper and darker new light for me in the past year. The first time I saw it was when I was in high school back in 2005 when I began to dig deeper into French cinema. My immediate response to it then was extremely positive but the more I think about it, the more I admire it as I've gotten older.
The film actually begins with rioting due to a man named Abdel being killed while in police custody...
....how relevant.
Vinz (the Jewish guy played by Vincent Cassel) is the most aggressive of the group and seeks to avenge Abdel's death. He openly despises police officers, and even acts out Taxi Driver fantasies in his head of murdering them.
Hubert (the Afro-Frenchman played by Hubert Kounde) is a boxer who is actually trying to seek to find a better life and would rather not provoke the police...even though his boxing gym got destroyed during the riots.
Said (the Muslim guy played by Said Taghmaoui) is the relative calm mediator of the group.
A movie like La Haine, despite its critical pedigree, is going to make some people uncomfortable. It is very unapologetic about the views it takes and also is willing to show how no matter much people deserve to pay for senseless police brutality, it won't always turn out like you may hope.
Writer/Director Matthieu Kassovitz hasn't had as prominent or as extensive a career as some of his contemporaries but I would take notice if you ever come across his name attached to a film.
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#6 - Three Colours: Blue (1993)/Three Colours: Red (1994)
Directed by Krystof Kieslowski
YES I KNOW! I am combining two films again but they are two films within a trilogy and they have a rather intriguing connection which I won't spoil here.
First up is Blue:
Blue was the second film in the Three Colors trilogy to be released following White and proceeding Red.
While White was a good film, I feel like it is almost universally agreed upon that it isn't in the same league as Blue or Red.
The first thing that needs to be brought up with this film is this: What a damn good actress Juliette Binoche is!
Not only does she do a remarkable job playing someone with repressed emotions like she does in Blue, but she manages to excel in films that are pure slog to sit through like The English Patient.
And that's the only time THAT film will be mentioned on a list like this....shudder....
Juliette Binoche plays Julie, a woman who loses both her husband and young son in a car accident which completely destroys her to the point where she doesn't want to open up to anyone else. Instead, she cuts everyone out of her life and proceeds to try to live her life in isolation...which she discovers will get harder and harder to do as life goes on.
One of the main things that she invests herself in is her husband's work as a composer in which the themes he wrote both intrigue and haunt her all at once...but eventually she does learn to open up to other people in her life and perhaps we do see that she may be able to find a new zest for life by the end.
When talking about grief as an emotion, one could go the most extreme in how they approach it. One great example of this was the almost primal and animalistic way that Toni Collette showed her grief in Hereditary.
However, there is something just as stunning if not more so with what Binoche accomplishes here. Most of the movie is here completely bottling in her emotions but we can still clearly see she is devastated, distraught, and angry with the world...but it all feels bottled beneath the surface. From an acting standpoint, it may be one of the best examples of restraint I have ever seen an actor achieve on film.
AND NOW I WILL DISCUSS RED:
The great Polish filmmaker Krystof Kieslowski had a pretty strong run from the late 80s up to the mid 90s when he ended up retiring shortly before his death. You had 1988's Dekalog, 1991's The Double Life of Veronique, and then the Three Colours trilogy which we are in the midst of discussing.
Red had the biggest impact in terms of attention as it actually managed to receive multiple Oscar nominations including a Best Director nomination for Kieslowski.
In terms of the structure of the film as a whole, I would actually argue that Red might be the strongest...but as I mentioned above, Blue contains such a stunning acting portrayal at its core that it is incredibly hard to deny it anything...not to mention it is a brilliant film in its own right.
Red revolves around a rather unlikely platonic relationship between a younger model and older gruff retired judge.
Their encounter first begins with the model Valentine (Irene Jacob) accidentally hitting a dog with her car. Luckily the dog will be okay but she needs medical attention. She manages to find its owner, which is retired judge Joseph Kern (Jean-Louis Trintignant). However, he seems oddly unconcerned about it so she decides to keep the dog herself. When taking the dog to the vet, she find out the dog is also pregnant.
Soon after, money arrives at Valentine's apartment from an unknown sender that is eventually discovered to be Judge Kern. The dog, Rita, also manages to direct Valentine back to Kern's house which sets off their rather intriguing friendship which, at first, is built out of concern as Kern takes an interest in voyeurism towards his neighbors.
Red is an incredibly rich film and one that Kieslowski said was difficult to write because he had so much he wanted to say and didn't know how to convey it. He did announce that this would be his last film and it is certainly a stellar film to go out on.
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#5 - The Truman Show (1998)
Directed by Peter Weir
While I have talked about how certain movies were instrumental in really inspiring me to pursue my artistic endeavors, if I were to name the movie that kind of started the journey for me then that honor would fall on The Truman Show.
I have heard some people critique Jim Carrey's performance as being directed in the wrong manner; that he was too manic for a role in which he didn't know that he was being watched by millions and millions of people around the world. I can sort of understand what they mean...but I also don't really care because I think it is plausible that someone could be this silly. It also must be said that Carrey is able to find moments of subtlety and he creates a truly wonderful character that was, in many ways, his first foray into a more dramatic role without also sacrificing his comedic talents.
Jim Carrey is a better actor than many give him credit for. His comedic work in a film like Liar Liar is still hilarious but he was also great in this film along with Man on the Moon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and I Love You Phillip Morris...oh and I have enjoyed his work on the Showtime series Kidding.
Carrey plays the titular Truman Burbank, who is unknowingly the star of a worldwide viewed reality show that was the brainchild of Cristof (Ed Harris). Cristof's goal was to take a child who was abandoned at birth and give them a life inside a huge world he built complete with state of the art technology that simulates day time/night time and even contains a large body of water.
But how do they keep him there?
Well, Cristof devised a plan in which he had Truman's "father" die in a boating accident in order to try to give him a fear of navigating water.
Also, when a teacher asks Truman what he wants to do when he grows up, he says he wants to be an explorer in which the teacher says "There's nothing really left to explore!"
This was sort of the big movie debut for Laura Linney, who is fantastic as Truman's "wife" as she too is crumbling the more Truman realizes that he is starting to become more aware of his strange surroundings.
In some ways, this film was ahead of its time but only slightly. Two years after its release, Survivor would premiere and start a true reality series boom...but the amazing thing is that even after 20 years, I think The Truman Show has held up remarkably well in showing how much of an obsession of a reality show concept would be for the world.
And the ending also shows how the investment maybe wasn’t as devoted after all which mirrors most of those shows to have come out in the 2000s.
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#4 - Goodfellas (1990)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
How is it that Scorsese can often make a movie where you practically don't care about any of the characters because they are pretty much horrible people and yet you end up enthralled anyway?
Goodfellas might be Scorsese's greatest film (though I think Taxi Driver battles it for the title), and through it all, we just keep watching these despicable people and thoroughly enjoy ourselves.
Based on the memoirs of mobster turned informant Henry Hill, we follow Hill from his gradual ascent from a teenager helping the local mob to being a prominent member of the mob family.
As if often the case with Scorsese movies, Hill (Ray Liotta) narrates the film and pin points various key moments but the film does take an interesting detour at times as we also get narration from the woman who would become Hill's wife, Karen (Lorraine Bracco).
Some have criticized Scorsese movies for glamorizing rather immoral lifestyles, particularly in this film, Casino, and especially in The Wolf of Wall Street.
I guess it all comes down to how impressionable you are, because I was certainly entertained by the movie but didn't long to have Paul Sorvino teach me how to properly cut onions or turn into a psychotic maniac like Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito.
Speaking of Joe Pesci.....dear....GOD.
Keep in mind, Goodfellas came out the same year as Home Alone. The crazy contrast between these two villainous roles has always amused me and even if you could argue that his role in Goodfellas is one note, you also can't deny that the impression that Pesci makes as Tommy is nothing but pure fire. It is easily one of my favorite Oscar wins of all time.
Speaking of the Oscars, Joe Pesci was Goodfellas' only win of the night. Instead, the Academy opted to honor yet another white savior movie: the overlong and maudlin Dances with Wolves.
It also kind of stings that Ghost got more Oscars that night: Best Original Screenplay (really? Really?!) and Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg (who was great in the film but Bracco was more deserving as was Annette Bening in The Grifters).
But hey, I need to learn that the Oscars are often wrong.
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#3 - A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
Directed by Edward Yang
In the late 50s/early 60s while growing up in Taiwan, a young Edward Yang remembered being rather transfixed by a sensationalized trial being plastered all over the news about a teenage boy who had brutally murdered his girlfriend.
So no, you can't judge a movie by its title...or the warm looking picture above. A Brighter Summer Day is a film that was inspired by that murder but as opposed to doing a film that was a clear cut villainous piece, Yang chose to highlight the real truth of what was happening at that time which was that many Taiwanese and immigrant Chinese youth took to forming or joining gangs as a way to find a sense of identity.
The political discourse is introduced in an intertitle as follows:
"Millions of Mainland Chinese fled to Taiwan with the National Government after its civil war defeat by the Chinese Communists in 1949. Their children were brought up in an uneasy atmosphere created by the parents' own uncertainty about the future. Many formed street gangs to search for identity and to strengthen their sense of security"
The film focuses on Xiao Si'r, which is the nickname of Chang Chen (which is the actor's real name as well), who is a student is doing poorly in school and now has to attend night classes in order to rebuild his grades, which is a source of extreme disappointment by his parents.
As one would expect, many seem to suspect that Xiao's relationship with a new girl he has met named Ming (Lisa Yang) would somehow turn his life around but instead, he gets swept up into a gang and further questions everything about his life before it all ends in tragedy.
A Brighter Summer Day was actually a film I discovered a lot later than many of the foreign films I watched in my early teenage years. I had seen Yang's legendary 2000 film Yi Yi which I very much loved but despite being to locate many foreign films whether they were at my local library, a video store, or on a premium channel, this particular film appeared to be far more elusive
However, it was the tragic death of Edward Yang in 2007 of colon cancer that actually gave me an outlet to view the film the summer right before I went off to college.
It is certainly a very long film; just shy of 4 hours in length...so yes, it is a bit of a process to watch but I was very bowled over by it. Edward Yang was a very strong filmmaker and its a shame his life was cut so short right before his 60th birthday.
Who knows what other films we might've gotten out of him.
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#2 - Being John Malkovich (1999)
Directed by Spike Jonze
Up until his recent outing I Am Thinking of Ending Things, I either really liked or loved Charlie Kaufman-scripted films. I do think that I tend to enjoy his films more when he has another director interpreting his scripts and he certainly had a great match with Spike Jonze.
I can remember hearing about Being John Malkovich when it first came out because it seemed like such a bizarre concept for a film...and the title made it seem like a documentary (at that time, I barely even knew who John Malkovich was).
What is also impressive is that Charlie Kaufman wrote the script as is before John Malkovich even accepted the role, but considering the kind of actor Malkovich is, he got the humor and gladly joined the project.
John Cusack plays Craig Schwartz, an unemployed puppeteer in NYC who is working a survival job as a file clerk and also dealing with his pet-obsessed wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) and their crumbling marriage.
One day while working in the office, which for some reason is on a floor between the 7th and 8th floors so therefore it is shorter (as Charlie Kaufman a joke as there ever was one), Craig finds a small door in the wall and proceeds to enter it. Soon after, he realizes the door is portal to that of the mind of famed character actor John Malkovich...but if you are rejected or stay too long, you will end up on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike.
I have to admit...I am beyond jealous of Charlie Kaufman's imagination. He manages to come up with the most absurd and ridiculous ideas and they work almost every single time.
Cusack is great in this, but I am particularly fond of both Catherine Keener (whose Oscar nom was richly deserved) and Cameron Diaz, who was robbed of an Oscar nom. Also, John Malkovich took this on with complete abandon and you could tell he was having the time of his life. He, too, was robbed of an Oscar nom.
Kaufman's debut film is in contention of being his finest work (hint hint...the other film will be appearing on the 2000s list).
I would gladly put this script up against any other strictly for the courage it has to be original and completely absurd.
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#1 - Fargo (1996)
Directed by Joel Coen
After over a decade of making some fantastic indie films such as Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, and Barton Fink, the Coen Brothers gave us Fargo which gets the crown of Best Film of the 90s.
I feel like every Coen Brother-esque staple you can ask for is in this film, but there is no denying that the biggest example of their tropes is comedy at its darkest.
Fargo revolves around a used car salesman named Jerry (the brilliant William H. Macy, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and lost to Cuba Gooding Jr for Jerry Maguire...he was robbed and frankly should've won in Lead). Jerry is desperate for money and is advised to contact two conmen: Carl & Gaere (Steve Buscemi & Peter Stromare), whom he wants to have kidnap his wife in order for her wealthy father to pay them a ransom of $80,000 which would then be split amongst the three of them.
From there, the plan descends into chaos and the deceitful trail is discovered by local and very pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson (the always brilliant Frances McDormand), whose chipper and honest portrayal is certainly unique in her career of playing no-nonsense types like Mildred in Three Billboards or more stoic roles like her recent Oscar winning portrayal as Fern in Nomadland.
But words cannot express how good William H. Macy is in this. His neurotic and tightly wound nature with that distinctive Minnesotan accent makes for a delicious combo…and he is certainly a very unique kind of villain
The film begins with a text screen stating that the film was based on a true story that occurred in 1987. This turned out to be a complete lie, and frankly, a genius move on the Coens’ part.
Marge, despite being with the police, is a very warm and open individual who is in a very loving marriage and as she ends up solving the case, you feel terrible for her because its as if she realizes that the world around her is perhaps too cold for her and her husband and their new child on the way.
At first glance it might not seem like much, but I do think Fargo is pretty close to perfect.
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IN CONCLUSION:
While still not as overflowing with brilliant films like the 1970s, I do feel the 90s managed to have an eclectic feel that was fairly relatable to the 70s...and a lot of that was due to the magnificent independent film circles that formed during the decade.
There are certain films I can recall having strong positive reactions to from this decade and yet looking back on them now, I am not sure how I would view those films if I saw them again today.
In particular, the films written and/or directed by Harmony Korine come to mind like Kids or Gummo.
There were also other films that I absolutely loved that have dipped entirely off my top 10 to either an Honorable Mention or simply not getting a mention at all (like Pulp Fiction or The Crying Game).
I do think its crazy what time does to movies and to our opinions of them, especially if its a movie that had such an effect on you whether be a year or two or several years before.
You never know what films will truly stand the test of time.
Next up, we go into the new millennium and the 2000s.
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