Let me start this start this off with an incredibly piping hot take:
The Shawshank Redemption will NOT be on this list.
That is a comment that will likely start a riot amongst some of you, but if there was ever a film that seemed to wear out its welcome with me based on the combo of hype and how frequently it got played on TV, it was clearly Shawshank for me.
That isn't to say the film was without its great qualities. I still think Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins make an excellent duo, and the ending feels emotionally earned but I never considered more than just a good film at best.
With that out of the way, I should probably also go ahead and state that Forrest Gump will also not be on this list. Saying that is not going to strike up as much negative fervor as the former, but I will say that I do find a lot of entertainment value in Forrest Gump. I think the real issue with the film is that it plays so much like a Baby Boomer's wet dream of what America should be.
Hot takes aside, 1994 might one of the years from that decade that truly represents the quality and the styles that have come to immortalize so much about it. While maybe not my personal favorite year of the 90s, it does offer some true classics that people still talk about today...even some of the ones that could be dubbed "popcorn flicks".
I will start off with a few Honorable Mentions as I do think a year such as this warrants the extra spotlight.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Serial Mom
Written & Directed by John Waters
I have always found this film to be something of a pinnacle for John Waters. Sure, it was a bigger budget than his most famous films are typically known for...but the energy and the wit and the dark undertones are truly enjoyable in the best way. I love that Kathleen Turner gave her all to this role and knew exactly what it needed. Horror comedic camp at its best!
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The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert
Written & Directed by Stephan Elliott
While elements of the film haven't aged as well (such as a cis man playing a trans woman), it is clear that for a product of its time and that it was a VERY important film for the LGBTQ+ community. The trio of Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and the late Terence Stamp made for a truly indelible ensemble and in the end, the film nails a lot of the discourse within the community rather well.
This was also a pretty big film in terms of putting Australia onto the worldwide film forum again, which was also followed by the next film getting a mention.
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Muriel's Wedding
Written & Directed by P.J. Hogan
The film that unleashed Toni Collete onto the world. That alone is enough to praise it, but this is a truly quirky and enjoyable Australian gem about a very socially awkward girl who wants nothing more than to have a glamorous wedding move from her dead-end town of Porpoise Spit to Sydney.
Collete is, as she would go on to prove time and time again, an absolute marvel here. Oh, and the soundtrack featuring a ton of ABBA is iconic...before Mamma Mia stormed in to try to steal its thunder.
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Clerks
Written & Directed by Kevin Smith
A true indie vision and an inspiring filmmaking story to boot, Clerks was shot for only $27,575 and then managed to get distributed by Miramax. An additional $230,000 would be spent on music licensing which is crazy to think that the music was the most expensive part.
Smith is clearly a master at writing such quirky, quotable, and often brilliant dialogue. With his debut, Kevin Smith showed such confidence with his abilities, and it is always so exciting when a filmmaker comes in and gives you that surge right off the bat.
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Through the Olive Trees
Written & Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
Back in the land of Kiarostami again! The fact that this film didn't even make my top 10 is a testament to the strength of 1994.
When I talked about Life, and Nothing More... on my 1992 list, I did mention that Through the Olive Trees would likely be an Honorable Mention at the very least. It actually took many years for me to be able to see this film as it never received a Home Video release in the US. It would be the final entry in the "Koker trilogy" that would blur the line between art and reality as filmmaking continues in earthquake-stricken Northern Iran.
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Leon: The Professional
Written & Directed by Luc Besson
In recent years, this film is mainly known as Leon: The Professional, but upon its release, it was known as Leon in France and The Professional in the US.
I always put this film on a very high pedestal even if I didn't quite respond to it as strongly at first. Back in the late 90s/early 00s when I was truly becoming a film fanatic, those on the internet that would wax incessantly about fantastic films from the 90s would bring up this one.
To younger me, I was still at a stage where a lot of my film knowledge (at least in terms of what was "prestige") came from what got nominated for mainstream awards. Leon was one of the first films I can recall that didn't get any real mainstream awards attention but would continuously get singled out as a masterwork. That isn't to say that the film was well-received in 1994. Roger Ebert and Janet Maslin were certainly not as pleased with it, nor did it even receive the best reviews in Besson's native France. This was a film that's reputation grew over time, to be sure.
Our titular lead is a hitman (Jean Reno) who is forced to care for a young 12-year-old girl named Mathilda (Natalie Portman in her film debut, and she's great) after her family is killed by corrupt DEA agent Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman).
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THE TOP 10:
#10 - CRUMB
Written & Directed by Terry Zwigoff
Crumb was one of the many films from the 90s that I got introduced to by watching old episodes of Siskel & Ebert, who both adored the film. I can't quite remember if Ebert had it up there, but I do remember Siskel calling it the best film of 1995 (as it didn't technically get a theatrical release till that Spring).
Crumb goes into the story of underground cartoonist Robert Crumb and his family, and how he goes about interpreting life. I talk a lot about how art saved me as a kid, and I know that isn't an uncommon feeling people have had. Everything about this film feels so incredibly honest; it holds no punches and manages to straddle a line between being truly endearing and leaving you feeling a bit shaken and unsettled.
There is a vibrancy to how Zwigoff presents his subject and certainly leaves the concepts of race and sexuality and pornography all on the table.
As far as documentaries go, this one certainly falls under a provocative banner.
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#9 - QUIZ SHOW
Directed by Robert Redford
Written by Paul Attanasio
As a kid, I was very drawn to game shows for whatever reason. I don't think I can truly explain it, but I do recall the cable channel USA having afternoon blocks of game show reruns that would include the likes of The $25,000 Pyramid, Scrabble, Joker's Wild, and Press Your Luck. Don't even get me started on the cheese fest that was Supermarket Sweep! There was also the split battle in my house growing up where my mom & I loved Jeopardy! while my dad and sister responded more to Wheel of Fortune as those two would be, and still are, indelibly linked in syndication for decades.
Not surprisingly, hearing of a film about a game/quiz show scandal was very much up my alley.
Based on the true story of the Twenty-One quiz show scandal from the late 1950s, we see a contestant by the name of Herb Stempel (John Turturro) winning night after night to the point that the producers are worried about him causing ratings to drop. The producers, Dan Enright & Albert Freedman (David Paymer & Hank Azaria), become entranced when Columbia professor Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) comes to their office with the goal of being on the far sillier game show Tic Tac Dough. Instead, they want to rig the game for him to be the successor that will beat Herb Stempel.
They coerce Stempel to blow an answer live on air, which was regarding which film had won the Oscar for Best Picture the year prior (the answer was Marty, and it is implied in the film that EVERYONE knows that...good luck getting that kind of recognition if you've won an Oscar these days). The film then becomes about the legal investigation against the game show by congressional lawyer Richard N. Goodwin (Rob Morrow), whose eventual book would be the basis for the film.
Quiz Show is a film made with such sleek style and feels like such an immaculate relic in the best possible way. This was also one of the better directorial achievements of actor-turned-director Robert Redford who, as of this writing, just passed away a few days ago.
The dichotomy of Fiennes and Turturro is also very compelling. Considering this was Fiennes' first big film following Schindler's List, it served as such a great contrast. Then you have Turturro, who shamefully got snubbed for an Oscar nomination for what was one of his best performances as the nebbish Stempel.
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#8 - TO LIVE
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Written by Lu Wei
We have yet another entry in the Zhang Yimou/Gong Li pairing to discuss!
After Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern, we now have To Live, yet another prime example of how Gong Li is one of our finest actresses and how Yimou is a filmmaker who was able to create such bleak and tragic stories amidst such gorgeous color palates.
Set during the Chinese Civil War, the film delves into the lives of the Xu family as their lives descend from relative wealth to a life of peasantry.
My introduction to the film was actually in a World History class my sophomore year of high school. Strangely enough, I had seen Raise the Red Lantern at that point but somehow To Live alluded me. For the most part, my class responded to the film surprisingly well. If I recall, it was the only time a film with subtitles was shown to me during my public-school years.
No wonder this film is frequently shown over here in schools when addressing Chinese history because the decades scope of To Live has been said to be a truly accurate portrayal of what many families faced in China at that time.
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#7 - PULP FICTION
Written & Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Co-written by Roger Avary
I find myself at a weird and complicated crossroads with Pulp Fiction.
Yes, it was a game changer of a film. Yes, it is iconic, Yes, it is entertaining. Yes, it is made with great verve and style...and yet, for whatever, I find myself a bit more distant with it as time goes on.
I wouldn't be lying if I said a lot of that has to do with Quentin Tarantino himself, whose grandiose and cocky demeanor makes him almost insufferable to listen to. Some also complain that a lot of his work is simply him stealing very basic ideas and giving them a fresh coat of paint. Even he himself has said he knows he works with a lot of common tropes, but alas..."great artists steal" as Ginsberg once said.
There is no denying that Tarantino as a filmmaker has an immense vitality, and in the case of films like Pulp Fiction, I will still succumb to his prowess.
As one of the two films that often gets cited as the unfortunate loser to Forrest Gump for the Best Picture Oscar along with The Shawshank Redemption, there is a sense with Pulp Fiction that you are watching a film of that moment. It was a watershed beacon for indie film and it signaled that there was a new kind of filmmaker in town...particularly with how his scripts would be dripping with fast-paced and very verbose dialogue. Who could forget Travolta and Jackson riffing on something as simple as what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris? What about the tension of Travolta having to save Uma Thurman from OD'ing as she is his boss' wife and her dying on his watch would undoubtedly lead to his own demise?
However, the elements of misogyny and homophobia do rear their heads in moments of the film...particularly with the latter...but I will still find the film to be rather important to igniting the success of indie cinema that had been experiencing such a surge in the 90s after it mostly struggled in the 80s.
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#6 - HOOP DREAMS
Written & Directed by Steve James
Co-written by Frederick Marx
Much like Crumb, I was introduced to Hoop Dreams by watching Siskel & Ebert. In fact, both of them even named it the best film of 1994 which is saying something considering how passionate they both were about Pulp Fiction.
Hoop Dreams, along with Crumb, got a lot of press attention at the time not necessarily because of their quality but rather how they were overlooked. Both documentaries got snubbed for Best Documentary nominations when some felt that not only were either of them far and away the best options, but they were also good enough to be in the Best Picture race; something that no Documentary has ever achieved.
*UNLESS - you want to count Chang, which was a silent documentary released in 1928 that got nominated for "Unique & Artistic Picture" at the very first Academy Award ceremony.
Not surprisingly, as you will be seeing a lot in this post, it was Roger Ebert who led a lot of the uproar. In interviews, reliable sources told him that during nomination committee screenings, a lot of those in the room would wave a flashlight at the screen if they gave up on the film. The majority of the room did so, and the film was shut off. The response was so vitriolic that it became one of the rare instances in Oscar history that the Academy and the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse which tabulates the votes, released data to explain on how the snub occurred.
Ebert's colleague Gene Siskel made another very valid point: the snub gave the film more promotion than if it had actually gotten the nomination.
With that all out of the way, I need to address what Hoop Dreams is actually about...I mean, I shouldn't ramble all day about the awards details, but I suppose I am known for that after all.
We follow two Chicago high school students: William Gates and Arthur Agee, and their dream to become professional basketball players. What began as a modest piece that Steve James and Frederick Marx hoped to air on PBS evolved into a multi-year shoot and editing process that became one of the most engrossing sports films ever made. It is so compelling that it truly plays out that some might think it is a work of fiction.
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#5 - ED WOOD
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski
Perhaps one of the most well-known directors to the general public of the last few decades is Tim Burton. Sort of in the same vein that Wes Anderson's style is so instantly recognizable, there is usually no mistaking a Tim Burton film. Often dark in tone and look, maybe it has quirkier elements mixed in with splashes of bright colors.
His filmography does contain work I have a fondness for such as
Pee Wee's Big Adventure and
Beetlejuice, but I can't say that I am truly enamored with his work. Most of his films wouldn't even make the top 10 of the given year that they came out. Even a film like
Edward Scissorhands that I do really like ended up barely missing my
1990 list.
However, Ed Wood is the one film of his that I think reaches a high masterwork level.
For those not familiar with Ed Wood the person, he was a director who made many B movies throughout the 50s up until his death in 1978. A lot of these films fell into obscurity until film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry wrote a book called The Golden Turkey Awards in 1980 in which they named Ed Wood as the worst film director of all time.
Writers Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszweski saw this as their official break as their biggest films prior to Ed Wood were the Problem Child movies that starred John Ritter and were played relentlessly via cable reruns throughout the 90s. Alexander first devised the film as a documentary while he was a student at USC, but then it evolved into a narrative form.
The major focus of the film revolves around Ed Wood's (Johnny Depp...in what still remains his best performance in my humble opinion) relationship with aging horror actor Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau, in his Oscar winning performance) and also how Wood's goal is to purchase the story rights of Christine Jorgenson for a film, who was the first widely known person in the US to have sex-reassignment surgery. This topic has some area of interest for Wood as he has been known for wearing women's clothes as a source of comfort since childhood, something that his girlfriend Dolores (Sarah Jessica Parker) has a very hard time accepting.
Much like Quiz Show earlier, Ed Wood really captures an aesthetic of the 1950s that is incredibly alluring. It manages to feel like a very well-done B movie, and in terms of all-out confidence, Tim Burton has never been better.
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#4 - SATANTANGO
Written & Directed by Bela Tarr
Co-written by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
I have talked about films on this blog that were over 3 hours; I've talked about films that were roughly 4 hours; I have even talked about films that were originally presented as a miniseries but were screened in the US as films.
However, we haven't dealt with something quite like Satantango yet. This is a narrative film that runs for more than 7 hours in length. This is not a film that I would recommend easily to anyone as it does require a lot of stamina to sit through. I don't even know if I would necessarily sit down to watch it again any time soon, but what I will say is that the experience of watching was extremely worthwile.
How can one really condense Satantango down to a brief synopsis?
Set in the early 90s following the fall of Communism, we meet a group of people living in a small Hungarian village that are struggling as the local source of revenue, a large factory, shuttered leaving many without a job.
For a 7+ hour film shot in black & white, this film manages to be one of the best I have seen in terms keeping you engrossed despite a lot of long slow takes. Very few films manage to succeed so strongly on atmosphere/world building quite like Satantango, because despite the unnatural black & white cinematography (unless one is severely colorblind), it really felt like we were watching a beautifully filmed documentary.
It isn't a film with a strong plot, but a lot of it is based on the world of these characters within a very dire construct...and even with that all in mind, it is all the more remarkable that the film turned out as engrossing as it did.
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#3 - THE LION KING
Directed by Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff
Written by Irene Mecchi, Linda Woolverton, & Jonathan Roberts
"Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it".
Oh, that line...
I don't know what it was about The Lion King that didn't make me respond to it as rapturously as others did. There were certain films I would watch as a kid that seemed to be pretty beloved by a lot of people, but something about them would leave me feeling off. Even the original Toy Story was among that group, but the simple truth is that The Lion King is the pinnacle of the Disney Renaissance.
While I would still consider Beauty & the Beast to be my favorite Disney film from that era, I do think The Lion King represents such a high level of animation, voice work, music, and story to create such an immersive and monumental achievement for the animated genre.
I think the monumental nature of the film stems from the fact that we are delving into Shakespearean territory. The Lion King is Disney veering away from tales by the likes of Hans Christen Anderson and giving us Shakespeare's Hamlet...plus who can forget the iconic opening.
The sun rise, "Circle of Life", the sweeping scope of the animals approaching the reveal of young Simba...everything about this film screams epic and truthfully, it is kind of insane that after Beauty & the Beast managed to break the barrier of being the first animated film nominated that The Lion King couldn't achieve it. Even from a critical and box office standpoint, The Lion King was a smash right out of the gate and proved to be far more beloved than the other Disney film that was being groomed to be a prestigious Oscar player: 1995's Pocahontas.
And that is the only time you will see Pocahontas mentioned on a list about good films!
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#2 - CHUNGKING EXPRESS
Written & Directed by Wong Kar-wai
Whenever I see a pineapple, I often think of the song from Cabaret called "It Couldn't Please Me More" where Herr Schultz gifts Fraulein Schneider a glamorous pineapple. Perhaps in the case of Chungking Express, the pineapple is canned but the exchange about the sell by date being just "2 hours away" on a can of pineapple has weirdly resonated with me over the years. Then again, sell by dates likely became more prominent when my late Nan insisted that the milk in her fridge was fresh despite a sell by date of the next day only for me to take a sip of curdled milk.
Moving past that random memory, let's talk about yet another glorious outing for one of my personal favorites: Wong Kar-wai.
Chungking Express is an example of a type of film that rarely works: the anthology film. It tells two stories in sequence; both are about policemen in love with a woman.
The funny thing about Wong with a lot of his earlier films, at least the ones from the 90s, are that they received mixed to tempered praise from mainstream American critics like Roger Ebert, Janet Maslin, and Peter Travers.
In fact, Maslin specifically called out the film for having too much of an MTV-like "aggressive energy". Frankly, she spoke a year too soon as the succeeding year's
Fallen Angels has this vibe far more than
Chungking Express...and I think despite my admiration for that film (it DID place on my
1995 list), that film has a little less substance compared to this one.
Chungking Express is very captivating as a romance, and it is yet another prime example of how Wong Kar-wai has become a master of the genre in ways that feel refreshing rather that stale. It is a shame that he hasn't made another film since 2013.
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#1 - THREE COLOURS: RED
Written & Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Co-written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz
As his final outing before passing away in 1996, Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski completed his Three Colours trilogy with Red.
Kieslowski's intent with the trilogy was that each film would represent a color of the French Revolutionary ideals: Blue, White, and Red.
Released in that color order, I think that White is a very good film, but it was the weakest of the three. As for Blue and Red, I honestly love them both pretty equally. If you had asked me which was my favorite several years ago, I likely would've said Blue, but I think a lot of that was due to Juliette Binoche's exquisite performance and how the film addressed grief.
Red, which I revisited during my oft-discussed COVID Quarantine Film Rewatch Marathon, would likely be my choice by a hair as I do love the construction of this story more.
Blue referenced liberty, White addressed equality, while Red tackled fraternity. Pairings that might not seem to work on paper can sometimes become to most intriguing or indelible to watch, and that is what get here.
Irene Jacob (who had headlined Kiselowski's fantastic 1991 film The Double Life of Veronique) stars as Valentine Dussaut. She is a student at the Univesity of Geneva who supports herself by working part-time as a model who accidentally hits a pregnant Malinois dog named Rita with her car. When she takes the dog back to her owner, a retired judge named Joseph Kern (the legendary Jean Louis Trintignant), he refuses to take her back in. After taking Rita to a vet herself, she decides to keep the dog...quickly followed by money being sent to her apartment anonymously.
Shortly thereafter, Valentine takes Rita for a walk, and she leads her back to Judge Kern's home. He admits that he sent her the money for the vet but still said he would like her to keep Rita. While there, Rita discovers that Judge Kern has something of an unsavory hobby: he loves listening in on his neighbors' phone calls. From there, a complicated and eventually solid friendship forms.
There is something that feels so familiar and yet so original about Red. We've seen films about unlikely friendship pairings before, but there is something whimsical and mysterious and alluring about how Kieslowski presents this story.
The film, not surprisingly, didn't receive a Best Picture nomination. However, it did manage to net Kieslowski a nod for Best Director along him with and Piesiewicz getting a Screenplay nod. Nowadays, it feels more common for films in another language to slip into the BP race...especially with extra slots. Not to mention we have since had Parasite win the top prize, which hopefully paved the way for more international offering to do so.
If I were to list nominations over the years that bring me a lot of joy, it would be those Directing and Screenplay nods because Kieslowski was a filmmaker who was seminal. It felt fitting that what was to be his final film less than two years before his passing would give him this kind of recognition and not only that, but it also still managed to be his best work. That is truly remarkable considering how strong a lot of his earlier efforts were.
Everything about this film is as close to perfect as a film can get. It's beautiful to look at, the script is intelligent, the performances are glorious, the score is wonderful...and it goes into the idea of how platonic love can be just as valuable and important as romantic love.
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FINAL THOUGHTS:
Full disclosure, I started making this post last year with the intention of making it for 1994's 30th Anniversary...but I couldn't get myself to have the drive to complete it.
I think a major reason for that was 1994 is one of those years that a lot of film buffs love and therefore, I don't feel like I am saying anything new. I find myself more drawn to discussing years with hidden gems, especially if there is a surprising abundance of them.
It is a similar reason as to why I struggled to put together a list for 1999's 25th Anniversary but felt more inclined to discuss
2000 as I felt so many films deserved a spotlight that don't get talked about as much.
I do still think pretty highly of 1994 and think it was one of the banner years from the 90s. It definitely has one of the strongest #1s of that decade for sure.
I have already tackled 1995 and 1998, so next up we will continue with 1996, 1997, and 1999. I will be doing this for other decades as well but as of this writing, I do not know which decade I will tackle next.
Such suspense... ;-)
