The Best of the 1990s: 1 - 10

1) SCHINDLER'S LIST
Director: Steven Spielberg
Yes, yes, if I wanted to be hip about this list I wouldn't dare put this popular choice as the best film of the nineties. I'd rather put some arthouse counter culture experiment. Unfortunately, I'd be wrong to do so. This really is the best film of the 1990s, and one of the best of all time. Never have I seen a film that rises so high to take on a subject so important. Every facet of this gem was nearly perfect:

Acting - Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley were simply extraordinary in their roles. In fact, Fiennes created one of the most horrific creations the screen has ever seen. That's true evil on the screen. It's human evil, not Hannibal Lector or Dracula.

Direction - Spielberg knows a little something about magnifying emotion in the cinema, but he's never magnified more intensely than in this film. It's usually easier to make an audience cry than lift them up, but this was a weeper film to the maximum. In terms of design, the visuals were extraordinary. All other reasons to use black and white aside, I believe that the faces of the actors were more telling than they could have been in color. And tell me that the the hazy red halo around the single child lost in the sea of human destruction was anything other than genius.

Story - A very good story, although perhaps not a great script. I've heard some reviews denegrating stories of this type for taking a complicated issue (like Nazi Germany for instance) and turning it into one person's story. Well, considering this was the story of one man simply learning what was wrong within that complicated framework and then taking action to fix it, I think it's obvious why that works as a script. As long as we learn something, what we do to fix the problem is up to us.

A great, great film that's strong enough to affect nearly every viewer. Some films will affect only a small segment (see Pulp Fiction below), this film can affect everyone deeply, and for many it already has.

2) HOWARDS END
Director: Merchant - Ivory
Simply, this is the best period film ever. Nearly every character is a pitch perfect creation, and nearly ever actor succeeds in bringing their character to life. Often great films have a dichotomy of tones, playing Vietnam battles to Opera for instance. This film blended gender roles and the plight of the poor with the happy notes flowing through the sweet springtime of English grand Victorianism. It might just be that being rich in that time and place was the best life that a person could ever have led. Why do you think they keep making these frilly little Anglophillic stories?

3) BOOGIE NIGHTS
Director: Paul T. Anderson
An operatic tour de force that helped launch the careers of a half dozen actors. This film came out of nowhere to redefine the bounds of an acceptable story. The acting was superb across the board. Marky Mark simply was the stupid kid on screen (of course he might not have been acting ...), but it was the supporting cast that made this film. Don Cheadle, William H Macy, Burt Reynolds, Heather Graham, Julianne Moore, John C Reilley and others all hit home runs in their roles.

4) GOODFELLAS
Director: Martin Scorsese
There's no denying that this was a great film. It's been gone over and over and over again, and I doubt anyone doesn't know it by now. From the famous fluid single shot entering the Copacabana to Joe Pesci's "I'm funny how? Like I'm a clown?" line, this film is filled to the brim with great moments. In fact, nearly every single line of dialog and narration is great. Heck I can probably quote 2 dozen from memory right now. I think the real success of this film is owed to the to Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco, however. These two gave a couple of the best performances in recent memory. It's hard to fault DeNiro and Pesci and Sorvino and many others in their supporting roles, but you get the idea. Simply a great film.

5) LEAVING LAS VEGAS
Director: Mike Figgis
The saddest movie I've ever seen. The amazing performances by Nicholas Cage and Elizabeth Shue, and Figgis' great direction somehow overcome the cliches peppered throughout the script. I mean Shue managed to turn the "hooker wiht the heart of gold" away from a pitiful script device and toward an engaging, broken woman struggling to complete herself. Cage gave one of the most notable performances ever, absolutely capturing the soul of a drunk.

6) THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
Director: Martin Scorsese
In my mind, this is one of the most underrated movies ever. It might just be Scorsese's best. Scorsese has done a whole lot of gangster films, and they are to some degree about people born into a life that they didn't choose themselves. The difference between those gangster films and this period romance, however, is that here we finally have some characters struggling to break free from the constraints of their society. The gangsters all loved the life. They may have paid for it in the end, but they loved it. These aristocrats hate the life, but they just can't get away. See how Scorsese lingers over the food and the settings and the clothes and the homes in the visuals and the narration. Everything had to be just so, and that's what was driving the characters mad.

7) THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Director: Jonathan Demme
Another film that's hardly worth talking more about. It's been loaded with enough praise to sink a ship. We all know Hannibal Lector and Jodie Foster and "It rubs the lotion on its skin, or it gets the hose again". Films don't get much creepier and well made than this. Anthony Hopkins pops up again in an amazing role. What a great actor.

8) PULP FICTION
Director: Quenton Tarrentino
Love it or hate it, this film turned cinema on its head. Like Boogie Nights (and made well before Boogie Nights I'll add) this film shows how art can hide in the strangest places. It's far more unique than Boogie Nights, and in many ways better. The dialog was extraordinary, the scenes powerful. My only complaint is: "Where did this film take us"? To this day I still don't find a meaningful landing spot. It's artistry of the highest order, and beauty can definitely be its own reward. Sometimes a sugary dessert like this is great, but usually I want something with a little more to my cinematic meal.

9) DANCES WITH WOLVES
Director: Kevin Costner
I hate to admit it, but this was just a great, epic movie filled with sweeping vistas, a strong script, and a Buffalo hunt scene that still amazes me. There are a lot of similarities with Lawrence of Arabia here, from the epic story, to the epic expanse of the visuals, to the misunderstood and noble natives. It's too bad I had to see Kevin Costner's butt to get all of that though.

10) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Director: Trousdale + Wise
The best animated movie ever, singing furniture aside. One of the sweetest, best made movies you can show your kids. It's also beautifully drawn. Easily one of the more visually lovely films ever made.

12/06/2005