My Top Tens: 1990s

My top ten films for each year of the 1990s. These are always up for revision as I watch more films, revisit ones I’ve seen before, and think about them over time. I don’t really believe in top “ten” lists, despite using the common nomenclature for the title of this page, nor do I hold fast to the order, though it’s generally from films I liked better to films I liked less well. This is going to be my top several films of each year, down to whatever point I feel is right. Might be eight one year, might be twenty-three another.

1999

• Run Lola Run
• The Matrix
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
• All About My Mother
• Fight Club
• American Beauty
• Election
• Galaxy Quest
• Magnolia
• Office Space
• Toy Story 2
• Being John Malkovich
• Dogma
• Three Kings
• An Ideal Husband
• 42 Up
• Topsy Turvy
• eXistenZ
• Fantasia 2000
• Go
• Girl, Interrupted
• The Iron Giant

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Ratcatcher
Eyes Wide Shut
The Limey
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Sweet and Lowdown

1998

• The Truman Show
• Shakespeare in Love
• The Big Lebowski
• Rushmore
• Billy’s Balloon
• American History X
• The Spanish Prisoner
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
• Dark City
• Ronin
• Saving Private Ryan
• The Mask of Zorro
• Pi

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Thin Red Line
Blade
The Celebration
Beau travail
Histoire(s) du cinema

1997

• L.A. Confidential
• Jackie Brown
• The Fifth Element
• Titanic
• Gattaca
• Chasing Amy
• Princess Mononoke
• Boogie Nights
• Good Will Hunting
• Waiting for Guffman
• Grosse Pointe Blank
• Open Your Eyes

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
A Taste of Cherry
The Sweet Hereafter
Happy Together
Cube
Contact

1996

• Fargo
• Trainspotting
• Ghost in the Shell
• The English Patient
• Lone Star
• Irma Vep
• Freeway
• William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
• Bound
• The Frighteners
• Scream
• From Dusk Till Dawn

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
La Promesse
Breaking the Waves
The Rock
Hard Eight
The Muppet Treasure Island

1995

• Before Sunrise
• Toy Story
• Kicking and Screaming
• The City of Lost Children
• Braveheart
• Clueless
• Pride and Prejudice
• GoldenEye
• Desperado
• Sense and Sensibility
• Heat
• The Usual Suspects
• Se7en
• The Flower of My Secret
• Forgotten Silver

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Twelve Monkeys
Dead Man
Strange Days
La Haine
Fallen Angels

1994

• Three Colors: Red
• Chungking Express
• Pulp Fiction
• The Lion King
• Ed Wood
• Little Women
• Bullets Over Broadway
• Four Weddings and a Funeral
• Clerks
• The Professional
• The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
• Interview with the Vampire

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Heavenly Creatures
Reality Bites
Shallow Grave
Satantango
The Crow

1993

• True Romance
• Jurassic Park
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Schindler’s List
• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Remains of the Day
• Groundhog Day
• The Fugitive
• Wayne’s World 2
• Naked
• Three Colors: Blue
• Strictly Ballroom
• The Piano
• The Joy Luck Club

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Short Cuts
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Cronos
Benny & Joon
Baraka

1992

• Unforgiven
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• My Cousin Vinny
• Army of Darkness
• Raise the Red Lantern
• Howards End
• Aladdin
• Shadows and Fog
• A League of Their Own
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula
• Patriot Games
• Hard Boiled
• 35 Up
• Batman Returns
• The Crying Game
• Reservoir Dogs
• The Player

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Noises Off
Chaplin
Porco Rosso
Husbands and Wives
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

1991

• Beauty and the Beast
• The Double Life of Veronique
• JFK
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• The Rocketeer
• Barton Fink
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Slacker

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Delicatessen
My Own Private Idaho
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
La belle noiseuse
The Lovers on the Bridge

1990

• Wild at Heart
• GoodFellas
• Edward Scissorhands
• Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
• Miller’s Crossing
• Cyrano de Bergerac
• Troll 2
• Metropolitan

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Total Recall
Misery
Jacob’s Ladder
Ju Dou
The Match Factory Girl