| Top 25 Films 90s (From AboutFilm.com) Posted: 17 Feb 2012 02:41 PM PST You can see the list at their site.
 | #1 Goodfellas (1990)
Starring Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, and Paul Sorvino.
Written by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese based on Pileggi's book.
Directed by Martin Scorsese. | | The Grades | | Alison | A+ | | Carlo | A+ | | Dana | A+ | | Jeff | A+ | | Jen | A | | Kris | A+ |
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It's difficult to say which is Martin Scorsese's finest work, Goodfellas or Taxi Driver. Though both examine the seamy underbelly of life in and around the Big Apple, Goodfellas replaces Taxi Driver's quiet brooding and slow burn with explosive kinetics. Henry Hill (Liotta) is a petty man with an over-romanticized view of his own life. "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster," he narrates in the film's opening. Scorsese's ambulatory cameras trail along as Hill describes how he falls in with a local mob boss (Sorvino) and two small-time con men (De Niro and Pesci), marries the feisty girl (Bracco), and hits the jackpot, living out his dreams despite serving a stint in jail. Alas, everything soon comes crashing down, yet through it all, Hill is never able to step outside his myopic, self-deluded perspective. Notwithstanding the ambitious narrative and active pace, Scorsese does not rush the story. He has never directed with more assurance, expertly blending narration, period music, and his own dynamic tableaux to create an energetic, darkly funny, and unforgettable portrait of life among the Mob's bottom feeders. As the talkative, volatile Tommy DeVito ("You think I'm funny? How am I funny? What the fuck is so funny about me?!?"), Pesci earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar™, but the Academy overlooked Goodfellas in favor of Dances With Wolves in other categories, decisions that look remarkably unenlightened in hindsight. –Carlo Academy Awards™
Best Supporting Actor (Pesci).
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Bracco), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing
Other Major AwardsBritish Academy Awards: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Costume Design.
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Pesci), Best Supporting Actress (Bracco), Best Cinematography.
National Board of Review: Best Supporting Actor (Pesci)
National Society of Film Critics: Best Film, Best Director
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (De Niro).
Venice Film Festival: Best Director.
Named one of the 100 Greatest American Movies by the American Film Institute. |
 | #2 Schindler's List (1993)
Starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodal, Jonathan Sagall, and Embeth Davidtz.
Written by Steven Zaillian based on the book by Thomas Keneally.
Directed by Steven Spielberg. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A+ | | Dana | A+ | | Jeff | A+ | | Jen | A | | Kris | A+ |
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Haunting and profoundly moving, Schindler's List is Steven Spielberg's greatest triumph. Spielberg's opening montage sketches a portrait of Oskar Schindler, a peerless and unscrupulous manipulator who sees World War II as a business opportunity. With Jews stripped of their right to own property, he invests their money on their behalf, uses their labor to manufacture war goods, and keeps a chunk of the earnings. As the Jews' plight worsens, Schindler feels unexpected pangs of conscience and applies his skills to a nobler purpose: saving those lives he once treated as profitable commodities. Unlike the glossy boyish fantasies that make up most of Spielberg's filmography, List is a work of unsensational realism, resonating with truth from start to finish. The movie may be shot in black and white, but Spielberg's treatment of the subject is far from it. Diving into the particulars, Spielberg creates fully formed, multidimensional characters without shying from the humanity of his villains and the shortcomings of his heroes. The actors ably assist this effort–in particular Liam Neeson at his most assured and Ralph Fiennes' shockingly soulful portrayal of a monster, Commandant Amon Goeth. List is not another movie lecture about the horrors of the Holocaust. What is ultimately most memorable about List is not the tragedy of the lives lost or even the number of people Schindler saved, but how such an imperfect man could have done something so perfect. –Carlo Academy Awards™
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Score.
Nominations: Best Actor (Neeson); Best Supporting Actor (Fiennes), Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Sound.
Other Major AwardsBritish Academy Awards: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Supporting Actor (Fiennes), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Score.
Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design.
Golden Globes: Best Picture-Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay.
London Critics Circle: Film of the Year, Director of the Year, British Actor of the Year (Fiennes).
National Board of Review: Best English Language Picture.
National Society of Film Critics: Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Fiennes), Best Cinematography.
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Fiennes), Best Cinematography.
Writers Guild of America: Best Adapted Screenplay.
Named one of the 100 Greatest American Movies by the American Film Institute. |
 | #3 Miller's Crossing (1990)
Starring Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, and Jon Polito.
Written by Ethan and Joel Coen.
Directed by Joel Coen.
| | The Grades | | Alison | A+ | | Carlo | A+ | | Dana | A- | | Jeff | A | | Jen | - | | Kris | A |
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Set in a late-1920s/early-1930s alternate universe where colors are muted, drinks are stiff, and the primary struggles of gangsters are moral, Miller's Crossing is a world unto itself. It is a movie like they used to make–only more so, informed by gangster conventions and Western archetypes, sporting a postmodern cynicism surrounding a marshmallow heart. The Coen Brothers' mobster masterpiece is neither like Coppola's operatic Godfather series nor Scorsese's GoodFellas' ( #1) rock and roll. It is pure jazz underscored with a haunting Irish air. Stylish, complex, and mournful, this is one of those rare films that not only bears repeat viewings, but demands them. The intricate story of a ruling mob boss' right-hand man is a labyrinthine grift on the audience, filled with double crosses, backroom scheming, and rubouts both rhapsodically orchestrated and brutally nonchalant. It is only once the crackling dialogue and sumptuously threadbare surroundings settle into one's ears and eyes that the story's simple core–loyalty, honor, and the hard pain and cold comfort of doing what's right–becomes clear. The Coen Brothers' facile, slyly witty language, hyperreal characterization, artful storytelling, and reverence for films and times past make every trip to Miller's Crossing a film lover's delight, and provide something new for even the longtime habitué to discover. –Alison Awards
Casting Society of America: nominated for Best Casting for Feature Film-Drama.San Sebastian International Film Festival: Best Director |
 | #4 Titanic (1997)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Gloria Stuart, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, and Bill Paxton.
Written and Directed by James Cameron. | | The Grades | | Alison | A+ | | Carlo | A+ | | Dana | A+ | | Jeff | A- | | Jen | A+ | | Kris | B+ |
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Think back before the hype. Remember being transported to the strange undersea world where TITANIC rests. Think of how you were drawn in, first by the mysterious remembrances of an ancient woman who, through the magic of technical wizardry, then became the luminous Kate Winslet on a bustling dock next to a living recreation of the grandest man-made tragedy-waiting-to-happen in modern times. Recall the wonder of discovering, as Rose discovered, that life is to be lived, not by what society or family expects, but by what one feels within oneself. James Cameron's story took its time unfolding, sketching with broad strokes to help us identify with the characters and painting with fine details to help us love the doomed ship. The simple love story allowed for the many small losses and large themes of this tragedy to come through. Titanic was a truly monumental achievement in filmmaking. Epics aren't to everyone's taste. The hyperbole and overexposure caused many to grouse that the Big Boat Movie should never have been made. Perhaps it would be a good thing if it hadn't. Then we'd all get to go back to TITANIC for the first time. – Alison Academy Awards™
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Dramatic Score, Best Song ("My Heart Will Go On"), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects.
Nominations: Best Actress (Winslet), Best Supporting Actress (Stuart), Best Makeup.
Other Major Awards
American Society of Cinematographers: Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography.
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Director.
Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement.
Golden Globes: Best Picture (drama), Best Director, Best Score, Best Song ("My Heart Will Go On").
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Production Design.
People's Choice Awards: Favorite Motion Picture.
Screen Actors Guild: Best Supporting Actress (tie) (Stuart).
Highest grossing film of all time, both globally and in the United States. |
 | #5 The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald, and Brooke Smith.
Written by Ted Tally based on the novel by Thomas Harris.
Directed by Jonathan Demme. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A+ | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A+ | | Jen | A+ | | Kris | B+ |
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The standard against which all other thrillers are judged, The Silence of the Lambs is no common follow-the-clues, get-the-bad-guy movie. Rather, Lambs is an intensely psychological film, exploring the psyche of both killer and hunter, and the guide on this journey is Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter (Hopkins). Few will ever forget Lecter's first appearance. Young FBI Agent Clarice Starling (Foster), walks a gauntlet of criminally insane prisoners to interview him because he may hold the key to solving a series of gruesome murders. When she arrives at the last cell, she finds Lecter waiting for her, the harsh overhead light casting demonic shadows across his face, hollowing his deep-set eyes. He stands motionless, as if locked in the same position for hours, rigid but coiled to strike even from behind the thick plexiglass. Will he will help Starling catch her prey, or is she the prey herself? The essential conflict of Lambs is not the search for the serial killer on the loose, but Starling vs. Lecter, the serial killer already behind bars. That conflict sets Lambs above all other serial killer thrillers, and its feminist dimensions provide extra depth. In a man's world, Starling is surrounded by predators. Yet she will prevail in the end, and she will do so without the help of any man. Not by choice, not because she has anything to prove, but because she must. –Carlo Academy Awards™Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Actress (Foster), Best Adapted Screenplay.
Nominations: Best Film Editing, Best Sound.
Other Major Awards
Berlin International Film Festival: Best Director.
British Academy Awards: Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Actress (Foster).
Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement.Golden Globes: Best Actress (Foster)
National Board of Review: Best English Language Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Hopkins).New York Film Critics: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Actress (Foster).
People's Choice Awards: Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture.
Writers Guild of America: Best Adapted Screenplay.Named one of the 100 Greatest American Movies by the American Film Institute. |
 | #6 Pulp Fiction (1994)
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames, and other assorted bad-asses.
Written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary.
Directed by Quentin Tarantino. | | The Grades | | Alison | A+ | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A+ | | Jeff | A+ | | Jen | A- | | Kris | A- |
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Pulp Fiction was a shot of adrenaline felt around the world when it debuted at Cannes in 1994. Quentin Tarantino mined the riches of cinema past (no Godard was left un-homaged) to construct a dazzling prototype for cinema today. It's only been six years, but the film has already lodged a series of quotes and scenes in the cinephile's lexicon. The briefcase. The Royale with Cheese. The foot massage. The watch. The twist at Jackrabbit Slim's. Each is an indelible image associated with the film, rapidly mythologized and canonized. Pulp Fiction deserves its regard as a modern-day classic. On a superficial level, it is the supremely entertaining vanguard of Neo Noir. Its non-linear storyline, piquant dialogue, and sudden bursts of violence keep you engaged. Though Tarantino has borrowed heavily from earlier sources, Pulp Fiction feels brand new, even after a dozen viewings. More rewardingly, the film transcends its pulp origins with its mystic and religious overtones. Jules' speech in the last scene about "looking at all this shit from wrong angle" and wanting to live his life as a righteous man carries more weight than any sermon I've ever attended. In the end, Pulp Fiction is about no less than our concern for our souls, our complacency in life, and the path toward redemption. It's structured so deftly across the interlinking stories that it's more poetic than pretentious. –Jeff Academy Awards™Best Original Screenplay.
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Travolta), Best Supporting Actor (Jackson), Best Supporting Actress (Thurman), Best Film Editing.
Other Major Awards
British Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor (Jackson), Best Original Screenplay.Cannes Film Festival: Golden Palm.Golden Globes: Best Screenplay.
Independent Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Best Director, Best Male Lead (Jackson), Best Screenplay.
London Critics Circle: Actor of the Year (Travolta), Screenwriter of the Year.
Los Angeles Film Critics: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Travolta), Best Screenplay.
National Board of Review: Best Picture, Best Director.
National Society of Film Critics: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay.
Named one of the 100 Greatest American Movies by the American Film Institute. |
 | #7 Dead Man Walking (1995)
Starring Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry, and R. Lee Ermey.
Written by Tim Robbins based on the book by Helen Prejean.
Directed by Tim Robbins. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A- | | Jeff | A+ | | Jen | - | | Kris | A |
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To understand what makes Dead Man Walking so remarkable, imagine if another fine actor, Tom Hanks, had been cast in the lead role. We'd be instantly predisposed to sympathize with his death-row inmate character. With the casting of the mercurial Sean Penn as Matthew Poncelet, we must overcome our initial distrust and prejudice of the character to recognize the humanity that lies beneath. Such is the journey undertaken by Sister Helen (Susan Surandon), who exemplifies Christian models of charity and love. Dead Man Walking never missteps into mawkish melodrama or strident didacticism. It's not an issue movie, but a philosophy movie. Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon give the two best performances by any actors in any movie in the 1990s. In Penn's eyes, facial expressions, and posture, we see a man struggling to save his soul. His pride has the upper hand at first, but his heart's void is steadily filled. Sarandon's Sister Helen is the epitome of compassion. Though at first dutiful and curious, she becomes the forgiving angel that Poncelet needs. She even gets through to the father of one of the victims, opening his mind to life. It's a stunning testament to the power that resides in love, forgiveness, and a respect for humanity–all of which shine through every frame of Dead Man Walking. –Jeff Academy Awards™
Best Actress (Sarandon).
Nominations: Best Actor (Penn), Best Director, Best Song ("Dead Man Walking").
Other Major Awards
Berlin Film Festival: Jury Prize, Best Actor (Penn).
Independent Spirit Awards: Best Male Lead (Penn).
Screen Actors Guild: Best Actor (Penn), Best Actress (Sarandon). |
 | #8 L.A. Confidential (1997)
Starring Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, and James Cromwell.
Written by Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson based on the novel by James Ellroy.
Directed by Curtis Hanson. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A- | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A | | Jen | A | | Kris | A |
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A question: How do you mesh an ensemble cast of established and rising stars seamlessly in an Oscar-friendly epic, without the preening and speechifying that normally attaches to such projects? The answer: Um, not sure, actually. This is why I don't make movies, and Curtis Hanson does. L.A. Confidential is that rarest of birds, a stylized masterpiece that stretches the audience for each of its 136 minutes, refusing to dumb down its multiple plot lines, killing off lead characters when least expected, and trusting in the viewer's willingness to follow along and piece things together. Well, it does until the last scene anyway, when all is explained in great detail just in case–but that's okay, as it does get a bit confusing along the way. Spacey, Crowe, Basinger, and Pearce all give strong performances, but the dynamics between them are what define the film. It may take a second viewing to appreciate the subtlety of the pair-ups from scene to scene: Spacey-Crowe in one, Crowe-Pearce in the next, Pearce-Spacey after that, with Basinger going toe-to-toe along the way. One complaint: Danny DeVito is in this film. Otherwise, it's just about perfect. –Kris Academy Awards™
Best Supporting Actress (Basinger), Best Adapted Screenplay.
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Film Editing, Best Score, Best Sound.
Other Major AwardsBritish Academy Awards: Best Editing, Best Sound.
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay.
Golden Globes: Best Supporting Actress (Basinger).
London Critics Circle: Film of the Year, Director of the Year, Supporting Actor of the Year (Spacey), Screenwriter of the Year.
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography.
National Board of Review: Best Picture, Best Director.
National Society of Film Critics: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay.
New York Film Critics: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay.
Screen Actors Guild: Best Supporting Actress (tie) (Basinger).
Toronto International Film Festival: Metro Media Award (tie).
page 2  | #9 Babe (1995)
Starring James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, and the voices of Christine Cavanaugh, Miriam Margolyes, Danny Mann, and Hugo Weaving.
Written by George Miller and Chris Noonan based on The Sheep-Pig, by Dick King-Smith.
Directed by Chris Noonan. | | The Grades | | Alison | A- | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A- | | Jen | A+ | | Kris | - |
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Roscoe Lee Browne puts it best in his narration, "This is a tale of an unprejudiced heart, and how it changed our valley forever." The valley itself is an enchanting place, in no easily identifiable geographic location or era. The farm, run by the lanky, stoic Arthur Hoggett (Cromwell) and his portly, cheerful wife (Szubanski), has a strict hierarchy and order. Babe, a talking pig, upsets the status quo when he demonstrates his unwillingness to accept his destiny–as the Christmas ham–with an uncanny ability to herd sheep alongside the dogs. Hoggett, in his own quiet way, rebelliously challenges convention by not only recognizing Babe's talent, but nourishing it. This is a superbly crafted film, a magical blend of technology and heart. The art direction, cinematography, acting, editing, special effects, writing, and musical score swirl together to form a delightful concoction. One of the most pleasant surprises of the decade, Babe deserved every ounce of its praise, including its Oscar™ nomination. It has deservedly become an enduring, beloved favorite of children and adults alike. –Jen Academy Awards™
Best Visual Effects.
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Cromwell), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration.
Other Major Awards
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Family Film.
Golden Globes: Best Picture-Comedy/Musical.
London Critics Circle: Film of the Year, Newcomer of the Year (Noonan).
National Society of Film Critics: Best Film.
New York Film Critics Circle: Best New Director. |
 | #10 Unforgiven (1992)
Starring Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek, and Frances Fisher.
Written by David Webb Peoples.
Directed by Clint Eastwood. | | The Grades | | Alison | A- | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A | | Jen | A+ | | Kris | B+ |
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With Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood has managed to not only break Western genre bounds, but also the bounds of the anti-Western, a genre he helped create with Italian director Sergio Leone. William Munny is a man with a name–and a reputation to match. There is no mystery to this man as he rides into the western town of Big Whisky with clear intentions–to kill two men in exchange for money. The title of the film is quite apt. Eastwood paints the Old West in a deservedly unforgiving light. He forgoes the majestic musical scores that always accompany panoramic western vistas. His shoot-outs are slow, messy, and agonizing. Nobody gets what they deserve. Unforgiven completely shatters Western mythology, stripping it of all the glamour, all the glory, and all the romance. The whores don't have hearts of gold. The sheriff keeps the peace through brutality and intimidation. And the gunfighting protagonist is a mean, vicious murderer. With Unforgiven, Eastwood delivers his message loud and clear; that everything we've ever seen before about the Old West is bullshit. Even his own movies. –Jen Academy Awards™
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Hackman), Best Film Editing.
Nominations: Best Actor (Eastwood), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound.
Other Major AwardsBritish Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor (Hackman).
Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement.
Golden Globes: Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Hackman).
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Eastwood), Best Supporting Actor (Hackman), Best Screenplay.
National Society of Film Critics: Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Hackman), Best Screenplay.
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Supporting Actor (Hackman).
Named one of the 100 Greatest American Movies by the American Film Institute. |
 | #11 Fight Club (1999)
Starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, and Jared Leto.
Written by Jim Uhls based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
Directed by David Fincher. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A | | Dana | B+ | | Jeff | A | | Jen | A | | Kris | A |
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If there is a film from 1999 that can be described as "visionary," it is Fight Club. It struck a chord with the wired generation (a chord plucked earlier in the year by The Matrix, #15), tangled as we are in the pursuit of money and things we don't really need. Fight Club puts us in the head of its nameless Narrator and takes us on a journey of self-discovery, punctuated with equal parts brutality and hilarity. The greatness of the film lies in its ability to tantalizingly stoke our rage and disillusionment before delivering nihilism to its proper resting place. Fight Club is a love story and a coming-of-age story, as much as it is an identity crisis, an anti-consumerist rant, a critique of machismo and men's movements, or a satire of cultism. Tyler Durden, the avatar of our Narrator's bifurcated personality, is no match for Marla, his savior. She is the alarm that awakens the Narrator from his somnambulance and self-flagellation. Fight Club downloads its wake-up call into our brains, and dares us to create something new for ourselves. –Jeff Academy Awards™
Nomination: Best Sound Effects Editing.
Other Major Awards
Online Film Critics Society: Nominee for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Norton), Adapted Screenplay, and Film Editing.
AboutFilm.Com's #1 film of 1999. |
 | #12 Gods and Monsters (1998)
Starring Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser, and Lynn Redgrave.
Written by Bill Condon based on the novel Father of Frankenstein, by Christopher Bram.
Directed by Bill Condon. | | The Grades | | Alison | B | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A | | Jen | A | | Kris | A |
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Gods and Monsters is a small film made great by McKellen's measured portrayal of Frankenstein director James Whale. McKellen eases into the role, drawing out his character's wit in early scenes, bringing his tortured conflicts to the surface later on, and resisting melodrama throughout. Fraser and Redgrave both give outstanding supporting performances, and the film's direction and pacing are effortlessly understated. Performances aside, the film is most memorable for its less conspicuous moments, some of which are a delight. One favorite: a spontaneous photo session involving Whale and his stars from The Bride of Frankenstein, with Boris Karloff's newborn serving as a distraction. "Coochy coo," the former Mrs. Frankenstein utters politely but coolly in the baby's direction. The humor in these small, 'present-day' moments (actually the 1950s) balances a series of dramatic flashbacks centered around Whales' involvement in the first World War. While the device allowing for these flashbacks (a stroke that renders Whale unable to control memory flow) may be a bit contrived, the blurring of Whale's past and present is increasingly haunting as the film heads toward its tragic conclusion. –Kris Academy Awards™
Best Adapted Screenplay.
Nominations: Best Actor (McKellen), Best Supporting Actress (Redgrave).
Other Major Awards
British Independent Film Awards: Best Actor (McKellen).
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Actor (McKellen).
Golden Globes: Best Supporting Actress (Redgrave).
Independent Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Best Male Lead (McKellen), Best Supporting Female (Redgrave).
London Critics Circle: British Supporting Actress of the Year.Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Actor (McKellen).
National Board of Review: Best Picture, Best Actor (McKellen).
AboutFilm.Com's #1 film of 1998. |
 | #13 Hoop Dreams (1994)
Featuring William Gates and Arthur Agee.
Written by Steve James and Frederick Marx.
Directed by Steve James. | | The Grades | | Alison | A- | | Carlo | - | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A | | Jen | A- | | Kris | - |
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No fictional sports movie has a story this good. Three hours culled from four years in the lives of two boys in inner-city Chicago, edited masterfully to provide a narrative and thematic drive, Hoop Dreams is the most frank representation of the life and aspirations of the urban poor in America. It is a critique of America, capitalism, the family (particularly fathers), and sports. It examines racism, poverty, drugs, and education. The film compels you to think about the gargantuan struggles some people face that we more privileged do not, which struggles are self-inflicted, and which are engendered by an uncaring, inefficient, and occasionally hostile system. It also makes us aware of the role of chance in our lives–a freak injury or an unpaid school bill can have unforeseen consequences down the road. Hoop Dreams is not a downer, though. Resilience and faculty overcome heavy obstacles to provide a sense of hope. Dreams may be elusive, but love can keep us afloat. –Jeff Academy Awards™
Nominations: Best Film Editing.
Other Major Awards
Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary.
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Documentary.National Society of Film Critics. Best Documentary.New York Film Critics Circle: Best Documentary.Sundance Film Festival: Audience Award. |
 | #14 Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Starring the voices of Paige O'Hara, Robbie Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, and Angela Lansbury.
Written by Linda Woolverton and Roger Allers.
Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. | | The Grades | | Alison | B+ | | Carlo | A- | | Dana | A- | | Jeff | A | | Jen | A+ | | Kris | - |
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Beauty and the Beast is by far the best of Disney's most recent animated features. It balances cute, cartoony humor with a well-written story so well that children and adults will find it equally satisfying. Belle is a heroine ahead of her time. The brown-eyed, brunette beauty is an avid reader with dreams of a bigger, more adventurous life than her provincial town can offer. Little does she know that her dreams are about to come true. The Beast (he is never mentioned by name) is the quintessential romantic hero. Even in his monstrous form, he's magnetically attractive. A sensitive, tortured brute, he appeals to those of us who long to heal another soul with the power of our love. He meets Belle with his hair bristling and with an awesome, roaring voice (which I still can't believe came out of Robbie Benson), and slowly becomes an insecure, needy sweetheart. We all know, intellectually, that we don't have the power to change any other individual but ourselves. But in our hearts, and in our fantasies, we yearn to make a difference, to forever alter our beloved's life. By just being herself, Belle literally transforms the Beast, and I don't know anybody who wouldn't find that romantic. –Jen Academy Awards™
Best Original Score, Best Song ("Beauty and the Beast").
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Song ("Be Our Guest"), Best Song ("Belle"), Best Sound.
Other Major AwardsGolden Globes: Best Picture-Comedy/Musical, Best Score, Best Song ("Beauty and the Beast").
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Animation
National Board of Review: Special Award for Animation. |
 | #15 The Matrix (1999)
Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano.
Written by Andy and Larry Wachowski.
Directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A- | | Jeff | B+ | | Jen | A | | Kris | A- |
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The Matrix is a perfect encapsulation of fin-de-siécle zeitgeist at the doorstep of our new millennium. Blending comix/animé visuals, balletic kung-fu acrobatics, cyberpunk paranoia laced with pop culture references of days gone by, and mind-bending special effects that may soon render it passé, The Matrix captures our communal thoughtscape circa the late 20th century. Fittingly, that's what The Matrix is about–the collective dreamworld we inhabit and who has dominion over it. Kicking off the theme that would be further explored in other, more "serious" films of 1999, such as Fight Club ( #11) and American Beauty ( #21), The Matrix exhorts us to take control of our lives. With its superhero parable of The One, it addresses the level to which we've allowed machines to remove us from that which is real. The Matrix reminds us that we are "the ones" with the power over our lives; all we have to do is exercise it. Oh, yeah... It also kicks serious ass. –Alison Academy Awards™
Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing.
Other Major Awards
American Cinema Editors: Best Edited Feature Film.
British Academy Awards: Awards pending. Nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects, Best Sound. |
 | #16 Fargo (1996)
Starring Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, and Harve Presnell.
Written by Joel and Ethan Coen.
Directed by Joel Coen. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | B+ | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A | | Jen | A | | Kris | B+ |
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Fargo is not–as its opening title states–based on a true story, but that doesn't mean it's not about the truth. Tapping directly into the infinite wellspring of human folly, the Coen Brothers find both humor and pathos in this tale of one man's desperate attempt to cloak his mistakes and failures by arranging a "harmless" kidnapping of his wife. His blunders and miscalculations are compounded by those of the thugs he hires, creating a snowball effect that results in a slew of unintended carnage. Though its tone is often lightened and enriched by the Coen's affection for mundane detail and local color, Fargo is as suspenseful and as thematically bleak as its stunningly atmospheric cinematography and score. The film's ray of hope is embodied in Marge Gunderson (McDormand), one of modern cinema's most awesomely crafted characters. Fargo is often chided for mocking the midwesterners who populate its story, but Marge puts the lie to that criticism. She's a true rarity: a character who demonstrates that simplicity is not stupidity, decency is not naiveté, and that sophistication is not a prerequisite for wisdom. Equal parts dark humor and sincere lament, Fargo tells the truth about the blinding qualities of fear and greed, and about the absurdly predictable frailty and ineptitude of human beings. Yet somehow, it manages to conclude on a sublimely life-affirming note. Conjuring a universe that is at once singular and familiar, Fargo is that rarest of breeds: a film that genuinely merits the word unique. It is, quite simply, superb. –Dana Academy Awards™
Best Actress (McDormand), Best Original Screenplay.Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Macy), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing.
Other Major Awards
British Academy Awards: Best Director.
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Actress (McDormand).
Cannes Film Festival: Best Director. Independent Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Best Director, Best Female Lead (McDormand), Best Male Lead (Macy), Best Screenplay, Best Cinematographer.
London Critics Circle: Film of the Year, Director of the Year, Actress of the Year (McDormand), Screenwriters of the Year.
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Screenplay.
National Board of Review: Best Director, Best Actress (McDormand).
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Film.
Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by a Female Lead Actor (McDormand).
Writers Guild of America: Best Original Screenplay.
Named one of the 100 Greatest American Movies by the American Film Institute.
page 3  | #17 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Starring Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, William Sadler, Bob Gunton, James Whitmore, and Clancy Brown.
Written by Frank Darabont based on the short story by Steven King.
Directed by Frank Darabont. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A | | Dana | B+ | | Jeff | B+ | | Jen | A+ | | Kris | A- |
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I don't like prison movies. Malice, injustice, brutality, and indignity just don't appeal to me. However, no other movie has so thoroughly surprised me before or since. The Shawshank Redemption endures because of its unabashed portrayal of friendship between men. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman have fearlessly created characters who hold a deep, loving affection for each other. Theirs is a relationship that I've never witnessed in real life, although I long to believe that such honest bonds can exist between men. I certainly haven't seen anything like it in the movies. I've seen countless stories of men reluctantly bonding after some wild escapade, but I can't remember another movie in which the male leads meet and discover an instant affinity for one another, one that naturally deepens into a true, abiding love. This relationship is precious because it is so rarely seen. It stands out in high relief against the bleak, harsh backdrop of the prison yard, and is propelled by an emotionally moving story. –Jen Academy Awards™
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Freeman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Score, Best Sound.
Other Major Awards
American Society of Cinematographers: Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography.
Golden Globes: nominated for Best Actor (Freeman) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Screen Actors Guild: nominated for Best Actor (Freeman) and Best Actor (Robbins). |
 | #18 Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Starring Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce, and Alex Baldwin.
Written by David Mamet.
Directed by James Foley. | | The Grades | | Alison | A- | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A | | Jen | B | | Kris | A |
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Words are weapons in Glengarry Glen Ross. The salesmen inhabiting the shabby office of Premier Real Estate stab each other with invective and lay traps for their customers with their circumlocution. Every conversation is a sale. Every wheedle has a winner. David Mamet's brilliant dialogue sashays rhythmically from actor to actor. You don't even need to know the words to feel the energy and the bitterness behind them. These salesmen are trapped in traditional male modes of expression and desire that seem brutal and archaic. Rejecting ethics is the only way for them to get ahead. The ensemble cast is flat-out amazing. Al Pacino gives his best work of the decade as the suave cajoler Ricky Roma. Jack Lemmon thrives as the desperate Shelley Levene, going from meek to mean in instants. Alec Baldwin justifies his entire career with a five-minute monologue that is the epitome of dick-swinging bombast. Kevin Spacey's venal office manager suffers enormous verbal abuse, which he earns with malicious glee. Every scene is a tour-de-force in acting, making the film enormously entertaining. James Foley's camera fluidly follows the barbs and back-stabbing. The film has an atmosphere of weary persistence, like the fighter who refuses to stay down when he knows he's beat. Glengarry Glen Ross is a fascinating place to visit for 100 minutes, but I wouldn't want to live there. –Jeff Academy Awards™
Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Pacino).
Other Major Awards
Golden Globes: nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Pacino).
National Board of Review: Best Actor (Lemmon).
Venice Film Festival: Best Actor (Lemmon).
Writers Guild of America: nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. |
 | #19 Election (1999)
Starring Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Mark Harelik, Molly Hagan, and Frankie Ingrassia.
Written by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor based on the novel by Tom Perrotta.
Directed by Alexander Payne. | | The Grades | | Alison | A- | | Carlo | A- | | Dana | A- | | Jeff | A- | | Jen | A | | Kris | A |
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A spirited comedic gem, Election delivers on the promise shown by director Alexander Payne in his previous film, Citizen Ruth. Less openly satirical than its predecessor, Election manages to walk that most difficult of tightropes, simultaneously poking fun while sympathizing with its hopelessly compulsive characters. Witherspoon goes full bore as the hyper-competitive candidate for president of her high-school class, while Broderick reigns in his usual mannerisms as the beaten down, sexually misdirected teacher increasingly driven to thwart the ambitions of his star pupil. They are joined by a stellar supporting cast, including Chris Klein and Jessica Campbell. The performances notwithstanding, the movie's heart is in the palpable sense of enjoyment taken by Payne in his characters' foibles: here freezing the camera at a particularly unflattering angle of Witherspoon's cocksure expression, there dressing her up in curlers and a frumpy nightgown as she berates fellow students for keeping her awake after hours. Election is one of those movies that takes about two minutes to establish that your $8 was well spent, and it keeps getting better from there. –Kris Academy Awards™
Awards pending. Nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay.
Other Major Awards
Golden Globes: nominated for Best Actress-Comedy/Musical (Witherspoon).
National Society of Film Critics: Best Actress (Witherspoon).
New York Film Critics: Best Adapted Screenplay.
Writers Guild of America: Best Adapted Screenplay. |
 | #20 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Starring Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Jeremy Davies, and Matt Damon.
Written by Robert Rodat and Frank Darabont (uncredited).
Directed by Steven Spielberg. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A+ | | Jeff | A- | | Jen | B+ | | Kris | B+ |
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Saving Private Ryan is a small story set against the epic canvas of World War Two. Having just survived the decimation at Omaha Beach, eight American soldiers are sent in search of the sole surviving son from an Iowa family. The mission is a high-minded gesture from the top. As such, it serves as an allegory to the grand gesture of waging war itself, pitting the big picture against the small. Meticulously staged and shot, Saving Private Ryan captures the insanity of combat with bracing immediacy. By setting this tale around D-Day, Spielberg challenges the mythos of the "Good War" and exposes the fraudulent portrait of heroics promulgated by conventional WWII films. Death comes by chance, by mistakes made, by running out of ammunition or showing compassion. Survival happens by luck, not valor. Saving Private Ryan takes the soldiers' perspective, which makes it brutal and heartbreaking. It's beloved by historians and especially by veterans of the war, whose sacrifices it honors by telling the truth. Noble intent does not make carnage pristine or moral. Heroism is nothing more or less than having the will to go on. Combat makes you less of a man, not more of one. And though there may be good causes, there's no such thing as a Good War. –Dana Academy Awards™
Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing.
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Hanks), Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Dramatic Score, Best Makeup.
Other Major Awards
British Academy Awards: Best Special Effects, Best Sound.
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Score.
Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement.
Golden Globes: Best Picture-Drama, Best Director.
London Critics Circle: Film of the Year.
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography.
New York Film Critics Circle: Best Film. |
 | #21 American Beauty (1999)
Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, and Peter Gallagher.
Written by Alan Ball.
Directed by Sam Mendes. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A- | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A- | | Jen | A | | Kris | B+ |
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The notion that "appearances can be deceiving" is a central theme of American Beauty, and it also describes the film. On its surface, Sam Mendes' directorial debut is a darkly comic social satire about the spiritual void engendered by embracing hollow values. Ultimately, it metamorphoses into a compassionate meditation on the depth and beauty of the ordinary struggles of ordinary people to find themselves, to connect to one another, and to see this messy world for the palace of wonders that it is. Kevin Spacey gives a brilliant performance as Lester Burnham, an affluent suburbanite who has become uncomfortably numb to the experience of being alive. Just as his capacity to truly engage with the world is resurrected, that world is crumbling around him. A magnificent ensemble cast brings various facets of soul-crushing fear and self-loathing to vivid life. Elegant and gorgeous in its careful progression from satire to poignant drama, American Beauty celebrates the rewards of the journey instead of glorifying the destination or the prize. And unlike some similarly lofty fare, it's not afraid to entertain along the way. Perfectly distilling the end-of-millennium zeitgeist, its empathic embrace of our collective absurdities imbues it with an irresistible beauty all its own. –Dana Academy Awards™
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Spacey), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography
Nominations: Best Actress (Bening), Best Film Editing, Best Score.
Other Major Awards
American Society of Cinematographers: Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography.
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay.
British Academy Awards: Awards pending. Nominated for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Spacey), Best Actress (Bening), Best Supporting Actor (Bentley), Best Supporting Actress (Birch), Best Supporting Actress (Suvari), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Film Music, Best Makeup/Hair, Best Sound.
Directors Guild of America: Oustanding Directorial Achievement.
Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay.
London Critics Circle: Film of the Year, Director of the Year, Actor of the Year (Spacey), Actress of the Year (Bening), Screenwriter of the Year.
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Director.
National Society of Film Critics: Best Cinematography.
Screen Actors Guild: Outstanding Performance by a Cast, Outstanding Performance by a Male Lead Actor (Spacey), Outstanding Performance by a Female Lead Actor (Bening).
Toronto International Film Festival: People's Choice Award.
Writers Guild of America: Best Original Screenplay. |
 | #22 Trainspotting (1996)
Starring Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner, Kevin McKidd, and Kelly MacDonald.
Written by John Hodge based on the novel by Irvine Welsh.
Directed by Danny Boyle. | | The Grades | | Alison | A- | | Carlo | A | | Dana | B+ | | Jeff | A- | | Jen | A | | Kris | A- |
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From Scotland, Trainspotting is a spirited, energetic, hilarious take on one of the least spirited, energetic, or hilarious topics of all: heroin addition. Or at least, so addiction would seem to us outsiders.Trainspotting is one of the few films that tells its story not from the detached, finger-waggling point of view of someone who knows better, but from the perspective of the addicts themselves. "People think it's all about misery and desperation and death," says Renton (McGregor). "But what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise, we wouldn't do it! After all, we're not fecking stew-pid, you know." Though it dares to admit drugs feel good, there's no mistaking Trainspotting's anti-drug position. It makes its point not by lecturing, but by focusing on its unforgettable characters–Renton, scrawny Spud (Bremner), Sean Connery-fanatic Sick Boy (Miller), ill-fated Tommy (McKidd), and psychotic drunkard Begbie (Carlyle). In a series of visually inventive, in-your-face, tragicomic vignettes, including one about the worst toilet in Scotland, director Danny Boyle sketches out their lives as an endless circle of addiction, recovery, and relapse. Heroin is their dead-end escape from their dead-end lives in economically depressed Scotland, but can they escape from heroin's inviting, deadly embrace? –Carlo Academy Awards™
Nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay.
Other Major Awards
British Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, nominated for Best British Film.
Boston Society of Film Critics: Best Film.
London Critics Circle: British Actor of the Year (McGregor), British Screenwriter of the Year, nominated for British Film and Director of the Year.
Seattle International Film Festival: Best Film, Best Director. |
 | #23 Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench, Ben Affleck, and Colin Firth.
Written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard.
Directed by John Madden. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A- | | Dana | A | | Jeff | A- | | Jen | B+ | | Kris | A- |
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Anchored by an utterly charming and unapologetically swoony romantic fantasy, Shakespeare in Love is an energetic, joyous celebration of love, art, language, and the creative process. Fiennes and Paltrow are perfect as Shakespeare and his muse, both of them simmering with passion and sweetness in equal measure. The screenplay is a marvel, infusing a simple story with the sort of layered density that Shakespeare himself employed. While the foreground focuses on the struggle to bring a play to life, the background provides glimpses of the human longings that fuel such creation. Many were shocked when it won Best Picture, but they shouldn't have been. Its wry observations about show business and the mysterious nature of creative synergy serve as a rapturous love letter to the writers, actors, and craftsmen whose votes put statuettes in hands. While its romantic fantasy warms the heart, its creative fantasy is the Holy Grail of artists everywhere: audiences will love your work, tough critics will embrace it, and the financier will grow to love it more than he loves his money. Surely that's the only fantasy as alluring and elusive as perfect love. Shakespeare in Love provides both fantasies, weaving them together with sublime precision and tremendous joie de vivre. –Dana Academy Awards™
Best Picture, Best Actress (Paltrow), Best Supporting Actress (Dench), Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Musical/Comedy Score.
Nominations: Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Rush), Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Makeup.
Other Major Awards
Berlin International Film Festival: Outstanding Single Achievement (for the screenplay).
British Academy Awards: Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Dench), Best Editing.
Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Original Screenplay, Breakthrough Artist (Fiennes).
Golden Globes: Best Picture-Comedy/Musical, Best Actress-Comedy/Musical (Paltrow). |
 | #24 American History X (1998)
Starring Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien, Fairuza Balk, Avery Brooks, and Stacy Keach.
Written by David McKenna.
Directed by Tony Kaye. | | The Grades | | Alison | A | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A- | | Jeff | B+ | | Jen | B+ | | Kris | B+ |
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American History X is an object lesson in stark black and white of how hate destroys. It destroys not only its object, but its subject, as well. Edward Norton's Derek Vinyard is that subject, a muscular, graffitied advertisement for vitriol, in a performance of harrowing power and striking depth. Derek's story is a classical tragedy in very modern trappings. His fatal flaw–inexorable rage for all that he cannot control in his world and poisonous hatred for those he holds responsible–precipitates his downfall and the destruction of all that he holds dear, despite his efforts at redemption. Told in flashback from the point of view of Derek's hero-worshipping younger brother Danny (Furlong), American History X unflinchingly follows Derek's rise to the leadership of a misdirected group of racist skinheads under the tutelage of a creepy white supremacist (Keach). Derek is smart, unrelenting, charismatic, and exceedingly frightening. The film's power as an anti-racist statement is so strong in part because Derek is so persuasive and even seductive before the full scope and effect of his wrath is known. The consequences of Derek's beliefs and actions born of his unstemmed fury leave little room to doubt the film's strong message, however. Rage of this magnitude is an opened artery and a band-aid cannot stanch its flow. –Alison Academy Awards™
Nominations: Best Actor (Norton).
Other Major Awards
Golden Satellite Awards: Best Actor-Drama (Norton).
Southeastern Film Critics: Best Actor (Norton). |
 | #25 The Ice Storm (1997)
Starring Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire, Henry Czerny, and Elijah Wood.
Written by James Schamus based on the novel by Rick Moody.
Directed by Ang Lee. | | The Grades | | Alison | B+ | | Carlo | A | | Dana | A- | | Jeff | A | | Jen | B- | | Kris | A+ |
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Set in suburban Connecticut circa 1974, The Ice Storm examines the socio-political angst of post-Vietnam America in coming to terms with the increasing cynicism and malaise embodied by the Watergate scandal, while at the same time exploring the tension between the growing sexual liberation of the era and the desire to maintain the traditional family structure. No, wait, that would be another, much more boring, movie. The Ice Storm is one of the best films of the past decade not so much for its value as a cultural statement but because it exists off on its own aesthetic plane, from the prolonged grinding of ice along the railroad tracks in the opening scene through the quiet, haunting cinematography of the storm's aftermath. The mood of the film is best captured by the time of year in which it take place–late November–rather than through the specific geography or politics of its setting. As such, it is timeless. The understated, melancholy score by Mychael Danna blends perfectly with the scenery, and the writing and acting are also terrific. These are real, fully rounded characters we're watching up there, one of the many reasons The Ice Storm stands up to repeat viewings, and seems to get better each time. –Kris Major Awards British Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Weaver).
Cannes Film Festival: Best Screenplay, nominated for Best Film.
London Critics Circle: nominated for Film, Director, Actor (Kline), Actress (Allen), and Screenwriter of the Year.
Writers Guild of America: nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. |
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| A.V. Club Top Films 2010 Posted: 16 Feb 2012 11:45 PM PST Top Films of 2010 from the A.V. Club. See the whole article here. The Top 15  15. The Kids Are All RightThe great but maddeningly non-prolific Lisa Cholodenko ( Laurel Canyon, High Art) delivered another smart, funny, and insightful character study about the angst and insecurities of middle-aged women in The Kids Are All Right. The perfectly matched Julianne Moore and Annette Bening play a comfortable lesbian couple whose lives change dramatically when their children (Josh Hutcherson and Mia Wasikowska) seek out the man who fathered them via sperm donation (Mark Ruffalo). The kids then form a strange bond with a man who only vaguely remembers selling his seed so long ago. This year brought a slew of films about unconventional means of procreation ( The Back-Up Plan, The Switch, Mother And Child), but The Kids Are All Right has the messy vitality of real life. It's a thoughtful portrait of a relationship in crisis—and surprisingly sexy to boot, thanks to Ruffalo, who oozes simultaneously rugged and laid-back sex appeal as a stud who discovers that he can't coast through life on the strength of his charm and attractiveness anymore. Leave it to a lesbian filmmaker to create an exemplar of ripe, bohemian male heterosexual sexuality.  14. Shutter IslandIf this year's best films share a theme, it's the thin, possibly unknowable line between reality and illusion, a notion teased out in everything from Black Swan to Inception to Dogtooth to Exit Through The Gift Shop. Martin Scorsese's purposefully lurid Shutter Island sends Leonardo DiCaprio to an island of madmen and madwomen to solve a disappearance. As he discovers his own demons have followed him, his quest shifts and the movie starts to explore dark corridors informed in equal parts by Val Lewton and contemporary Asian horror films. The metaphysics may not ultimately work out, but Scorsese's vertiginous filmmaking and the film's gripping, outsized emotions make that feel like a petty concern.  13. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The WorldNearly everyone brings baggage to new relationships. In Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Edgar Wright's sugar-rush adaptation of Brian O'Malley's beloved graphic novel, quirky Mary Elizabeth Winstead brings baggage of the terrifyingly brutal sort to her blossoming relationship with lovestruck indie-rock musician Michael Cera. Cera isn't just competing with the memories of Winstead's former beaus; he must fight her seven evil exes to win his true love's heart. In a directorial tour de force, Wright obliterates the lines between comic books, videogames, cartoons, and live-action by transforming Cera into a hero from some lost late-'80s Nintendo game and pushing the film's zippy, retro-futuristic stylization to comic extremes. Pilgrim is so dizzyingly inventive and loaded with ideas, primarily visual, that watching it can be exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World might be the greatest videogame movie of all time in part because it's inspired less by any specific game than by the infinite possibilities and cartoonish conflicts of the entire medium.  12. DogtoothYorgos Lanthimos' disturbing, dryly funny Greek drama considers what happens when a mother and father lock their now-grown kids into a gated estate for their entire lives, to keep the messy outside world from corrupting their discipline. Lanthimos doesn't go the expected route with this premise; he introduces elements of creeping anarchy into the story right from the start, and makes the parents less overprotective fusspots and more deranged sociopaths who actively mess with their kids' heads. Dogtooth is witty, smart, and shocking in equal measure, and while it can be read as a commentary on everything from fascism to helicopter parenting, it's primarily a beguilingly puzzling experience, dropping viewers into a weird place and demanding we acclimate.  11. GreenbergNoah Baumbach's comedies don't aim broad: They're plotless, self-consciously literary, and populated by characters who flat-out suck from the time they roll out of the bed until they angrily switch out the lights at night. But his films are still funny and true. In Greenberg, Ben Stiller stars as an idle crank who visits Los Angeles and has a stormy relationship with an insecure young woman played by Greta Gerwig. Almost nothing significant happens, and Stiller stays committed to making the title character an unstable jerk. Yet Baumbach gets the details of these characters and their petty concerns so right that the movie is both bracing and—in its own odd way—hilarious. It's also a pleasure to look at, with Harris Savides' cinematography capturing the sunny haze of L.A. with an artistry that would make Vilmos Zsigmond, Conrad Hall, and Haskell Wexler proud.  10. True GritIt's not easy slipping into one of the most iconic roles in the history of American Westerns, yet Jeff Bridges somehow escapes the outsized specter of John Wayne's only Oscar-winning performance in Joel and Ethan Coen's riveting adaptation of True Grit. The film plays almost like a Western version of Winter's Bone. Both films concern a precocious teenage girl entering a terrifying man's world for the sake of her family's honor and security. But the tones are wildly dissimilar: True Grit is as raucous and entertaining as Winter's Bone is claustrophobic and grim. Yet despite its playful tone and dark comedy, True Grit earns a sneaky cumulative emotional power as Bridges' irascible outlaw-turned-lawman learns, like James Franco in 127 Hours, that even the orneriest loners need other people.  9. A ProphetA 2009 Best Foreign Language Film nominee released here in 2010, A Prophet reads a bit like a single long plot thread from Oz or The Wire, with all the gritty, unflinching detail and devotion to character that implies. Tahar Rahim stars as a teenager facing a six-year prison sentence and trying to hide his fear of his fellow inmates. Over the course of two and a half hours of film and years of story, he finds protectors who double as enemies, and makes enemies whom he learns how to manipulate and turn into protectors. The politics of prison, drug cartels, and the up-and-coming criminals who step in to replace the older generation all get explored in pulpy detail, and with no sense of a morality tale in the making. It's a familiar coming-of-age story, in a way, but it's gripping, well-observed, and complicated, a sort of vivid, French mini- Godfather saga that comments on France's treatment of immigrants as much as on its treatment of criminals.  8. CarlosFrom The Battle Of Algiers to The Day Of The Jackal to Munich, movies about the minute details of violent political action have practically become their own genre. Olivier Assayas' three-part, five-and-a-half-hour historical epic Carlos is remarkable for the way Assayas and star Édgar Ramírez take both a detached and pointed view of the notorious revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sanchez, a.k.a. Carlos The Jackal. This is a film about its times, using jittery post-punk and new-wave music and excerpts from TV news to capture the unsettled feel of international politics and culture in the 1970s and '80s. But it's also an intimate sketch of one arrogant activist and how his people-power plans get complicated by money, mistakes, and bad associations. Throughout the film, Assayas literally strips Sánchez down, showing him naked and bloated: just a man, in other words, with appetites and weaknesses that render him far less than righteous.  7. MotherAfter putting his own politically charged spin on the giant monster movie with The Host, Bong Joon-ho returns to the world of urban crime he explored so memorably in 2003's Memories Of Murder. Here, a mystery that finds a young, developmentally disabled man (Won Bin) charged with murder spins into a depiction of the lengths mothers go to protect their children, as Won's mother (Kim Hye-ja) turns detective in his defense—and then goes further. Kim's remarkable performance anchors a grim, involving film filled with details of a run-down provincial city until a wonderfully odd and deceptively sad final scene that swaps unexpected, uneasy lightness for grimly accumulated weight.  6. Toy Story 3There are a lot of strange vibes at play in the third and final Toy Story movie: A good deal of it involves a bunch of toys desperately trying to force an 18-year-old to play with them the way he did a decade ago, mourning when he won't, and suffering from religion-worthy schisms as they argue over whether they should stand by him even though he's outgrown them, or move on to younger, more playful pastures. The Toy Story movies have always been about the joy of play, but never before has it seemed like such a drag to be a toy—to essentially be an immortal being whose only pleasure comes from entertaining kids who will inevitably (and quickly) grow up and move on. And yet there were few grimmer movie moments in 2010 than the point in Toy Story 3 where the characters resignedly face their deaths, and few more uplifting sequences than the film's end. It's almost preposterous that a kids' film could be this challenging, moving, and heartfelt, but Pixar continues to put out movies that rival anything else in theaters for sophistication and entertainment.  5. Exit Through The Gift ShopIs it real? Is it a hoax? A little bit of both? Between Catfish, I'm Still Here, and Exit Through The Gift Shop, moviegoers (or a fraction of them, anyway) spent a lot of time this year trying to figure out how much to trust images that were either revealed or suspected to be false. Yet of those three, only Banksy's wildly entertaining documentary is deepened by the question of its verity, since deception and outlaw prankishness is at the heart of what he and other great street artists do. Through the story of Thierry Guetta—an eccentric Frenchman who sought out Banksy and other guerrilla artists for a long-in-the-making documentary—the film provides a rare glimpse into how these urban outlaws operate, the philosophy (and trickery) that drives their work, and the commercialization of the form. As Banksy turns the tables on Guetta, his documentary changes course in ways that are unexpected, exhilarating, and, yes, perhaps unreliable.  4. InceptionThe next time you watch Inception, a film that practically demands a second viewing, take a moment during the bravura extended climax to wonder at the mechanics at work. The way writer-director Christopher Nolan keeps the action moving on so many planes and at so many different paces at once is exciting in itself. But don't linger too long. Inception works in part because it seldom calls attention to those mechanics, sweeping viewers along into its dream world—and worlds of dreams within dreams—while offering a thrilling, emotionally affecting film about desire, disappointment, and delusion, all packaged in a movie that's also about the art of moviemaking. Think of that final shot as a mystery never to be solved in a film that never truly ends.  3. Black Swan2010 was a year of documentaries that kept people guessing about the reality behind the stories they told, but where questionable facts undermine a documentary's message, they just enhance the lurid fantasy Black Swan. Director Darren Aronofsky and a trio of screenwriters make the most of the what-is-real? uncertainty in their film, which starts as an intimate story about a sheltered, fragile ballerina (Natalie Portman) vying for the lead in Swan Lake, and turns into a florid, intensely vivid nightmare. It isn't precisely a fantasy; it's a left-hand retelling of Swan Lake by way of a Hollywood metaphor and an inquiry into the costs of passion in love and in art. These heady themes could have made Black Swan painfully pretentious, but Portman's wounded portrayal, the intensity of the imagery, and the constant guessing about what's going on turn the film into an experience as much as an exploratory essay.  2. The Social NetworkThe pairing of writer Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher for a movie about Facebook's contentious beginnings didn't seem right on paper: Sorkin's famously hyper-verbal dialogue stood to hamstring a filmmaker known for his visual pyrotechnics. Yet the collaboration benefits them both, giving Sorkin a more dynamic platform than the typical West Wing walk-and-talk and adding another unforgettable character to David Fincher's gallery of dark obsessives. Using the deposition recordings of two separate lawsuits against Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg (a scarily focused Jesse Eisenberg) as an ingenious framing device, The Social Network traces the site's origin in all its agonizing complexity. Sorkin and Fincher capture the heady rush of innovation and youthful energy while also detailing the human flaws embodied by its founder, who's often petty and invasive, but also driven by a half-poignant/half-pathological need to belong.  1. Winter's BoneJennifer Lawrence gives one of the year's standout performances in Winter's Bone, the second feature from Down To The Bone director Debra Granik. But while Lawrence's evocation of a superlatively proud, stiff-necked Missouri teenager supporting her mother and younger siblings is key to the film's success, Granik's realization of the Ozarks is rich, specific, and frightening, and it provides the other necessary half of the puzzle. The film functions as a crime procedural as Lawrence hunts down her father, whose disappearance may cause her family to lose the home that allows them to survive with a tiny bit of fiercely protected independence. But it's also the kind of vivid time-and-place portrait that offers a window into another world—in this case, a meth-ravaged, chilly backwoods country that inspires equal parts intense hatred and intense bonding in its clannish inhabitants. Outliers: Notable films on one critic's list, but no others The IllusionistSylvain Chomet's animated adaptation of Jacques Tati's unproduced screenplay The Illusionistfollows the travails of a Tati-like magician in the UK in the early '60s, as his kind of entertainment starts to lose steam with the public. As an evocation of Tati's minimalist whimsy, The Illusionist falls short, but the movie as a whole still succeeds splendidly, paying direct and indirect homage to multiple '50s and '60s cinematic showmen and honoring how the simplest tricks can still charm and deceive us. Then it all ends on a melancholy, ambiguous note, with disenchantment and new hope all jumbled together. Rabbit HoleHedwig And The Angry Inch and Shortbus director John Cameron Mitchell dials back—well, mostly eliminates—the stylistic flair in Rabbit Hole, but that ends up working in favor of this adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's play about loss, grieving, and what comes after. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart star as parents who discover, eight months after the death of their child in an automobile accident, that they have to redefine nearly every aspect of their marriage. It's a beautifully acted film in which every word counts and every gesture has meaning.  Blue ValentineRyan Gosling and Michelle Williams seem to choose roles solely on the basis of how much suffering their characters will endure. Blue Valentine stands out as especially brutal even by the high standards of these two masochistic actors. The film offers a harsh, unblinking autopsy of the doomed relationship between a sweet, idealistic dreamer without much in the way of ambition (Gosling) and the practical woman (Williams) he wins, then can't hold onto. It's an intense drama of raw nerves and agonizing moments that grows more and more despairing until a shattering conclusion. Blue Valentine made headlines when it was slapped with an NC-17 despite its lack of particularly explicit sexual content—a judgment that was since withdrawn. Still, the rating at least made a little sense: The NC-17 was created for adult films, and Blue Valentine is adult in the best, least smutty possible sense.  Another YearDirector Mike Leigh is famous for his collaborative writing process, in which he requires his actors to create detailed personal histories for their characters. The payoffs are clearer than ever in Another Year, a rich ensemble piece about people who have known each other for decades and are dealing with the pains and pleasures of growing older, if not necessarily wiser. Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen are both wonderful as a picture of marital bliss, but their stability stands in sharp contrast to the unsettled friends in their orbit, especially Lesley Manville, excellent as a middle-aged lonely-heart who dresses (and drinks) like a woman half her age. The message seems to be "Don't grow old alone," but the film isn't quite so reductive, and its lived-in quality gives it warmth and good humor even when things are at their bleakest.  Everyone ElseThe quintessential break-up movie, Maren Ade's Everyone Else follows a young couple—she (Birgit Minichmayr) a free-spirited, sometimes childish sprite, he (Lars Eidinger) a would-be architect who's arrogant and coolly distant from others—as they go on vacation in Sardinia and come to see their incompatibilities. But much like The Forest For The Trees, Ade's brilliant debut feature about a provincial teacher who struggles socially in a new city, Everyone Else is about the difficulties of fitting in. Setting the story against a lovely backdrop, Ade deals truthfully with the external factors that drive a wedge between the couple, and isn't afraid to reveal the pettiness and back-biting that happens when a relationship dissolves, even if it makes her characters looks bad. It ain't pretty, but it's real. Individual ballots Noel Murray Top 101. Black Swan2. Winter's Bone3. The Social Network4. Mother5. The Illusionist6. Greenberg7. Inception8. Carlos9. Dogtooth10. True Grit The next fiveCatherine Breillat's Bluebeard is tiny and tart, taking only 80 minutes to tell the parallel stories of the famous gynocidal lord and two 20th century sisters whose waxing and waning interest in the Bluebead tale makes for a running commentary on sisterhood, folklore, and the cruelty of narrative. A terrific year for documentaries got off to a great start at Sundance, which screened Restrepo, Catfish, The Tillman Story, and Exit Through The Gift Shop, Banksy's funny, twisty, provocative look at the vagaries and fakery of the art world. This was also an excellent year for animated films, including Toy Story 3, How To Train Your Dragon, and the new Disney classic Tangled, which combines swashbuckling adventure with a surprisingly sophisticated take on mother-daughter relationships. Adam McKay remains one of the few mainstream comedy directors with a strong sense of visual style and pace, and his absurdist buddy-cop riff The Other Guysshows what a little command of the form can do—in this case buoying the deadpan performances of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg with relentless comic mayhem. Writer-director Nicole Holofcener's Please Give is a keenly observed, often barbed look at how people with means and compassion still obsess over their self-image.  PerformanceNatalie Portman, Black SwanIt's not just that Portman had to learn enough moves to be a credible ballerina in Darren Aronofsky's phantasmagorical dance drama Black Swan; she also plays a character who swings between an almost paralyzing self-consciousness to an utter lack of inhibition both sexually and aesthetically. Plus she's dealing with hallucinations, rivals, and a domineering mother, all in a movie that amplifies recognizable human emotions until they become bold abstractions. This is a tough part to wrangle, and yet Portman never loses control. She seems like the same woman throughout—even when her increasingly unstable dancer imagines she's someone else. OverratedThe Kids Are All RightAnnette Bening and Julianne Moore are fine as a complacent lesbian couple, and Mark Ruffalo is terrific as the sperm donor who fathered their children (and who inadvertently disrupts their lives when his now-teenage kids go looking for him). But while writer-director Lisa Cholodenko adroitly captures California at its most I'm OK-You're OK granola-y, the plot of The Kids Are All Rightcouldn't be more generic. It's all about petty jealousies and pathetic compulsions, played out via dialogue that ranges from merely functional to clunky. And once the characters commit to their tedious story arcs, they never do anything revealing—or even surprising. UnderratedChloeAtom Egoyan's erotic thriller (based on Anne Fontaine's French film Nathalie…) is a decided change of pace for the usually chilly Canadian writer-director. Chloe is gloriously, deliriously overheated—like Hitchcock by way of De Palma. Julianne Moore plays a fussy gynecologist who suspects her husband (Liam Neeson) is cheating on her, so she hires a prostitute played by Amanda Seyfried to tempt him. From there, a series of misunderstandings leads to crazy plot twists interspersed with steamy sex scenes. Egoyan and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson emphasize the shock and camp, and the result is a treat for fans of arty trash. Most pleasant surpriseEasy AWriter Bert V. Royal and director Will Gluck rely too much on teen-movie clichés for their high school spin on Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Easy A could definitely be a little gutsier when it comes to challenging a high-school culture that prizes sexiness but not sex. But Emma Stone is a true charmer, playing a girl who tries to make the best of her bad reputation by exposing the hypocrisy of her classmates; and Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are hilarious as her permissive, happily sarcastic parents. Plus, Royal's dialogue has the wit and snap of a genre classic, and even though Easy A raises issues about teen sexuality that it's too timid to fully address, it does ask the right questions about whether high school kids have any power to control how they're perceived. Guilty pleasureUnstoppableHigh-speed trains careening out of control. Unstable chemicals. Heartless corporate lackeys. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine as reluctant partners with sad personal histories. Rosario Dawson putting her hair up and then letting it back down, scene after scene. Ethan Suplee as the slackest employee in railroad history. Kevin Corrigan as the meek safety expert. Pointless helicopter shots and frequent cuts to TV news reporters who recap the audience on what's happened in the movie so far. Interludes at Hooters. A wildly incongruous club track over the closing credits. Unstoppable takes a pretty decent idea for a B-thriller and adds a bunch of unnecessary junk, and yet in spite—or perhaps even because—of its excess, it was one of the most purely fun mainstream movies released this year. Future Film That Time ForgotFrozenWhile it certainly sounds cool to build a suspense movie around three college students stuck on a ski lift with ravenous wolves down below, writer-director Adam Green saddles his thriller Frozen with whiny, shallow characters whom most reasonable people would rather see freeze to death than make it to safety. Decades hence, historians will be able to consult Frozen for prime examples of The Early-21st-Century American Douche.
Keith Phipps Top 101. Winter's Bone2. Black Swan3. The Social Network4. Inception5. Toy Story 36. True Grit7. Exit Through The Gift Shop"8. Mother9. Rabbit Hole10. Carlos The next fiveFor two very different looks at how families shape us, you might want to program a double feature of The Kids Are All Right and The Fighter, both, in essence, movies about the ties that bind and choosing which ones to break and which to hold onto tightly. Or, how about a double feature about being locked up in harmful situations? Try Shutter Island and A Prophet, both movies about guilt and confinement, and both about how mind is its own sort of prison. Or you could just seek out the overlooked Never Let Me Go, a satisfyingly downbeat and beautifully acted science-fiction drama about mortality that's also a great leap forward for ex-video director Mark Romanek.  PerformanceJennifer Lawrence, Winter's BoneJennifer Lawrence had done little beyond co-starring in a Bill Engvall sitcom—so, nothing, really—before starring in Winter's Bone. But even if she had been a well-known name, the way she disappears into the part of a beyond-poor Arkansas teen desperate to track down a criminal father who's vanished into a backwoods of meth labs and easily disappeared bodies would still be an impressive feat. Much of the film's sense of danger comes from the moments when she lets her vulnerability peak through a mask of steely determination. By the film's end, that vulnerability has been corroded away, which is at once her triumph and her tragedy. UnderratedMother And Child Rodrigo Garcia's fine ensemble drama about the unseen connections between a group of Los Angelenos—yeah, it's one of those, but don't hold that against it—deserves a second chance to find an audience for the fine, restrained performances by Samuel L. Jackson (taking a welcome break from action roles), Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington, Jimmy Smits, and Annette Bening, who gives a prickly turn here that nicely complements her work in The Kids Are All Right. OverratedThe Girl With The Dragon TattooThis Swedish adaptation of that book you see on every form of public transportation (if you haven't read it yourself) deserves credit for introducing the moody Noomi Rapace to the general public. But the movie around her—an un-cinematic pile-up of rape and exposition (and exposition and exposition)—should qualify as a form of torture. It's an endless, unpleasant plod of a movie that spawned two sequels that this writer gladly skipped. Most pleasant surpriseHow To Train Your DragonDreamworks Animation started to up its game with the winning Kung Fu Panda, but the heartfelt How To Train Your Dragon is a real breakthrough, a beautiful-looking coming-of-age story that opens with a few too-hip-for-the-kids'-table Dreamworks tics before settling into telling a rich story with winning characters in the tradition of great animated films from Disney's golden age to Pixar today. Let's hope its charm doesn't get lost in the inevitable string of sequels. Guilty pleasurePiranha 3DDoes it count as a guilty pleasure when something's so clearly designed to be a guilty pleasure? It does when the pleasure comes with this much guilt. An insane parade of nudity and severed parts—with the bloodiest beach sequence since Saving Private Ryan— Piranha 3D aims lower than you might even imagine. No, think even lower. But as throwbacks to drive-in-era trash go, nothing has satisfied quite like it in a while. Future Film That Time ForgotThe SwitchOur children, speaking from the future: "So, wait: It's a film in which Jason Bateman swaps in his sperm for a donor's in order to woo and exact revenge on Jennifer Aniston? And it's a comedy, not some kind of creepy thriller? That sounds terrible! Call it up on the Holo-Vision so we can enjoy some turn-of-the-century unintentional hilarity."
Nathan Rabin Top 101.Blue Valentine2. Black Swan3. Greenberg4. Best Worst Movie5. Inception6. Exit Through The Gift Shop7. The Social Network8. The King's Speech9. True Grit10. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World The next fiveAn unconventional family discovers a whole new universe of dysfunction in The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko's funny, astute, and altogether lovely comedy-drama about the havoc that ensues when the adopted children of lesbian couple Julianne Moore and Annette Bening seek out their sperm-donor father (Mark Ruffalo). Pixar movies are the safest bets in film; the studio's commitment to quality control is nothing short of heroic. So expectations were high for the third entry in one of the most beloved animated franchises of all time. Toy Story 3 met the sky-high expectations with another simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking story about growing up and letting go. The haunting psychological thriller Winter's Bone gave the shadowy, brutally unsentimental world of film noir an Appalachian spin as Jennifer Lawrence, in a star-making performance, plays a tough survivor who goes looking for her father's killer in a deadly maze of crystal meth addiction, violence, and truly deplorable dental hygiene. Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work elevates its subject from walking plastic-surgery-victim punchline to fiery feminist hero as it follows Rivers through a brutal year of trying to maintain her place in the Darwinian world of show business and stave off professional obsolescence. Chris Morris' Four Lions derives big laughs out of the some of the most tragic subject matter imaginable: suicide bombers. The scattershot political satire sometimes feels more like an assemblage of inspired skits than a proper film, but no comedy this year exhibited more daring or took more risks.  PerformanceMarion Cotillard, InceptionIt's not easy to distinguish yourself in a film with eye-popping visuals, a plot so convoluted decades from now we'll still be trying to figure it out, and a cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Caine, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, and Thomas Hardy. But Marion Cotillard left an indelible imprint on Inception as a woman for whom DiCaprio is willing to bend the laws of space and time. Without Cotillard's tragic humanity and intense chemistry with DiCaprio, Inception easily could have gotten lost inside its own elaborate machinery, but their bond lends the film an essential emotional grounding. DiCaprio specialized in overly intense men with tragic, troubled relationships this year, and Michelle Williams was similarly haunting in a small but key role similar to Cotillard's in Shutter Island. Yet it's Cotillard's poignant performance that helped make Inception a genuine pop-culture phenomenon with broad appeal, not just another geeky sci-fi mindbender. Overrated127 HoursWith 127 Hours,newly Oscar-anointed auteur Danny Boyle steers defiantly non-commercial source material—a memoir by an adventurer who spent more than five days with his arm trapped by a rock during a solo climbing expedition—into the super-slick realm of music videos, commercials, and Slumdog Millionaire,his surprise blockbuster. Star James Franco can barely move, yet Boyle's camera seemingly can't stand still. Instead of staying with Franco, it rockets around the world in the form of fantasy sequences and flashbacks that spell out the film's themes in maddeningly simplistic terms. Boyle stops just short of opening with a crawl reading, "This is the heartwarming, inspirational story of a callow young man who learns through adversity to give up narcissistic notions of self-reliance and invulnerability and embrace the help and camaraderie of others." 127 Hours is well-acted and powerful at times, but it's not as potent as it might have been if Boyle weren't so damnably intent on beating audiences over the head with uplift and hope. UnderratedHatchet IIIt's not too hard to figure out why Hatchet II did not blow away critics en route to becoming a lock for a Best Picture Oscar. It's an unrated, super-violent sequel to a slasher film that barely played theaters yet picked up a devoted cult following on DVD. Hatchet II is an unapologetic genre film/bloodbath, but it's also one of the smartest, funniest, and most informed deconstructions of the slasher genre this side of Scream. As a bogus voodoo shaman who sends Danielle Harris and a group of chumps on a perilous voyage to retrieve a lost boat and/or kill a supernatural mass murderer, Tony Todd delivers a performance that's both creepy and hilarious. Hatchet II offers gore of tremendous quality and quantity: It's Fangoria fare for people who might actually read the magazine's articles instead of merely gawking at the bloody pictures. Most pleasant surpriseLottery TicketLottery Ticket was marketed as a typically raunchy, ramshackle, lowbrow African-American-targeted comedy. Expectations were adjusted accordingly, yet it turned out to be a film of heart and humor, a laid-back slice-of-life comedy in the ingratiatingly casual tradition of co-star Ice Cube's Barbershop and Friday. It boasts a charming lead performance from the magnetic Bow Wow (an actor so appealing he might actually survive being a grown man professionally known as Bow Wow) and a loaded supporting cast that includes such ringers as Charlie Murphy, Mike Epps, Terry Crews, and T-Pain, who steals the film as the proprietor of the store that sold Bow Wow the titular prize-winner. Guilty pleasureBurlesqueIt's hard to pick a favorite in a ridiculous year that gave the world Step Up 3D and The Expendables, but Burlesque nonetheless towers over the rest of the so-bad-it's-awesome pack. Burlesque is essentially Showgirls minus the subversive genius of Paul Verhoeven, with Christina Aguilera playing a small-town girl with big dreams and an even bigger voice who heads to the Big City to make it under the tutelage of burlesque house proprietor Cher. Burlesque is the film kitsch enthusiasts hoped and expected it to be, a glittering camp spectacle that never met a melodramatic show-business cliché it didn't lovingly recycle. It doesn't really matter if the laughs in Burlesque are intentional or otherwise; all that matters is that the belly laughs start early and never stop. Future Film That Time ForgotThe Warrior's WayThe Warrior's Way doesn't have to wait for time to forget it; the present seems to have forgotten about it already. Geoffrey Rush's other film this year is an appropriately tongue-in-cheek campfest about a legendary swordsman from the Far East (stone-faced Korean superstar Jang Dong-gun) who heads to the Old West with a baby he refused to kill and becomes domesticated while toiling at a laundry—until his past comes back to haunt him. Rush and Danny Huston (as a masked, disfigured military madmen) deliver universe-sized performances, because what's the point of being subtle and restrained in a movie like this?
Tasha Robinson Top 101. Inception2. The Social Network3. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World4. Black Swan5. Toy Story 36. Winter's Bone7. A Prophet8. Another Year9. Red Riding Trilogy10. Mother The next fiveThe French-Romanian co-production The Concert is unabashedly cheesy in its happy-ending wish-fulfillment, but it's never dumb or pandering about it. A wickedly clever, manic farce about a once-promising Bolshoi conductor struggling to roust a crowd of has-beens and never-weres into performing a Paris concert, it's intelligent about misplaced nostalgia, tender about family relations, and gloriously ridiculous about nearly everything else. Don Hahn's Waking Sleeping Beauty is a personal history of Disney Animation's '80s doldrum years and '90s revival, told by many of the era's key figures and filled with ground-level insight; it's lively and funny, but also startlingly candid. Of the year's several is-it-real-or-a-straight-faced-joke documentaries, the art-world history prank Exit Through The Gift Shop stands most solidly on its own; like Waking Sleeping Beauty, it's entertaining both for the story it tells and the insiders-only footage it showcases. Nash Edgerton's debut feature The Square is a neo-noir that fits all the classic noir parameters into the shape of an escalating-bad-choices movie; the protagonists' doom is sealed early on, and the rest of the film is about watching the inevitable unfold in a breathtaking way. And while Neil Jordan's Ondine suffers slightly from the looming shadow of John Sayles' superior, similar The Secret Of Roan Inish, it's still a strikingly sweet, textured love story by way of a modern myth.  PerformanceColin Firth, The King's SpeechIt was a fantastic year for winning performances, from Jesse Eisenberg bringing across all the seething fury of a geek scorned in The Social Network to Natalie Portman evoking frustrated, fragile humanity in the face of crushing expectations in Black Swan. Colin Firth combined those two poles for his performance as Britain's King George VI, whom he plays as a stymied man, filled with intelligence and self-deprecating humor, but barely able to get either out past his crippling stammer. His inability to speak could have come across as grating, an Oscar-ready disease-of-the-week gimmick, or just a bad parody of a real-life figure. Instead, Firth brings across the humanity under the lack of communication, and evokes George VI's frustration, embarrassment, self-hatred, and seething rage with every stumble and choked word. He plays the man as a rich stew of pride and shame, stuffiness and down-to-earthness. He's a main reason why The King's Speech is a tender personal drama instead of a dry historical. OverratedSpliceThis overheated thriller was praised in some corners as innovative and intelligent for the many hefty topics it addresses, from the ethics of genetic engineering to the responsibilities of parenthood. And yet it handled these issues in such a sloppy, thoughtless, ham-handed way, it hardly deserves points for addressing them at all. In many ways a remake of Species with less nudity and more talented actors ( Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody, who both deserve—and usually get—better material than this), Splice relies heavily and awkwardly on coincidence and illogic in order to move its story forward, and makes its central pair of scientists an irresponsible apparent psychotic (Polley) and an ineffectual, flailing whiner (Brody). Somehow, this results in the creation of ridiculous new life, which naturally follows in the footsteps of its "parents" and engages in an incoherent series of behaviors that are meant to seem unpredictable and frightening, yet touching, but mostly just seem random. Nothing in the story feels like it's driven by any more thought than, "What will it take to get to the end of this scene?" and it's hard to take that seriously in horror or in what's supposed to be a thought-provoking, smarter-than-average thriller. UnderratedMicmacsNot so much underrated as barely rated, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's latest film slipped through theaters like water through a cupped hand, leaving no mark. But while it's minor Jeunet, without the scope of A Very Long Engagement or the quirky commitment of Amélie, it bears his distinctively odd stamp, and has more flavor than most of the films released in 2010. Its story of a bunch of oddball riffraff combining their odd talents into a campaign against two greedy weapons manufacturers is a lightweight, low-impact fairy tale, adorable and ridiculous in equal measure. It's more Looney Tune diversion than serious cinema, but Jeunet does diversion with more idiosyncratic detail than anyone this side of Terry Gilliam, and he makes Micmacs into a thoroughly enjoyable farce. Most pleasant surpriseTangledFrom the ads, Disney's so-called final fairy-tale picture looked more like another smarmily playful Shrek offshoot than what it actually is: a polished adventure rooted in old-Disney tropes, but executed with Pixar verve. The emotions feel deep and sincere instead of reserved and calculated, the musical numbers are actually memorable and move the plot along, and the humor is clever instead of broad and smirking. Also, the strikingly vivid animation made for some of the only 3-D this year that added to the film rather than detracting or distracting from it. It was a great year for animation, and several other films ( Toy Story 3, How To Train Your Dragon, the finally-released-in-America Secret Of Kells) took more artistic chances than Tangled, or just served up sharper stories. But of all of them, Tangled presented the biggest, most heartening gap between what it appeared to be and what it actually is. Guilty pleasureKitesThe filmmakers behind Kites set out to make a fusion of Bollywood and Hollywood that would appeal to audiences on both sides of the ocean—audiences who promptly either ignored it or booed it as an endlessly pandering, naked attempt at manipulation. And so it is—but in the spirit of Desperado and Slumdog Millionaire (which it openly emulates), it's some serious dumb fun. The story of star-crossed lovers who don't even speak a common language but bond over their respective beauty and obvious qualifications as romantic leads, Kites piles on the shootouts, car chases, explosions, and cultural clichés. There isn't a brain in its head, but it's an extremely pretty head—it reads like Jerry Bruckheimer's idea of a Bollywood film, complete with a big, flashy, utterly gratuitous dance sequence. Future Film That Time ForgotRepo MenWas there really a major studio feature in 2010 that shamelessly stole its plot from the cult musical Repo! The Genetic Opera, its setting from Minority Report, and its ending from Brazil? And did it really feature an erotic sequence of its central couple hacking each other into bloody chunks? It seems like a confused fever dream now. Time has already largely forgotten Repo Men, which has all the other benchmarks of a solid FTTF-to-be: a far-fetched premise, dubious execution, and a solid cast (Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Liev Schreiber, Alice Braga) slumming it amid gore, a perfunctory love story, and a been-there-seen-that, threadbare vision of a dystopic future.
Scott Tobias Top 101. Dogtooth2. Winter's Bone3. Carlos4. The Social Network5. Exit Through The Gift Shop6. Everyone Else7. Shutter Island8. Mother9. Toy Story 310. Restrepo The next fiveThe first third of A Prophet is as powerful a stretch of film as any this year, following a young Arab prisoner forced into a terrible choice; the last two-thirds are nearly as good, tracing his evolution into a different, more dangerous man. The Tillman Story righteously denounces the official spin job that turned the friendly-fire death of former NFL star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan into something falsely heroic. And three generations of French auteurs came to play: 87-year-old New Wave stalwart Alain Resnais pulled a fast one with Wild Grass, which is enchanting on the surface and delectably creepy and strange underneath, concluding in one great, Dadaist WTF of a denouement. The consistently brilliant Claire Denis brought her intuitive style to bear on the story of a white farm-owner ( Isabelle Huppert) who refuses to leave a war-stricken African country in White Material. Not to be outdone, enfant terrible Gaspar Noé ( Irréversible) returned with Enter The Void, a phantasmagoric odyssey through nocturnal Tokyo that makes up in dazzling style what it lacks in smarts.  PerformanceJesse Eisenberg, The Social NetworkAs Facebook whiz-kid Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg goes beyond imitation—though if you've seen interviews with the real Zuckerberg, it's uncanny—and suggests the mysterious forces that drive a social-media innovator who is himself cripplingly anti-social. Eisenberg doesn't care about making Zuckerberg particularly sympathetic—he's not a lovable rogue or a self-deprecating nerd, but possibly the "asshole" his girlfriend accuses him of being in the opening scene. And certainly there's an ugly strain of pettiness and class resentment that drives him to create Facebook, as well as an inability to comprehend other people's feelings that's somewhere between narcissism and autism. Yet Eisenberg reveals other, more redeeming sides to Zuckerberg, too: a bright, focused intellect and a desire to connect in the grandest way possible. OverratedLebanonThe debut feature by Israeli director Samuel Maoz won the Golden Lion at last year's Venice Film Festival and scored an 86 out of 100 on Metacritic, with critics praising it as a harrowing, claustrophobic Das Boot-in-a-tank. Yet the bluntness doesn't stop with the mortar fire: Lebanon is a clunky and unsubtle from first frame to symbolically loaded last, losing much of its you-are-there visceral impact to brickbat ironies about the horrors of war. It's the type of movie where an inexperienced gunner, having cost lives by failing to fire on a carload of hostiles, winds up blasting an innocent farmer and his chickens a little further down the road. At one point, a wounded donkey cries. UnderratedValhalla RisingA mute, one-eyed warrior (Mads Mikkelson) crushes skulls, slashes throats, and forces one man to witness his own disembowelment in Nicolas Winding Refn's odyssey, which so pulses with masculine power and violence that it seems borne of John Milius' ballsack. Following a band of Christian Vikings as they make the trek from Scotland to fight in the Crusades, the film unfolds in six chapters and steadily grows more surreal and acid-tinged as it goes along. It's not rare to find movies with Valhalla Rising's level of brutality—hello, Centurion—and many critics bristled at its ultra-violence, but Refn's idiosyncratic vision stands apart, especially in a long sequence where the Vikings drift aimlessly in a ghostly sea of fog, hovering near death and wondering if God has cursed them. Most pleasant surpriseGoing The DistanceBy all indications, Going The Distance never looked remotely promising: The title was generic and the trailer even worse; the release date was pushed out of the summer and into the no-man's-land of early September; and Drew Barrymore had been going through the rom-com motions for years. Though the film doesn't exactly break new ground, it proves that the rom-com formula can still be satisfying if it's done well. The first thing that stands out about Going The Distance is Geoff LaTulippe's script, filled with profanely funny dialogue that skips past the niceties of PG-13 and gets frank about the problems of young people balancing love with their career ambitions. It's also blessedly low-concept: Barrymore and her new boyfriend ( Justin Long) pursue jobs on separate coasts and don't have the money to see each other often. A few dumb gags aside—Long's misadventures with spray tanning foremost among them—the film scores some laughs and some insights, and doesn't insult the audience in the process. By Hollywood standards, that's a clear victory. Guilty pleasureOceansDisneynature's aquatic follow-up to Earth teaches children about the wonders of the sea, but it has about as much educational value as a history textbook from the Texas public school system. In place of scientific facts, Oceans offers Pierce Brosnan voicing information-free, pseudo-poetic hunks of narration ("On a clear night, the ocean draws her secrets close") and whimsically staged images, like a rocket reflected in an iguana's eyes as it blasts off into the night sky. Directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud, the team responsible for Winged Migration, are interested entirely in beauty and nothing more, meaning that some major sea creatures go uncovered as they bask in the dazzling "silk scarves" of the blanket octopus. Basically, it's HDTV/Blu-ray Demo: The Movie. Future Film That Time Forgot SkylineSkyline is kind of adorable, a low-budget, Z-grade Cloverfield/ District 9-style alien invasion thriller in which $500,000 went to the physical production—and for hiring affordable talent, like leading man Eric Balfour—and another $10 million-plus got dumped into computer effects. Normally such an enterprise would go straight to DVD without anyone giving it a second thought, but Universal thought it might turn a quick buck out of undiscriminating sci-fi and action fans. (Correctly, as it happens.) Critics were unkind and it dropped off the box-office charts as quickly as it arrived, leaving it a future in cable and video outlets, where viewers will consider it merely a waste of their time and not of their hard-earned money, too. |
