BCB's Top Films of the '90s poll - the whole Top 50

[Snarfyguy]

...
I'd decided not to see anymore movies set in high schools years before this one came out.

If Mrs. SG had her way, that would be all we'd watch.

[Cage Free Brown]

I also toyed with the idea of putting "election" and "mean girls" on my list.
all rules are meant to be arbitrarily enforced at whim!

[pig bodine]

I enjoyed Dazed & Confused, but it was nothing like my high school. It was far too affluent, and the jocks, stoners, nerds, and nobodies did not go to the same parties or have anything to do with each other (except for there was some overlap with the stoners and jocks, especially wrestling) I wish my high school had been like it ( a nice facility and everybody getting along) but, as I've said before, my high school was way more River's Edge.

[Cage Free Brown]

actually, one of the things I liked about D&C was the inclusion of "the jock stoner".
I knew quite a few by senior year and had never seen one in a movie before.

[pig bodine]

I'm not sure if he was a stoner or not (he probably was) , but the lead from Drive He Said would probably qualify.

Actually, I think there was a pot scene in it.

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

And another fresh handful of luvverly flicks has been uploaded for your consideration. I'm going to call this my round, as all five films were on my list!

Starship Troopers is about as radical a critique of the fascist impulses of militaristic fervour as has ever been wrapped up in a shoot-em-up sci-fi adventure.

Muriel's Wedding is ostensibly a fluffy rom-com, but it has some dark elements beneath all that Abba and taffeta (cancer, deception, theft...you can't trust your friends, nor your father). I didn't expect this one to make it into the poll winners though, that was a surprise.

The Ice Storm is my favourite Ang Lee film, big ups to Sigourney Weaver for being the scariest MILF on celluloid.

The Truman Show was my surprise pick, I didn't love it at the time but rewatched it a few weeks ago and was mightily surprised at what a well-made movie it is...I think my disdain for Jim Carrey in the '90s got in the way of my appreciation for it (he is fantastic in this though, a precursor to the triumph of honesty and understatement that is his acting in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)

Any thoughts on this batch o' winners?

[algroth]

Cool. I'm not too keen on Muriel's Wedding and Starship Troopers although I should watch them again to confirm that - I saw Muriel's Wedding at school and that's never the best enviroment to watch a film in. Starship Troopers I saw a long time ago and for me it was Verhoeven already moving beyond me in the territory of camp, but again I did watch it at a time when I couldn't stand that sort of aesthetic. Perhaps I could warm a little bit more to it if I watched it again.

The other three are rather excellent, though. The Ice Storm is by far and away my favorite Ang Lee film, particularly. It's also hard not to like The Truman Show - I can't remember the last person who told me he didn't care for it, actually.

So far I have not seen a single film from my list make this poll, though. Hopefully they're still to come!

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

Cool. I'm not too keen on Muriel's Wedding and Starship Troopers although I should watch them again to confirm that - I saw Muriel's Wedding at school and that's never the best enviroment to watch a film in. Starship Troopers I saw a long time ago and for me it was Verhoeven already moving beyond me in the territory of camp, but again I did watch it at a time when I couldn't stand that sort of aesthetic. Perhaps I could warm a little bit more to it if I watched it again.

The other three are rather excellent, though. The Ice Storm is by far and away my favorite Ang Lee film, particularly. It's also hard not to like The Truman Show - I can't remember the last person who told me he didn't care for it, actually.

So far I have not seen a single film from my list make this poll, though. Hopefully they're still to come!

You have definitely picked a few winners still to come Algroth but not as many as some others who voted... quite a few of your picks seemed to be bubbling under with just one or two votes.

Starship Troopers is brash, loud and subtle as a brick in the head but I think it has a lot more going for it than might be apparent on first viewing. Its self-parody is a lot more successful than Verhoeven's same trick in Showgirls.

Muriel's Wedding...I picked it because I wanted to get behind a popular Australian film and I thought it had more depth to it than most local '90s entertainments like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I loved the relationship between Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths' characters especially. It's lightweight compared to some contemporary efforts though...I still prefer Australian films like Proof and (especially) Bad Boy Bubby, which I gave a lone vote to.

[Cage Free Brown]

another batch I don't really have any problem with.
it's funny though, the one that gave me the most grief not including was "Ice Storm"
I actually played "eenie meenie minie mo" at one point.

what I said earlier about "dazed..." not really passing the smell test for me (not that I mind, I think period films have more obligation to the time they are made in than set in)
well, "Ice Storm" haunted me for days after seeing it. this was the seventies I grew up in & it wasn't just the clothes and the hairstyles. it was something unspoken and under the surface. I agree that for Ang Lee, this is the one to top. I'm not familiar with the book but I'm sure the author and screenwriter James Schamus have a lot to do with that quality that so impressed me as do the fine actors.

[The Write Profile]

Silence of Lambs is an interesting film in many ways. I still think Michael Mann's Manhunter is the best Thomas Harris adaptation, if only because of its utterly noirish neon visuals and the fact Brian Cox's subtly condescending and underhanded Lector is more intriguing than Hopkins's more obviously monstrous take. Yet it's still quite striking and unconventional as mainstream procedural pics go.

We forget Hopkins only has about 15 or so minutes of actual screen time- it wasn't until later he turned it into full pantomime. And it is a forceful performance, he does make it his own, and set a new kind of template for screen monsters subsequently- partly because the charm is always there below the surface. Not only that, everything from the soundtrack (what kind of genius was Demme to use the Fall's "Hip Priest" during the climatic pursuit?) to the grungy, overwrought Gothic set design means you can't help but notice how singularly odd the sheer conceit of it is. But none of this would mean anything without Jodie Foster's performance. What a wonderful actress she is, how utterly perfect she was for this role- haunted, and vulnerable, sure, but also fiercely intelligent and with such an inner reserve of strength that you know she'd be able to put the pieces together. She lets her guard down, but not that much. It's a pretty remarkable balancing act.

Muriel's Wedding...I picked it because I wanted to get behind a popular Australian film and I thought it had more depth to it than most local '90s entertainments like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I loved the relationship between Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths' characters especially. It's lightweight compared to some contemporary efforts though...I still prefer Australian films like Proof and (especially) Bad Boy Bubby, which I gave a lone vote to.

I think there was a period from about 1992-'95 where both NZ and Australian cimema were the envy of much of their English speaking counterparts. It didn't last long, but god, it was exciting in retrospect. But Muriel's Wedding is a surprisingly key text in that era because for all its surface fluffiness, it's actually a frequently bleak and clear-eyed film. It acknowledges the deceptions of all its characters, self-inflicted or otherwise, and ultimately everyone does get what they respectively deserve. It manages to do this while also making clear that it likes its characters, for all their flaws. They're human, not evil. The conclusion is joyous because it's earned.

In contrast Starship Troopers is an absolute blast because it's quite clear that Paul Verhoven doesn't give a shit about a single one of its characters (or Robert Heinlein's notoriously right-wing source material). I don't think it's as successful either in terms of its action or general conception of its world as Robocop, or the epic Black Book , for that matter- indeed, it's a complete mess at times- nor does the satire bite quite as strongly, but it almost makes up for it in sheer brio. I mean, it looks amazing, and there's a sense that only Verhoven (and perhaps Neil Patrick Harris) are actually in on the gag about this world of willing teenage fascists being sent to their own death to fight an army of giant space bugs. And it has some cute girls who get their kit off. Yet it's ostensibly delivered with a straight face. What more could a teenage boy like myself have wanted at the time?

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

Great post mate, i enjoyed reading that. Sorry for not putting up more winners up guys, I'm working down in Melbourne for a few days but will put up a big batch when I get home.

[beenieman]

39=



Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Directed by Peter Jackson

Points: Cage Free Brown, Ghost of Harry Smith, Pig Bodine

I made a mistake here. This should have been on my list. Jackson has proven himself to be a loathsome individual & made a series of substandard movies but this is great. Nice to see it listed & it would have done better if I'f I'd voted for it

39=



Dazed and Confused (1993)
Directed by Richard Linklater

Voters: Goatboy, The Right Profile, Snarfyguy

I saw this & it did not resonate with me. I'm generally a fan of high school movies, and TV shows too. Sorry.

39=



The Sixth Sense (1993)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Voters: Blue Meanie, WG Kaspar, Kath

A movie I came close to seeing. Like Peter Jackson, Shyamalan has been on a downhill trajectory for some time. This movie worked perfectly. And Willis is a great actor.

37=



Lone Star (1996)
Directed by John Sayles

Voters: Ghost of Harry Smith, Owen, T. Willy Rye

Trailer = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhd8AHbp2c4

I should see this.

37=



Leon (The Professional) (1998)
Directed by Luc Besson

Voters: Fandedango, Kath, Whodathunkit

I had this on my short list but I dropped it quite early, too many other contenders. An excellent movie & deserves its inclusion.

36



Starship Troopers (1992)
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Voters: Beenieman, Ghost of Harry Smith, Snarfyguy

This is perfect. I've watched it a number of times & enjoy it every time. Deserves to be much higher

35



Muriel’s Wedding (1994)
Directed by PJ Hogan

Voters: Goatboy, Masked Man, The Right Profile, Ghost of Harry Smith,

Haven't seen it. Should. Doubt it would make my list though.

33=



The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed by Jonathan Demme

Voters: Pig Bodine, Googamooga, Goatboy, Ghost of Harry Smith

A good movie. Foster is the real star, not hopkins (who gets bigger parts later). I dislike it for what came later but that's not this movie's fault.

33=



The Ice Storm (1997)
Directed by Ang Lee

Voters: Polishgirl, Martha, Owen, Ghost of Harry Smith

I started this many years ago. I never finished it & have no inclination to do so.

31



The Truman Show (1997)
Directed by Peter Weir

Voters: The Right Profile, WG Kaspar, Ghost of Harry Smith, Goatboy

An excellent movie and a worthy inclusion.

[The Write Profile]

Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Directed by Peter Jackson

Points: Cage Free Brown, Ghost of Harry Smith, Pig Bodine

I made a mistake here. This should have been on my list. Jackson has proven himself to be a loathsome individual & made a series of substandard movies but this is great. Nice to see it listed & it would have done better if I'f I'd voted for it

That makes two of us. I think we're probably closer to each other in our tastes in 90s films than any other era. Although maybe not that close!

Dazed and Confused (1993)
Directed by Richard Linklater


I saw this & it did not resonate with me. I'm generally a fan of high school movies, and TV shows too. Sorry.

I'm loathe to convince anyone to change their opinion on something, but it's one of those films that resonated more on repeated viewings, partly because of its conversational rhythm. There's a real artistry involved in the way Linklater just follows his characters around, and there are a surprising number of things to pick up on- Matt McConaughey's performance, in particular, gets better because you notice the small gestures he makes (even the way he lurches into certain lines). It's a film totally at ease with itself about an uneasy era of life. It also laid the groundwork for a more deadpan yet sincere "outsiders" take on the genre, particularly stuff like Freaks and Geeks, Adventureland and Superbad.

The Sixth Sense (1993)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Voters: Blue Meanie, WG Kaspar, Kath

A movie I came close to seeing. Like Peter Jackson, Shyamalan has been on a downhill trajectory for some time. This movie worked perfectly. And Willis is a great actor.

I know you've got a habit of forming opinions on films after five minutes, but having such a strong take before seeing it is a stretch! But seriously (acknowledging that the "seeing" bit was a typo), I think you've got it right. Shyamalan desperately wanted to be the new Spielberg, and this was the closest to it. It carries a surprising amount of emotional heft, and it's largely admirably underplayed, particularly Bruce Willis. It's a shame that everything he released subsequently got progressively worse. Even Unbreakable, which had some interesting ideas and performances but was harmstrung by in its insistence on trying to go for another "twist" ending again, when a more intriguing take would've been to let the whole revelation out of the bag in the opening scenes and go back from there. The less said about what came after that, the better.

Starship Troopers (1992)
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Voters: Beenieman, Ghost of Harry Smith, Snarfyguy

This is perfect. I've watched it a number of times & enjoy it every time. Deserves to be much higher

I wouldn't call it perfect by a long shot (for reasons I mentioned in my previous post), but I do love its sheer force of will and shamelessness. It's enormously entertaining, for sure.

Muriel’s Wedding (1994)
Directed by PJ Hogan

Voters: Goatboy, Masked Man, The Right Profile, Ghost of Harry Smith,
Haven't seen it. Should. Doubt it would make my list though.

It really is a wonderful film, and so different to what the marketing behind it suggested. Right down to the way it uses its ABBA-backed soundtrack, there's a dark undercurrent that doesn't feel mean or misanthropic because it knows its characters inside out. Toni Collete's performance is astonishing, she pushes it right to the edge of caractiture without losing sight of what makes Muriel tick.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed by Jonathan Demme

Voters: Pig Bodine, Googamooga, Goatboy, Ghost of Harry Smith

A good movie. Foster is the real star, not hopkins (who gets bigger parts later). I dislike it for what came later but that's not this movie's fault.

The film's grungy gothic look and sound design was a huge influence on 90s crime cinema, I don't think something like Seven would've been possible without this, and in a weird way, neither would've the X-Files (although that owes more to Twin Peaks), due to its (mostly) sympathetic depiction of the FBI, rather than making them sinister spooks.

The Ice Storm (1997)
Directed by Ang Lee

Voters: Polishgirl, Martha, Owen, Ghost of Harry Smith

I started this many years ago. I never finished it & have no inclination to do so.

Again, I'm loathe to convince anyone to give something a second chance, but I love the film's feel of quiet, cold desperation, the beautifully composed visuals and the performances that suggest so much without lurching into big statements about suburban neuroses. It's a lot more resonant than something like American Beauty (which I like, for all its flaws), because it doesn't exaggerate and presents things so matter-of-factly. However, I get the fact it keeps its characters at such a remove could be off-putting.

The Truman Show (1997)
Directed by Peter Weir

Voters: The Right Profile, WG Kaspar, Ghost of Harry Smith, Goatboy

An excellent movie and a worthy inclusion.

Further to what I said earlier in this thread about the film, it's also Andrew Niccol's most fully realised script. He's a hugely talented writer who is very adept at latching onto intriguing "hard" sci-fi concepts, but I don't know whether he's necessarily the best director for his work, partly because he seems more interested in the ideas than the people. Weir gets exactly the right look for this pic- Seaview is so clean, claustrophobic and antiseptic in a way that's deeply unsettling yet strangely familiar. Which is the point.

[beenieman]

A good post. If I had the time this weekend I'd probably go and rent all those movies to see them again based on your post. And seeing was a typo.

[algroth]

Any chance we might see more soon, Aaron?

[Ghost of Harry Smith]

Here you go, five more results, we're now up to #27. Sorry for radio silence but have just flown home from Melbourne after my busiest work week of the year thus far. My plan is to bang the remainder up fairly regularly over the next week or so and knock the poll on the head sooner rather than later.

This batch is a lot of fun, I think... and finally Algroth gets one on the list!!!

[algroth]

Yay! Brilliant film, of course.

As for the rest, I think Ed Wood is lovely and Tim Burton's best by quite some distance. T2 is fun although I haven't seen it in ages and probably should - some excellent action sequences in that. Army of Darkness I already commented on earlier.

Fight Club is a sort of pre-teen classic for me, it blew my mind with that it portrayed at the time, but as I grew up I started finding much of its bar philosophy rather silly and its form to be mostly flash but I still do enjoy it to a degree, probably more than I should. It's a very important film to me, I guess, because alongside The Matrix it was a film that led me to look deeper into the content of film and implanted some of those age-old questions at an early age in me. I'm thankful I saw it back when I did, even if today I don't find it to be particularly great.

[the masked man]

Of the new films added to the list, I really probably should have voted for 12 Monkeys, which is surely the best remake of a European film in Hollywood history. Terry Gilliam extended the themes of La Jetée to feature length, achieved a great grungy look for the film and even coaxed a fine performance out of Bruce Willis. This film probably had no right to work as well as it did, but I think it's amazing.

Fight Club is the other interesting new addition. I remember watching it at the cinema while in a foul mood...and somehow felt much better at the end. For all that, I'm really not sure it worked; the final twist pushed plausibility to breaking point, and too often it felt like special pleading for a specious kind of wounded masculinity. But it made brave choices, and is unlike anything else. It probably couldn't have been made in any other decade, so maybe it belongs in any list of 90s cinema.

Oh yes, and Ed Wood is a lovely film, even if it's slightly unbalanced, given that Martin Landau (as Bela Lugosi) thoroughly upstages Johnny Depp, who is the nominal lead. But it manages to argue that, despite, his ineptitude as a director, Wood was an interesting figure who does not deserve the title of world's worst film maker.

[pig bodine]

I should have voted for 12 Monkeys as well. I don't know how I forgot it, being that I didn't see that many 90's films to begin with.

[The Write Profile]

Of the new films added to the list, I really probably should have voted for 12 Monkeys, which is surely the best remake of a European film in Hollywood history. Terry Gilliam extended the themes of La Jetée to feature length, achieved a great grungy look for the film and even coaxed a fine performance out of Bruce Willis. This film probably had no right to work as well as it did, but I think it's amazing.

Gilliam said he was drawn to Bruce Willis because of his performance in Die Hard, of all things. There's a particular scene in that movie (still the most shamelessly entertaining action flick of its era), where Willis's character is in tears picking shards of glass out of his foot, while he's on the phone to the cop down on the ground. Apparently, Gilliam was quite intrigued by the vulnerability Willis evoked in that particular scene, amid all the macho noise and wise-cracking. It's a clean pointer to his performance as the (literally) haunted doctor in the Sixth Sense. Twelve Monkeys is also notable for a rather memorably frenzied turn from Brad Pitt, which must've laid the groundwork for his Tyler Durden in Fight Club.

I saw La Jetee in a film class at University, it's one of the key moments in my cinema-viewing life. It was the literal stillness of the picture that grabbed me- after all, it is composed entirely of stills. Twelve Monkeys is surprisingly faithful to the original's plot, and even aspects of its tone. It gets its sense of loss. But being a Gilliam film, it's also very messy and self-referential- not only are there nods to classics such as Vertigo (a particularly obvious scene where Willis and Stowe hide out in a theatre), but also Gilliam's own work- some of the decor is reminiscent of Brazil's labyrinthine interiors, while the film's celebration of "genius as madness" recalls the Fisher King. Whatever, Twelve Monkeys is a flawed, phenomenal work.

Fight Club is the other interesting new addition. I remember watching it at the cinema while in a foul mood...and somehow felt much better at the end. For all that, I'm really not sure it worked; the final twist pushed plausibility to breaking point, and too often it felt like special pleading for a specious kind of wounded masculinity. But it made brave choices, and is unlike anything else. It probably couldn't have been made in any other decade, so maybe it belongs in any list of 90s cinema.

Crucially, it's also very much a picture that couldn't've been made at the end of any other decade. Much like the Matrix and Run Lola Run (which I saw the movies about the same time), it suggests that there is a chance to start again anew- albeit in the case of Fight Club by destroying everything. Its knotty narrative and (let's be honest) desperate twist is another aspect that hocks into this- everything and nothing is connected.

Like you, I think it's fatally flawed. Mostly, it's because it introduces Tyler way too early into the picture. I'm reminded of the fact that the Third Man waits about an hour before he turns up, and then has about 15 minutes of screen time. And yet his presence dominates the picture, not just because of Orson Welles's cunning, charismatic turn, but the way they build this sense of anticipation around him. In Fight Club, Tyler's appearance is telegraphed-there are even a couple of clever freeze-frame gags where you can spot him before he makes his main appearance.

Once he's there, he totally unbalances the picture too. It goes from being a satire on corporate anonymity (our narrator and all his support groups) to...well, what exactly? A preparation for some kind of class or society war that is yet to occur? A cry for father figures in a post-feminist world? An excuse to see people beat each other up ? God knows, and not just because Norton's particularly wounded, insular charisma and Pitt's maniacal turn seem to be from two very different films. Yet there's a certain power in its messiness, and the ending recalls the gleeful nihilism of Dr Strangelove's conclusion. (Those beautiful exploding buildings...) I don't think it knows the answer to its own questions, but maybe it forgets what the questions were.

As an aside, Helena Bonham Carter's ferociously sexy performance reminds me exactly what we've been missing from her over the last decade. If only she was allowed to really let herself go again, rather than being consigned to playing the same gothic shrew alongside Johnny Depp in her partner Tim Burton's movies over and over again...

Oh yes, and Ed Wood is a lovely film, even if it's slightly unbalanced, given that Martin Landau (as Bela Lugosi) thoroughly upstages Johnny Depp, who is the nominal lead. But it manages to argue that, despite, his ineptitude as a director, Wood was an interesting figure who does not deserve the title of world's worst film maker.

Speaking of Burton and Depp, this is arguably their finest collaboration. Certainly, it's one of Depp's most generous performances. This time around, he leaves the showy turn to somewhere else, and instead plays Wood as a boyish enthusiast. The film's a tribute to the outsider, not just genuine ones like Wood, but also ones who worked within the system. No wonder Burton includes a scene with Orson Welles. And the b&w photography is just lovely.