Since we’re relatively fresh out of the 90s, I haven’t quite accepted the fact that people born in this decade are playing in the NBA and a select few can even legally buy alcohol in this country. For me this is the first decade I saw come and go, and I can’t think of a piece of television, film or literature that didn’t try and make some reference to Y2K and apparently all of us dying or some such nonsense. Well keep this in mind for all you 2012 fanatics. It was also the decade that saw cinema celebrate it’s 100th anniversary, somewhat unofficially in 1995. For that very reason we were privy to an unprecedented wave of historical nostalgia. Everyone was reminiscing, cinema that new frightening medium was a century old, good heavens where had the time gone?
VHS and Laserdiscs (oh yeah you remember those) paved the way to DVD’s and a few select wealthy people were able to throw away obscene amounts of money on HD televisions, but that revolution wouldn’t take shape for quite awhile. Movies were big business thanks in part to obscene ticket prices and a whole lot of merchandising. Action films could be measured by the success of their toy lines, and a great many kid in the 90s had Dick Tracy, Batman, Terminator, and of course Ninja Turtle figures. The concept of a blockbuster being rated R wasn’t entirely out of the question in the early 90s. Despite being less graphic than it’s 1984 predecessor, James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day was rated R and proved to be the most successful action film ever made at the time, as well as the most expensive, but that’s a distinction that Cameron has made a bit of a trademark for himself.
By the end of the decade though with the Columbine shootings on April 20th, 1999 movies were an easy target especially when The Matrix was in theaters sporting trench coats like the school shooters, so naturally all R rated films were to blame and somebody had to shield children from these movies that clearly were turning them into homicidal maniacs, but you all know how that story goes.
It was a decade of many farewells. Giants like Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, and Krzysztof Kieslowski all made their final films to varying degrees of success. Yet new directors were there to take their place. Quentin Tarantino clearly made the biggest initial splash with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, then came Paul Thomas Anderson, Sam Mendes, David O’Russell, Alexander Payne, Kevin Smith, Tsai Ming-Liang, Hirokazu Kore-eda and many others I regrettably am forgetting.
The 90s also saw the triumphant return of at least one seriously reclusive director. Terrence Malick ended a 20 year drought away from directing when he made Thin Red Line in 1998 which is about the most unclassifiable all star WWII film ever made. Released in the shadow of Saving Private Ryan it was a marvel to behold for Spielberg haters and critics who had been waiting patiently for his return, but completely baffling for most regular movie going audiences. However the film that took the Oscar gold from both of those vastly superior pictures was Shakespeare in Love, and that brings us to our next topic.
Miramax. Bob and Harvey Weinstein founded Miramax in 1979 which helped to bring many previously unseen and offbeat foreign and independent films to theaters. They got their first real taste of Oscar gold with 1989’s My Left Foot. In 1993 they were purchased for $80 million by Satan Disney. Now they had an unlimited amount of money to shove their product down anyone’s throat and god willing they could be relentless. For the good work promoting films like Pulp Fiction brought them more often than not their efforts were a little misguided. The 90s saw two foreign films nominated for best picture, both distributed by Miramax but I scarcely doubt anyone whose seen more than 5 foreign films from the 90s can say that Il Postino and Life is Beautiful were deserving of a best picture nomination. The hype machine achieved it’s peak of power when it somehow convinced the world that The English Patient was better than Fargo and the implausible Shakespeare in Love win. Eventually this rampant and shameless Oscar promotion would backfire and the company would lose a bunch of money the next decade after buying Oscars for Chicago, and attempting to do the same thing for the rather lousy Cold Mountain. Hard to discuss the history of cinema in the 90s without mentioning those Weinstein brothers and the insatiable lust for Oscar gold that so consumed their studio.
However the world of foreign films may have seemed a little passed by thanks to what was getting preferential treatment. The studios who had money to promote foreign faire seemed to prefer really bland crowd pleasing films that might make you nauseous if you weren’t careful. More and more people had to go to great lengths and film festivals to see the real films worth checking, and even in the age of VHS many of these films weren’t easy to locate. For inexplicable reasons Taiwan’s incredibly fruitful outburst of cinema remained almost completely unseen outside, particularly when it came to Edward Yang who arguably made his countries’ best film with A Brighter Summer Day in 1991. However newcomer Tsai Ming-Liang did manage to find some distribution for his very unique brand of filmmaking, and thanks to some international help Hou Hsiao-Hsien saw all of his 90s films make their way over to US theaters and home video. Although no foreign director enjoyed easier distribution than Spain’s Pedro Almodovar whose style began to mature more and more throughout the 90s without betraying what had made him such a subversive figure in the 80s. Although internationally perhaps Wong Kar-Wai made the greatest leap forward artistically in the 90s. After making a somewhat clichéd police drama As Tears Go By, he turned his direction to the lovelorn with Days of Being Wild, and proceeded to form his own style and voice that he’s always felt at home with, of course with Christopher Doyle photography.
I’d like to comment on all of international cinema in the next paragraph(s) but well to hell with it. Since passing my twice minimum rule for my decade lists I generally avoided films I had never seen for research. However this time I was toying around with my list and to buy time I decided to watch all the films I had lying around from the 90s that I hadn’t watched. Turns out there were a ton of them. I had my first encounter with Sharunas Bartas, and then had three more encounters with his work and well any attempt to describe it would make me sound like a pompous ass or full of it, because I have no idea what that man is about, but I like it. Saw a few more Iranian films which only cemented my already very high opinion of them in general, and a few other randoms that helped fill in some of the gaps of international cinema I’ve had regarding the past decade. The sad thing is though that I still can’t shake the feeling that the US completely and utterly kicked everyone’s ass woefully this decade. It was as if the lame pedestrian bland garbage that studios released of foreign films from the 90s like Il Postino was maybe a ploy to make American films look that much better by comparison? I wouldn’t put it past them.
Most of the lists I looked at for research into this particular subject were extremely heavy on American films. Roger Ebert had only Kieslowski’s Red to represent all of foreign film. Martin Scorsese joined him and the only foreign film I remember him including was actually made in the 80’s, Tian Zhuangzhuang’s The Horse Thief. True enough Zhuangzhuang made perhaps the best Chinese film of the decade with The Blue Kite but I’m sure the best living director had his reasons. The story wasn’t much better elsewhere, and I’d be lying if I said I had a culturally pleasing list. In fact I’m just as guilty as all those other critics who seemed to forget the other 6 continents when it comes to making top ten lists. So if you have any complaints feel free to dial my toll free hotline at 1-800-AIDS-FART and let me know of your problems with the list, after all it’s my list, and I’m probably a hell of a lot more upset with it than anyone reading will be.
10. Malcolm X (1992) US Spike Lee
Believe it or not I cut this film, and last second decided to change my mind. If you were wondering the film I cut was Michael Haneke’s 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance which in addition to having my favorite title of any film of the 90s also is perhaps the finest indication of
how random insignificant events can have profound effects on our lives. So if you complain I’m far too US dominant (and I’d completely agree with you) consider this a two way tie, but that’s cheating so Spike’s film wins by a nose. In fact of the convoluted world of biopics and films of very well known historical figures Spike’s film is remarkable. Told in separate segments with a different visual style he exemplifies the life of the man who would become Malcolm X with an unflinching eye. At times Malcolm is less than a saint but never is he really a villain, perhaps far too headstrong at times, but his heart and his soul tend to be in the right place. Lee held his ground and wouldn’t allow the film to be trimmed of it’s excessive running length, which in the wake of Oliver Stone’s JFK was a concern for the parent company Warner Bros. Denzel Washington should have run away with every acting prize he could get that year, but for some reason Al Pacino was deemed worthy of an Oscar for playing an obnoxious blind jackass in Scent of a Woman. The film remains the high point in Lee’s career, and the high water mark of the all too short lived “New Jack Cinema” movement of the late 80s and early 90s.9. Natural Born Killers (1994) US Oliver Stone
Perhaps the decades most controversial film is also perhaps one of the most fun to watch. Oliver Stone was feeling the heat for JFK and a somewhat pretentious rendering of the Doors story when he bought a script from Quentin Tarantino and decided to make this comment on media
obsession with violence. Like Lee’s film this does contain a clip of Rodney King, perhaps not as different as they would appear. Stone employed nearly every trick he could think of for this movie and it only helps to add to the disorienting atmosphere of the film rather than distracting in the way it did at times in The Doors. His subject never ceased to be captivating either, Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis seemed to be born for these roles, which may say something about their inner character, but they are absolutely perfect. The supporting cast is incredible, including several famous people cut from the final film. However Robert Downey Jr. can’t help but steal the show whenever on screen, and seemed to be enjoying the same peyote that the rest of the crew were reportedly on when filming. Rodney Dangerfield has never been more repulsive and possibly never more hilarious as Mallory’s father. You can speculate what you want as to what’s it’s real message is glorifying these criminals or criticizing us for glorifying them but you gotta admit few films keep you entertained better. Unfortunately from an artistic standpoint Oliver Stone never really seemed to come close to topping this, sadder still he started to use some restraint when directing.8. Fight Club (1999) US David Fincher
As this year’s award season comes around David Fincher’s name is coming up an awful lot. He’s already won a Golden Globe, and I see no clear competition for him to take home his first Oscar for best director as no film seems to be getting the praise of The Social Network. However before
anyone new who Chuck Palahniuk was, or what the first two rules or how to make napalm with frozen orange juice concentrate and gasoline, there was a former music video director still trying to prove himself in Hollywood. He had hit gold with Se7en but most were curious to see whether he could top it. Well it helped that he had the best Tyler Durden money could buy with Brad Pitt. Fresh from his bulked up turn in American History X Edward Norton was the perfect foil as the character with countless names but no identity other than our narrator. Reading the novel Fincher seems to capture the world Palahniuk is describing perfectly from the comic asides, the simultaneous delusions and of course the insomnia, paranoia, and wonderful confusion of it all. After double digit viewings it never ceases to impress me and I can’t get tired of it, shame that Choke couldn’t quite live up to the long delay. As critic after critic hails The Social Network as the masterpiece of our time, I’ll point to this gem from 1999 and say that it still says more about our misguided male instincts and consumer culture than any film since.7. LA Confidential (1997) US Curtis Hanson
Neo-noir is there a more sad attempt at revisionist crap in the world? Perhaps not, but then every so often there’s a film like Chinatown or Body Heat or LA Confidential that restores your faith in this quasi-genre. Buried amongst deafening teenage love for Leonardo DiCaprio and Titanic, Hanson’s film was in reality the best film of 1997, but good luck telling anyone that on Oscar night. To this day I think LA Confidential is the only film I watched one day, then immediately watched the next day, then a week later. It was compulsive. Unlike three hour
movies where I can’t remember the main character the second the credits start, years later I seem to be able to recall every characters name from this film. Not sure whose to blame for that but I blame good filmmaking because I cared about everyone on screen and the dynamic in which they worked together. The best films of this kind aren’t so much about “who dun it?” or even the why of it all. Instead it’s about the characters, who double crosses who, whose in bed with who and the little details leading up to it. For that Hanson’s film is incredibly rich in detail. He also found two extraordinary talents with Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe who are two sides of the same coin who each went on to bigger and better things. It was something of an Australian coming out party with Pearce, Crowe, and Simon Baker each getting a break playing native Californians. Kim Bassinger won an Oscar for her work here, and past and future Oscar winners include Kevin Spacey, Crowe, David Strathairn not a bad cast for one film. Hell of a plot, and one that helps resurrect hope for a faded genre just once more.6. Ulysses’ Gaze (1995) Greece/France/Italy Theo Angelopoulos
Well what good would a best of a decade list be without a nice long pretentious art house foreign film? Since I saw my first Theo Angelopoulos film I was under the impression that Landscape in the Mist was his best work. During my 80s research I revisited it and the film fell a little flat, perhaps I had vaulted it far too high after being exposed to more of his work. So I took a second
and third look at Ulysses’ Gaze and well to say I have a new favorite is an understatement. There are directors who love their long takes, and well Angelopoulos is certainly in this group. However some directors like Bela Tarr are about creating mood with their takes, about slowly absorbing you into his landscape and he’s incredibly effective in Satantango. Yet Angelopoulos uses his extended takes in a different way and different still in Ulysses’. Without trickery he can jump between decades, years, reality, fiction, and all manner of things. It’s beyond the most complicated cinematic staging I’ve ever seen in all of cinema and probably doesn’t get as much praise as it should, but good heaven’s Angelopoulos flexes his muscles like never before here. Harvey Keitel who had quite an impressive run on art house films in the early 90s gives his audience what they’ve come to expect whether or not they asked for it by going full frontal and having a primal scream session. Everything has a higher meaning in his search for missing reels of film from Greek movie pioneers. So when random encounters seem to be far too advanced Angelopoulos is dealing with archetypes and there are more than a few illusions to Homer’s Odyssey. Describing the plot and the many twists and labyrinths that pop up would do little but confound you, this is a full body experience and get ready to shed a few ideas of conventional storytelling, if you can dig the slightly ambitious art house film, there might not be a better one than this.5. Schindler’s List (1993) - US Steven Spielberg
A lock to make my list since I first started watching “real” movies I’m a little surprised it fell this far. After revisiting it for the first time in several years I was still very much impressed by it, this time more by the technique than simple narrative which was my primary focus so many
years ago. I tried looking at the details of this film more, and this time I started to see just how Spielberg depicted all his characters. Believe it or not they are almost all caricatures. His Nazis come complete with pitchforks and devil horns and his Jews are money grubbing, greedy, selfish, and deceitful. Perhaps Schindler is the only one who gets to have any depth as he’s clearly conflicted. He can justify exploiting Jewish workers all he wants because they cost a quarter of what Polish workers would, but being too friendly will make him sympathize with the enemy. He realizes that money solves every problem and is bribing everyone he can to make everyone’s life easier. We get his transformation so slowly and gradually that we feel it with him. Ralph Fiennes gets a few moments of self loathing but quickly resorts to his old role as the devil incarnate. His role is still a fascinating one and works because Fiennes is such a captivating actor. It’s completely impossible to sympathize with him but for him to let us inside takes a certain skill because nearly everything is morally reprehensible about him. Spielberg is at his best with a lot of action, and the liquidation of the ghetto is one of those magnificent centerpieces of filmmaking that show that technically he is certainly among the best out there. Easily his best film, and perhaps the most important fiction film about WWII made.4. The Big Lebowski (1998) US Joel and Ethan Coen
There may have been a time where I said Raising Arizona was the best Coen brothers film, I lied. In fact a few years ago I made a top ten list of 1998 and this film was #9. That means I thought 8 films from 1998 were better than it. Some movies win you over instantly some get better with time, and other magically get better every time even if that means you’ve watched it
15 times. I know this film so well I can watch without sound and follow along (did it last Friday actually), there is a “Fucking short version” found here that I can also follow along with perfectly. Like Fight Club and Natural Born Killers this is a film that took a few years to find its audience. After the roaring critical praise for Fargo most critics thought Lebowski was a huge step down. Perhaps a funny diversion, but one viewing could never hope to reveal all that’s contained in Lebowski. It inhabits a cultish world to begin with, after all how many films about avid bowlers can you name? Nearly every line in the film has come up in conversation and I’m sure my friends have annoyed countless people reciting parts of it. It’s perhaps the decades most compulsively watchable film. In fact it’s one of those movies that I watched last week I’d gladly watch right now, and if some friends came over tomorrow and suggested putting it on I wouldn’t object, perhaps while pouring myself a white Russian. After all I do have a shirt of “The Jesus” and I can’t think of an article of clothing that’s gotten more approval. Easily John Turturro’s most memorable appearance, which is saying something after the quite bizarre Barton Fink. Jeff Daniels couldn’t have been better and perhaps the only downside is that I can’t seem to watch him in anything without picturing him as “The Dude”. There’s a reason the Coen’s have so consistently managed to impress us, because even their apparent misses come back to be arguably their best work.3. Before Sunrise (1995) - US/Austria Richard Linklater
Well this doesn’t fit into the usual suspects of 90s films. Ahead of Dazed and Confused? In fact who the hell even bothered to go see Before Sunrise in the first place? The answer is not many people. The film made about $5 million during it’s initial release, which wouldn’t even pay for Shia LeBouf’s diapers on the last Transformers movie. It is without a doubt the simplest film on my list to describe. Two people meet on a train, get off in Vienna, spend the rest of the evening together, then say goodbye in the morning. Not the stuff of the third greatest film of a decade
perhaps not by that unenthusiastic interpretation. However where a whole deplorable genre exists called romantic comedies of which there seems to be a new one every week, and half of them star Mathew McConaughey and/or Jennifer Lopez. I wish everyone who sits through those cutesy pieces of vomit would watch this film its easily the most honest, heart warming, and beautiful film about dating ever made. It doesn’t have that slight air of melancholy that Before Sunset had but all the wonderful optimism of youthful love. Linklater allows his actors to simply be on a date here, with some takes going on for minutes at a time but the dialogue is so engaging you hardly notice the first time around. Hard to use any adjective besides love to describe my feelings for this film. Maybe I see something of myself in it, but more than that I think I see something of everyone in these two characters or an idea of something they’d like to be or have inside of them. In a million years you couldn’t capture lighting in a bottle as brilliantly as Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy did here, it defines a generation while also revealing a side hidden behind far too much unwashed hair and flannel. I’ll shut up, but seriously go watch this film I can’t praise it enough.2. Goodfellas (1990) - US Martin Scorsese
Sometimes I feel like I have to reveal my pick and take a step back and brace myself for a barrage of rotten vegetables. Other times I reveal a film and say “Yeah that’s what I thought”. Goodfellas is 20 years old already, Christ almighty and almost from the time it came out it was
hailed as a masterpiece. Like Lebowski, Fight Club, and the film ahead of it on this list every new viewing reveals more hidden treasures. Not only does it seem to get better it also seems to get shorter. Scorsese’s technique has always been the best and he picks a few moments to shine, particularly the backdoor entrance to the Copa, yet always in the interest of the story. The pacing of the film is incredible and not a single moment seems to drag, unless he wants it to, such as the scene where Jimmy (Robert DeNiro) offers Karen (Lorraine Bracco) some dresses in a dark warehouse. Aside from that the film is always captivating and damn near perfect. Although it’s about a character as self destructive as Jake La Motta it seems a much easier film to sit through than Raging Bull, perhaps because we get a break from Henry Hill’s growing drug induced paranoia. Joe Pesci has rarely been funnier despite being completely homicidal at the same time. Honestly ask yourself how many times this film has come on TV and you just dropped the remote? How about when you hear the end of “Layla” does it not bring you right back to this film?1. Pulp Fiction (1994) US Quentin Tarantino
Anyone whose heard me talk about films shouldn’t be surprised by this come on. At this point in time you’re probably wondering where a whole lot of other films are. Yeah no Usual Suspects, Braveheart, Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, Clerks, Silence of the Lambs, and a whole lot of other crap. Well hey that’s the problem with only ten. Pulp Fiction has an added distinction too as being the only film on this list I saw in theaters when it was in it’s initial run. I was
probably too young for it, I liked it but you can imagine how many of these jokes went over my head at the age of 10. Years later I came to the conclusion that this could be the funniest film ever made, and the interesting thing about it is very few people even look at this film as a comedy. But then again is it a drama, it’s not an action film, then what? Well this is why I hate genre sections in video stores, and I appreciate Tarantino toying with these hazy definitions. One scene in particular when Vincent is talking to Marvin in the back seat and accidentally blows his brains out. It’s a tragedy, it’s incredibly graphic but try not to laugh. Many people have tried figuring out just how Tarantino gets his dialogue magic, at times Tarantino seems to wonder how he did it, but this film, with some credit to Roger Avary who all too often gets overlooked on the part of the script he wrote, this is perhaps the best bit of movie writing there is. It’s structure seemed to baffle people when the film first appeared and it seems funny now how people could have been so confused. On the other hand we can easily lose sight of just how groundbreaking this film was and it seems no matter how many imitators come around I doubt there will be “another” Tarantino. Really can I actually say anything higher than "the best film of the decade". See Miramax wasn’t always evil.
No comments:
Post a Comment