Top 50 of the 90s

Well I wanted to post this a little sooner, but what are you going to do? I decided to expand upon my typical top 10 list for the 90s with a top 50 and well I’d like to take some time to explain my logic behind it. For starters ten films has always been a bummer for me. A top ten for a given year is a decent list but think about it in regards to a decade. Basically if you make a top ten list of ten years that’s as good as saying you can select one film per year. Now this makes the quality of the list great, but it leaves an incredible wealth of films on the cutting room floor. How often have we looked at a best picture race as one between two horses? Just because LA Confidential is a better film than Boogie Nights (in my opinion anyways), doesn’t mean that Boogie Nights isn’t a great film. Take that and multiply it by ten and you have an idea of how limited these lists have been.

Now that brings us to the next point, why 50? After all why not go for a top 100? If you stated that a top ten of a given year would be sufficient, then a top 100 for a decade would simply average your top ten of every year. Well I considered this and realized that the list would suffer from a bit of overkill. After all there are easily 100 really good if not great films from the 90s, but I think the human brain will shut off before too long, and would it really be a compliment for a film to be named the 93rd best film of the 90s? A top 100 for a decade is troublesome to research as well. If I make a top ten, there’s a good chance that most people reading it have seen several if not all of the films. Perhaps they find a couple to rent and therefore learn a little more about the decade. Its hard for anyone to have seen every film on a top 100 and the research to see those can wind up being overbearing. Therefore a top 50 is something of a middle ground. I’m sure most of the readers of this blog will find a few films that they haven’t seen, but not so many to discourage them from even trying to check some of them out.

Another reason that I slightly hinted at in at least my last two decade posts is the question of equality. Proportionately speaking, foreign language films constituted 1/10 of my top ten. So therefore 10% of the top ten, pretty poor number that doesn’t even come close to doing justice to the many great international films made in that decade. Thanks to an expanded list, they constitute 34% of my top 50. Now some people may say that’s still not that much, but if you’re a fan of fractions that just a hair more than 1/3 of the list, certainly a much more generous sampling proportionately. If this isn’t good enough, I apologize but if you are looking for some subtitled films to see from the 90s, I got 17 recommendations on this list.

There is another justification for this list. The majority of my readers, if not all of them grew up in the 90s, many lived through the entire decade. This makes the 90s a unique decade amongst my top tens. Since I was born in the 80s my cinematic memories are hazy, and largely shaped during the late 90s. For that reason many people lived through these films being released which means they are much more likely to recognize the titles and chances are they’ve seen the films already. Expanding the list expands the number of films mentioned. I wonder how many people reading this have seen all ten films of on my 50s list, and I know only about 2 people have seen my special jury prize for that decade, yet I wouldn’t be surprised if most people have seen 8-10 of my 90s list.

Looking ahead expect a similar top 50 to accompany my 2000s list. Since every one reading this blog that I can account for lived through all of this decade it only makes sense to expand the list. For this reason I’m approaching my research in a different way this time around, watching films to make a top 50 is far different than researching for a top 10. I’ve seen more films from the past decade than any other, but for that reason I have more films that I need to revisit and take a closer look at. At least with that list every film should be available on DVD and the majority available on Blu-Ray so happy hunting whenever I wrap up that list.

I’ve also now officially seen every film up for the major Oscars (picture, director, actor, actress) so expect a detailed list of bitching/predicting before the official award show.

50. The Pillow Book - Peter Greenaway
49. After Life - Hirokazu Kore-eda
48. JFK - Oliver Stone
47. Rebels of the Neon God - Tsai Ming-Liang
46. Deconstructing Harry - Woody Allen
45. Happy Together - Wong Kar-Wai
44. Quiz Show - Robert Redford
43. Flowers of Shanghai - Hou Hsiao-Hsien
42. Rushmore - Wes Anderson
41. Europa, Europa - Agnieszka Holland

40. Heavenly Creatures - Peter Jackson
39. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut - Trey Parker
38. Three Kings - David O’Russell
37. Dances With Wolves - Kevin Costner
36. Bad Lieutenant - Abel Ferrara
35. Underground - Emir Kustirica
34. Existenz - David Cronenberg
33. Ghost - David Zucker
32. American Beauty - Sam Mendes
31. Thin Red Line - Terence Malick

30. Fargo - Joel and Ethan Coen
29. Chungking Express - Wong Kar-Wai
28. Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood
27. To Live - Zhang Yimou
26. Hard Boiled - John Woo
25. Through the Olive Trees - Abbas Kiarostami
24. Saving Private Ryan - Steven Spielberg
23. Lost Highway - David Lynch
22. Boogie Nights - Paul Thomas Anderson
21. All About My Mother - Pedro Almodovar

20. A Brighter Summer Day - Edward Yang
19. Terminator 2: Judgment Day - James Cameron
18. Red -Krzysztof Kieslowski
17. Dazed and Confused - Richard Linklater
16. Reservoir Dogs - Quentin Tarantino
15. The Blue Kite - Tian Zhuangzhuang
14. Satan’s Tango - Bela Tarr
13. Toy Story/Toy Story 2 - John Lasseter
12. Magnolia - Paul Thomas Anderson
11. 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance - Michael Haneke

10. Malcolm X - Spike Lee
9. Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone
8. Fight Club - David Fincher
7. LA Confidential - Curtis Hanson
6. Ulysses’ Gaze - Theo Angelopoulos
5. Schindler’s List - Steven Spielberg
4. The Big Lebowski - Joel and Ethan Coen
3. Before Sunrise - Richard Linklater
2. Goodfellas - Martin Scorsese
1. Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino