Best Films of the Nineties; Part I
Back in the ‘90’s, before kids and then COVID kept me out of theaters, I went to a lot of movies — all in theaters — the only place to fully appreciate a film. At the end of each year I wrote and circulated a summary of the best (and some of the worst) of the year’s films. I called it The Janovsky Report, now the name of this Substack, and circulated it to friends and family. It appeared for awhile on the Microsoft Network. One year I sent it to Russell Baker, the legendary NY Times columnist and Masterpiece Theater host. Baker wrote me back! He thanked me and said he and his wife brought it with them to the video store to help make their choices. He especially liked my line: “Real men can admit they liked Little Women.”
In the 2000s, I went through the prior decade’s Janovsky Reports and compiled the best of the ‘90s. So here’s the start of a countdown of my ranking of ‘90s films, starting with No. 30.
30. DEAD MAN WALKING (1995): This film succeeds brilliantly because it recognizes and poignantly illustrates that there are no easy answers to crime and punishment, especially capital punishment. The beauty of the film is that it will challenge, if not change, the beliefs of many on both sides of the death penalty issue. Its power comes from the way it weaves together the irreconcilable stories of the condemned and the victims: The agonies of the victims' families are juxtaposed with the cold efficiency of state sponsored killing; Grisly re-creations of the crime are set against the condemned man’s (Sean Penn) struggles with his conscience and his faith. Although Sister Helen's perspective is anti-death penalty, both she and the film respect the emotions and rationale of supporters. And Susan Sarandon gives one of her several towering performances as the Sister.
29. GRAND CANYON (1991): Director Lawrence Kasdan redeemed himself from the pretentious Big Chill with a thoughtful, yet very entertaining film that raises issues few films bother to deal with. A very effective portrayal of the sense of foreboding beneath the bright sun of L.A. (and anyplace else). The cast, especially Danny Glover and Jeremy Sisto (as Kevin Kline's son), is excellent. A film that’s been under-appreciated, and prescient.
28. HARD EIGHT (1997): This film by Director Paul Thomas Anderson is less ambitious, but more satisfying than his later, acclaimed Boogie Nights. Character actor Philip Baker Hall is simply amazing in the lead role of a gambler who, for mysterious reasons, takes a not-too-bright drifter (Michael C. Reilly) under his wing. Anderson’s use of the mobile camera to swoop in on characters and scenes leaves you breathless, especially in the stunning opening. Samuel L. Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow are also excellent as the other people in Reilly’s life.
27. SWINGERS: (1996) A delightful film that transcends the nineties genre of self-indulgent debut films about the lives and loves of guys in their twenties. These have ranged from unbearably sophomoric and not worth the $6.00 to sweet and funny, but burdened my amateurish acting. Swingers, though, hits it right on the mark. One scene — Jon Favreau’s character leaving increasingly cringeworthy multiple messages on a woman’s answering machine — is excruciatingly hilarious.
26. GODS AND MONSTERS (1998): Mood is everything as this film envelops you in the last days of James Whale, the director of Frankenstein, a Hollywood outcast because of his homosexuality. Ian McKellan is excellent as Whale, as are Brendan Frazer as his young gardener and Lyn Redgrave as his housekeeper. More than any other film that year, Gods and Monsters casts a spell that keeps you in '50s Hollywood and the sad director's world for quite a while after the credits.