#41 — The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993) Jane Campion’s film leaves a stamp on the memory. It’s not because of the plot or the acting or the achingly lovely visual landscapes. It is indeed a combination of all of these … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-One
#42 — Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) There are a few things that inform my viewing of Stanley Kubrick’s final film, and enhance my appreciate of it. Among these is surprising nugget that Kubrick loved the wonderfully goofy, willfully … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Two
#43 — American Dream (Barbara Kopple, 1990) Most modern documentaries have an intractable point of view. A filmmaker begins with a thesis and proceeds to gather evidence that bolsters the presented opinion, with divergent views pulled in only to be decisively … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Three
#44 — Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996) It is a film about little lives, the sorts that are easy to bypass, assuming that the stories they hold are entirely unremarkable, that they hold no surprises, nothing worth measuring up … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Four
#45 — Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993) I started working on a movie news and review program at my college radio station in the fall of 1990. This was when Siskel & Ebert were still at the height of their popularity and influence, and my cohort and I decided that we needed some way to regularly close out of review segments, something that provided as clean and convenient of a button as the famed Chicago critics’ pronouncements of which way their respective thumbs were pointing. We settled on a star rating, using the four star scale that seemed most common … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Five
#46 — Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995) At the time it seemed that, above all else, Sense and Sensibility proved that Emma Thompson could do anything. It was just three years earlier that she elbowed her way into debates intended to identify the finest actress of the era with her subtly inventive, Oscar-earning performance in James Ivory’s Howards End. She became quite busy after that, but still found time to expand which film jobs needed to included in her filmography by taking Jane Austen’s 1811 novel Sense Sensibility and skillfully adapting it into a screenplay. Through her effort, the … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Six
#47 — Bob Roberts (Tim Robbins, 1992) I wonder if Tim Robbins ever surveys the current political landscape, and starts pondering the possibilities for Bob Roberts II. Probably not, though he must stand agape before news reports of Tea Party … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Seven
#48 — Big Night (Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott, 1996) I have a very distinct memory about driving home from my viewing of Big Night. I saw it at the Hilldale Theater, a two-screen cinema in Madison, Wisconsin that predominantly … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Eight
#49 — The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993) The most famous and justly revered films of Martin Scorsese’s career are notable for their muscular rawness, their willingness to dive headlong into the toughest territory, those streets that will never … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Forty-Nine
#50 — Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999) Galaxy Quest is easy to dismiss. It was certainly easy for me. We saw it upon its Christmas Day release, honoring a beloved household tradition of spending the biggest holiday of the year … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 90s — Number Fifty
Coffee for Two 