1990's Best Movies: 30 Years Later

Whit Stillman forever!!

At 80 hours, Eniaios might be the longest movie on the entire list of 2,000.

To Sleep with Anger.

The rest of my list:

GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese)
A Tale of Springtime (Eric Rohmer)
Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
The Grifters (Stephen Frears)
The Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismäki)
Metropolitan (Whit Stillman)
Ju Dou (Zhang Yimou)
Central Park (Frederick Wiseman)
Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)

Had to vote Goodfellas cause I've seen it 900 times but would've considered Total Recall if it was an option too.

Had to vote Goodfellas cause I've seen it 900 times but would've considered Total Recall if it was an option too.

Lol sorry

I owe GoodFellas a GoodFaith fresh viewing, but I saw it twice in my teens and 20s and hated it thoroughly both times.

Facing a Sophie's choice with Paris is Burning vs. Kiarostami.

Goodfellas sorry not sorry

This is Close Up, obviously, but I really really want to vote for Nouvelle Vague. On a good day it's my favorite Godard, definitely the most underrated, no contest.

Goodfellas obv

Goodfellas obv

Everyone who picks GoodFellas cursed to double post.

I've watched King of New York, Metropolitan and Miller's Crossing the most. Probably gonna vote Miller's.

get the papers

get the papers

xp

I might actually go with Trust over Goodfellas, both memorable and possibly formative viewing experiences for me at the undoubtedly inappropriate age of 12.

Recently rewatched Miller's Crossing... kicked off the Coens' Lost (Almost) Decade of genre ripoffs. So shallow.

So shallow.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Also, you're wrong. Go back and rewatch, and this time focus on Eddie the Dane as the film's moral center.

Goodfellas, Miller's Crossing close.

Uh, some of these 'best of the year' films aren't much better than all right.

Not (simply) for the sake of immediately goosing Morbs but this is pretty easily Miller's Crossing for me.

What's the ruckus, Morbs?

I love Miller's Crossing, but Goodfellas is just so goddamned good.

At 80 hours, Eniaios might be the longest movie on the entire list of 2,000.

I've seen some Gregory M films, and even the shorts feel long.

Best poll options as yet unmentioned are likely Days of Being Wild and Poison.

The Lynch and Bertolucci films are significantly worse than Dances with Wolves.

Movies I would consider voting for if they were on here:

Misery
Darkman
Dick Tracy
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Cry Baby

Exorcist III a glaring omission imo.

Bertolucci's Bowles adaptation needed Mary McDonnell in Sioux makeup

Last time I rewatched Miller's Crossing, for the first time in a long while, it hit home how Gabriel Byrne doesn't live by any sort of film noir tough guy code, or have any strategy, he's just an alcoholic who burns bridges.

Eddie the Dane as the film's moral center.

?! More like the gay love triangle’s center.

Also its what’s the RUMPUS

?! More like the gay love triangle’s center.

That too. But think about it - he's the only character who doesn't betray anyone. The only character who never lies. He is who he says he is, and he's not even out for himself - he's Johnny Caspar's loyal servant, a faithful boyfriend to Mink, and that's it. Sure, he's a seething lump of white-hot rage disguised as a person, but he's honest.

i think you're confusing him with me

U r otm, unperson. Realized as much myself last time I saw it.

And u r also otm, Morbsy.

Idk if a lack of duplicity = morality but point taken, he’s the only one who doesn’t hide his goals or motivations

Movies I would consider voting for if they were on here:

Misery
Darkman
Dick Tracy
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Cry Baby

― Bougy! Bougie! Bougé! (Eliza D.), Friday, February 28, 2020 2:10 PM (forty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

All at least as worthy as Edward Scissorhands, and all movies I'd watch again before Dances with Wolves (I assume all BP winners automatically make these lists).

surely the Twin Peaks pilot is a movie ;)

Depardieu’s Cyrano was good at the time.

only abroad xp

and that special ending, hoo boy

Oh god I hated Depardieus Cyrano, lol

I still love Delicatessen and I would love to see Depardieu’s cyrano again. I got taken to it as a 10 year old on a French class trip and then we did a (highly abridged) version as a school play IIRC.

Depardieu’s cyrano is featured prominently in 1900 iirc

Days of Being Wild

To Sleep With Anger. Extraordinary movie and Danny Glover's performance is unforgettable.

Burnett explained in a 1998 interview for the Journal of American Folklore that Harry is partly inspired by a Georgian folktale character called Hairy Man, who steals the souls of people who bargain with him unwittingly.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Also, you're wrong.

Yeah, the extreme focus on surface in Miller's is a combination of the younger Coens being embarrassed about sincerity, so burying it underneath several very entertaining shallow levels, and Barry Sonnenfeld.

Also its what’s the RUMPUS

ty for your service

voted Delicatessen

edward scissorhands then close up then exorcist III then total recall

Uh, some of these 'best of the year' films aren't much better than all right.

1990 was definitely an off year. No arguments here.

it was an off year for TSPDT. They have a lot of them.

exorcist III then total recall

― ||||||||, Friday, February 28, 2020 2:18 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

my list

I've been covering the entirety of the 1990 Cannes competition for my blog, a few more gems: La Captive du Desert by Robert Depardon, The Sting of Death by Kohei Oguri, Freeze-Die-Come-to-Life by Vitali Kanevsky, Tilai by Idrissa Ouedraogo.

The late eighties / early nineties is a bit of a weird period in film history, because the center of gravity is definitely moving east, the film industry is kinda falling apart in old nations like India, Japan and the Soviet Union, and I don't think people were realizing that at the time. The story of that time is in some way still being corrected.

These are the only six movies I'd call great or close enough:

Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston)
Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
Archangel (Guy Maddin)

Also think Longtime Companion, Gremlins 2, and To Sleep with Anger are very good.

Er, meant "only three"...

In case you want to hear Tarantino and Bill Simmons talk about King of New York for an hour

Re-watching King of New York now. (I don't want to hear Quentin Tarantino and/or Bill Simmons talk about anything. Ever.)

I watched Paris Is Burning, Poison, and Wild at Heart in the early 90s and remember being really impressed by all three of them, but haven’t seen any of them since then

recently watched Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, it's beautiful

also saw Days of Being Wild recently and thought it was great, I especially liked Rebecca Pan and Carina Lau

Ended up voting for Close-Up, which is such a metafilm. Watching it I was puzzled by Kiarostami’s insertion of himself into the movie, and couldn’t figure out what was documentary footage and what was reenactment. Frederik pointed me to an interesting article on the Criterion website that helped make sense of it for me

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1492-close-up-prison-and-escapehttps://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1492-close-up-prison-and-escape

sorry here's the link

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1492-close-up-prison-and-escape

was you-tubing the Alex Cox introduction from when Moviedrome screened To Sleep With Anger in the early 90's because that's where I first saw it. It was odd that he was talking about the utter dissimilarity between this and other movies set in South Central LA at the time such as Boyz n The Hood and Colors! I thought they were very weird comparisons to draw seeing as this was a limited release low budget arthouse movie, but that was the 90's for you I suppose.

Not too long ago I did a watch project focusing on movies released in 1990 for the fairly arbitrary reason that I was born that year. I'd agree it's a transitional year, but I like a lot of the films listed above.

I voted for The Match Factory Girl, but on another day could have gone for Metropolitan, An Angel At My Table, Close-Up, Paris Is Burning, or Miller's Crossing. Of those not listed above, my favorites include Su Friedrich's Sink Or Swim and Claire Denis' No Fear, No Die.

did Paris is Burning open nationally in 1990? I watched a Siskel & Ebert clip last night during a deep after rewatching it: August '91. It opened in Miami late summer '91, and, as I recall, played for months.

I definitely saw it theatrically in summer '91, also in South Florida

NT Times reviewed it in March '91, LA Times in June '91

finally someone else mentions Angel At My Table, which I picked immediately and without hesitation

yes I saw PIB in spring '91

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

millers crossing for that byrne character/performance

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

🙄

Eyyyyy etc.

1950's Best Movies: 70 Years Later

millers crossing is bad

Close-Up was an amazing film

Close-Up was done dirty by this poll.

millers crossing is underrated by flappy

Time for the showdown: The Best Movies Of Years Celebrating An Anniversary Divisible By 10 (1920-2010)

It seems I can't think of a thing you haven't thought of.

That's my job.