1993's Best Movies: 30 Years Later

In keeping with previous polls, I've gone with the contenders in the top 2,000 films, but they now offer the entire starting spreadsheet. Here are the titles that carry through through the top 5,000 films ever.

2096	1504	True Romance	Scott, Tony	1993	USA	116
2145	1569	Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould	Girard, Francois	1993	Canada	93
2331	1943	Birth of Love, The	Garrel, Philippe	1993	France	94
2360	2550	Je vous salue, Sarajevo [VIDEO]	Godard, Jean-Luc	1993	France	2
2394	2310	Fearless	Weir, Peter	1993	USA	122
2427	3279	Sleepless in Seattle	Ephron, Nora	1993	USA	104
2677	5658	Sankofa	Gerima, Haile	1993	USA	124
2698	4371	Smoking/No Smoking	Resnais, Alain	1993	France	147
2718	1886	Sopyonje	Im Kwon-taek	1993	South Korea	112
2728	3656	What's Eating Gilbert Grape	Hallström, Lasse	1993	USA	117
2777	2572	Whispering Pages	Sokurov, Aleksandr	1993	Germany	77
2805	2700	Fugitive, The	Davis, Andrew	1993	USA	127
2899	2846	In the Name of the Father	Sheridan, Jim	1993	Ireland	127
2917	2620	Strawberry and Chocolate	Gutiérrez Alea, Tomás	1993	Cuba	110
2918	2407	Tombstone	Cosmatos, George P.	1993	USA	128
2958	4815	Memories and Confessions	Oliveira, Manoel de	1993	Portugal	73
3120	2296	Time Indefinite	McElwee, Ross	1993	USA	117
3151	3868	Shadowlands	Attenborough, Richard	1993	UK	130
3183	2608	Principio y fin	Ripstein, Arturo	1993	Mexico	188
3216	3556	Wild Reeds	Téchiné, André	1993	France	110
3293	4228	Bed You Sleep In, The	Jost, Jon	1993	USA	117
3384	3384	Dangerous Game	Ferrara, Abel	1993	USA	108
3445	3929	Bad Boy Bubby	De Heer, Rolf	1993	Australia	114
3488	2974	Searching for Bobby Fischer	Zaillian, Steven	1993	USA	110
4068	---	Falling Lessons	Halpern, Amy C.	1993	USA	64
4253	4114	Menace II Society	Hughes, Albert & Allen Hughes	1993	USA	97
4286	6281	Baby of Macon, The	Greenaway, Peter	1993	UK	122
4298	3203	Rudy	Anspaugh, David	1993	USA	112
4350	7541	Silverlake Life: The View from Here	Friedman, Peter & Tom Joslin	1993	USA	99
4423	6057	Philadelphia	Demme, Jonathan	1993	USA	119
4511	4504	It's All True	Wilson, Richard/Myron Meisel/Bill Krohn	1993	USA	87
4533	4353	Arizona Dream	Kusturica, Emir	1993	USA	119
4589	3638	Ruby in Paradise	Nunez, Victor	1993	USA	114
4594	3847	Manhattan Murder Mystery	Allen, Woody	1993	USA	108
4718	5471	Madadayo	Kurosawa, Akira	1993	Japan	134
4734	4653	Ace Ventura, Pet Detective	Shadyac, Tom	1993	USA	86
4872	4297	Man by the Shore/L'Homme sur les quais	Peck, Raoul	1993	France	106
4923	3874	Suture	McGehee, Scott/David Siegel	1993	USA	93
4960	3572	Scent of Green Papaya, The	Tran Anh Hung	1993	France	104
4993	6336	Gatica, el mono	Favio, Leonardo	1993	Argentina	136

Short Cuts over The Age of Innocence. As usual, I've seen too few non-English language titles.

Granting that I only saw 20 minutes of it 30 years ago, I have a hard time believing that Ace Ventura, Pet Detective is even the 4734th best movie ever made.

One of these:

Dazed and Confused
The Age of Innocence
Groundhog Day
Calendar
Trois Couleurs: Bleu

loads of great ones here. probably going to come down to Dazed and Confused vs Groundhog Day for me (the latter still the only movie i've watched being filmed irl)

goes to show it's in the genes!

I made it clear to the Warren people. One of the shots came from behind that picket fence. I heard the report and saw smoke, six or eight feet above the groundhog.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FL8Z6GiXsAMTupx.png

Hold onto your butts!

This pairing ...

4350	7541	Silverlake Life: The View from Here	Friedman, Peter & Tom Joslin	1993	USA	99
4423	6057	Philadelphia	Demme, Jonathan	1993	USA	119

dazed and confused is probably the film w/the greatest gulf between its quality and the quality of its ad campaign.

Did it even have one? I remember it being treated more like an arthouse item than something for the multiplexes at the time. I didn't even get to see it until it hit home video (for contrast, I'm pretty certain I saw every American film on the main list in theatres at the time).

Naked

OK...I RELOADEEEED

1. Dazed and Confused
2. Menace II Society
3. Short Cuts
4. maybe The Piano--long time since I've seen it

Yeah, Naked.

Sonatine, easy

Naked grossed me out when I saw it on cable in 1994 or so, but I need to give it a fresh look. I'm pretty sure it was my first Leigh (whom I now love).

It's wild that Jurassic Park and Schindler's List were the same year.

Naked's one of my least favorite Leigh joints.

I liked it when I was in my early 20's but I see it as an overrated abhorrent waste of space these days.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is the sentimental favorite for me.

I have often thought that if I worked in film, that kind of stop-motion is what I'd want to do.

I rewatched Short Cuts a couple years back and it really holds up.. incredible casting

(The fact that Groundhog Day is thirty years old makes ME feel old)

I like a lot of these, and love a handful — Dazed and Confused, Farewell My Concubine, The Wrong Trousers. But I gotta vote for The Puppetmaster, which I think is pretty much perfect.

On the flip side, Carlito's Way was execrable.

Short Cuts gets worse for me. Altman imposes a sourness on the material that isn't there, and the number of episodes their individual impact. "A Small, Good Thing" turns into yet another collar-grabbing Jack Lemmon turn. Chris Penn bludgeons the girl to death before the earthquake. And so on. Few things resonate (Tom Waits and Lily Tomlin absolutely do).

Going with Dazed and Confused... which I'm tempted to rewatch this weekend.

Top 5:
Short Cuts
Carlito’s Way
The Last Bolshevik
D'est
Naked

Very much need to see Calendar.

calendar is so good, sorta surprised to see it here bc it is so idiosyncratic for both egoyan and in and of itself

Did it even have one? I remember it being treated more like an arthouse item than something for the multiplexes at the time. I didn't even get to see it until it hit home video (for contrast, I'm pretty certain I saw every American film on the main list in theatres at the time).

― niall horanburger (cryptosicko)

Yeah it was basically advertised like a dumb weed comedy, just the absolute worst choice. "see it with a bud" being the tagline I remember.

Blue or Three Colors: Blue

I haven't seen Dazed and Confused since it came out, but remember being thrilled by it, there several many scenes that felt like exact recreations of my high school experience in the 70s. Linklater does that stuff really well.

*there were many

I rescreened DAZED a few weeks ago, it’s such a wonderful film — tipsy, your comments in one of the linklater threads really sharpened my appreciation, so thanks

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE is the only other all-timer for me on this list, but I have some to see still

Didn't have to reconsider anything: Three Colors: Blue

If Blue was the first of the three, that was my favourite. Hated Naked, never went back. Haven't seen Short Cuts for a decade, maybe, but at least a half-dozen times before that, always great.

Naked

The Age of Innocence's release at the height of American mass cultural acceptance of Merchant Ivory made sense commercially but stifled meaningful appreciation imo

So I should rewatch is what you’re saying?

This thread conforming Oliveira's status as someone who is dutifully included in the canon but never seen or discussed. Anyway The Book Is Better, though it's not a straightforward relation; Bessa Luís wrote it specifically to have Oliveira adapt it to the screen. Both basically deal with a class out of time, a haute bourgeoisie whose way of life becomes so anachronistic after the revolution (not iirc mentioned by name, but Portuguese viewers know), it's very inside baseball and I wonder what international audiences make of it all. Really lovely shots of vineyards mind.

On the flip side, Carlito's Way was execrable.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 16 June 2023 21:25 (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

voted carlito's way!

I mean D&C is the only one I've seen more than twice nevermind watched repeatedly over the last 3 decades so it's prob not the best movie but I have to go with that.

(Also I just really love Linklater.)

Voted for Derek Jarman’s Blue. It is not a film for everyone since it just consists of voice-over reminiscences against a blue screen for 1h 19m, but as someone who came of age in the world of AIDS, it expresses a lot of the experiences and feelings that I and the people I knew had at the time - despair, rage and disappointment, alienation from family, the need to be heard, the determination to make a better world - but also forgiveness, a sense of community, and a desire for connection

Jarman lost his sight at the end of his life because of toxoplasmosis, an opportunistic infection which many AIDS patients suffered from. As a result it is not a film that relies on one’s sense of sight, but there is something hypnotic about staring at a blue screen that seems to change subtly over time.

Oops--scratch my Blue comment. As was probably evident, I was thinking of the Kieślowski film.

I knew you meant that, clemenza

Your description makes it sound very interesting. Don't think I saw it at the time (I'm sure I'd remember)--I did struggle through Wittgenstein, which was actually the same year.

calendar or farewell my concubine or nightmare before christmas

naked: asks, can you sympathize with a rapist? then manipulates the audience by ending with a super-rapist that the protagonist rapist hates.

Out of the 16 I've seen from the top list: Age of Innocence followed by Valley of Abraham. I know I liked The Puppetmaster a lot but can't remember anything but the vaguest outlines. Didn't like Farewell My Concubine or Short Cuts.

it's very inside baseball and I wonder what international audiences make of it all.

Basically impressed with the aesthetic control and mood, but with a big question mark over my head, even after seeing it twice.

Calendar is my favourite Egoyan next to his debut Next of Kin, he's at his best on a smaller scale and with strict formal limitations.

I might actually prefer three of the six I've seen from the lower list: Whispering Pages, The Baby of Mâcon and Wild Reeds.

Probably my favourite film from even lower in the list is Lodge Kerrigan's Clean, Shaven.

I think if I gave CLEAN SHAVEN another viewing it would plummet to the lowest ranges of my esteem

What stopped it from getting there in the first place?

puppetmaster

I just have a backlog of disturbing movies I thought were profound back when I was 22 years old that, almost to a one, haven't held up on repeat viewings.

Then again, I was/am in my 40s when I loved Climax so maybe not.

It might well seem edgy now to no greater purpose, but I saw it as a psychological portrait of a troubled person. Also, I have to love an American film that shoots in Canada to seem exotic.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I’d put Tian Zhuangzhuang‘s The Blue Kite above most of these. Surprised that Germinal wasn’t included, either

Also, correct, The Puppetmaster, too.

I’m surprised that Joe Dante/Charlie Haas’ Matinee isn’t here

Voted Sonatine. Features two of my favorite shoot-outs of all time: the elevator scene and the climax - the final reel (wordless but with Joe Hisashi's score ratcheting up the intensity) is my ideal of Pure Cinema. It's theme of middle-aged burnout and grappling with mortality hits me a lot harder three decades later. Ditto how Kitano at the time looked to me like a cool old badass, and when I re-watch it now looks positively youthful.

Absolutely The Puppetmaster. (Wish it had a better U.S. title - I think the literal translation of its native title is actually "Dream Life" or "Also Like Life.") If I had a ballot for the Sight & Sound poll, it would 100% make it. I'm so glad it's been screened in NYC. I just wish it was possible for everyone to see it in good quality because the DVD is a piece of shit.

And yes, Matinee (my favorite Dante movie) and Egoyan's Calendar for that matter are sadly missing from this poll - they would both figure among my very favorites from this year.

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

Always found Groundhog Day overrated, so that result is fine by me.

Ah, Calendar WAS there. Pretty strong year, even what I guess would be my "second tier" picks have something great about them despite my reservations.

Personal ten favorites in descending order:

Hsimeng Rensheng ("Dream Life") [Hou Hsiao-hsien]
D'Est [Chantal Akerman]
Naked [Mike Leigh]
Calendar [Atom Egoyan]
Blue [Krzysztof Kieslowski]
The Age of Innocence [Martin Scorsese]
The Last Bolshevik [Chris Marker]
Matinee [Joe Dante]
Blue [Derek Jarman]
Sonatine [Takeshi Kitano]

Also special mention to It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles, essentially a two-part film where one part's a documentary on the aborted project and the other part is edited from the surviving rushes for one of the original film's three sections, “Four Men on a Raft."

Short Cuts gets worse for me. Altman imposes a sourness on the material that isn't there...Few things resonate (Tom Waits and Lily Tomlin absolutely do).

I still think it's a very good film, but sadly I kind of agree. It's frustrating because there are many things that seem great about it and I think Altman does a better job weaving all of these stories together than he did on his previous massive ensemble films, but on repeated viewing, after the intricate structure becomes very familiar, the film as a whole feels more and more uneven to me.

The way Jack Lemmon's imposed on the McDowell-Davison story about the kid in the coma is so ham-handed and cheap that it makes me question Altman's sanity so soon after The Player; or the way Chris Penn bludgeons one of those girls with a rock before the earthquake.

Yeah, not a favorite of mine. I know Altman was under no obligation to replicate Carver's tone, but he sure didn't. The hard edges without the empathy.