Andrew's Best of the 1990s

1. Lessons of Darkness (1992)
   A fusion of documentary and science-fiction from Werner Herzog. Following the first Gulf War, Herzog went to Kuwait to shoot footage of the oil fires that had turned the region into an apocalyptic inferno. Lessons of Darkness frames the footage as though it is from the perspective of an alien visitor to Earth. The metaphor of being an alien presence in the Middle East obviously has a lot of political resonances, and the film provides a powerful, moving, and utterly unique view of the crises there. It features some of Herzog’s most extraordinary landscape photography and trumps his own Fata Morgana (1971) as a vision of colonial madness in the desert.
   
   
2. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
   Seeing this fresh, before Tarantino became Tarantino, was one of the most exhilarating experiences of the nineties for me. It's a lean, taut and focused film, featuring none of the bloated self-indulgence of Tarantino's later work.
   
   
3. The Player (1992)
   I love thrillers with an off-key quality to them, where mood and texture play as much of a role as plot. Altman was a master of this; and, in representing Griffin Mill's growing paranoia, The Player has this quality in spades. The ending is especially good, simultaneously upbeat and downbeat, sentimental and cynical, a Hollywood ending that's as unHollywood as they come.
   
   
4. The Strategy of the Snail (1993)
   This Colombian film is a delightful satire about poverty and solidarity. A group of neighbors are forced to pull together and use all of their wiles to save the house that they live in but do not legally own. It's a genuine crowd-pleaser and a potent political allegory with an absurdist touch.
   
   
5. Three Colors: Red (1994)
   In selecting Three Colors: Red, I'm really implying all three films of the trilogy. Krzysztof Kieslowski was the auteur director of the nineties and left us way too soon. This tale of fate, fraternity and responsibility was his crowning achievement and is a near flawless film. What a way to end a career!
   
   
6. Before Sunrise (1995)
   I was roughly the same age as the characters when this first came out, and it spoke to me. Before Sunset (2004), however, has changed my relationship to Before Sunrise, contextualizing it as a film about being in love in your early twenties. This context gives new layers of meaning and specificity to the characters’ yearnings, musings, and fumblings – presenting romance not as something “eternal”, but rather as something determined in large part by age. If another film appears in a few years, it will become the 7-Up series of Generation X relationships.
   
   
7. Lost Book Found (1996)
   Jem Cohen's meditation on New York and Walter Benjamin is a masterwork of experimental filmmaking and a fascinating updating of the "city symphony" tradition. It's impossibly hard to find – I've only seen it as part of a film class – but it seems likely that someone involved in American Beauty saw it: the plastic bag motif is lifted whole cloth from Lost Book Found.
   
   
8. Boogie Nights (1997)
   Boogie Nights is a film of such wisdom, confidence and cinematic flamboyance that it still boggles my mind that Paul Thomas Anderson was only 27 when he made it. I can’t think of another ensemble film where all of the characters are so richly written and performed. I love the film’s use of fluid long takes (perhaps emulating/mocking the use of static long takes in adult films). And I love how the sad, broken-down-carousel music score offsets the peppy disco tunes to reveal the heartbreak and anguish behind the freewheeling decadence. More than any other film, it captures my own memories of the feel of the late-1970s and early-1980s.
   
   
9. Jesus’ Son (1999)
   Sam will disagree with me, but I like this film much more than the book on which it was based. The book is great, but what I love most about the film is the wonderfully existential mood of Alison Maclean’s direction, and the terrific performances by all of the cast. Billy Crudup, as Fuckhead, has never been better; and Jack Black, Samantha Morton, Denis Leary and Holly Hunter are all at the tops of their games. Along with Boogie Nights, it’s another insightful look back on the 1970s.
   
   
10. Three Kings (1999)
    David O. Russell’s Gulf War action-satire is in the best tradition of 1970s Hollywood filmmaking: it’s complex, challenging, exciting, absurd, angry, funny, cynical, tragic, and bold. I can’t think of another Hollywood movie that has tackled the United States' involvement in the Middle East as well; the first ninety seconds of Three Kings alone covers more ground than the whole of Jarhead. It also has some of the most strikingly innovative cinematography I’ve ever seen.