My top ten films for each year of the 1990s. These are always up for revision as I watch more films, revisit ones I’ve seen before, and think about them over time. The films as listed in the “Best of Year” section are held fast at the end of the year (and include a listing of all films I saw that year as well as films released that year).

Oh, and I don’t really believe in top “ten” lists, despite using the common nomenclature for the title of this page. This is going to be the top several films of each year, down to whatever point I think the films stop being worthy of inclusion. Might be eight one year, might be twenty-three another.

1999

1. Run Lola Run
2. The Matrix
3. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
4. All About My Mother
5. Fight Club
6. American Beauty
7. Election
8. Galaxy Quest
9. Magnolia
10. Office Space
11. Toy Story 2
12. Being John Malkovich
13. Dogma
14. Three Kings
15. An Ideal Husband
16. 42 Up
17. Topsy Turvy
18. eXistenZ
19. Fantasia 2000
20. Go
21. Girl, Interrupted
22. The Iron Giant

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Eyes Wide Shut
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
The Limey
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Sweet and Lowdown

1998

1. The Truman Show
2. Shakespeare in Love
3. The Big Lebowski
4. Rushmore
5. Billy’s Balloon
6. American History X
7. The Spanish Prisoner
8. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
9. Dark City
10. Ronin
11. Saving Private Ryan
12. The Mask of Zorro
13. Pi

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
The Thin Red Line
Blade
The Celebration
Central Station
A Simple Plan

1997

1. L.A. Confidential
2. Jackie Brown
3. The Fifth Element
4. Titanic
5. Gattaca
6. Chasing Amy
7. Princess Mononoke
8. Boogie Nights
9. Good Will Hunting
10. Waiting for Guffman
11. Open Your Eyes

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Grosse Pointe Blank
The Sweet Hereafter
Happy Together
Cube
Contact

1996

1. Fargo
2. Trainspotting
3. Ghost in the Shell
4. The English Patient
5. Irma Vep
6. Freeway
7. Scream
8. William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
9. From Dusk Till Dawn

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
La Promesse
The Cable Guy
Breaking the Waves
The Frighteners
Bound

1995

1. Before Sunrise
2. Toy Story
3. Kicking and Screaming
4. The City of Lost Children
5. Braveheart
6. Clueless
7. Pride and Prejudice
8. GoldenEye
9. Desperado
10. Sense and Sensibility
11. The Usual Suspects
12. Se7en
13. The Flower of My Secret
14. Forgotten Silver

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Twelve Monkeys
Dead Man
Heat
La Haine
Fallen Angels

1994

1. Three Colors: Red
2. Chungking Express
3. Pulp Fiction
4. The Lion King
5. Little Women
6. Bullets Over Broadway
7. Four Weddings and a Funeral
8. Clerks
9. The Professional
10. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
11. Interview with the Vampire

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Ed Wood
Heavenly Creatures
Reality Bites
Shallow Grave
Satantango

1993

1. True Romance
2. Jurassic Park
3. The Nightmare Before Christmas
4. Schindler’s List
5. Much Ado About Nothing
6. Three Colors: Blue
7. The Remains of the Day
8. Groundhog Day
9. The Fugitive
10. Strictly Ballroom
11. The Piano
12. The Joy Luck Club

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Short Cuts
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Cronos
Benny & Joon
Wayne’s World 2

1992

1. Unforgiven
2. The Muppet Christmas Carol
3. Raise the Red Lantern
4. Howards End
5. Aladdin
6. Shadows and Fog
7. A League of Their Own
8. Bram Stoker’s Dracula
9. Patriot Games
10. Hard Boiled
11. 35 Up
12. Batman Returns
13. The Crying Game
14. Reservoir Dogs
15. The Player

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Army of Darkness
Chaplin
Porco Rosso
Husbands and Wives
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

1991

1. Beauty and the Beast
2. The Double Life of Veronique
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
4. Barton Fink
5. JFK
6. The Silence of the Lambs
7. Slacker

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Delicatessen
The Rocketeer
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
La belle noiseuse
Point Break

1990

1. Wild at Heart
2. GoodFellas
3. Edward Scissorhands
4. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
5. Miller’s Crossing
6. Cyrano de Bergerac
7. Troll 2
8. Metropolitan

TOP FIVE YET TO SEE
Total Recall
Misery
Jacob’s Ladder
Close-Up
The Match Factory Girl