I was going through some old files and came across a list I made (a number of years ago) of my favorite 50 films of the 1990s. I’m afraid that, for me, the last decade has been slim pickins filmwise in comparison. The 90s were simply a great decade for film, with lots of brilliant new filmmakers appearing on the scene (as well as some old ones entering their renaissance periods), and oh yeah, it happened to coincide with my adolescence, so maybe I’m a little nostalgic. 
Anyway, here it is. Looking back, I might add or subtract a few to this list, but it’s a pretty good list. As you can see, I’m a bit obsessed with certain directors (e.g. the Coen brothers). Of course, times do change. I haven’t been a big fan of the Coens’ work in the 2000s, with the exception of The Man Who Wasn’t There. The same could be said (more or less) for David Mamet and Hal Hartley, two of my other favorites from the 90s. And as for Woody Allen’s interminable Soon-Yi period…the less said the better. So it goes.
My favorite 10 films of the 1990s:
- Barton Fink (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, written by David Mamet)
- Europa (Lars von Trier)
- Trust (Hal Hartley)
- Miller’s Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- The Big Lebowski (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- Homicide (David Mamet)
- Happiness (Todd Solondz)
- The Player (Robert Altman)
- Metropolitan (Whit Stillman)
The next 40 (in no particular order):
Underground (Emir Kusturica)
The Lovers on the Bridge (Leos Carax)
The Quiet Room (Rolf de Heer)
Truly Madly Deeply (Anthony Minghella)
Spanking the Monkey (David O. Russell)
Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro)
Crumb (Terry Zwigoff)
I Stand Alone (Gaspar Noe)
The Kingdom (Lars von Trier et al.)
Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh)
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (Errol Morris)
The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer)
The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel & Ethan Coen)
Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai)
A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi)
Simple Men (Hal Hartley)
Amateur (Hal Hartley)
The City of Lost Children (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro)
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
Flirting With Disaster (David O. Russell)
Barcelona (Whit Stillman)
Surviving Desire (Hal Hartley)
The Insider (Michael Mann)
Venice/Venice (Henry Jaglom)
Last Summer in the Hamptons (Henry Jaglom)
Fargo (Joel & Ethan Coen)
Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen)
Rushmore (Wes Anderson)
Dead Alive (Peter Jackson)
Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino)
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway)
The Rapture (Michael Tolkin)
Gray’s Anatomy (Steven Soderbergh)
The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg)
Drowning by Numbers (Peter Greenaway)
Institute Benjamenta (Brothers Quay)
The Game (David Fincher)
Three Lives and Only One Death (Raoul Ruiz)
Buffalo ’66 (Vincent Gallo)
