In 1996 I was firmly entrenched in my freshman year of high school. A lot of my free time was being spent watching movies, and it was starting to become pretty clear to me that the same wasn’t the case for most of my classmates. Poll a room full of people about movies. Invariably nine out of ten people will tell you how much they LOVE movies, “I just LOVE movies”. But when you’re fifteen years old and you foolishly start questioning them further about what they’ve seen and you get nothing but blank stares and derisive comments after name droppings of countless cinema classics, foreign gems, and obscure indie delights, it starts to become clear to you that what people really love is going on dates. The typical teenager munching popcorn and making out in the local multiplex doesn’t have much to do at all with you scouring the local video stores for the most interesting things you can find to watch alone in your parent’s basement. You liked The Nutty Professor? WHAT?! I thought you LOVED movies! I was turning into a very angry and arrogant young man. Oy vey. Thank God I’ve learned to mellow out over the years. I mean… I have, right? With no further adieu, here are the top ten best movies I’ve seen from 1996 so far.
10-The Cable Guy ***
When Ben Stiller followed up his first feature as a director, Reality Bites, with this one, critics were pissed. Reality Bites was the Generation X manifesto. It was young, hip, had a breakthrough soundtrack, and tried to get to the heart of its characters. It was the Garden State of the 90s. The Cable Guy was shallow, farcical, and didn’t look for anything other than laughs. What people seemed to fail to realize is that pandering for laughs is a perfectly fine goal for a film to have as long as it’s actually funny. And The Cable Guy is funny. I’m not much of a Jim Carrey fan, but this is by far his best role. Finally his manic, out there energy is being harnessed to annoy rather than delight in this one. I can actively dislike him, and it actually works for the film! This is the Jim Carrey vehicle I’ve been looking for. And Mathew Broderick is the perfect put-upon straight man to endure Carrey’s overbearing antics. Only Charles Grodin in his prime could have done better! Top this solid base off with a lot of good supporting turns, including Andy Dick and Janeane Garofolo as Medieval Times employees, and you have at least a decent comedy on your hands. Let go of your hate.
9-The Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy ***
I think that may people view Brain Candy as a forgotten disappointment. Forgotten I can understand, as The Kids are, INARGUABLY, the greatest comedy troupe of all time, and Brain Candy isn’t a film that I find is often referred to or quoted in casual conversation. Disappointment, I completely disagree with, as I find the film to be consistently hysterical, and something that I quote and revisit with some regularity. Sure, as a film it doesn’t accomplish anything more than being a lengthened episode of the TV show, but what else did people want here? I went into my first viewing looking to gobble up more Kids, and that’s exactly what I got here. Sure, none of the classic, reoccurring characters from the show make appearances here, and that may have been what disappointed some fans, but I argue that that’s what would have been pandering and disappointing. Brain Candy breaks new comedic ground rather than mining the past for nostalgia dollars, and for that, and the fact that it’s just plain funny, I will always defend it.
8-Sydney (Hard Eight) ***
I didn’t discover Sydney until Boogie Nights absolutely blew me away a year later. Honestly, I haven’t watched it again since that first viewing in ’97 and I don’t have the strongest memory of this one’s details, but I can still remember my impressions of it at the time. I didn’t find that the script had the life and entertainment value of Boogie Nights, but I could see the visual style was there from the beginning, and it was clear that the film was full of great performances. You’ve got solid turns from Samuel L Jackson, John C Reilly, and Gwyneth Paltrow, all just before their careers hit their strides and they became some of the most sought after actors in Hollywood. You’ve got a ridiculously memorable cameo from Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who was pretty much completely obscure at the time. But most importantly, you have a real acting showcase for Philip Baker Hall, a seriously underappreciated and underutilized actor who absolutely kills it here and proves that he can shoulder the weight of a starring role no problem. I feel like every film PT Anderson has put out has been better than the last, and with There Will Be Blood he took a spot in my eyes as one of the greatest living directors, period. I think, then, that it’s well overdue that I give this one another look, with more mature eyes, and see how it’s aged. Maybe it’s a lot better than I thought it was when I was a mere fifteen years of age and it needs to get bumped up a few spots on this list. Added to my Netflix queue as we speak.
7-Beautiful Girls ****
I don’t have any memory of how I came about watching Beautiful Girls for the first time. I certainly didn’t seek it out. The advertisements portrayed it as some sort of femi-nazi Rosie O’Donnell snark fest. Let me assure you, I hate Rosie O’Donnell. What Beautiful Girls is, actually, is a quiet little charming movie in the lost city-boy coming back home to a small town genre. Timothy Hutton is the lead and is quite likable in the role. His roster of old buddies is filled out by a bullpen of delightful character actors. Rosie O’Donnell has a very small role and is mostly portrayed as a pain in the ass. And that little girl, Natalie Portman, who impressed me so much in The Professional and Heat shows up again here, and hot damn is she getting cute! The film doesn’t shoot for much, telling a small story about normal people, but every note it shoots for it hits pitch perfect. It’s funny in places, dramatic in places, and revisiting it feels like catching up with old friends every time. Uma Thurman has never came as close to looking as radiant as she does in this film again and Michael Rapaport is awesome, awesome, awesome in a supporting role. I could have watched an entire movie of him just being a goon. If you’ve never seen it, give this one a chance.
6-Waiting For Guffman ****
This is Spinal Tap is viewed as an absolute modern classic and is loved by pretty much everyone you’ve ever talked to. For me, not so much. It’s alright, I guess. It’s certainly not bad. But for me the laughs never hit as hard as they did for other people, and I always found myself just a little bit bored whenever it got pulled out in a room full of people. When Christopher Guest took the directorial reins and led the talents behind Spinal Tap to make this one, however, I was completely on board. Guffman hit me like a comedy freight train with its subtlety, wit, mock-heroic style, awesome performances, mining of laughs through characterization rather than gags, and completely sold me on the potential of mockumentaries. Every actor in this is hilarious. It would be stupid to start naming off the performances that I enjoyed, because everybody was completely perfect from top to bottom. The writing credit went to Guest and Eugene Levy, but it’s hard to tell how much was actually written down and how much developed over the course of the filming. It doesn’t matter in the end, because however they were created all of the characters in this one are fully realized and fully utilized for their comedic potential. And despite all of the hilarity, the story actually manages to be a little bit heart breaking. Great film.
5-Sling Blade ****
I didn’t know who Billy Bob Thornton was when I first saw Sling Blade, but after watching it I knew I had to find out. These days he’s developed a pretty strong persona, but back in the 90s he disappeared pretty completely into the roles he was playing, and it took me a while to realize that I had seen him in a lot of stuff. Sling Blade is not only an amazing showcase for Thornton’s acting talent, but was also a complete revelation as to what he had to offer as a director. Sling Blade is a beautiful, well put together film featuring several masterful performances, and the fact that Thornton hasn’t stepped behind the camera to make much of anything else since this one is astonishing to me. In addition to Thornton, Dwight Yoakam and John Ritter are both also completely awesome in this one; with Yoakam especially completely enveloping himself in a despicable character. The photography is beautiful; the child acting is a lot better than average. Everything just came together here to create a really great film. Thornton has a writing credit on Sam Raimi’s 2000 film The Gift, which I also enjoyed, and the most recent thing he’s directed was a film called Daddy and Them from 2001 that I haven’t seen. I promise to give that one a whirl if Thornton will get back behind the typewriter and start writing some more films as good as Sling Blade.
4-Swingers ****
Swingers was definitely one of the seminal films of my teenage years. The characters were so slick, so cool. I wanted to talk like them, dress like them; I wanted to have their lives. Vince Vaughn was my new fast talking cinematic God. Jon Favreau was a great straight man, and I knew he was the one who wrote the script, giving him extra brownie points. I was completely taken in by the story of how they filmed this one guerrilla style with no permits and a shoestring budget. Everything about it was so damn romantic. I still quote the dialogue in this one to this day, but back in the day so much of what I said was probably comprised of lines from this film that I’m sure I must have been a real chore to be around. Over the years the indie movement novelty of this one has certainly worn off, but what’s left is still a ridiculously enjoyable film, and a great launching point for a lot of big careers in Hollywood. Swingers was influential and often imitated, but I still haven’t seen someone recreate the level of entertainment that this one was able to get from a simple story about guys sitting around, goofing off, and talking about relationships. I haven’t liked anything that Doug Liman has directed since this, but at least he’ll always be a footnote in the story of Favreau’s career.
3-Bottle Rocket ****
Anybody who knows me is probably pretty familiar with my love of Wes Anderson’s films. Bottle Rocket, a ridiculously small budget debut, doesn’t point to any of the intricate design work or aesthetic trademarks that become evident in his later films; but his dry wit, strong sense of character, and storytelling abilities are all on full display. Bottle Rocket creates characters that you truly care about, it’s consistently hilarious, and it becomes a richer, more enjoyable experience the more times you watch it. That a bunch of nobodies got James Caan to be in this is hilarious, and Anderson uses his history and star power to full effect, creating an awesome parody of a screen caper villain. The Wilson brothers handle the lead roles, Owen being the wacky eccentric, and Luke being the soulful everyman, and both are so good that they went from being complete unknowns to launching HUGE careers sticking to the framework of what they did in this one, very little, film. Anderson got the time and resources to perfect who he is as a filmmaker the next time out with Rushmore, but Bottle Rocket serves as a huge preview to what level of talent he is, and stands on its own as a great piece of filmmaking.
2-Trainspotting ****
Danny Boyle exploded onto the Hollywood scene, instantly becoming a filmmaking rock star once Trainspotting got US distribution and started making the rounds among enthusiasts. There are few films ever made that feel as hip, edgy, and ballsy as this tale of heroin addicted, Scottish youths. Ewan McGregor’s performance as the film’s lead is as strong as any you will find anywhere. The supporting cast all do great work, and their characters are memorable. There is so much style and experimentation here visually that it’s hard to put into words, and it all works. The soundtrack is awesome, and really sets a mood. The script is heartfelt and dramatic at times, but still insanely, insanely entertaining. When I think of the 90s, one of the first things that comes to mind is Trainspotting. I see it as part of the essential DNA of what made up that decade, at least for me. And even though it’s very much of its time and place, it still holds up as a strong bit of enduring filmmaking every time I re-watch it. Boyle has made some things I’ve liked and some things I’ve disliked since, but he’s never gotten back to this level. Trainspotting is his masterpiece.
1-Fargo *****
