1993: Tombstone (I'd say Schindler's List, because it is a great movie AND a favorite, but really, it's Tombstone for this year. It has great relationships, great fight scenes, great performances, one of the best death scenes on film, and my favorite last line of ANY movie EVER: "Tom Mix wept.")
Honorable Mentions: Schindler's List, Groundhog Day (I still occasionally yell "Don't drive angry!"), Hard Target (for when you need your bad guys slashy), Jurassic Park, Much Ado About Nothing (one of my favorite Shakespeare screen adaptations ever.), So I Married an Axe Murderer
1994: The Ref (It's a hilarious movie, one obviously meant to showcase Denis Leary in particular, but it's totally driven by all the performances--and ultimately, the heart behind it. And everything else aside, totally worth it to hear Glynis Johns say, "You don't have the balls.")
Honorable Mentions: Backbeat (I somehow missed The Hours and the Times from the previous list, as it is Ian Hart's OTHER John Lennon portrayal, that one about JL's OTHER formative relationship with a man, in that case Beatles' manager Brian Epstein. I always do a double-bill of these two movies, when I get the hankering to watch one.), Corrina, Corrina, Priest, The Shawshank Redemption (Because always.).
1995: The Usual Suspects (Still a brilliantly constructed movie. And feeds into my love of an unreliable narrator.) OR While You Were Sleeping (Okay, these two movies couldn't possibly be LESS alike, but WYWS is one of those movies I will pull out when I'm home sick--when I'm not up for a horror movie, which is my go-to for sick days.)
Honorable Mentions: The Celluloid Closet, Jeffrey (Possibly first main stream movie where the two male leads kissed each other and they didn't look like they immediately jumped apart and spit after each take.), Persuasion (Jane Austen repress-o-rama, and I love it), Sense and Sensibility, Seven (never open the box), 12 Monkeys
Not Mentioned, Except Here: Dracula: Dead and Loving It would probably have escaped my memory forever, except that it was heavily advertised on cable/satellite TV at the time, and there was one particular exchange that I could not hear without giggling, no matter how many times they showed it or how DUMB it was:
Harker (played with very, very broad shock by Stephen Weber): "He's a vampire?!"
Van Helsing (played with deep portentousness by Mel Brooks): "He is...Nosferatu."
Harker (same broad shock): "He's Italian?!"
I. Giggled. Every. Damn. Time.
1996: Different for Girls (I wish more people had a chance to see this, because it's a very sweet, sincere story about a bit of a man-child who reconnects with the boy he befriended in school--who is now a woman. Not-quite-as-baby Rupert Graves as Paul and Steven Mackintosh as Kim, previously known as Karl. Paul is immature, but he tackles the news about Kim by FINDING ALL THE BOOKS he could about being transgender and reading as much as he could, which frankly won me to the movie right then and there.)
Honorable Mentions: The Frighteners (HIGHLY underrated as a horror comedy), The Truth About Cats and Dogs
1997: Regeneration
Honorable Mentions: Mrs. Brown
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Honorable Mentions: Schindler's List, Groundhog Day (I still occasionally yell "Don't drive angry!"), Hard Target (for when you need your bad guys slashy), Jurassic Park, Much Ado About Nothing (one of my favorite Shakespeare screen adaptations ever.), So I Married an Axe Murderer
1994: The Ref (It's a hilarious movie, one obviously meant to showcase Denis Leary in particular, but it's totally driven by all the performances--and ultimately, the heart behind it. And everything else aside, totally worth it to hear Glynis Johns say, "You don't have the balls.")
Honorable Mentions: Backbeat (I somehow missed The Hours and the Times from the previous list, as it is Ian Hart's OTHER John Lennon portrayal, that one about JL's OTHER formative relationship with a man, in that case Beatles' manager Brian Epstein. I always do a double-bill of these two movies, when I get the hankering to watch one.), Corrina, Corrina, Priest, The Shawshank Redemption (Because always.).
1995: The Usual Suspects (Still a brilliantly constructed movie. And feeds into my love of an unreliable narrator.) OR While You Were Sleeping (Okay, these two movies couldn't possibly be LESS alike, but WYWS is one of those movies I will pull out when I'm home sick--when I'm not up for a horror movie, which is my go-to for sick days.)
Honorable Mentions: The Celluloid Closet, Jeffrey (Possibly first main stream movie where the two male leads kissed each other and they didn't look like they immediately jumped apart and spit after each take.), Persuasion (Jane Austen repress-o-rama, and I love it), Sense and Sensibility, Seven (never open the box), 12 Monkeys
Not Mentioned, Except Here: Dracula: Dead and Loving It would probably have escaped my memory forever, except that it was heavily advertised on cable/satellite TV at the time, and there was one particular exchange that I could not hear without giggling, no matter how many times they showed it or how DUMB it was:
Harker (played with very, very broad shock by Stephen Weber): "He's a vampire?!"
Van Helsing (played with deep portentousness by Mel Brooks): "He is...Nosferatu."
Harker (same broad shock): "He's Italian?!"
I. Giggled. Every. Damn. Time.
1996: Different for Girls (I wish more people had a chance to see this, because it's a very sweet, sincere story about a bit of a man-child who reconnects with the boy he befriended in school--who is now a woman. Not-quite-as-baby Rupert Graves as Paul and Steven Mackintosh as Kim, previously known as Karl. Paul is immature, but he tackles the news about Kim by FINDING ALL THE BOOKS he could about being transgender and reading as much as he could, which frankly won me to the movie right then and there.)
Honorable Mentions: The Frighteners (HIGHLY underrated as a horror comedy), The Truth About Cats and Dogs
1997: Regeneration
Honorable Mentions: Mrs. Brown
