New voices and pushing the limits dominate 1991. Some great African-American filmmakers burst onto the scene this year, women dominated most of the best movies of the year. Like, kicked dude’s asses. And the computer special effects revolution begins in earnest this year with an all time classic.
Welcome to the morally confusing drug wars of New York City. Mario Van Peebles directs this stylish cops and robbers movie where sometimes it’s unclear which is which. Stringer Bell from the Wire must have been inspired by Wesley Snipes’s Nino Brown: all charisma and capitalism rolled into a dynamic package. While the beats are familiar to a crime thriller, the African American driven story makes the movie still electrify today.
The ending isn’t great, but the rest of the movie more than makes up for it. A man and woman wrote this movie, but I’m fairly certain Jenny Wingfield’s section of this script is what I love most, expertly crafting a love triangle, complex sister relationship, and coming of age story into one movie, while introducing the world to an actress named Reese Witherspoon.
In another great coming of age story, Anna Chlumsky plays Vada, an 11 year old girl raised by a single dad (Dan Aykroyd) running a mortuary/funeral home. Also clearly written by a woman, we see the world through Vada’s eyes as she grows from childhood into womanhood: seeing dad date a new lady (Jamie Lee Curtis), and learning to see men differently, like her teacher and her best friend, Thomas J (Macaulay Culkin). I’m pretty sure this movie also traumatized every child who didn’t know what heartbreak was.
And now we’re in animated France. The Lion King is the better film, but this one got an Oscar Nomination for Best PICTURE, a rare recognition for the animated genre. And it’s easy to see why: the story is a tale as old as time, it’s got a great female lead, magical interesting side characters, catchy songs, and it’s just gorgeous to look at.
Now onto the beaches and banks of LA. No movie should get away with a surfer waxing poetic about his philosophy, but most movies don’t have that surfer be Patrick Swayze: of course Keanu Reeves can’t help but be lured into his point of view. Point Break’s over the top. It’s exciting. It’s insane. And which machismo action director pulled that off? Why, Kathryn Bigelow of course!
Keanu Reeves’s Johnny Utah might have been chasing Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon through the deserts of the West. While there’s plenty of action to keep you watching, the movie is also a lovely study of women breaking free from the oppressive force of the patriarchy, doing what they want, when they want, and loving it.
I’m really hopping around: now we’re in China. Zhang Yimou made himself an international sensation, deservedly so, with this hit. All the things that make Zhang great are in evidence: luscious shots infused with color differences, big, epic shots that drive home the importance of the story, and universal concepts of power, betrayal, and consequences with a well constructed story. There’s also a ghostly ephemeral dread that hangs over the suffocating homes of each of the 4 mistresses as they fight to please their master.
And now we travel to the twisted depths of the psychotic minds. In this case, at least 2 legendary movie serial killers…in 1 movie. Ted Levine’s Buffalo Bill is a tragic but evil mix of someone completely uncomfortable in his own skin…so he needs other’s. And Anthony Hopkins became a screen legend as Hannibal Lecter, the scarily brilliant psychiatrist who happens to also be a cannibal. Like poor Jodie Foster, we can’t help but grow more and more horrified at how deep the wells of psychological evil people can go to.
James Cameron’s Terminator was one of the great action films of the 80s. His sequel is one the best action films of all time. Cameron takes his original premise – cyborg assassins from the future try to kill the savior of the human race – and expands upon it. The story has some great twists (don’t watch the trailer actually, it gives one away) and ideas it explores. Plus, Ellen Ripley finds her successor with the ripped Linda Hamilton, as terrifying and determined as her cyborg pursuers.
And we’re back in the streets of Los Angeles, in sadly dystopic endless present day. John Singleton’s debut is a force of nature, showing the day to day lives of black families. Through the eyes of Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and several other exceptional black characters, we live the black experience in the United States: there’s backyard parties, haircuts, pursuit of ladies…but there’s also the daily threat of drive by violence, with cops only making the problem worse. This movie emotionally opens your eyes and shakes you into the hard reality of the African American experience that 30 years on has lost none of its power.
