The top of this list is what you’d expect: great directors paired with good scripts. What’s special about 1992 is that sports movies can be included, as Ron Shelton and Penny Marshall dropped into the genre and delivered movies definitely in the Hall of Fame of Sports Cinema. Oh yeah, Gordon Bombay also makes his first appearance this year too.
Gary Sinise directs himself in this faithful, powerful adaptation of John Steinbeck’s amazing novel. John Malkovich is excellent as the tall simple Lenny, and Sinise’s direction makes sure the emotional gut punch the novel can be works just as well for the movie too.
Fish out of water comedies don’t get much better than this one. There’s something inherently delightful watching New York Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei try to learn how to make grits, or say youths in Alabama defending a relative accused of murder.
This best picture winner for the year has aged like a fine wine (or in this case, moonshine). Clint Eastwood’s semi meta western is a wonderfully deep study of justice, violence, and who has the stones to do what is necessary in the Wild, Wild, West.
Disney doing what it does best. Using the classic tale of magic lamps, a powerful princess, dastardly villain, and great songs, this movie continues to charm people of all ages. Oh, and it arguably has the greatest character built for Disney animation: Robin Williams’s extraordinary genie.
Great title. Greater movie. Ron Shelton is probably my favorite sports movie creator, cause he clearly played most of these sports. This movie about street hoops in Los Angeles has the trash talkiest script that’s so poetically vulgar, David Mamet might even smile and blush. Plus Shelton struck gold with Wesley Snipes and shockingly Woody Harrelson, previously known as the bartender in Cheers.
Though brother Garry is well liked, I would argue Penny Marshall might be the better filmmaker. Take this movie about the women’s baseball league during World War II. The movie could become irritatingly preachy in a lesser filmmaker’s hands. But Marshall smartly builds the story around Geena Davis and Lori Petty’s sibling rivalry. Marshall also unleashes Tom Hanks who gets the movie’s best line about having feelings during a baseball game.
Quentin Tarantino’s first feature oozes style. Immediately, you know something special is going on: heist members chatting about Madonna, the slow motion walk, the out of order screenplay, violence as entertainment. All those things contribute to what is still just an effing great film about a heist gone bad.
Little known writer Aaron Sorkin become a hot commodity after penning this, one of the great courtroom dramas in movie history. Sorkin’s dialogue, paired with Rob Reiner’s direction, helps elevate the already great performances by the murder’s row cast, led by Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson.
Robert Altman clearly isn’t a fan of movie producers, yikes! After the opening tracking shot through a producer’s lot, you know you’re in for something that’s going to attempt to punch Hollywood in the face. On top of that, Altman layers on a thriller angle that gives the story propulsion until the deeply potent, cynical ending.
The runaway best movie of the year. Spike Lee’s tale of the complex, transcendent civil rights leader leaves no stone unturned. You’ll be exhausted, but in awe of the complete portrait of a great man here, led by a Denzel Washington performance that’s so good Ethan Hawke once said he should have gotten 10 Oscars for this performance.
