Go big or go home, that’s what 1993’s movie slate is about. Steven Spielberg doubled up his movie quota, meaning basically we get 2 all timers just from that. Martin Scorcese, Richard Linklater, Gilbert Grape, Krzysztof Kieszlowski, Tony Scott, orcas, Harold Ramis, and Sydney Pollack all stepped to the plate. You know who else stepped to the plate in 1993? Benny. The Jet. Rodgriguez. Peaking the 90s kids sports movie run.
A romantic comedy for adults, especially movie lovers. Nora Ephron modernizes (for the time, it’s VERY dated now) romcom cliches about magic and fate for the 90s, using a wonderful timeless soundtrack and amazing locales to turn this love story into a nonstop swoon fest. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan prove to be a formidable romcom couple, even though they barely are onscreen together.
Krzystzof Kieslowski’s opening film of the French trilogy is all about liberty. Juliette Binoche is excellent playing a woman who’s lost everything, but sees a chance to free herself from her past life. However, what liberty actually means changes for her, subtly and beautifully, as the story goes along.
The opposite of a Scorcesese movie, but masterful nonetheless. The costumes are great, the acting is wonderful, and the story is filled with want and desire, but understanding of the ways of the world. It’s an adult movie masquerading as a PG romance, slowly making you understand what is really happening, and making you all the richer for it.
Like any kid, I found myself wondering what my parents were like when they were my age. After I saw this Richard Linklater pseudobiography, I didn’t have to wonder anymore. Linklater captures the essence of teenagedom in a night that seems so fun but nothing really happens. Plus, his ability to write interesting characters and cast them means you’ll see Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey, and Parker Posey in their first roles.
The plight of working class life is affectionately portrayed in this empathetic drama. Johnny Depp plays Mr. Grape, a decent twentysomething burdened by being the caretaker for his entire family: poor mom’s sad and overweight, and his brother Arnie (a sensational young Leonardo DiCaprio) is mentally incapable of caring for himself. For a movie that could get maudlin, Peter Hedges’s script is quite restraint, which only makes your heart bleed more for these well meaning people.
I don’t know what this says about the long running TV show it’s based on, but this movie compresses it into an action packed thrill ride of an action movie about a wrongly convicted doctor (the everyman, Harrison Ford) chased by the US Marshals (Oscar winning Tommy Lee Jones) trying to prove his innocence.
Bill Murray was robbed of many awards playing Phil Connors, a narcissistic weatherman who’s forced to relive Groundhog Day over and over again in Punxsutawney, PA. Equally overlooked is Harold Ramis, who brilliantly mines comedy from the premise, and then starts pulling an unexpected amount of emotion from the story that had any right to be there.
As a 6 year old boy who moved to another city, one of the ways I made friends was playing sports outside during summer vacation from school. I WAS Scott Smalls. David Mickey Evans gem of a movie is nostalgic and ubiquitous at once. The Nostalgia pushes the smile on your face, and the screenplay keeps it there, with a shocking amount of great quotes for a kids movie. The Sandlot is a legend, and as we know, heroes get remembered, but legends never die.
And now you’ll see why this was the year of Steven Spielberg. This movie show’s what a technical master he is. Using CGI and animatronics seamlessly blended together, Spielberg makes you FEEL the wonder of a dinosaur. I remember the theater I was in when that water starts to vibrate in the Jeep, one of an intimidating amount of spectacularly thought out moments by a master of his craft.
At the time, people were incredulous that “the dinosaur and shark guy” was making a movie about the Holocaust. Those people got lost in the trees while Spielberg saw the forest. This movie is pure perfection: by the end, you know the horrors of the Holocaust, you are intrigued by the storytelling and complicated character development, and you feel exactly as Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) feels – heartbroken you didn’t do more – and Izhtak Stern feels – greatful someone gave a damn at all about saving Jews at a time that could get you executed. There’s no better one two punch in movie history that what Spielberg accomplished in 1993.
