And so we approach the end of one of the best 3 year runs in movie history. 1995 brought Heat, and brought the heat when it comes to quality films: 3 all time comedies, 2 all time plot twists, a first all time computer animated film, and an all time romance.
Adam Sandler gets down to basics. You don’t always need a witty word sleuth and deep knowing screenplays to get a laugh. Sometimes you just need Chris Farley frolicking with an imaginary penguin, or the classic poop on people’s doorstep routine. You know Sandler’s someone special when he can make someone who pissed his pants look like a hero and a moron that you laugh and love at the same time.
Richard Dreyfus is terrific in this love letter to teaching. By the end of this movie, we see the eternity of a life: a man who had one dream, life changes those dreams, and his dreams change with it as he evolves as a human being: a story we can all relate to.
Mel Gibson’s epic tale about the Scottish hero, William Wallace. This movie just feels larger than life when you’re watching it, with beautiful shots of the highlands, gigantic engaging battle sequences, and complex, well drawn characters to root for and against. I’d say it’s Shakespearean in it’s scope, but that’ll probably get me a death sentence from Wallace himself.
Like I was gonna put it somewhere else on the list. David Fincher’s first film was Alien 3, but this one made him a hot commodity. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are excellent playing detectives trying to find a serial killer who uses the 7 deadly sins as his calling card. It’s disturbing, but also riveting as hell.
One of the movies that will forever be remembered as the day animation changed forever. But the 2nd word in the title is “story” for a reason I think. Using the great premise of toys that come to life when people aren’t around, this movie uses the moment a hot new toy replaces the old favorite toy to create a buddy comedy and adventure movie that’s as fun to watch as it is to look at. Pixar wouldn’t be the powerhouse it is today if it didn’t nail this first classic.
What a better reimagining of Jane Austen’s Emma than a vacuous Southern California high school? Amy Heckerling’s screenplay uses all the great parts of Austen’s novel but also modernizes it with really clever choices, like having a potential love interest be gay. Despite all the vanity, Cher, our hero, has a good heart and adept mind, making the seemingly vapid leading lady a shockingly deep well of thought and delightful introspection.
A complicated, quasi heartwarming tale about someone so awful the state is going to execute him. In a career of amazing performances, Susan Saradon gives her best one here, as modern nun Sister Helen Prejean, assigned to be a spiritual guide to Sean Penn’s rapist/murderer in the last few weeks of his life. While most of the goal of the movie is to get Penn to confess to his crimes, the power of Dead Man Walking comes from Sarandon’s religious journey as she navigates the depths of human behavior to find any sort of humanity underneath it. It’s emotionally plentiful and rich, but never melodramatic, asking all the important questions but never spoon feeding answers to the audience.
Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay. Holy sh*t! Kevin Spacey is spectacular as the lone survivor of a failed drug heist on a boat being investigated by the cops. And from there, we get this twisty, eerie thriller/noir that fills us more and more with dread everytime we hear the name Keyser Soze. All leading up to one of the all-time endings that pins you to your seat, mind racing, wondering what the hell just happened.
Ron Howard’s best movie. The great director takes the known, fateful flight of Apollo 13, and makes it a tense thrill ride the minute Tom Hanks says “Houston, we have a problem.” Hanks, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, and Ed Harris are all excellent showing the triumph and power of science and the human spirit to solve a problem and simply return everyone home.
Remember those moments where you forged a connection with someone? Like something more than surface deep? Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy remind you what that looks like in this Richard Linklater masterpiece. After disembarking in Vienna, the pair wander the European streets and talk about nothing and something, but clearly it means everything to both of them, even though they only have one day to realize it. Linklater makes his story as timeless and beautiful as the city it takes place in.
