10- JFK (1991)
Oliver Stone is one of the unsung greats, judging his seminal work in the 1980s (‘Platoon’, ‘Salvador’ and ‘Born On The Fourth Of July’), people seems to have forgotten that because of the mostly subpar films that he has made recently. But while the actual credibility of his adaptation of Jim Garrison’s controversial conspiracy theory behind the assassination of John F Kennedy is debatable, what is undeniable is that this was his last great film. With a running time of more than 3 hours and crammed with sensational information, endless twists and turns and firecracker dialogue, ‘JFK’ also brought to swirling life the tumultuous times of the shocking event. Robert Richardson’s thrilling, multi-layered cinematography and Pietro Scalia and Joe Hushing’s ruthless editing combine to blend reel and real life with flawless immediacy while the cast (Kevin Costner as Garrison, Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald and Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Bertrand) delivers throbbing emotional punch to the enthralling investigation.
9- Starship Troopers (1997)
Without Paul Verhoeven to make our Hollywood action and sex romps, everything feels so dull these days. Sure, the Dutch maverick has moved on to making high-calibre yet endlessly enthralling works like ‘Black Book’ and the recent ‘Elle’. However, ‘Starship Troopers’, like his equally rollicking and tongue-in-cheek ‘Robocop’, is one of those deliciously smartass films that laughs at the ridiculous ideas at its heart but also remembers to have a good time. In a perfectly advanced future, one which seems to be ruled by a dictatorship that loves a fair bit of bombast, Earth is attacked by aliens- who turn out to be giant arachnids who are also ravenously hungry. Playfully spoofing ‘Independence Day’, Verhoeven presents us, deliberately, a tale of age-old clichés- blonde boys and babes (including Denise Richards) fighting off entire armies of these creepy crawlies in battles that explode with over-the-top gore. As if that was not thrilling enough, watch out for those brutally effective Nazi in-jokes that escalate this from self-depreciation to brilliant satire.
8- The Usual Suspects (1995)
Before Bryan Singer disappeared into a surge of endless sequels and prequels to ‘X-Men’, he was a young filmmaker who was making his sensational breakthrough in a decade that was full of them. ‘The Usual Suspects’ is the very antithesis to the usually overblown but pompous superhero yarn that Singer serves us; it is gritty, markedly unglamorous and is the tale of a bunch of believably weary thugs who find themselves ensnared in a deadly game played by a super-villain named Keyser Soze. By the way, the film is all about an interrogation with the sole survivor of a deal gone wrong: Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint (played with timid, almost autistic credibility by Kevin Spacey). That’s it. Saying anything else will ruin the fun of watching this tight and terrifically acted yarn unravel in its own beauty. Christopher McQuarrie’s script, while enlivening, loses a bit of suspense on repeated viewings. But it is a delightfully nasty brainteaser leaving you frustrated yet smiling.
7- Casino (1995)
Everyone remembers ‘Goodfellas’ from the 1990s as the new creative peak reached by Martin Scorsese after a mostly inconsistent, though still exciting 1980s. But due to unreasonable comparisons, everyone nearly forgets the ferociously furious cinematic power of his epic-size follow-up to that undisputed gangster classic. Pairing again with actors Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci and co-writer Nicholas Pileggi, Scorsese rolled out his coldest and most magnificently ruthless film ever, a grand, gritty and gruesome tale of naked ambition and unabashed lust exploding in the glittering lights of Las Vegas. As smooth Ace Rothstein (De Niro), hot-headed Nicky Santoro (Pesci) and the unstable and devious Ginger (a stunning Sharon Stone) try to make their own killing from illegitimate wealth in a city owned by casinos and criminals, corpses are found at every corner, relationships are tested and an empire comes falling by the devastation of greed. With eye-gouging visuals, incredible violence and a spectacular soundtrack, ‘Casino’ is a feast painted gloriously in blood.
6- In The Name Of The Father (1993)
All those who thought that the incredible Daniel Day-Lewis is only great in meaty, villainous roles need to watch Jim Sheridan's suitably gritty account of Gerry and Giuseppe Conlon's wrongful imprisonment and trial during the turbulent days of the IRA in the 1970s. Playing an impulsive, cocky and even slippery and scared Gerry, Day-Lewis proves quite why everyone calls him such an undisputed acting legend in the league of Brando and De Niro. His performance is alternately tender, boisterous and believably confused; yet, as his character evolves from a spoilt brat to a caring son and determined crusader, he also digs out a soul of tortured pain and vengeful fury. Other than that virtuoso act, Sheridan's film does feel a bit basic and its politics could have been more astute. Nevertheless, the raw emotional power and bruising intimacy of the tale delivers a solid punch. Also, watch out for Pete Postlethwaite as the silently seething Giuseppe Conlon providing the foil as the father.
5- Boogie Nights (1997)
Most cinephiles will cry out loud for 'Pulp Fiction' as being the ultimate audio-visual experience of the decade but they are all missing out on the sheer, deliriously anarchic cinematic fun that Paul Thomas Anderson brought in his breakout hit, a sizzling and suitably sleazy look at the porn industry of 1970s California and a wonderfully warm tale of family and friendship wrapped up together as one swinging party of laughter, chaos and unexpected emotional heft. Mark Wahlberg is sensational here as Dirk Diggler, a youngster chosen as a star of porn films meticulously filmed by producer Jack Horner (a terrific Burt Reynolds) and the film follows him and his incredibly large member on a bouncy tale along splendid ensemble cast:from reigning star-cum-divorced mother Amber Waves (Julianne Moore) to the disillusioned writer Little Bill (William H. Macy), here are people whom we feel for. Meanwhile, Anderson delivers a frolicsome style of visual storytelling, bolstered by Robert Elswit's gorgeously glossy cinematography and those smashing tunes.
4- Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Our science fiction and fantasy films feel either as serious as science lectures or as ridiculous as Ed Wood films. Terry Gilliam was one of those few gifted people who could tell tales with stunning imagination and shattering resonance. Adapting Chris Marker's seminal 'La Jettee' was a tall order; what is astounding is that Gilliam paired his twisted, darkly comic fantasy streak with a poignant and profoundly nuanced narrative by David and Janet Peoples. Bruce Willis proved that he was more than just a muscled hero; his tortured time traveler James Cole, investigating in vain the cause of a deadly viral outbreak, is him at his finest hour, as is relative newbie Brad Pitt playing loony Jeffrey Goines who may or may not be responsible for the same. Roger Pratt's hypnotic low-angle cinematography bring life to the director's typically bizarre style but rooting it all on solid, convincing ground is the beautiful Madeleine Stowe, playing a psychiatrist who soon questions the very existence of reason.
3- Trainspotting (1996)
Forget 'Slumdog Millionaire'; if you want to watch a film in which British director Danny Boyle went truly ballsy and bold, try this mid-90s watershed moment of British, and even youth, filmmaking. Brilliantly and breathtakingly adapting Irvine Welsh' sordid saga of slackers soaked in the drug addiction scene of a changing Edinburgh, Boyle's turbo-charged meshes a cock-eyed glimpse at the city's filthy underbelly (that toilet scene will leave you reeling) along with a fiercely heartfelt portrait of the misguided young men at its crux, not least of Renton (a superb Ewan McGregor) who transforms from a hapless addict to a man determined to change. At a breathless and breakneck running time of 90 minutes, 'Trainspotting' does not even pause for a moment, charging at us with the heady and sinful thrill of an acid trip. It barrels us tirelessly with more blistering comedy, raw violence and crackling satire than any average movie can never match with all its effort.
2- The Big Lebowski (1998)
It is rare to find one film by the Coen Brothers that all of us can laugh over. Their more sobering work ('Fargo', 'No Country For Old Men' and 'Inside Llewyn Davis') sits oddly against their full-fledged farces ('O Brother Where Art Thou?' and 'Barton Fink') and while they all are darkly comic in their ways, some of it does not always hold up well. But there are no arguments for 'The Big Lebowski'. The plot is pure, off-the-wall lunacy as Kahlua-swilling bum Jeffrey 'Dude' Lebowski (an endearingly tender Jeff Bridges) is tugged into a mind-boggling puzzle of an abduction that has Macguffins as bewildering as a severed toe and a bunch of nihilists who also moonlight as porn actors. Along the way, the director-writer duo take us along to a fabled and highly fantasised Los Angeles, shot in spaced-out and sleazy spirit by English lensman Roger Deakins and crammed with the kind of deliciously charming weirdos that only they can imagine. Also, look out for John Goodman's hot-headed rightwing Vietnam-vet Walter Sobchak.
1- Magnolia (1999)
Will Paul Thomas Anderson ever stop pushing boundaries of filmmaking? The fact that he followed up his epic, expansive and enthralling update of Robert Altman's 'Short Cuts' with such endlessly path-breaking films as 'There Will Be Blood' and 'The Master' demonstrates just how much he remains to be an incendiary, constantly challenging filmmaker of our times. But even as all of his work continues to confound and dazzle, there will be nothing at all like 'Magnolia'.
Timed like a Biblical epic, featuring a cast of one superlative performance after another and crammed with sensational and interlocking stories that deal with life, pain, disgust, death and redemption, 'Magnolia' might be called as the most subversively larger-than-life thing ever put on screen. Anderson credits the Beatles classic 'A Day In The Life' as an inspiration and indeed, it is his utterly devastating cocktail of tragedy, farce and happenstance that makes so much of his film a stunning explosion of emotion.
Robert Elswit's relentless long-take cinematography and Aimee Mann's heartbreaking ballads couple with firecracker dialogue as the splendid actors all enact their travesties on the screen. And by the way, has Tom Cruise ever been better? His sleazy snake-oil salesman, torn apart by a hidden secret, might be his finest hour.
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