1991 Retrospective: The Best Films of 1991

2. The Silence of the Lambs (d. Jonathan Demme) 

Reassuring Jodie Foster’s status as one of the most skill actors of our time, The Silence of the Lambs comes from the late versatile filmmaker Jonathan Demme. Foster channeling Claire Starling, a top student at the FBI’s training academy who’s pulled out of training by a superior agent named Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) who wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins), who’s confined behind bars for barbaric acts of cannibalism and murder. Crawford believes that Agent Starling can get information out of Lector on information of one his patients that goes by Buffalo Bill (Ted Levin) who murders larger women for their skin. With engrossing suspense, ingenious craftmanship, iconic performance enforced by Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins together bring an unsettling and taut thriller that is a true masterpiece in the horror and psychological thriller genre. What could have just been a generic thriller, is truly elevated with complex character depth that asks uncomfortable questions about human trauma,

30 Years later he film has a timeless quality that never feels dated. Every moment of the film is seamless and impeccably crafted. The use of the violence of the film is honestly quite tame compared to our normalized and demoralized standards, however, there is still something very obscene and chilling with how it’s staged and executed by Demme, who works on Hitchcockian level of psychology. Like many other Demme pictures, The Silence of the Lambs explores small communities that restore their faith back into institutions, which, in this film he shows how serial killers betray social trust, and the FBI is an institution who’s duty is to regain that trust.

3. Barton Fink (d. Joel Coen) 

To this date, Barton Fink remains the Coen Bros. most surreal and bizarre film they ever created. The film unfolds with deep abstractions, dream logic, and an atmosphere that feels Kafkaesque. John Turturro plays the title role, a renowned playwright who’s hired by a Hollywood studio to write a screenplay for a wrestling picture. He’s put up in a eerie hotel, who has a flaky desk clerk, Chet (Steve Buscemi), and a vociferous neighbor, insurance salesman Charlie Meadows (John Goodman) in which Barton sparks up an unusual friendship with. Barton attempts to write the screenplay, but he he can’t find any motivation. He wants to bring more depth to the wrestling picture other than just spectacle in the ring, he ends looking to Charlie on advice about wrestling and finding themes of “The Common Man” in which Barton feels is missing in most moving pictures.

Barton ends up finding a strong attraction to Audrey Taylor (Judy Davis), an assistant to W. P. Mayhew (John Mahoney), a drunken acclaimed author that is feels like a fictional William Faulkner. one night, a strange occurrence happens that leads Barton down a bizarre journey of writer’s block, anxiety, dream logic, and rich symbolism that contains many abstract themes about the creative process, the rise of fascism in the 30s before WW2, and just how self-referential creativity can be speaks universal truths about the creative process. One of the Coen’s most dense and sophisticated films that works on many levels, Barton Fink is intriguing and a prime example of a vision at a cinematic full force.

4. Jungle Fever (d. Spike Lee) 

A true powerhouse of relevant social commentary, Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever is a film designed to make one feel uncomfortable about race and gender. 30 years-later, Jungle Fever still feels irreverent and unapologetic as Lee’s exploration of love and prejudices covers a lot of timely issues. The title, taken as a turn about the sexual attraction between different races and how society can sadly dictate and jeopardize that love based on myths and stereotypes. The great revelation of the film examines how these misguided perceptions design tensions among others, as they cultivate the way people treat other. Told through effective melodrama and a visually sublime directing style, Jungle Fever is certainly one of Lee’s greatest offerings to date. The film opens with a dedication before the credits to Yusuf Hawkins, who was murdered on August 23, 1989, in Bnesonhurst, New York, by a group of Italian-Americans who accused him of being romantically involved with a white girl, though he was in the neighborhood looking to buy a used vehicle that was for sale.

Wesley Snipes in one of his strongest performances plays Flip, a successful architect and family man who ends up having an affair with his new Italian-American temp, Angie Tucci (Annabella Sciorra), in which the fling ends up becoming an affair which leads to Flip’s Bloomindale’s buyer wife, Crew (Lonette McKee) separating him. Flip and Angie’s affair begins as a curiosity, and later falls into taboos and tensions as others in their family and friends shun their romance, as they condemn with ignorance and racism. The film is quite invigorating as Lee examines the similarities between black and Italian families and their quest for respectability and the predilection of violence that exists in the culture. Flips father, named The Good Reverend Doctor Purify (Ossie Davis) and Angie’s father (Frank Vincent)–use appearance for their façade of deep hypocrisies they pretend to rail against. When their grown children fail to live up to their ideals of purity, they endure brutal punishment, it’s here where Lee showcases how archaic thoughts of thinking, contempt and hostility is imbedded in our culture.

Jungle Fever also triumphs with its first-rate cast and well-drawn characters, each are products of their environment that includes Paulie Carbone (John Turturro), Angie’s boyfriend who is unaware of Angie’s affair who runs a candy soda shop owned by his father, Lou (Anthony Quinn). Paulie also has a group of friends who constantly begrudge him for having potential romantic spark with one one his customers, as they disapprove of her because she’s a black woman named Orin (Tyra Ferrell). Their encounters are very sweet and are very affecting, as Turturro delivers a very layered and vulnerable performance. Lastly you have the Harlem sections with Gator (Samuel L. Jackson), who’s a tragic character of Flips brother in which Jackson truly embodies the character so well as Lee examines the crack epidemic that occurred in New York City at the time. Gator’s story brings a very personal commentary in the film, that shows how systemic forces destroy livelihoods in the black community. The scenes are also Lee at his most stylized and surreal, especially the crack house scene where Flip looks for Gator and his girlfriend Vivian (Halle Barry) and it feels like a fever dream. All around Jungle Fever is an artfully crafted masterpiece, a monumental achievement and a calamitous study of how society creates such ingrained self-hatred.

5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (d. James Cameron) 

Extremely thrilling, vastly entertaining, and superbly crafted, James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a high-octane piece of cinema that merges rich philosophy with spectacle. Cameron’s film is a cautionary tale about machine overpowering man, and how it’s tragically in mankind’s nature to be self-destructive. All around the sci-fi ideas still resonate today and the action and set-pieces still astonishes. It’s dramatic, dark, and filled with many exhilarating moments. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda, Hamilton, and Edward Furlong are born to play these roles.

Watching this film 30 years later is still fascinating today. Writer-Director Richard Linklater taps into young idealist minds gaining fresh and unique perspectives on culture, democracy, politics, sociology, and even conspiracy theories (Back when they used to be fascinating and not as nonsensical or as overtly agenda driven as they are today). Each character exchange, every character, and the expertly written dialogue in the film is utterly fascinating. Linklater truly transports you to the early 90s in Austin, and you will be amazed how many of the conversations still resonate and feel relevant today. My favorite segment in the film is when the old anarchist character has a superb discussion on what true anarchy is and how anarchist Leon Czolgosz assassinated President William McKinley at the time due to rampant corporatism (State capitalism) and greed oppressing the working class with low wages and no benefits. The brilliance of Slacker is just how naturalistic and endlessly engaging it is, Linklater truly delivers memorable moments and characters with a film I always love to revisit. Certainly one of the greatest cinematic breakthroughs.

10. La Belle Noiseuse (d. Jacques Rivette)

Intoxicating, delicate, impeccably shot and superbly artful, Jacques Rivette’s La Belle Noiseuse is a very long film that offers a lot of treasures–thematic, visual, conceptually, and very aural–It’s an ambitious feat about the creative process and just how arbitrary and trivial painting, art theory and art appreciation can really be. 30 years later, the film remains timeless that proved international cinema was even more bold and mature 30 years ago in the marketplace. A film about artistic creation that is very engaging and self-consciously absorbed, La Belle Noiseuse explores issues of aging, insecurity, and the declining fragilities of age and creativity in a compelling and complex way.

The film, which centers around a veteran painter (Michel Piccoli) ends up getting the urge to draw again once he finds spark with a young model (Jane Birkin) who ends up replacing his muse and wife (Emmanuelle Beart) which leads him to complete a painting he hasn’t touched in nearly a decade. Crafted when he was in his early 60s, the late Jacques Rivette, you can’t help by deny the meta nature of the film. As the film is about a painter in his 60s, Rivette observes an artist who’s around the same age of him at the time who’s cynical, but still holds repressed creative spark. placing his subjects into a sometimes meandering narrative that is delivered with rich artistry, visually arresting imagery, and austere touches that become distinctive in it’s own. Who would have thought watching paint dry would ever be so compelling? Each time Piccoli draws Birkin, you can’t anticipate what happens next with their shared inspirations, frustrations, pain, and persistence. La Belle Noiseuse is a masterful study how art and reality reflect these same emotions of despair, hope, age, and pain.

Runners-Up (In Alphabetical Order)

Boyz n the Hood (d. John Singleton)

30 years ago, in 1991, John Singleton made a truly gripping and impressive cinematic debut with Boyz n the Hood. It was a film that brought a lot of instant notoriety for Singleton as the film received 2 Oscar nominations including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. A truly passionate and expertly directed film about livelihoods surviving day-by-day in a warzone has gunfire and helicopter noises hover over the skyline.

Watching the film 30 years later is even more heartbreaking as America still hasn’t improved it’s socioeconomic problems that creates crime and desecration that is bred from such hardships. Done without cynicism though, Singleton’s film is a truly humane framework that is filled with idealism, rich characterizations, and first-rate performances. Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne as Reva and Furious Styles, the divorced parents of Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a young man growing up in South Central LA. The speech about gentrification by Fishburne is empowering, and the film examines just how much issues and problems in the Black community are rooted systemically. I can only imagine if civic teachers wanted to screen this film in schools today, it would automatically be labeled as “Critical Race theory”. The film also provides brilliant commentary about SAT scores and standardized testing and how much bias is put into the tests. Ice Cube is also noteworthy in this film as Tre’s childhood friend, the character Doughboy.

Concluded with tragedy and redemption, Boyz n the Hood examines a world surrounded by violence and offers a fresh and empathetic perspective on old-fashioned conservative ideas of self-reliance and personal responsibility is sadly the only ticket out in a system that fails to reform itself to move humanity forward.  Boyz n the Hood gives a consensual exploration about human struggles and it’s also powerfully moving, shattering, and finally sincere without ever feeling manipulative.

A Brighter Summer Day (d. Edward Yang)

Clocking in at exactly four-hours, Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day is a very layered and emotionally complex film Set during the early 60s, just as many rebels of Mao’s Communist regime fled to Taiwan , the island part of East land China that started its own subculture and constitutional Republic away from the Chinese Communist Party is a towering masterwork. The film is an extraordinary coming-of-age story that follows many youths living during the historical transition as subculture feels very uncertain. The teenagers form street gangs for a sense of security. The filmmaking is astonishing, and so is the sprawling narrative that recreates a time period with vivid detail and historical insight of Taiwanese culture and history. Yang offers the yarn with social commentary and personal insights where he examines political rivalry, friendships, family dynamics, and other mesmerizing exchanges that involve love, jealousy, and ultimately tragedy. Rich in subtext, hulicinintory in tone, evocative of Taiwan’s history and identity-Yang’s yarn is an extraordinary and rewarding piece of cinema.

Bugsy (d. Barry Levinson) 

One of Barry Levison’s greatest accomplishments, the Oscar nominated film Bugsy is a thrilling and highly engrossing chronicle of crime. Focusing on Ben “Bugsy” Siegel, the infamous mobster who opened Las Vega’s very first hotel casino called the Pink Flamingo in the vacant desert that would later become a major US City known as Las Vegas. While quite exactly on the same level as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather or Martin Scorsese’s Casino or Goodfellas, Bugsy is still every bit as engaging and exuberant as those renowned films. In one of his greatest roles, Warren Beatty plays Bugsy with great charisma and equal ruthlessness as a man that is part killer, part ambitious visionary. Anette Benning is also first-rate as Virginia Hill, Bugsy’s mistress that is part femme fatale, also part visionary. The film also has stellar supporting performances from both Ben Kingsley and Harvey Keitel. It may not have the scope of The Godfather, but Levinson delivers a alluring, bruising experience on boldness and spiral violence the life of crime brings once the lifestyle spirals out of control.

The Comfort of Strangers (d. Paul Schrader)

One of Schrader’s most elegant, sexually charged, and shocking films to date is an evocation of the old world confronting the new world. Crafting the film with the mood of a erotic thriller merged with elements of a horror film, Schrader directed a Harold Pinter Script that is based on a Ian McEwan novel, and it’s certainly Schrader’s most misunderstood and underrated. The film has a first-rate cast that includes Christopher Walken, Natasha Richardson, Rupert Everett, and Helen Mirren. The film is very intriguing and mysterious, and is crafted almost like a Brian De Palma or Bernardo Bertolucci film. The film uses the beautiful city of Venice as the back drop, with brilliant foreshadowing that ends in a shocking finale of the camera pulling back to reveal one of Schrader’s most devastating images of his career. The conceptual artistry in this film only proves just how much of a craftsman and visual artist Schrader really is. Out of all of Schrader’s films, this is the most macabre and disturbing that features a brilliant score by the great Angelo Badalamenti.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (d. Fax Bahr, Eleonor Coppola, George Hickenlooper) 

Eleanor Coppola’s personal portrait behind-the-scenes chronicle of her husband’s, Francis Ford Coppola’s production of Apocalypse Now was eventually handed over to young filmmakers George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr who all collaborate in what feels like Francis Ford Coppola’s swan song to filmmaking–at least to something so passionate and ambitious like Apocalypse Now, which now remains the last masterpiece Francis Ford Coppola would create. The plight of the filmmaker is always on display, as murphy’s law in the documentary’s subject highlights how everything went wrong–went wrong. The film is a critique rather how outside forces-whether it’s studio’s, the news media, and even potential collaborators always bring burden to the filmmakers vision. In it’s core, Hearts of Darknes  is a portrait of an artist at war with his own war movie, but it’s also a study on persistence in just how a visionary like Francis Ford Coppola defied all odds. It chronicles how Coppola overcome his own anxieties, doubts, and hysteria from his trouble production that involved heart attacks, delayed schedules, civil wars near the set, over budgeting, and a whole shield of other problems that took nearly 3 years to complete. All of the trials and tabulations of the film set reveals the labor of love along with the the deep lines filmmakers sometimes have to cross to create a fully realized work of art.

The Lovers on the Bridge (d. Leos Carax)

Built on sensual interplays and exchanges between two characters–Alex (Denis Lavant), a homeless circus performer who has a drinking problem, and Michelle (Juliette Binoche), a painter he encounters on the streets who is slowly going blind. Set on Paris’ oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, French filmmaker Leos Carax energetic and unique love story The Lovers on the Bridge holds undeniable power. By exploring the power of perception and feeling, Carax uses a voluptuously language of expertly staged scenes that’s conflates his own love of cinema. Channeling a mix of of Godard and Hollywood musicals in his own way, Carax finds a serene harmony in his framework where he visually and narratively captures the universal feeling of unspoken longing that is tuned to find a compassionate ode to the lonely, unstable vagrant lifestyle.

An Angel at the Table (d. Jane Campion)
Beauty and the Beast (d. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise)
Cape Fear (d. Martin Scorsese)
City Slickers (d. Ron Underwood)
The Double Life of Veronique (d. Krzysztof Kieślowski)
Europa Europa (d. Agnieszka Holland)
The Fisher King (d. Terry Gilliam)
Grand Canyon (d. Lawrence Kasdan)
Ju Dou (d. Zhang Yimou)
Life is Sweet (d. Mike Leigh)
Naked Lunch (d. David Cronenberg)
Once Upon a Time in China (d. Tsui Hark)
Paris is Burning (d. Jennie Livingston)
Point Break (d. Katheryn Bigelow)
The Rapture (d. Michael Tolkin)
Thelma and Louise (d. Ridley Scott)