An alternative look at best films of the ’90s

By Aisha Harris
Slate

Posted: Friday, Nov. 02, 2012

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Slate’s 50 best films of the ’90s*

Conte d’Hiver (1992) dir. Eric Rohmer

The Dreamlife of Angels (1998) dir. Erick Zonca

The Virgin Suicides (1999) dir. Sofia Coppola

Summer of Sam (1999) dir. Spike Lee

Malcolm X (1992) dir. Spike Lee

Boyz N the Hood (1991) dir. John Singleton

Point Break (1991) dir. Kathryn Bigelow

Clueless (1995) dir. Amy Heckerling

Wayne’s World (1992) dir. Penelope Spheeris

River of Grass (1994) dir. Kelly Reichardt

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) dir. Ang Lee

Sonatine (1993) dir. Takeshi Kitano

Hard Boiled (1992) dir. John Woo

A League of Their Own (1992) dir. Penny Marshall

Before the Rain (1994) dir. Milcho Manchevski

Cronos (1993) dir. Guillermo Del Toro

Princess Mononoke (1997) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

Abre los Ojos (1997) dir. Alejandro Amenabar

La Haine (1995) dir. Mathieu Kassovitz

Run Lola Run (1998) dir. Tom Tykwer

Days of Being Wild (1990) dir. Wong Kar-wai

The Double Life of Veronique (1991) dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski

Boys Don’t Cry (1999) dir. Kimberly Peirce

The Nasty Girl (1990) dir. Michael Verhoeven

La Promesse (1996) dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Funny Games (1997) dir. Michael Haneke

The Piano (1993) dir. Jane Campion

Burnt by the Sun (1994) dir. Nikita Makhalkov

After Life (1998) dir. Hirokazu Koreeda

Belle Epoque (1992) dir. Fernando Trueba

Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) dir. Carl Franklin

Ratcatcher (1999) dir. Lynne Ramsay

High Art (1998) dir. Lisa Cholodenko

Walking and Talking (1996) dir. Nicole Holofcener

The Celebration (1998) dir. Thomas Vinterberg

Breaking the Waves (1996) dir. Lars Von Trier

Europa Europa (1990) dir. Agnieszka Holland

Delicatessen (1991) dir. Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Man Bites Dog (1992) dir. Remy Belvaux, Andre Bonzel, and Benoit Poelvoorde

Proof (1991) dir. Jocelyn Moorhouse

Pola X (1999) dir. Leos Carax

F–-ing Amal (Show Me Love) (1998) dir. Lukas Moodysson

Ringu (The Ring) (1996), dir. Hideo Nakata

Drop Squad (1994) dir. David C. Johnson

Satantango (1994) dir. Bela Tarr

To Sleep With Anger (1990) dir. Charles Burnett

Ruby in Paradise (1993) dir. Victor Nunez

Paris is Burning (1990) dir. Jennie Livingston

Daughters of the Dust (1991) dir. Julie Dash

Eve’s Bayou (1997) dir. Kasi Lemmons

*By a woman, person of color or non-English speaker.

NEW YORK The A.V. Club has published a list of the best 50 films of the 1990s and white male filmmakers dominate it. Not a single female director made the cut, nor any black director, and only five foreign-language films appear.

The A.V. Club sensibility tends to skew both white and male (also: geeky – in a good way). Many readers understand this. But the A.V. Club also wields a decent amount of cultural influence, and when its writers and editors engage in canon-building exercises – this is a list of the “best” films from the ’90s, not the A.V. Club’s “favorite” – they should consider what kind of canon they’re putting forward, and what that influence might mean.

With that in mind, Slate did an unscientific survey of staffers and put together this alternate (and unranked) list. You may love some of these movies, you may hate some of them, but all are worthy additions to the top 50 movies published at the A.V. Club.

All of these movies were directed by a woman, a person of color or a non-English speaker.

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