Criterion Collection by Decade (1990s), a list by Adam McGready

7.7

/58044/

76

/1555/

75

/887/

4.2

/102273/

92

/71/

92

/3019/

A cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring he joins forces with an undercover cop who's working as a gangster hitman. They use all means of excessive force to find them.

77

40

8.0

/1878/

77

/63/

75

/32/

4.2

/4636/

Musician John Lurie knows nothing about fishing, but that doesn't stop him from embarking on fishing in exotic locations with friends.

87

8.6

/1695090/

85

/35873/

83

/17440/

4.3

/2662249/

95

/157/

95

/29659/

86

/20/

3.5

age 17+

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

56

6.7

/474829/

71

/16554/

68

/8350/

3.1

/260194/

43

/176/

73

/32439/

42

/23/

1.0

age 13+

When an asteroid threatens to collide with Earth, NASA honcho Dan Truman determines the only way to stop it is to drill into its surface and detonate a nuclear bomb. This leads him to renowned driller Harry Stamper, who agrees to helm the dangerous space mission provided he can bring along his own hotshot crew. Among them is the cocksure A.J. who Harry thinks isn't good enough for his daughter, until the mission proves otherwise.

73

7.7

/42517/

77

/890/

77

/676/

4.3

/178648/

83

/40/

83

/382/

80

/22/

1.0

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

77

7.2

/17027/

71

/395/

70

/301/

3.6

/19084/

95

/42/

77

/303/

3.5

Detectives Jonas and Erik are called to the midnight sun country of northern Norway to investigate a recent homicide, but their plan to arrest the killer goes awry, and Jonas mistakenly shoots Erik. The suspect escapes, and a frightened Jonas pins Erik's death on the fugitive. Jonas continues to pursue the killer as he seeks to protect himself; however, his mounting guilt and the omnipresent sun plague him with an insomnia that affects his sanity.

79

7.6

/206891/

75

/4783/

73

/2636/

3.9

/449570/

90

/107/

91

/8538/

87

/33/

2.5

age 16+

When a beautiful first-grade teacher arrives at a prep school, she soon attracts the attention of an ambitious teenager named Max, who quickly falls in love with her. Max turns to the father of two of his schoolmates for advice on how to woo the teacher. However, the situation soon gets complicated when Max's new friend becomes involved with her, setting the two pals against one another in a war for her attention.

75

7.2

/147726/

72

/3691/

67

/1488/

3.3

/91622/

86

/88/

83

/7417/

71

/28/

3.5

age 17+

Holden and Banky are comic book artists. Everything is going good for them until they meet Alyssa, also a comic book artist. Holden falls for her, but his hopes are crushed when he finds out she's a lesbian.

73

7.4

/376891/

76

/10913/

71

/5020/

3.6

/168290/

68

/74/

85

/11174/

58

/24/

3.5

age 16+

When vengeful General Francis X. Hummel seizes control of Alcatraz Island and threatens to launch missiles loaded with deadly chemical weapons into San Francisco, only a young FBI chemical weapons expert and notorious Federal prisoner have the skills to penetrate the impregnable island fortress and take him down.

57

15

6.7

/541/

50

/12/

59

/26/

3.3

/464/

47

/2/

Torben Skjødt Jensen’s elegant documentary is a collage of memories and reflections on one of cinema’s greatest directors. Visually rich and densely layered, Carl Th. Dreyer—My Metier illuminates an artist too little understood and too important to overlook. Through interviews, historical writings, and rare archival footage, a portrait of Dreyer emerges: an austere perfectionist, yes, but also a passionate man possessing a genuine sense of humor.

78

76

7.5

/12978/

73

/303/

71

/230/

4.1

/37331/

85

/47/

85

/262/

77

/22/

age 17+

James Gillespie is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny, who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings.

74

7.4

/45836/

73

/1088/

72

/979/

3.8

/61519/

68

/19/

90

/1535/

67

/22/

The activities of rampaging, indiscriminate serial killer Ben are recorded by a willingly complicit documentary team, who eventually become his accomplices and active participants. Ben provides casual commentary on the nature of his work and arbitrary musings on topics of interest to him, such as music or the conditions of low-income housing, and even goes so far as to introduce the documentary crew to his family. But their reckless indulgences soon get the better of them.

63

7.5

/316446/

75

/7939/

72

/4875/

3.8

/387318/

51

/71/

89

/20455/

41

/19/

1.0

age 18+

Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.

65

59

6.7

/6330/

66

/136/

61

/102/

3.5

/10396/

68

/19/

80

/269/

44

/10/

A man works for the unpleasant guru of a Scientology-like movement.

70

6.9

/60292/

70

/1448/

70

/1169/

3.8

/97255/

73

/40/

77

/1884/

67

/16/

2.5

Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.

72

7.0

/24983/

68

/589/

67

/329/

3.7

/56893/

82

/45/

77

/839/

69

/16/

3.0

age 16+

Austin, Texas, is an Eden for the young and unambitious, from the enthusiastically eccentric to the dangerously apathetic. Here, the nobly lazy can eschew responsibility in favor of nursing their esoteric obsessions. The locals include a backseat philosopher who passionately expounds on his dream theories to a seemingly comatose cabbie, a young woman who tries to hawk Madonna's Pap test to anyone who will listen and a kindly old anarchist looking for recruits.

83

7.6

/49561/

74

/732/

71

/653/

4.1

/43482/

95

/59/

88

/960/

81

/22/

4.0

Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.

76

6.9

/66242/

70

/1575/

70

/1195/

3.9

/233111/

81

/62/

80

/1720/

77

/18/

3.5

age 17+

In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.

89

8.3

/29319/

79

/782/

76

/322/

4.4

/50913/

98

/60/

92

/881/

98

/19/

4.0

age 13+

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. This acclaimed documentary was shot over the course of five years.

82

7.4

/9326/

74

/221/

70

/179/

3.9

/13207/

96

/23/

90

/164/

79

/18/

4.0

Based on the autobiographical work of New Zealand writer Janet Frame, this production depicts the author at various stage of her life. Afflicted with mental and emotional issues, Frame grows up in an impoverished family and experiences numerous tragedies while still in her youth, including the deaths of two of her siblings. Portrayed as an adult by Kerry Fox, Frame finds acclaim for her writing while still in a mental institution, and her success helps her move on with her life.

83

7.7

/48136/

74

/995/

72

/637/

4.0

/117247/

88

/59/

91

/871/

85

/21/

4.0

An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.

78

7.3

/13567/

71

/329/

69

/174/

3.8

/41876/

94

/48/

84

/335/

75

/6/

3.5

A radical student is adopted by a group of young New Yorkers, serves as a catalyst to alter his and their lives. Gathering in a Manhattan apartment, the group of friends meet to discuss social mobility, Fourier's socialism and play bridge in their cocoon of upper-class society - until they are joined by a man with a critical view of their way of life.

80

7.6

/214094/

75

/5773/

73

/2189/

3.9

/537534/

94

/69/

90

/12144/

82

/21/

3.0

age 15+

The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a "no drugs" pledge.

67

6.6

/15977/

64

/383/

62

/229/

3.4

/51852/

56

/36/

75

/661/

75

/18/

3.0

After college graduation, Grover's girlfriend Jane tells him she's moving to Prague to study writing. Grover declines to accompany her, deciding instead to move in with several friends, all of whom can't quite work up the inertia to escape their university's pull. Nobody wants to make any big decisions that would radically alter his life, yet none of them wants to end up like Chet, the professional student who tends bar and is in his tenth year of university studies.

65

59

6.8

/4480/

62

/85/

66

/69/

3.4

/10888/

67

/12/

70

/137/

61

/7/

Tomás Tomás is a young yuppie playboy with a string of discarded girlfriends. But when Silvia, the victim of one of his adventures, tries to get revenge by typing "positive" on his AIDS test, Tomás experiences for the first time the realities of love and death.

76

7.0

/6445/

70

/140/

64

/96/

3.7

/8200/

90

/10/

83

/197/

3.5

Peter Winter is a young schizophrenic who is desperately trying to get his daughter back from her adoptive family. He attempts to function in a world that, for him, is filled with strange voices, electrical noise, disconcerting images, and jarringly sudden emotional shifts. During his quest, he runs afoul of the law and an ongoing murder investigation.

82

7.6

/56418/

75

/1000/

75

/867/

4.1

/118738/

86

/36/

91

/959/

86

/10/

3.5

Véronique is a beautiful young French woman who aspires to be a renowned singer; Weronika lives in Poland, has a similar career goal and looks identical to Véronique, though the two are not related. The film follows both women as they contend with the ups and downs of their individual lives, with Véronique embarking on an unusual romance with Alexandre Fabbri, a puppeteer who may be able to help her with her existential issues.

85

8.1

/221431/

82

/5040/

80

/4394/

4.5

/906491/

96

/73/

95

/2372/

3.0

age 16+

After a chaotic night of rioting in a marginal suburb of Paris, three young friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, wander around unoccupied waiting for news about the state of health of a mutual friend who has been seriously injured when confronting the police.

77

7.7

/70341/

76

/1285/

75

/999/

4.0

/118330/

77

/26/

91

/943/

68

/20/

3.0

A quintet of cabbies in five cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

78

7.3

/63122/

70

/1055/

68

/718/

3.8

/44546/

86

/70/

82

/1336/

72

/23/

4.0

age 17+

In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hood family is skidding out of control. Then an ice storm hits, the worst in a century.

84

7.8

/16574/

74

/186/

73

/177/

3.9

/7609/

92

/37/

94

/270/

4.0

The circularity of violence seen in a story that circles on itself. In Macedonia, during the war in Bosnia, Christians hunt an ethnic Albanian girl who may have murdered one of their own. A young monk who's taken a vow of silence offers her protection. In London, a photographic editor who's pregnant needs to talk it out with her estranged husband and chooses a toney restaurant.

69

6.9

/87737/

69

/2220/

66

/1138/

3.5

/198734/

86

/73/

79

/3361/

67

/24/

2.0

age 16+

Upon his release from a mental hospital following a nervous breakdown, the directionless Anthony joins his friend Dignan, who seems far less sane than the former. Dignan has hatched a harebrained scheme for an as-yet-unspecified crime spree that somehow involves his former boss, the (supposedly) legendary Mr. Henry.

82

7.9

/108631/

79

/3123/

79

/2086/

4.3

/675212/

89

/71/

93

/2267/

78

/18/

3.0

Two melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night restaurant.

76

7.5

/24437/

72

/325/

74

/343/

3.9

/26305/

81

/16/

88

/323/

69

/15/

3.0

Just after World War II, an American takes a railway job in Germany, but finds his position politically sensitive with various people trying to use him.

72

6.7

/15125/

69

/325/

62

/203/

3.8

/34253/

74

/61/

66

/254/

76

/24/

3.5

age 16+

Two young women and their friends spend spare time at an exclusive nightclub in 1980s New York.

76

6.9

/8804/

66

/202/

62

/146/

3.6

/11375/

88

/25/

73

/30/

84

/20/

4.0

A Jewish homicide detective investigates a seemingly minor murder and falls in with a Zionist group as a result.

81

7.4

/38262/

72

/649/

70

/577/

3.7

/28463/

94

/71/

81

/535/

88

/11/

4.0

age 13+

A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.

67

44

6.8

/1903/

65

/42/

68

/44/

3.7

/5579/

62

/18/

After a suicidal teenage girl gives birth, she misguidedly entrusts her baby’s safety to the troubled, deadbeat father, whose violent actions take the viewer on a tour of the foreboding, crumbling shantytown in which they live.

64

6.7

/15172/

69

/336/

63

/199/

3.4

/7248/

65

/68/

66

/318/

69

/29/

2.0

Ride with the Devil follows four people who are fighting for truth and justice amidst the turmoil of the American Civil War. Director Ang Lee takes us to a no man's land on the Missouri/Kansas border where a staunch loyalist, an immigrant's son, a freed slave, and a young widow form an unlikely friendship as they learn how to survive in an uncertain time. In a place without rules and redefine the meaning of bravery and honor.

85

8.2

/26281/

80

/660/

80

/431/

4.4

/121064/

89

/19/

88

/179/

92

/15/

This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.

86

8.0

/22838/

76

/555/

75

/273/

4.2

/37057/

95

/43/

89

/617/

93

/21/

4.0

This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, ex-wife and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.

77

7.6

/210995/

73

/4922/

74

/3195/

4.1

/190325/

80

/106/

80

/5229/

78

/32/

3.0

age 15+

The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived.

71

6.7

/35948/

67

/1254/

66

/726/

3.4

/75772/

88

/59/

69

/1026/

70

/12/

3.0

Faced with his own mortality, an ingenious alchemist tried to perfect an invention that would provide him with the key to eternal life. It was called the Cronos device. When he died more than 400 years later, he took the secrets of this remarkable device to the grave with him. Now, an elderly antiques dealer has found the hellish machine hidden in a statue and learns about its incredible powers. The more he uses the device, the younger he becomes...but nothing comes without a price. Life after death is just the beginning as this nerve-shattering thriller unfolds and the fountain of youth turns bloody.

80

7.3

/14130/

72

/171/

66

/161/

3.9

/11771/

90

/88/

79

/233/

90

/31/

4.0

For nearly a decade, Gilbert and Sullivan’s collaborations have delighted the English people. But in 1884, as a London heat wave cuts into the theater trade, their latest work, "Princess Ida", receives lukewarm press. In an effort to reconcile their creative differences and drawing inspiration from Japanese culture, they went on to create the hit opera "The Mikado", one of the duo's greatest successes.

84

7.8

/117718/

76

/2077/

76

/1829/

4.2

/234406/

96

/57/

93

/1914/

87

/11/

3.5

The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.

82

7.6

/84755/

74

/1429/

74

/1286/

3.8

/140077/

91

/56/

87

/798/

91

/11/

3.5

Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikołaj to smuggle him back to their homeland.

89

8.1

/115945/

78

/1658/

79

/1507/

4.3

/168895/

100

/62/

94

/1327/

100

/11/

Part-time model Valentine unexpectedly befriends a retired judge after she runs over his dog. At first, the grumpy man shows no concern about the dog, and Valentine decides to keep it. But the two form a bond when she returns to his house and catches him listening to his neighbors’ phone calls.

77

7.3

/5607/

71

/110/

65

/90/

3.8

/6208/

89

/35/

79

/66/