Top Letterboxd Movies (1990's), a list by Idyllwilde

9.0

/1568278/

88

/25430/

86

/16992/

4.5

/1253752/

98

/135/

97

/22910/

95

/30/

4.0

age 15+

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

91

8.7

/1371737/

85

/25752/

84

/13903/

4.5

/1908257/

93

/167/

97

/29224/

92

/21/

4.0

age 18+

The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

90

IMDb 93

8.8

/2403920/

86

/53257/

84

/29515/

4.2

/3743587/

92

/185/

96

/62759/

95

/27/

4.0

age 17+

A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back and forth in time.

89

8.1

/115968/

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.

89

8.3

/29325/

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.

89

8.6

/1617214/

85

/31989/

82

/16779/

4.2

/1300325/

94

/148/

95

/41367/

91

/38/

4.0

age 16+

As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

89

8.3

/1157632/

82

/41954/

80

/19435/

4.1

/2132601/

100

/161/

92

/49719/

96

/26/

4.0

age 5+

Led by Woody, Andy's toys live happily in his room until Andy's birthday brings Buzz Lightyear onto the scene. Afraid of losing his place in Andy's heart, Woody plots against Buzz. But when circumstances separate Buzz and Woody from their owner, the duo eventually learns to put aside their differences.

89

IMDb 47

9.3

/3144126/

91

/52073/

87

/29511/

4.6

/2443744/

89

/146/

98

/53477/

82

/22/

3.5

age 15+

Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.

88

8.2

/14732/

80

/533/

83

/366/

4.5

/68776/

100

/26/

94

/99/

91

/6/

A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.

88

8.2

/653795/

79

/10329/

78

/5349/

4.1

/377885/

99

/165/

94

/6454/

91

/28/

4.0

age 17+

Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.

88

8.1

/37525/

79

/712/

79

/775/

4.3

/46663/

97

/30/

94

/1033/

4.0

In 1920s China, 19-year-old Songlian becomes a concubine of a powerful lord and is forced to compete with his three wives for the privileges gained.

87

8.1

/25371/

79

/852/

79

/397/

4.2

/61516/

100

/34/

94

/534/

95

/7/

3.5

A chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.

87

8.0

/50895/

78

/764/

75

/704/

4.3

/59640/

95

/44/

92

/644/

92

/27/

4.0

age 15+

After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.

87

8.2

/19362/

79

/620/

75

/192/

4.1

/18341/

100

/26/

94

/393/

4.0

A horrific triple child murder leads to an indictment and trial of three nonconformist boys based on questionable evidence.

87

8.2

/464389/

80

/8860/

79

/4779/

4.2

/285639/

96

/108/

93

/6478/

85

/34/

4.0

age 18+

William Munny is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute. Joined by his former partner and a cocky greenhorn, he takes on a corrupt sheriff.

87

8.1

/776472/

80

/18938/

78

/8795/

4.2

/1192770/

94

/109/

92

/12439/

88

/26/

4.0

age 16+

Jerry, a small-town Minnesota car salesman is bursting at the seams with debt... but he's got a plan. He's going to hire two thugs to kidnap his wife in a scheme to collect a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. It's going to be a snap and nobody's going to get hurt... until people start dying. Enter Police Chief Marge, a coffee-drinking, parka-wearing - and extremely pregnant - investigator who'll stop at nothing to get her man. And if you think her small-time investigative skills will give the crooks a run for their ransom... you betcha!

87

8.2

/1344382/

82

/37841/

81

/19658/

4.2

/4124428/

94

/160/

89

/19799/

90

/30/

4.0

age 10+

An insurance salesman begins to suspect that his whole life is actually some sort of reality TV show.

87

8.6

/1695560/

85

/35873/

83

/17452/

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.

86

8.0

/22850/

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.

86

7.9

/12055/

79

/404/

75

/247/

4.1

/11320/

97

/33/

91

/237/

87

/26/

4.0

age 6+

A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.

86

8.0

/107476/

78

/2053/

77

/1719/

4.2

/148955/

95

/112/

91

/1578/

86

/32/

4.0

age 13+

A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

86

8.8

/2459918/

85

/54101/

84

/29081/

4.2

/3409579/

75

/157/

95

/92568/

82

/21/

4.0

age 13+

A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.

85

7.8

/181070/

79

/4281/

78

/2728/

4.1

/256099/

97

/35/

92

/2808/

80

/15/

4.0

age 15+

Set in the Bronx during the tumultuous 1960s, an adolescent boy is torn between his honest, working-class father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss. Complicating matters is the youngster's growing attraction - forbidden in his neighborhood - for a beautiful black girl.

85

8.1

/221563/

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.

85

7.7

/367441/

76

/9490/

74

/4646/

4.1

/477749/

94

/133/

87

/11347/

90

/36/

4.0

age 16+

One day at work, unsuccessful puppeteer Craig finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters its mad and controlling world of overtaking another human body.

85

7.5

/8261/

76

/241/

74

/186/

4.1

/26100/

100

/24/

83

/101/

92

/8/

4.0

A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.

85

8.3

/22062/

82

/474/

80

/353/

4.2

/21920/

87

/23/

96

/404/

3.5

Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.

85

7.8

/20949/

76

/544/

76

/264/

4.2

/52507/

94

/51/

90

/994/

84

/29/

4.0

American Movie documents the story of filmmaker Mark Borchardt, his mission, and his dream. Spanning over two years of intense struggle with his film, his family, financial decline, and spiritual crisis, American Movie is a portrayal of ambition, obsession, excess, and one man's quest for the American Dream.

85

8.2

/26291/

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.

85

7.8

/108737/

77

/1986/

76

/2003/

4.2

/247556/

98

/99/

93

/2326/

87

/34/

3.5

age 17+

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.

85

7.9

/301708/

77

/6586/

76

/3426/

4.2

/587531/

91

/158/

89

/6370/

86

/28/

4.0

age 18+

Set in 1977, back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, idealistic porn producer Jack Horner aspires to elevate his craft to an art form. Horner discovers Eddie Adams, a hot young talent working as a busboy in a nightclub, and welcomes him into the extended family of movie-makers, misfits and hangers-on that are always around. Adams' rise from nobody to a celebrity adult entertainer is meteoric, and soon the whole world seems to know his porn alter ego, "Dirk Diggler". Now, when disco and drugs are in vogue, fashion is in flux and the party never seems to stop, Adams' dreams of turning sex into stardom are about to collide with cold, hard reality.

85

7.8

/342498/

77

/9484/

75

/4613/

3.9

/272792/

96

/84/

89

/6872/

87

/33/

4.0

age 13+

Wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to death, Richard Kimble escapes from the law in an attempt to find the real killer and clear his name.

85

8.1

/255573/

81

/11372/

79

/5988/

4.3

/613087/

96

/144/

90

/5874/

85

/29/

3.5

age 6+

In the small town of Rockwell, Maine in October 1957, a giant metal machine befriends a nine-year-old boy and ultimately finds its humanity by unselfishly saving people from their own fears and prejudices.

85

8.3

/1270984/

80

/22554/

80

/12731/

4.0

/1104155/

87

/192/

93

/28996/

84

/34/

4.0

age 17+

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.

85

8.6

/1269712/

84

/30810/

81

/13848/

4.3

/892410/

91

/154/

95

/25649/

75

/22/

3.5

age 15+

Ten years after the events of the original, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back in time to protect young John Connor from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah, he fights to stop Skynet from triggering a nuclear apocalypse.

84

84

/1211/

81

/1008/

4.3

/190028/

94

/50/

95

/763/

80

/25/

3.0

An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

84

8.1

/371503/

81

/8024/

79

/4524/

4.3

/1271408/

100

/51/

93

/5127/

79

/19/

3.0

age 16+

An unexpected meeting on a train leads two travelers to spend an evening wandering through Vienna. As the night unfolds, they share stories and conversations about life and love, exploring new ideas while a quiet intimacy grows between them, knowing it may be their only night together.

84

7.6

/7524/

77

/209/

73

/327/

3.9

/11675/

100

/8/

88

/127/

4.0

age 9+

Raised by his science teacher father, Joseph Pagnol, and seamstress mother Augustine, young Marcel grows up during the turn of the century in awe of his rationalist dad. When the family takes a summer vacation in the countryside, Marcel becomes friends with Lili, who teaches him about rural life.

84

7.6

/15360/

76

/399/

72

/258/

4.2

/51515/

88

/34/

90

/386/

91

/19/

4.0

On a cold Monday morning, a group of counselors clock in at an old-fashioned social services office. Their task is to interview the recently deceased, record their personal details, then, over the course of the week, assist them in choosing a single memory to keep for eternity.

84

8.2

/88796/

79

/1045/

79

/688/

4.2

/47518/

83

/30/

95

/979/

77

/14/

4.0

age 10+

Zohre's shoes are gone; her older brother Ali lost them. They are poor, there are no shoes for Zohre until they come up with an idea: they will share one pair of shoes. School awaits.

84

8.2

/20672/

83

/1046/

79

/522/

4.5

/201027/

98

/65/

88

/215/

82

/22/

3.0

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.

84

8.5

/42835/

84

/1310/

82

/660/

4.3

/38272/

81

/26/

96

/21691/

3.0

A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.

84

8.0

/104017/

79

/2057/

75

/837/

3.9

/44198/

96

/57/

92

/2746/

85

/26/

3.5

age 16+

Karl Childers, a mentally disabled man, has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 for killing his mother and her lover. Although thoroughly institutionalized, he is deemed fit to be released into the outside world.

84

8.1

/200959/

80

/3074/

78

/1887/

4.2

/99643/

94

/50/

95

/1869/

84

/16/

3.0

age 16+

A small-time Belfast thief, Gerry Conlon, is wrongly convicted of an IRA bombing in London, along with his father and friends, and spends 15 years in prison fighting to prove his innocence.

84

7.8

/166295/

78

/4403/

76

/2166/

4.0

/282992/

96

/71/

93

/3913/

76

/20/

4.0

age 17+

In the middle of the Los Angeles ghetto, drugs, robberies and shootings dominate everyday life. During these times, Furious tries to raise his son Tre to be a decent person. Tre's friends, on the other hand, have little regard for the law and drag the entire neighborhood into a street war...

84

8.3

/1190829/

83

/27119/

81

/13404/

4.4

/2738386/

97

/89/

94

/15811/

71

/28/

3.0

age 15+

Headstrong yet aimless, Will Hunting has a genius-level IQ but chooses to work as a janitor at MIT. When he secretly solves highly difficult graduate-level math problems, his talents are discovered by Professor Gerald Lambeau, who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. When Will is arrested for attacking a police officer, Professor Lambeau makes a deal to get leniency for him if he gets court-ordered therapy. Eventually, therapist Dr. Sean Maguire helps Will confront the demons that are holding him back.

84

7.9

/661343/

78

/28597/

76

/14561/

3.9

/1373499/

100

/174/

87

/23595/

88

/34/

3.5

age 5+

Andy heads off to Cowboy Camp, leaving his toys to their own devices. Things shift into high gear when an obsessive toy collector named Al McWhiggen, owner of Al's Toy Barn kidnaps Woody. Andy's toys mount a daring rescue mission, Buzz Lightyear meets his match and Woody has to decide where he and his heart truly belong.

84

8.6

/1987907/

85

/43194/

84

/22463/

4.4

/3097724/

84

/156/

95

/26052/

65

/22/