There’s an elephant in the room. The room is this article, and the elephant’s first name is Harvey. The elephant’s surname is Weinstein, and he co-founded Miramax in 1979. He was associated with Miramax for a good while, but parted the company in 2005, and then since 2017, has not been involved with producing or distributing any movies. Now, the elephant’s out of the room.

Miramax exists beyond one of its founders, and even before 2005, there were great movies that happened to be produced or co-produced/distributed by the company. Funding something and creating something are different processes, so yeah, it doesn’t feel too bad to shout out some of the greatest films that fall under the Miramax banner. They’re sourced from here (there are more titles, if you want to look at all the films Miramax distributed), and, below, are attributed to their directors.

10

‘Chasing Amy’ (1997)

Directed by Kevin Smith

While it’s by no means a perfect movie, Chasing Amy might well be the best one Kevin Smith has made to date. It’s got his trademark love of profanity, but also a level of maturity by Smith/1997 standards. There are things here that might raise eyebrows today, but taken for when it was made, Chasing Amy is a step forward for its director and unexpectedly kind of moving.

It’s an exploration of sexuality alongside being a look at insecurity and finding some kind of meaning in life, the latter qualities also identifiable in Clerks and plenty of other Kevin Smith films. It’s the LGBT angle that does make Chasing Amy simultaneously interesting, significant for its time, but also perhaps dated by today’s standards. But if you approach it on its own terms, though, and acknowledge when it was made, this one does have quite a lot to offer.

Chasing Amy

Release Date

April 4, 1997

Runtime

93 Minutes

9

‘Gangs of New York’ (2002)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Here’s another potentially controversial pick: Gangs of New York. This isn’t one of Martin Scorsese’s very best movies, but when it’s firing on all cylinders, it’s honestly kind of incredible and, overall, feels underappreciated. Maybe over-hated is the more fitting word, considering Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio seem to get a good deal of heat and criticism, even though the former’s not that bad, and the latter’s actually quite good.

Also, Daniel Day-Lewis is in this, and he’s at his most magnificent; maybe he’s what makes the other actors look comparatively weaker. Anyway, there’s a level of brutality and spectacle to Gangs of New York that still impresses when watched today, more than two decades on from release, and it concludes on what might well be the closest-to-perfect note a Scorsese film has ever finished on.

8

‘Jackie Brown’ (1997)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

There are a decent number of Quentin Tarantino movies that were produced by Miramax, with Jackie Brown being one of them, and also one of the best. This is a fairly low-key movie by Tarantino’s standards, feeling a little lighter on violence and being a little more gentle (for lack of a better word), fitting with the characters here, who are all generally middle-aged or older.

Jackie Brown is kind of about a complex scheme involving crime and double-crossing, but it’s at its most powerful when it centers on its characters. It’s hard to explain what makes it so good, but the main thing is that it really is very good, and it also proves to be one of those quintessential “gets better every time you watch it” sort of films.

Jackie Brown

Release Date

December 25, 1997

Runtime

154 minutes

7

‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World’ (2003)

Directed by Peter Weir

If you ever wanted to know what it might feel like being engaged in naval warfare, specifically during the Napoleonic Wars, then Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is probably as close as you’re ever going to get. The story here involves one determined captain in the British Royal Navy having a vendetta against a French warship, going to great lengths to track it down and destroy it.

This involves putting himself and his crew at great risk, which drives a great deal of the drama, quite naturally. Beyond that, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is also rather spectacular as an epic, with everything here on the technical side of things holding up exceedingly well for a film of its age. Of all the war movies released in the 21st century so far, this might well be one of the most underrated.

6

‘Good Will Hunting’ (1997)

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Good Will Hunting is the sort of movie that’s hard to dislike. It’s distinctly of the 1990s, sure, but much of it still resonates, and the film as a whole remains moving regardless of how many years pass. It also tells a strikingly simple tale, revolving around a brilliant yet troubled young man who strikes up a bond with a court-ordered therapist, and, in turn, starts to get his life on track.

It’s very much an underdog sort of drama, and some might even call it a bit clichéd or on-the-nose, but the writing and performances here go a long way toward selling Good Will Hunting as a whole. It’s a classic, and even if it might’ve been more of a surprise in 1997, it’s still easy to see why it’s considered such an essential film.

5

‘Chicago’ (2002)

Directed by Rob Marshall

Standing as one of the best musicals of the century so far, Chicago has a great deal to offer, and is ultimately as good as an adaptation of a Bob Fosse musical can be without being directed by the late filmmaker himself. It follows two women on death row, and the lengths they go to in order to avoid execution, with both seeing fame and media attention as a way to avoid execution.

It works quite well as a satirical/darkly comedic film, and it also works well, in a strange way, as a period piece, given that it takes place during the 1920s. Chicago has a high amount of energy throughout, sustaining its non-stop pace surprisingly well, and being particularly striking/impactful whenever it comes time to stage an elaborate musical number.

Chicago

Release Date

December 10, 2002

Runtime

113 Minutes

4

‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003) and ‘Kill Bill: Vol. 2’ (2004)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino considers Kill Bill to be one film, even though it was released in two volumes, and so it’s being included here as a single title. That’s also been done because it’s hard to pick which half of this revenge epic is better. Both hit in different ways, and take influence from different sorts of movies, but taken together, they’re also strangely coherent.

The first half is all-out action, and includes one particularly impressive fight sequence that just goes on and on in the best of ways, while the second half has a little more to offer by way of dialogue and character development. The important thing is that Kill Bill, as a whole, is a remarkable filmmaking achievement, and there is indeed an argument to be made that it’s one of Tarantino’s very best efforts.

3

‘There Will Be Blood’ (2007)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Five years on from Gangs of New York, Daniel Day-Lewis gave another incredible performance in a Miramax-produced movie: There Will Be Blood. This film won him his second of three Oscars, and has him playing a ruthless oil prospector named Daniel Plainview, who spends most of the film trying to obtain as much oil-rich land as he can, with it becoming increasingly apparent that his greed knows no bounds.

It’s not exactly a subtle take-down of unchecked capitalism, but it works, and it’s also a film that’s worth watching for the performance at its center alone. There Will Be Blood feels as though it will stand the test of time. It tells a classic kind of story with intensity and an impressive vision, and even if its story and themes might feel familiar, nothing else quite feels like this film does.

2

‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)

Directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

The Coen Brothers are no strangers to telling stories about very unlucky people, but they tend to do so with a bit of dark comedy to balance out the misery. There isn’t much fun in the traditional sense, though, to be found in the exceptional (and exceptionally grim) No Country for Old Men, but that’s generally what you’re going to be in for if you watch something based on a Cormac McCarthy story.

The plot here concerns one man coming across a great deal of cash at the site of a drug deal gone wrong, and so he takes it, not knowing that doing so has made him the target of an assassin who’ll stop at nothing to recover the money in question. No Country for Old Men is intense, brutal, somber, and exceedingly gripping, deservedly winning Best Picture for a year that was an overall very strong one for cinema (the aforementioned There Will Be Blood also came out in 2007, after all).

1

‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

What more can be said about Pulp Fiction that hasn’t already been said? This is one of those quintessential crime movies, but it’s also a quintessential dark comedy, a decade-defining 1990s flick, and one of the most entertaining films ever made. It’s also still thrilling in its structure and storytelling, having multiple stories at once and telling them in non-chronological order.

Pulp Fiction has a lofty reputation, but it deserves it, since it really is one of the best movies of all time. All that sounds like hyperbole, and maybe some of it is, but some classics live up to the immense hype behind them, and this one’s one of them. If there is a movie that can be singled out as the best Miramax ever produced, then you might as well make it Pulp Fiction.

Pulp Fiction

Release Date

October 14, 1994

Runtime

154 minutes

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