If you’re looking at overall great decades for cinema, and trying to single out which was the best one overall, the two main competitors – at least of the 20th century – are likely going to be the 1970s and 1990s. What follows is not an argument that the 1990s was better, but an acknowledgment that the decade was at least one of the very best in cinema history, with a selection of movies to showcase that.
These are among the best of the ‘90s, and they also feel like the most important movies of the ‘90s. If a movie made a splash at the time, or seemed to summarize the decade in some way, or did a bit of both while having enduring legacies beyond the 1990s, then such a movie has a chance of landing on this ranking.
10
‘Trainspotting’ (1996)
The soundtrack plays a fairly decent role in Trainspotting being as beloved a cult classic as it is, and the music’s also one factor in the movie’s overall ‘90s energy and style. Yes, there are songs in the soundtrack from before the 1990s, but those older tracks are paired well with more contemporary (or modern at the time) music, and the attitude of doing that and making it work in such a way feels fitting for the time. Somehow. Again, vibes.
Narratively, Trainspotting is mostly about addiction, and the chaos that comes about when life, already with its ups and downs, is made simultaneously more exhilarating and more despairing when drugs enter the picture. You do get an exploration of the good with the bad, which makes Trainspotting surprisingly nuanced, and there is almost a level of danger to the whole film that would’ve been alarming in 1996, and still feels quite surprising, in some ways, three decades later. Oh, and the film led to a surprisingly good legacy sequel 21 years down the line, too.
9
‘The Matrix’ (1999)
Approaching The Matrix now, it’s a little hard to tell whether it was the culmination of the 1990s, or a foreshadowing of the decade to come. It’s classic science fiction, in any event, with some parts of it feeling distinctly of the time, while other aspects were indeed forward-thinking, so it’s a bit of both. And, anyway, an important part of a decade’s end is what it means for the next decade.
In the case of The Matrix, it was helping to alter what was popular action-wise, with a martial arts resurgence that it helped kick off on an international scale, alongside Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and then maybe Kill Bill, too. Focusing on The Matrix, though, it has that sort of edgy ‘90s vibe and angst, yet channeled into something unique, all the while being the perfect sort of science fiction movie for that specific time in history.
8
‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994)
No disrespect to Reservoir Dogs, which came earlier and so was arguably more important for establishing the whole “indie” boom, signified by various young directors unapologetically making their mark on cinema in the first half of the 1990s. Quentin Tarantino really did do that with Reservoir Dogs, which is a largely great film, but with Pulp Fiction, he did something similarly bold and made something even better.
Pulp Fiction tells three fairly chaotic and darkly funny crime stories that sometimes collide violently, but nonetheless collide in ways that make an odd sort of sense.
Also, Pulp Fiction is one of the first movies people will think about when they hear the term “1990s cinema,” and that’s for better or worse (because the films that tried to be Pulp Fiction, but failed, were often painful to get through). As for what this one’s about: lots of stuff, with three fairly chaotic and darkly funny crime stories sometimes colliding violently, but nonetheless colliding in ways that make an odd sort of sense. It’s an easy film to take for granted nowadays, but if you place yourself back in 1994 as best as you can, you can hopefully appreciate what a shock to the system Pulp Fiction was, at the time.
7
‘Titanic’ (1997)
If someone wants to scoff at the idea of Titanic being singled out as a genre-defining movie, then hey, they’re welcome to. People can disagree with any movie being here, or feel grumpy about any movie not being here. There’s freedom there, but Titanic is here on the basis of it being a huge deal, and one of the all-time great pieces of mass-appeal cinema, owing to its marriage of the romance and disaster genres rather seamlessly.
It’s all about the titular ship, and more specifically, about two young people from different backgrounds on that ship who fall in love, and then all the inevitable drama and heartbreak that comes about when they try to survive its sinking together. Much of Titanic is still spectacular, and even if there are things to be cynical about here (such is the case for lots of broadly appealing movies), it’s also an easy film to get swept up in, if you’re willing to give yourself over to its emotional core.
6
‘Fargo’ (1996)
It’s hard to pick which Coen Brothers movie of the ‘90s is more iconic, out of Fargo and The Big Lebowski, so consider the latter’s shout-out there as something of an honorable mention. Fargo might well be a more perfect movie, and perhaps more striking, not to mention succeeding as a blend of the dark comedy, crime, tragedy, and thriller genres, alongside maybe some other things, too (possibly even film noir, or at least neo-noir).
There’s also something about Fargo’s energy and look that feels very 1990s, which might sound like a weird thing to say when the movie’s technically set in the late 1980s, but it’s a vibe thing. Fargo does a lot emotionally and succeeds in taking you on an odd sort of ride, and there really isn’t anything else quite like it, even if some Coen Brothers movies at least partly scratch the same itch (like Blood Simple), and even with the fact that there is a Fargo TV series based on/inspired by the film.
5
‘Heat’ (1995)
Heat is an all-timer of a heist movie, and also much more than just a heist movie. Like, the two main characters are a police detective and a master thief/criminal, respectively, and the movie is mostly about the former trying to stop the latter from pulling off a massive bank heist, yet there’s a good deal of drama (plus a fair few side characters) to make Heat feel like more than just an action/crime film.
Without any shootouts or chases, it would still be riveting because of how it explores aspects of human nature, especially relating to men. It’s a movie kind of for the boys, sure, but it’s nuanced and has things to critique regarding the things that men (on either side of the law) do. And then it’s also just cool and exciting. It manages to have the cake, eat the cake, still have the cake, eat more of the cake, somehow the cake comes back and stays had, then the cake’s nibbled at again, and on and on, until Heat wraps up after a very satisfying (almost) three-hour runtime.
4
‘Jurassic Park’ (1993)
There are other iconic Steven Spielberg movies he directed during the 1990s for sure, beyond just Jurassic Park. Schindler’s List even came out the same year as Jurassic Park, and was obviously a very different sort of movie, and then 1998’s Saving Private Ryan was also one of the most important movies of the ‘90s. Yet Jurassic Park is going here, even if those war films of Spielberg’s might technically have more to say.
Jurassic Park is important for the decade for other reasons. Namely, it was revolutionary in terms of technology and special effects, and then it was also arguably the definitive blockbuster of the ‘90s, or it sits alongside Titanic when looking at movies from the decade that went big and succeeded immensely. Also, no movie with dinosaurs has ever come close to being as good as Jurassic Park, just like how no shark-related movie has ever really come close to touching Spielberg’s Jaws.
3
‘Goodfellas’ (1990)
While it’s unfair to say that gangster movies made before Goodfellas lacked any kind of brutal honesty, Goodfellas does feel like it went the extra mile in that regard, and probably influenced The Sopranos more than any other gangster movie. And, hey, if you count a show’s decade as the one in which it began airing, then you could call The Sopranos the best show of the 1990s. Even if not, Goodfellas influenced the best gangster show of the 2000s, so to spin that in a lawyerly way, look at that: its influence went well beyond the decade it was released during.
It’s about two and a half hours of Henry Hill guiding you through life in the mafia, albeit without ever being a full-fledged made guy. Goodfellas bounces around tonally, being funny, bleak, sad, and sometimes even quite disturbing, feeling coherent throughout regardless, and overall being a candidate for the crown of “best gangster movie ever.”
2
‘Fight Club’ (1999)
There’s a lot to be disturbed by in Fight Club, especially if you’re somehow able to enter into it without knowing what happens by the film’s end, but there’s also quite a bit here that’s genuinely entertaining and darkly funny. The best way to succinctly summarize the film is to say that it’s about a listless and lonely man who meets a far more charismatic individual, and then his life gets changed in ways that are first exciting, and later confronting.
Fight Club feels incredibly 1990s in style and tone, perhaps even more so than The Matrix, which came out the same year and could also be seen as an inadvertent culmination of the decade that had been. Plenty of the film still holds up and feels compelling nowadays, of course, yet there really doesn’t feel like any other point in history at which Fight Club (or at least this version of Fight Club) could’ve ever been made, besides the late ‘90s.
1
‘The Shawshank Redemption’ (1994)
There are plenty of thrilling and/or scary films based on Stephen King stories, sure, but The Shawshank Redemption is arguably better than any of those, and outside of some dark moments, it’s really not in thriller or horror territory. Instead, it’s a drama set in prison, and a mostly character-focused one at that, being about two men with different outlooks on life – and their time behind bars – striking up a gradual but undeniably enduring friendship.
Put simply, The Shawshank Redemption is about as beloved and easy-to-like as movies get, so regardless of the decade it came out in, it’d probably be a good candidate for “best of” – or “most significant movie of” – that decade. If you can find someone who doesn’t like a single part of this movie, they might well be 1 in a billion (for better or worse).
The Shawshank Redemption
- Release Date
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September 23, 1994
- Runtime
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142 minutes
- Director
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Frank Darabont
- Writers
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Frank Darabont
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