The 90 Best Movies of the 1990s

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What follows is a very unscientific gathering of the approximate collective opinions of our editors and film critics on the best movies of the 1990s. There are gaping holes, to be sure (even with a dozen nations on the list, foreign films are highly underrepresented, for instance). But we just couldn’t resist sharing with you some of the fun we had in reminiscing about one of our favorite decades in film history. Share your picks in the comments section below.

60. The Professional (Luc Besson, 1994)

I’m not sure when I’ve seen an action film that’s so touching. It could have been incredibly precious and cloying: cute little girl meets strong-silent type neighbor who turns out to be an assassin. But Luc Besson puts just the right amount of edge into his film (how scary is Gary Oldman?). He coaxes a beautiful performance out of Jean Reno—mournful, weary, resigned, tender. And a young Natalie Portman showed very early on why she was destined for greatness. I challenge you to watch the final scene without getting chills.—Michael Dunaway

59. Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant, 1997)

The story of a genius janitor capable of solving the world’s most difficult mathematical problems, Will is both exasperating and loveable as the Boston boy reluctant to live up to his true potential. Robbin Williams takes the oft-clichéd mentor paradigm and turns it into a wholly original character as Damon’s therapist Sean. But what’s special about this film is the way Gus Van Sant captures the existential angst and, ultimately, the frustrated striving of a brilliant boy form the wrong side of the tracks. Matt Damon and Ben Afleck star in their own breakthrough roles as best friends closer than even blood brothers. Though the movie touches on heart-wrenching topics like childhood abuse and heartbreak, the sarcastic humor and witty banter are just as memorable. Effortlessly charming and never overwrought.—Amy Libby

58. JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)

Comedian Roger Weaver jokes, “It’s easy to make an award-winning film about The Holocaust, but I’d like to see them make an award-winning film about spring break!” The truth of the matter is that JFK’s assassination is probably the single most memorable moment of the American 20th century, and any major motion picture that payed even half-competent tribute to it was destined to earn cinematic importance. Still, Oliver Stone deserves props for throwing his (albeit) considerably heavy hand into an epic that forces you to imagine how twisted the reasoning behind the shooting of John Kennedy could have been. Absolute truth? Perhaps not. But he forced the nation to think, interpret and raise heated debate like almost no other cinematic fiction has done. With a studded cast just short of the entire screen actor’s guild (including Gary Oldman as Oswald), and a style that straddles the unexpectedly thin line between pseudo-documentary and political cabaret, it’s easy to trace where Oliver Stone’s political allegiances lie: back, and to the left.—Ryan Carey

57. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

It’s always fascinating to see what the old masters come up with at the end of their careers. Eyes Wide Shut was Kubrick’s final message before he passed away, and it revelas an artist still grappling with the complexities and vagaries of the human heart, as well as organs slightly southward. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman are brilliantly cast, and the eerie, dreamlike atmosphere that pervades the film is palpable. When you re-emerge into the world of light outside the theater, you won’t quite be able to explain the journey you’ve been on. but it will stay with you for a long, long time.—Michael Dunaway

56. Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994)

Before making this feverish biopic based on a notorious case in New Zealand history, Peter Jackson was best known for grisly horror comedies like Brain Dead (released in U.S. as Dead Alive). Heavenly Creatures captures the psychological landscapes of two teenage girls (Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in their big screen debuts) whose obsession with their shared imaginary world draws them further from reality. Without Jackson’s breathless narrative and ingenious fantasy scenes in Heavenly Creatures, he never would have gotten the Lord of the Rings gig, but Creatures stand on its own as a compelling thriller and commentary on moral hypocrisy. In real life, Winslet’s character grew up to be mystery writer Anne Perry.—Curt Holman

55. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1995)

Bill Murray, director/co-writer Harold Ramis and screenwriter Danny Rubin take a “Twilight Zone”-esque comedic premis—a self-centered weatherman gets stuck experiencing February 2 again and again—and find unexpected profundity. A more conventional film would have love resolve the chronological predicament, but instead, it falls to Murray to become the best man he can possibly be. A Hollywood comedy that challenges middle-class Americans to better themselves, Groundhog Day doesn’t just elicit laughs, but leaves audiences more deeply moved than they ever expected. It’s also inspired some obsessive fans, including one fellow who calculated, down to the day, the number of decades Murray spent in February 2.—Curt Holman

54. Exotica (Atom Egoyan, 1994)

Backed with Mychael Danna’s haunting score and the dark, pulsing rhythm of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows,” there’s no escaping the hypnotic trance of the puzzle that is Atom Egoyan’s Exotica. Folding a collection of stories over themselves in space and time, Egoyan probes the lives of initially mysterious characters in a strip club and an exotic pet store, moving ever closer to their misfortunes and mental scars. Filling the film with one- and two-way mirrors, Egoyan forges a ring of characters who can’t clearly view themselves and others at the same time.—Jeremy Mathews

53. The Remains of The Day (James Ivory, 1993)

Merchant Ivory’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel is The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of stuffy butler movies. From musicals and heist movies to bromances and torture porn—genres are constantly being invented and then reinvented. They have lifelines from birth to heyday to revisionism to reboot, and in each case there’s an apex, a seminal work for which you’d dust off the recommendation, “If you’re only gonna see one. See that one.” The Remains of the Day remains to this day (see what I did there?) the strongest execution of a certain type of movie: the sort Eddie Izzard once brilliantly labeled, “room with a view of a staircase and a pond type movies.” It’s a film about what is not said; filled with painfully reserved people unable to express their feelings about life, love, right and wrong until it’s too late; the sort of movie where the most action-packed scene is a maid asking to borrow a book. Granted, absence for this sort of thing has made the heart grow fonder and helped Downton Abbey recently become a cool-kid hit, a sort of über-white version of The Wire. But back in 1993, this sort of Oscar-bait was about to slouch into self-parody, and yes, Merchant Ivory was eventually culpable, but here, with this particular film they were on top of their game and knew how to author this kind of film better than anyone.——Bennett Webber

52. The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella, 1999)

Many doubted anyone could do justice to the Ripley novels on celluloid, but Anthony Minghella proved them wrong in spectacular fashion. Lushly photographed, exquisitely art-directed and impeccably timed (not a scene is a moment too long or too short), it intrigues and bewilders like Hitchcock’s best work. Career performances from Matt Damon and Jude Law, plus wonderful turns from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cate Blanchett—and the last time Gwenyth Paltrow was bearable. A frightful—and frightfully overlooked—film.—Michael Dunaway

51. The Lion King (Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, 1994)

Animated films often overreach for gravitas and fail miserably. The Lion King takes a mishmash of the stories of Hamlet, Henry IV, and some African folktales—and pulls it off. Simba&#8217 hearing his father’s ghost tell him “You are more than what you have become” resonates as deeply as anything in Shakespeare’s account of Young Hal. Somehow, even Elton John’s drippy soundtrack sounds majestic. A film that ennobles.——Michael Dunaway