My Top 10 list for 1996

I started off this year by not seeing many films. Eventually I got back into it and saw as many films as ever. Once again this year there were several good films but nothing that will make my all time list. I think I also disagreed with the experts more than ever before.

Here we go.

10. Phenomenon - I have this thing for Kyra Sedgwick and it was sure to continue after this movie. John Travolta was every where this year but I think this was his best movie of ‘96.

9. Twelfth Night - Shakespeare was all over the place in 1996 and I haven’t yet seen Branagh’s Hamlet. Since this play is one that I am not familiar with the movie had to teach me the plot (all the other Shakespeare movies this year cover often trod territory).

8. Tin Cup - I liked this film a lot. It was not as good as Costner’s baseball movies but still pretty good. Rene Russo continues as the best woman in the "romantic interest" category. Will we ever find out if she can carry her own movie?

7. Evita - I never saw the play so I can’t make comparisons. I thought Madonna was excellent and Pryce and Banderas were marvelous in their roles. The one problem is that there is no one to really root for and there is someone who we could have been rooting for: the Argentinos.

6. Shine - If you are one of those who can hum parts of Rachmaninoff’s 3rd concerto then this is your best movie of the year. For the rest of us it is just in the top 10.

5. The Truth About Cats and Dogs - A lot of people are ready to elect Janeane Garofalo as the thinking man’s sex symbol. Sure, you tell your buddies you went just to see Uma Thurman but who do you really want to bring home to meet the folks. What works here (and doesn’t work so well in Sleeping in Seattle for example) is that the idea that an alter ego could attract someone to us is both a male and female fantasy.

4. The English Patient - Ralph Fiennes and Willem Dafoe are getting a lot of the press from this movie and so is Kristin Scott Thomas who is being pushed for Oscar recognition. But I think the best single performance by an actress this year is Juliette Binoche who plays the nurse. You know, A Farewell to Arms was the first I book I read without having it assigned to me by a parent or a teacher and the wartime nurse has been a powerful icon for me since then. I know that I will shortly be able to see Julia Roberts play that role but I think Binoche has raised the bar too high for anyone else.

3. Lone Star - This is the movie that I most want to see again. This movie was recently listed with Breaking The Waves, Secrets and Lies, and Fargo was movies that are different and need to be supported. I saw all four and only Lone Star makes my top 10. I need to be entertained as well.

2. The People vs. Larry Flynt - this is the most important movie of the year. That could make it the most boring movie as well but it wasn’t. I know that the idea that Larry Flynt is protecting our right to free speech might be a bitter pill to swallow. I think that if the far left tried to shutup the far right then we could have a movie called "The People vs. Jerry Falwell". Would that have been a better movie? I honestly don’t know and I honestly think we aren’t close to finding out.

1. Looking for Richard - Oh sure, it’s easy to have a hit film when William Shakespeare is going your screenplay but Pacino went beyond it. This movie is half documentary and half serious attempt to give us the play (Richard III) itself. After seeing this movie I wanted Congress to pass a law giving Pacino the money to do this for every play Shakespeare wrote (including the ones he didn’t). Winona Ryder was great and coupled with The Crucible should get some kind of "hot year" award.

Critics Liked But ...

I thought Fargo was populated with unreal characters. I lived in Minnesota for 7 years and never heard such heavy accents.

Breaking The Waves was supposed to be such a brave movie but I found it hard to stay awake.

Secrets and Lies almost made my list.

Jerry Maguire was a sure bet to make my list until the last 5 minutes of the movie. I mean: telling someone he has a new contract on the Roy Firestone show, that speech to the women’s club, it just unraveled in front of our eyes.

Not Funny

I didn’t think the Nutty Professor was funny. Most of the laughs in the theater were for the fart jokes.

Everyone rightly gives Michael Jordan a lot of credit for Space Jam but Bugs Bunny just phoned it in. Can’t we criticize cartoon characters?

I thought it was funny

I liked Michael Keaton’s work in Multiplicity.

Steve Martin’s Sgt. Bilko was not too bad.

I liked but the critics didn’t

I really liked Ghosts of Mississippi and it almost made my list. I think this is movie that should be first on Alec Baldwin’s resume.

I liked One Fine Day but maybe I just want to see more movies about single parents.

Good Disney

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was very well done but I think they are reusing poses for some of their cartoon characters. Oscar’s Best Song should come from this movie.

Bad Disney

I think 101 Dalmatians did not have to be remade but if you must then please sing Cruella DeVille (and not just at the end) and don’t make Roger a video game programmer whose career is determined by a 10 year-old. I also don’t think it helps to have Glenn Close play a cartoon character and everyone acts like they might be real. At least the dogs don’t talk.

Worst Movies

My 3 worst movies were Homeward Bound II, Muppet’s Treasure Island and Striptease. My son made me go to the first two and the little boy in me wanted to see Demi Moore naked. Dull.

Special Effects

This category will be locked up by Star Trek: First Contact and Independence Day.

I don’t want to forget ...

the actor who played the friar in Romeo & Juliet, Rene Zellweger and Cuba Gooding, Jr. opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, Courtney Love (was she playing herself) in The People vs. Larry Flynt, Andie McDowell in Multiplicity and Michael, James Earl Jones in A Family Thing, Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington in Courage Under Fire, Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys