My 15 favorite movies made in the 90s

Oh, the 90s, what a great time for movies. It was also the time I grew up in (although I am technically an 80s kid) which means that the films I saw back then definitely had an impact on my taste in movies and probably also on my character in general. To pick my favorites from this precious time is definitely not an easy task and to put these films in any kind of order is even more preposterous, considering that my taste will probably keep changing over the course of my life. With that being said, consider this a work in progress.

Of course, limiting myself to only 15 means that a ton of films didn't make the cut so let's start with some honorable mentions in alphabetical order, all highly recommended: Army of Darkness (1992), Boogie Nights (1997), Dead Alive (aka Braindead) (1992), Dumb and Dumber (1994), eXistenZ (1999), Festen (aka The Celebration) (1998), Fight Club (1999), Kurz und Schmerzlos (aka Short Sharp Shock) (1998), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Peter's Friends (1992), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Short Cuts (1993), Toy Story 2 (1999), There's Something About Mary (1998), Wir können auch anders... (aka No More Mr. Nice Guy) (1993).

Alright, with that out of the way, let's get to it, I humbly present to you my 15 favorite movies made in the 90s.

15. L.A. Story (1991)

Back in the days, before he sold his soul to the devil and starred in the remakes of The Pink Panther and Cheaper by the Dozen AND both their subsequent sequels, Steve Martin made a ton of great movies, as a writer and as an actor. His absolute highlight, in my opinion at least, is Mick Jackson's L.A. Story, the unlikely love letter to Los Angeles. Steve Martin stars as weatherman Harris K. Telemacher who falls in and out of love with a British reporter, played by Victoria Tennant. The tone is light and breazy, all the actors are in top form (especially Richard E. Grant is hilarious) and the film just leaves you with a good feeling. This is my go-to movie to lighten up my day and it never fails to do so.

14. Fargo (1996)

Say whatever you want but Fargo is definitely the Coen Brother's masterpiece (and yes, I still like The Big Lebowski and No Country For Old Men a lot). It's the story of a kidnapping horribly gone wrong and it is full of so many memorable characters and scenes and just pure greatness that it requires multiple viewings just to suck up its genius. The first time I watched it I just loved the story but the more I've seen it the more I appreciated the stellar acting, the great dialogue, the beautiful cinematography and the haunting score. Fargo is pretty much flawless and I doubt that the Coens will ever eclipse its quality.

13. Trainspotting (1996)

Trainspotting marks the emergence of Danny Boyle as a great director. Based on the novel by Irvine Welsh, which was considered unfilmable at the time, Trainspotting is about a group of drug-addicted friends in Scotland. They booze, they steal, they shoot heroin and are overall lacking any great outlook on life. One of them is Renton, played by Ewan McGregor, who decides to clean up and get away from the drugs which is easier said then done. What makes Trainspotting so great is that it doesn't judge, it merely shows us the grit of the drug scene. It's not taking the audience by the hand, instead it expects them to think for themselves. The characters are not portrayed as evil-doers but just as people that are products of their environment, some of them more, some less functional in society. Curiously, Danny Boyle still provides a sense of fun and a lust for life, not least thanks to the great pacing and soundtrack full of great songs. Like an antidote to Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, Trainspotting is the most entertaining movie you'll ever see about junkies.

12. Speed (1994)

Sometimes all you need is just a bus with a bomb and Keanu Reeves trying to save the day to create one of the best action movies ever made. Speed's premise is so simple, yet its execution so stupendously masterful, an action film stripped to its bones that impresses with great set pieces, amazing stunts, a thrilling score, and breathless pacing.  Director Jan de Bont never managed to regain that level of awesome later in his career, in fact he only made terrible schlock afterwards, but Speed still stands tall as a defining moment in 90s action films.

11. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Now this is probably a no-brainer, do I even need to explain why Pulp Fiction is on this list? Quentin Tarantino's second feature film (after the great Reservoir Dogs) single-handedly reinvented the gangster film for the 90s and delivered the blueprint for countless other films that followed it. Its highly quotable dialogue, pop culture references, iconic performances by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson and the instantly recognizable soundtrack and characters are so ingrained in the minds of film lovers around the world that one can easily forget how groundbreaking and simply great Pulp Fiction is as a movie.

10. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

The 90s saw a renaissance of movies based on Shakespeare's plays and my favorite of the bunch is Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. Storywise it might not be the bard's richest play but Branagh manages to fill every frame with so much life, it's just a joy to watch it. You feel like you're invited to a party and everybody is having a great time. Just like L.A. Story, Much Ado About Nothing is an uplifting experience for the spirit and it's worth revisiting over and over again.

9. Jurassic Park (1993)

Steven Spielberg and dinosaurs, what else could you ask for? When Jurassic Park was released in 1993 it didn't just break box-office records, it became a cultural phenomenon and started a dino craze. The story of a dinosaur-infested theme park is a great B-movie plot that Spielberg milks to its very last drop. While the characters are all fun, it's the effects that really steal the show. A major leap in CGI paired with some very impressive practical effects make Jurassic Park an amazing roller coaster ride of a movie that wowed back then and still wows nowadays. While modern CGI-heavy blockbuster quickly fade into the forgettable void of awfulness, Jurassic Park stays fresh and has only become better with age. It emotes a sense of wonder and awe that not many other film can replicate.

8. The Truman Show (1998)

Jim Carrey is great and he never gets the credit he deserves. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Peter Weir's satire on reality television. Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a regular guy in a small town who, unbeknownst to him, is the greatest star in television. His entire life is broadcast to the world, his friends and family are all actors and the worlds he knows is actually just a giant studio. When he starts questioning the world around him, the makers of the show try everything to keep him from discovering the truth. While the idea of reality television is not a novelty anymore, it was groundbreaking and ahead of its time when shown in The Truman Show. Peter Weir creates some satirical heights, especially thanks to a stellar turn by Ed Harris as the creator of the show, but he also manages to ground the story in the humanity of Carrey's character. Although occasionally funny (but never using his rubbery grimace skills from Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber), he manages to make us care about Truman. We want him to escape this fake world of his, we root for him the entire time. The ending of the film is simply marvelous, it's the pinnacle of emotions and pure beauty. The Truman Show, while not as relevant as it was in the late 90s, remains a stunning piece of filmmaking.

7. Starship Troopers (1997)

Starship Troopers is a very interesting beast. It is an adaptation of Robert Heinlein's science fiction novel of the same name. Although beloved by science fiction fans, the book was heavily criticized for advocating a militaristic, even fascist society. Director Paul Verhoeven, not a stranger to controversy, didn't just include these themes in the movie, no, he emphasized those, to the point that the film itself becomes a satire. That is exactly what I like about the film and what makes it so watchable, there are multiple levels to Starship Troopers. On the surface, it's simply a science fiction actioner where humans wage war against giant bugs from space and from that perspective the film is a blast. But if you look deeper, there's more than just that. It's the portrayal of society where the young and beautiful love to go out and die for their planet without much thinking. Verhoeven went on record and said that most of the actors weren't even aware of it being a satire during filming, he exploited their naiveté in order to push the limits to even greater extremes. Now is that moral? How far can satire go? You'll be the judge.

6. The Usual Suspects (1995)

This film shouldn't technically work as well as it does. The Usual Suspects is a film that relies on film as a medium to create a story more than pretty much any movie I've seen. Kevin Spacey is Verbal Kint, a small time criminal, who is investigated after the explosion of a boat. The story that unfolds is told in flashbacks from the things that Verbal tells his investigator and it all starts with the police line-up of five seemingly random men. To tell the rest of the story would become increasingly complicated, if you've seen the film then you know what I mean. In that regard it is a surprise how well director Bryan Singer handles the material, kudos to him and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. The performances are all top notch, with Kevin Spacey being the clear standout. The reason this film ranks so high on my list is the ending. It's one of those scenes that just stuns you at first and, even more surprising, makes the movie better and better with repeated viewings. It's the greatest trick the devil ever pulled and it lifts the film to cinematic greatness.

5. Lola Rennt (aka Run Lola Run) (1998)

Lola Rennt is a miracle. In a time when most German movies were silly rom-coms (or Beziehungskomödien as we like to call them) this movie came along and leaped ahead to be the most original thing German cinema produced in the entirety of the 90s. It tells the story of Lola who has to get 100,000 Deutsche Mark within 20 minutes to save her boyfriend's life. The trick is that we see the chain of events unfold exactly three times, always with a little initial difference resulting in vastly different outcomes. The movie's playful attitude with its use of still photography and cartoon sequences remains fresh and exciting even to this day. Lola Rennt made a star out of Franka Potente and director Tom Tykwer and showed the world a new face of German cinema, ingenious, progressive and adventurous, simply brilliant.

4. Armageddon (1998)

Let's get it out of the way, yes, Armageddon is not what you would consider a great film, hell, some people actually think it's pretty damn awful (even cherished critic god Roger Ebert). But that's only the case if you judge the film on the terms of filmmaking, if you look at Armageddon as purely escapist spectacle it is breathtaking. Bruce Willis is Harry Stamper, a deep core driller who has to save the world from an asteroid that threatens to wipe out humanity. How, you're asking? By flying up, drilling a hole and throwing in a nuclear bomb. Of course! This is not a film where you're asking for the logic, this is a film where you lean back and enjoy the ride, full of wacky characters, funny one-liners, crazy action and ridiculously over-the-top "America FUCK YEAH" attitude. In short, it's my favorite guilty pleasure.

3. One Day in September (1999)

This film is my absolute favorite documentary, no questions asked. One Day in September covers the crisis during the Olympic Games 1972 in Munich when Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage. It's a gripping story, told both from the perspective of the terrorists and also the perspective of the hostages. In just 94 minutes of run time we get a full picture of their backgrounds, the events that unfolded and the aftermath. It is tight storytelling by Kevin Macdonald and plays less like a documentary and more like a character driven thriller. If you don't know anything about what happened, I won't spoil it for you. I couldn't recommend this film any higher, it is informative, tense and ultimately heart-wrenching, as close to a perfect documentary as I have ever seen.

2. The Matrix (1999)

Another no brainer on this list. The Matrix is taking influences from the world of comics, pairs it with the stylized visuals and shootouts of John Woo's movies and provides us with a philosophically rich science fiction background. Then it's all tied together by breathtaking special effects and the legendary bullet time (which is still being parodied today) and the result is pure cinematic gold. While it is easy to ridicule Keanu Reeves', Carrie-Anne Moss' and Laurence Fishburne's somewhat cold performances, they make perfect sense in this sort of film that not only has visuals to speak for itself but also some brain behind it. In fact, I remember watching this film and taking apart its ideas in my philosophy class in high school. What The Matrix did right and where most of its imitators failed miserably (I'm looking at you, Underworld and Equilibrium) is that it doesn't just throw all these fights and action scenes at us with no rhyme or reason but instead provides a sense of scale and engages us with fascinating ideas.

1. American Beauty (1999)

This is it, this is the big one. I was 12 when I saw this film in theaters and even though I was probably a little too young to pick up all the riches American Beauty has to offer I could already sense that I am witnessing a work of genius. It's the story of Lester Burnham, played by Kevin Spacey. He's a man stuck in his life, he hates his job, his wife and daughter see him as a loser. When he strikes up an unlikely friendship with drug dealing neighborhood kid and develops a crush on his daughter's best friend he starts to rebel and turn his life around. Spacey is spot-on a Lester, a role he's been born to play. Pretty much the same can be said for the rest of the cast, there's not a single bad performance to be found. But what really resonates with me is the emotional range of American Beauty. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, with the tonal changes so subtle you won't be able to notice. What else could I say, but it's an awe-inspiring film at the top of a great decade of films.