1991

GODFREY CHESHIRE

  1. Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton)
  2. Thelma and Louise (Ridley Scott)
  3. Strangers in Good Company (Cynthia Scott)
  4. Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston)
  5. The Rapture (Michael Tolkin)
  6. Barton Fink (Joel Coen)
  7. Trust (Hal Hartley)
  8. Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise)
  9. Toto the Hero (Jaco van Dormael)
  10. Slacker (Richard Linklater)

1992

GODFREY CHESHIRE

  1. The Player (Robert Altman)
  2. Proof (Jocelyn Moorhouse)
  3. A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang)
  4. The Story of Qiu Ju (Zhang Yimou)
  5. Satan (Viktor Aristov)
  6. Laws of Gravity (Nick Gomez)
  7. The Crying Game (Neil Jordan)
  8. Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)
  9. Brother’s Keeper (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky)
  10. Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (Mark Rappaport)

1993

GODFREY CHESHIRE

  1. The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese)
  2. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
  3. Time Indefinite (Ross McElwee)
  4. The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsaio-hsien)
  5. Il Ladro di bambini (Gianni Amelio)
  6. Savage Nights (Cyril Collard)
  7. Ruby in Paradise (Victor Nuñez)
  8. La Sentinelle (Arnaud Desplechin)
  9. The Piano (Jane Campion)
  10. Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg)

1994

GODFREY CHESHIRE

  1. Little Buddha (Bernardo Bertolucci)
  2. Why Has Bohdi Dharma Left for the East (Bae Yong-kyun)
  3. Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee)
  4. To Live (Zhang Yimou)
  5. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
  6. Hoop Dreams (Steve James)
  7. The Days (Wang Xiaoshuai)
  8. Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami)
  9. A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang)
  10. What Happened Was… (Tom Noonan)

1995

GODFREY CHESHIRE

  1. Safe (Todd Haynes)
  2. To Die For (Gus Van Sant)
  3. Salaam Cinema (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
  4. Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog)
  5. Flirt (Hal Hartley)
  6. Vive L’Amour (Tsai Ming-liang)
  7. Pharoah’s Army (Robby Henson)
  8. Lamerica (Gianni Amelio)
  9. Postman (He Jianjun)
  10. The Delicate Art of the Rifle (Dante Harper)

1996

GODFREY CHESHIRE

  1. Gabbeh (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
  2. Like Grains of Sand (Ryosuke Hashiguchi)
  3. Portrait of a Lady (Jane Campion)
  4. Looking for Richard (Al Pacino)
  5. Courage Under Fire (Edward Zwick)
  6. Get on the Bus (Spike Lee)
  7. Temptress Moon (Chen Kaige)
  8. A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
  9. Sling Blade (Billy Bob Thornton)
  10. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)

1997

GODFREY CHESHIRE

  1. Amistad (Steven Spielberg)
  2. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
  3. The River (Tsai Ming-liang)
  4. The Apostle (Robert Duvall)
  5. The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)
  6. Chronicle of a Disappearance (Ella Suleiman)
  7. Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen)
  8. Family Name (Macky Alston)
  9. Leila (Dariush Mehrjui)
  10. Ulee’s Gold (Victor Nuñez)

ARMOND WHITE

  1. Amistad (Steven Spielberg)
  2. Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai)
  3. The Delta (Ira Sachs)
  4. Hamsun (Jan Troell)
  5. Afterglow (Alan Rudolph)
  6. Career Girls (Mike Leigh)
  7. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg)
  8. Nowhere (Gregg Araki)
  9. Temptress Moon (Chen Kaige)
  10. The Winner (Alex Cox)

1998

GODFREY CHESHIRE My 10 (oops, eight) best for 1998:

  1. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
  2. The Truman Show (Peter Weir)
  3. The Butcher Boy (Neil Jordan)
  4. Buffalo ’66 (Vincent Gallo)
  5. The Mirror (Jafar Panahi)
  6. Shakespeare in Love (John Madden)
  7. Autumn Tale (Éric Rohmer)
  8. Love is the Devil (John Maybury)

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

  1. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
  2. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
  3. Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni)
  4. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
  5. Dear Jesse (Tim Kirkman)
  6. Buffalo ’66 (Vincent Gallo)
  7. Without Limits (Robert Towne)
  8. Rushmore (Wes Anderson)
  9. Apt Pupil (Bryan Singer)
    A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi)
    Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh)
  10. A Bug’s Life (John Lasseter)
    The Prince of Egypt (Simon Wells, Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner)

Restoration of the year, and more:
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)

ARMOND WHITE

  1. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
  2. Beloved (Jonathon Demme)
  3. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
  4. The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman)
  5. The Eel (Shohei Imamura)
  6. Bulworth (Warren Beatty)
  7. The Butcher Boy (Neil Jordan)
  8. Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh)
  9. Babe: Pig in the City (George Miller)
  10. Shadrach (Susanna Styron)

1999

GODFREY CHESHIRE

Last year I put only eight titles on my 10-best list, in protest to what seemed a very lackluster cinema year. This year I’m reclaiming those two empty slots, in recognition of a much better year:

  1. The Straight Story (David Lynch)
  2. The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami)
  3. Cookie’s Fortune (Robert Altman)
  4. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar)
  5. Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh)
  6. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
  7. The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez)
  8. Fight Club (David Fincher)
  9. American Movie (Chris Smith)
  10. La Ciudad (David Riker)
  11. Ride with the Devil (Ang Lee)
  12. Holy Smoke (Jane Campion)

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

  1. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar)
  2. Any Given Sunday (Oliver Stone)
  3. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
  4. Boys Don’t Cry (Kimberly Peirce)
  5. Children of Heaven (Majid Majidi)
  6. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
  7. Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)
  8. The Matrix (the Wachowskis)
  9. The Straight Story (David Lynch)
  10. Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh)
  11. Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter)
  12. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker)
  13. Xiu-Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (Joan Chen)

Honorable Mentions:

After Life (Hirokazu Koreeda); Bringing Out the Dead (Martin Scorsese); Cookie’s Fortune (Robert Altman); Election (Alexander Payne); Fight Club (David Fincher); The Iron Giant (Brad Bird); The Insider (Michael Mann); Let it Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (Jennifer Baichwal); Mr. Death (Errol Morris); Pups (Ash); The Red Violin (Francois Girard); the action sequences in The Phantom Menace (George Lucas); Denzel Washington’s performance in The Hurricane (Norman Jewison); Chow Yun-Fat in Anna and the King (Andy Tennant); any scene with Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules (Lasse Hallstrom); Heather Graham’s love-scene audition in Bowfinger (Frank Oz), after which Steve Martin says, “Very good. Player, let’s try it again, this time without the erection.”

ARMOND WHITE

  1. A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
  2. Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (Patrice Chéreau)
  3. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
  4. Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh)
  5. Election (Alexander Payne)
  6. The End of the Affair (Neil Jordan)
  7. Cookie’s Fortune (Robert Altman)
  8. The Dreamlife of Angels (Erick Zonca)
  9. My Son the Fanatic (Udayan Prasad)
  10. Three Kings (David O. Russell)

and please, sir, can I list one more:

  1. Office Space (Mike Judge)

2000

GODFREY CHESHIRE

  1. Hamlet (Michael Almereyda)
  2. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
  3. The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola)
  4. L’Humanité (Bruno Dumont)
  5. Mission to Mars (Brian De Palma)
  6. Croupier (Mike Hodges)
  7. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronovsky)
  8. A Time for Drunken Horses (Bahman Ghobadi)
  9. Chuck & Buck (Miguel Arteta)
  10. Heart of the World (Guy Maddin)

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ In alphabetical order:

  1. Best in Show (Christopher Guest)
  2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
  3. Croupier (Mike Hodges)
  4. The Filth and the Fury (Julien Temple)
  5. Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky)
  6. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronovsky)
  7. Spring Forward (Tom Gilroy)
  8. Suzhou River (Lou Ye)
  9. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
  10. Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson)

Also, if Zemeckis’ Cast Away had begun with the plane crash and ended with Tom Hanks on a raft, raising up his arm as his rescuers arrive, it’d be the greatest movie of the year.

ARMOND WHITE Cinerama: Disco Volante [CD]

And then…

  1. George Washington (David Gordon Green)
  2. L’Humanité (Bruno Dumont)
  3. Time Regained (Raúl Ruiz)
  4. The House of Mirth (Terence Davies)
  5. Orphans (Peter Mullan)
  6. Black and White (James Toback)
  7. Mission to Mars (Brian De Palma)
  8. The Little Thief (Erick Zonca)
  9. Trixie (Alan Rudolph)
  10. Pola X (Leos Carax)

2001

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

  1. Ali (Michael Mann)
  2. Baran (Majid Majidi)
  3. The Devil’s Backbone (Guillermo del Toro)
  4. Last Resort (Pawel Pawlikowski)
  5. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)
  6. Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter)
  7. Shrek (Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson)
  8. Memento (Christopher Nolan)
  9. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
  10. The Man Who Wasn’t There (Joel Coen)
  11. No Man’s Land (Danis Tanovic)

Special citation: To Jackpot, Session 9 and The Anniversary Party, which strove, imperfectly but honorably, to transform so-called digital cinema from a techno-logical gimmick into a means of artistic expression.

ARMOND WHITE In a terrific movie year, a year of mosts:

Most Misunderstood (sublime): A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg)

Most Empathetic: Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)

Most Insight: Gosford Park (Robert Altman)

Most Audacious: The Day I Became a Woman (Marzieh Meshkini)

Most Patriotic: The Man Who Wasn’t There (Joel Coen)

Most Ecstatic: The Adventures of Felix (Ducastel-Martineau)

Most Universal: Faat Kiné (Ousmane Sembène)

Most Bling-Bling: In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)

Most Resounding: Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr)

Most Motley: The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)

Most Awful: Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann)

2002

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

  1. The Pinochet Case (Patricio Guzmán)
  2. The Pianist (Roman Polanski)
  3. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)
  4. Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg)
  5. Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese)
  6. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (Zacharias Kunuk)
  7. Domestic Violence (Frederick Wiseman)
  8. Family Fundamentals (Arthur Dong)
  9. Last Orders (Fred Schepisi)
  10. Metropolis (Taro Rin)
  11. Road to Perdition (Sam Mendes)

ARMOND WHITE

  1. Femme Fatale (Brian De Palma)
  2. Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg)
  3. Time Out (Laurent Cantet)
  4. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)
  5. All or Nothing (Mike Leigh)
  6. Storytelling (Todd Solondz)
  7. The Cat’s Meow (Peter Bogdanovich)
  8. The Triumph of Love (Claire Peploe)
  9. 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom)
  10. Songs from the Second Floor (Roy Andersson)

2003

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

  1. Big Fish (Tim Burton)
  2. The Company (Robert Altman)
  3. Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich)
  4. The Fog of War (Errol Morris)
  5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson)
  6. The Eye (the Pang brothers)
  7. Northfork (the Polish brothers)
  8. The Secret Lives of Dentists (Alan Rudolph)
  9. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Kim Bartley & Donnacha O’Briain)
  10. The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet)

Rerelease of the year: Alien

I’d also like to express my admiration for Manito, Washington Heights and Raising Victor Vargas for attempting, imperfectly but honestly, to bring urban neorealist drama into the new century.

ARMOND WHITE

  1. Together (Chen Kaige)
  2. The Son (the Dardennes brothers)
  3. In America (Jim Sheridan)
  4. Porn Theater (Jacques Nolot)
  5. The Company (Robert Altman)
  6. Divine Intervention (Elia Suleiman)
  7. The Good Thief (Neil Jordan)
  8. Paradise: Omeros (Isaac Julien)
  9. Mondays in the Sun (Fernando León de Aranoa)
  10. Phone Booth (Joel Schumacher; written by Larry Cohen)

2004

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

  1. Hero (Zhang Yimou)
  2. The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson)
  3. The Life Aquatic with Stave Zissou (Wes Anderson)
  4. The Incredibles (Brad Bird)
  5. Son Frère (Patrice Chéreau)
  6. The Terminal (Steven Spielberg)
  7. Osama (Siddiq Barmak)
  8. Bright Leaves (Ross McElwee)
  9. Gozu (Takashi Miike)
  10. Primer (Shane Carruth)

ARMOND WHITE

  1. Vera Drake (Mike Leigh)
  2. Hero (Zhang Yimou)
  3. Son Frère (Patrice Chéreau)
  4. The Terminal (Steven Spielberg)
  5. Deserted Station (Alireza Raisian)
  6. The Manchurian Candidate (Jonathan Demme)
  7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
  8. A Thousand Clouds of Peace (Julián Hernandez)
  9. Mr. 3000 (Charles Stone III)
  10. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson)

2005

MATT ZOLLER SEITZ

  1. The New World (Terrence Malick)
  2. The Weeping Meadow (Theo Angelopoulos)
  3. Munich (Steven Spielberg)
  4. Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow)
  5. Tony Takitani (Jun Ichikawa)
  6. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai)
  7. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerkasethakul)
  8. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Chan-wook Park)
  9. War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
  10. Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Ten more:

Darwin’s Nightmare (Hubert Sauper)

Howl’s Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki)

Joint Security Area (Chan-wook Park) Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Chan-wook Park) Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)

Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton) Revenge of the Sith (George Lucas)

Steamboy (Katsuhiro Otomo)

Funny Ha-Ha (Andrew Bujalski)

ARMOND WHITE

  1. Munich (Steven Spielberg)
  2. War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
  3. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai)
  4. Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow)
  5. My Mother’s Smile (Marco Bellocchio)
  6. Good Morning, Night (Marco Bellocchio)
  7. Nine Lives (Rodrigo Garcia)
  8. Garçon stupide (Lionel Baier)
  9. In My Country (John Boorman)
  10. The Best of Youth (Marco Tullio Giordana)

2006

   ARMOND WHITE

  1. Broken Sky (Julián Hernández)
  2. Neil Young: Heart of Gold (Jonathan Demme)
  3. A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman)
  4. World Trade Center (Oliver Stone)
  5. Nacho Libre (Jared Hess)
  6. The Promise (Chen Kaige)
  7. Infamous (Douglas McGrath)
  8. Akeelah and the Bee (Doug Atchison)
  9. Bobby (Emilio Estevez)
  10. Runnng Scared (Wayne Kramer)