Movies of the 90's - An Introduction


If every movie decade was a novel, the 90's would definitely be out of A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The quality of movies either rose to the highest high (Leaving Las Vegas), or sunk to the lowest low (Jade). Not only that, but this was the decade when William Goldman's famous axiom about Hollywood ("Nobody knows anything") really came true. Though this was the decade of big blockbusters (Titanic), it was also the decade of crash-and-burn films (The Postman). Indie films, assuming anyone out there still knows what they really are, also went crazy, swinging from Mean Streets knock-offs (Federal Hill to movies which some claimed were too mainstream to be indie (The Brothers McMullen). And since movies reflect culture rather than dictate it, it's appropriate that as the 90's became the decade when all of our old wounds (black vs. white, man vs. woman, gay vs. straight, have vs. have-not) opened up with a vengeance, that movies would similarly be in a state of chasm and disarray.

What did it all mean in the end? Well, it's probably still too soon to tell on that score, except to say this: for a moviegoer, or even a movie critic, it certainly wasn't boring. Granted, there were times (like sitting through The Flinstones) when you wondered when Greta Scacchi in The Player didn't have the right idea (she never went to the movies because "Life's too short"). But then would come times like watching Saving Private Ryan, when you were reminded of what movies could do at their best. And there were enough of those kinds of movies to at least mitigate against the truly awful or the mediocre to make this decade worth remembering.

Which leads to this column. I'll be reviewing any movie released in theaters that I saw during the 90's (not counted re-issues like The Wizard of Oz,). Since I have, I think, a wide taste in movies, this means a wide range of genres, like drama, comedy, action, romance, and even some foreign films thrown in there. These will be in no particular order, just whatever I feel like writing about. Sometimes, they'll be full-length reviews. Other times, I'll link together a few movies which happen to be similar in some way (like, say, reviewing Deep Impact and Armageddon together, since they're both space-object-crashes-into-earth movies released in 1998), or if I simply don't have much to say about them (these columns will be called "Short Takes"). I also may write essays about actors, actresses, directors, and writers who came to prominence in the 90's, or had significant careers in the 90's. Finally, I may look at trends of the 90's, or the hot-button movie related issues of the 90's. Any input or feedback on any of this is, of course, welcome.

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