Keith Simanton's Top 30 Movies of the Last 20 Years
I've had the privilege of being the managing editor at IMDb for the last ten years. Here are my 20+ films of the last 20 years.
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30 titles
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodGene HackmanMorgan FreemanRetired Old West gunslinger William Munny reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner Ned Logan and a young man, The "Schofield Kid."Eastwood, Freeman, Hackman and Harris in what is amazingly an homage and a biting commentary on all the Westerns before it. The bar was consequently set so high for future filmmakers that it seemed a fool's errand to even approach the genre itself...so few have until Andrew Dominik (see #10).
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJohn TravoltaUma ThurmanSamuel L. JacksonThe lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.Possibly the best dialogue in a script ever.
- DirectorBryan SingerStarsKevin SpaceyGabriel ByrneChazz PalminteriThe sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.Bryan Singer's direction of an incredible cast from an Oscar-winning script by Chris McQuarrie. Nary a waste of a frame in the entire thing.
- DirectorLana WachowskiLilly WachowskiStarsKeanu ReevesLaurence FishburneCarrie-Anne MossWhen a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.The Wachowski's did the impossible by making a compelling film out of the "virtual reality" sub-genre while embracing every movie trope from the dawn of cinema. Plus it kicks a lot of ass.
- DirectorRobert RedfordStarsRalph FiennesJohn TurturroRob MorrowA young lawyer, Richard Goodwin, investigates a potentially fixed game show. Charles Van Doren, a big time show winner, is under Goodwin's investigation.Robert Redford's treatment of a Paul Attanasio screenplay, based upon the quiz show scandal of the '50s is a insightful glimpse into the heady attraction to fame and wealth and the costs associated with pursuing it.
- DirectorVolker SchlöndorffStarsJohn MalkovichArmin Mueller-StahlGottfried JohnFrenchman Abel Tiffauges likes children, and wants to protect them against the grown-ups. Falsely suspected as child molester, he's recruited as a soldier in the 2nd World War, but very soon he is taken prisoner of war. After shortly serving in Goerings hunting lodge, he becomes the dogsbody in Kaltenborn Castle, an elite training camp for German boys. Completely happy to take care of these children, he becomes a servant of Nazism, catching boys from the area as supplies for the camp.Based upon Germanic lore and literature, particularly the legend of the Erl King, a creature that steals children away, this film literally made me gasp when I realized where it was going. This, not The Tin Drum, is Volker Schlondorff's masterpiece.
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsUlrich MüheMartina GedeckSebastian KochIn 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.A gentle thriller about the rare decency of men it well deserved its Best Foreign Film Oscar.
- DirectorBrad BirdStarsCraig T. NelsonSamuel L. JacksonHolly HunterWhile trying to lead a quiet suburban life, a family of undercover superheroes are forced into action to save the world.It's perfect. Humorous, thrilling, touching, rich and meaningful. Brad Bird's perfectionist stamp is on every scene.
- DirectorAlexander PayneStarsMatthew BroderickReese WitherspoonLoren NelsonA high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.The underdog in all of us squirms through Alexander Paynes' film as we watch Matthew Broderick act as the agent of his own destruction. And it's funny to boot.
- DirectorAndrew DominikStarsBrad PittCasey AffleckSam ShepardRobert Ford, who has idolized Jesse James since childhood, tries hard to join the resurgent gang of the Missouri outlaw, but gradually becomes resentful of the bandit leader.Andrew Dominick's dissection of fame and power and of the kinds of personalities that so desperately seek it, namely the powerless and the unloved. Worth it for the first scene with James stopping a train alone.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsLiam NeesonRalph FiennesBen KingsleyIn German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.Achingly painful to watch yet redemptive Spielberg's movie is about the Holocaust but it's also about the unexpected appearance of good.
- DirectorFred SchepisiStarsWill SmithStockard ChanningDonald SutherlandAn affluent New York City couple finds their lives touched, intruded upon, and compelled by a mysterious young black man who is never quite who he says he is.A slick and assured Will Smith plays a hustler who breaks an art dealer and his socialite wife out of their rote existence. Stockard Channing is all kinds of wonderful.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsKevin CostnerGary OldmanJack LemmonNew Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.Crazed, made-up, brilliant, impassioned. Stone at his second-best (Platoon was outside of our 20 years) but still a Thomas Paine (for good and for ill) railing on the screen.
- DirectorGary TrousdaleKirk WiseStarsPaige O'HaraRobby BensonJesse CortiA prince cursed to spend his days as a hideous monster sets out to regain his humanity by earning a young woman's love.The culmination of the Ashman/Menken relationship with the revitalized Disney corporation and artists that rekindled, well, almost everything having to do with animation for the last two decades. Rich and lush and heartfelt.
- DirectorHarold RamisStarsBill MurrayAndie MacDowellChris ElliottA narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.A comedy in the vein of It's a Wonderful Life, without knowing it. Too smart, too effortless to be mere happenstance.
- DirectorNiki CaroStarsKeisha Castle-HughesRawiri ParateneVicky HaughtonA contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.A modern-day fable that does what the best films can do. It leads us to a place that completely surprises us yet, at the same time, we knew it was heading there all along.
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsEmilio EchevarríaGael García BernalGoya ToledoAn amateur dog fighter, a supermodel, and a derelict assassin, all separately struggling to find love, find their lives transformed by a devastating car wreck in Mexico City.Watching this film makes one get a sliver of glimpse into the view God must have of our broken, limping lives. A dog fighter, a self-absorbed model and an assassin turn out to be no better and no worse than any of the rest of us as Inarritu's film converges on a traffic accident that will affect them all.
- DirectorBaz LuhrmannStarsNicole KidmanEwan McGregorJohn LeguizamoA poor Bohemian poet in 1890s Paris falls for a beautiful courtesan and nightclub star coveted by a jealous duke.If you know someone who doesn't like it, lightly stomp on their toes.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsViggo MortensenMaria BelloEd HarrisA mild-mannered man becomes a local hero through an act of violence, which sets off repercussions that will shake his family to its very core.What do we want of our protectors? We want them to do horrible things and then to sit down and shut up so we don't have to know about it. Cronenberg's masterpiece.
- DirectorTerry GilliamStarsBruce WillisMadeleine StoweBrad PittIn a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.Gilliam wants to save the world and he wants to release a toxin that will destroy it. Based upon the short by Chris Marker, Le Jetee and showing that Bruce Willis is a great actor, as is Brad Pitt.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.So dense you lose your place trying to recollect it, like Kane or the Godfather or Jackie Brown.
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsJohn CusackIben HjejleTodd LouisoRob, a record store owner and compulsive list maker, recounts his top five breakups, including the one in progress.The same drive that causes people to make lists, to rearrange their stacks, to show their erudition, to show off, is explored in Frear's great film. Love, however, ends up being something that can't be quantified and shelved easily, which is a problem. Makes fun of Stevie Wonder (remember Jack Black's character telling off the father that thinks his daughter wants "I Just Called to Say I Love You?") and yet ends the film on a Wonder tune.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsSusan SarandonGeena DavisHarvey KeitelTwo best friends set out on an adventure, but it soon turns around to a terrifying escape from being hunted by the police, as these two women escape for the crimes they committed.Ridley Scott's film transforms a road trip movie into a film about deep and abiding companionship with two incredible performances by Sarandon and Davis.
- DirectorGeorge ClooneyStarsSam RockwellDrew BarrymoreGeorge ClooneyAn adaptation of the cult memoir of game show impresario Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell), in which he purports to have been a C.I.A. hitman.Clooney's direction pulls in the unbelievable and the pathetic in this tale of Chuck Barry, who may or may not be completely off his rocker.
- DirectorSean PennStarsEmile HirschVince VaughnCatherine KeenerAfter graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.Sean Penn's take on wanderlust and the need to be your own person with an overlooked, excellent performance by Emil Hirsch.
- DirectorJohn DahlStarsNicolas CageDennis HopperLara Flynn BoyleUpon arriving to a small town, a drifter is mistaken for a hitman, but when the real hitman arrives, complications ensue."Adios Red Rock," is a quote that should be so well known that it's on Jeopardy! John Dahl's direction and Nic Cage and Dennis Hopper. You can almost taste the Miller Genuine Draft.
- DirectorJan de BontStarsKeanu ReevesDennis HopperSandra BullockA young police officer must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph."Pop quiz hotshot."
- DirectorMike FiggisStarsNicolas CageElisabeth ShueJulian SandsBen Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.A love triangle that includes a suicidal writer, a prostitute and alcohol. Nic Cage's performance deservedly won him an Oscar.
- DirectorTony GilroyStarsGeorge ClooneyTilda SwintonTom WilkinsonA law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multibillion-dollar class action suit.Tony Gilroy's tale of a lawyer who sees the effects of his own handiwork contains what may be George Clooney's best performance. A smart film that throws one back to the days of Sydney Pollack.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsTom CruiseNicole KidmanTodd FieldA Manhattan doctor embarks on a bizarre, night-long odyssey after his wife's admission of unfulfilled longing.Kubrick dissects marriage and fidelity like a bulldozer with a razor-sharp scoop.