Everything Old Is New Again?

1991.  Communism falls and the world looks like it might be turning a corner.  Was it the same for film?  Was it even true for the world?

Anyway, forget that high-minded stuff.  Here's Jesse Walker's top ten movie list for 1991. (https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2021/12/91-revised-ive-listed-my-favorite-films.html)

1.  The Rapture

2.  Hearts Of Darkness

3.  Homicide

4.  Raise The Red Lantern

5.  Tribulation 99

6.  Blooper Bunny

7.  JFK

8.  Slacker

9.  Point Break

10. Prime Suspect

I don't know if it's the year or if it's Jesse, but not a very impressive list.

I don't get Jesse's reverence for The Rapture.  Best I can say about this movie is it's different.

I do like Hearts Of Darkness quite a bit. (By the way, I've met Fax Bahr a few times.  I think I met Hickenlooper once as well.)

David Mamet is a fine playwright and a so-so filmmaker--his stylized characters seem more alive on stage than screen.  Haven't seen Homicide since it opened, but I remember it as not being that good even for Mamet.

Raise The Red Lantern is one of Zhang Yimou's (or is it Yimou Zhang's) best.

Haven't seen Tribulation 99, but JFK is probably the best comedy of the year.

Slacker works well in small slices.  Don't know if I could sit through it all in one piece again. (Jesse also put Waking Life in his top ten for 2001 and Bernie for 2011--guess he's a big fan of Linklater.)

Point Break has some great action sequences but doesn't hold together that well.

Meanwhile, "Blooper Bunny" is a short (and not one of the better ones in the series) and Prime Suspect is a TV show.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  Delicatessen

12.  Blood In The Face

13.  The Double Life Of Veronique

14.  Zentropa

15.  Little Man Tate

16.  Dogfight

17.  Thanksgiving Prayer

18.  The Death Of Stalinism In Bohemia

19.  The Silence Of The Lambs

20.  Flirting

11 is fascinating, though maybe a bit much.  Haven't seen 12.  13 is okay.  14 should be top ten.  Don't think much of 15 or 16.  17 is a short.  18 is great but also a short.  Never understood all the excitement over 19, which swept the Oscars.  20 is pretty good.

Here are some other 1991 film that would have made my top twenty:

Armour Of God II: Operation Condor

City Of Hope

Defending Your Life

Life Is Sweet

Once Upon A Time In China

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Other films of interest:

The Addams Family, At Play in the Fields of the Lord, Barton Fink, Beauty And The Beast, La Belle Noiseuse, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Black Robe, Boyz N The Hood, Bugsy, Cape Fear, Career Opportunities, A Chinese Ghost Story III, Chuck Amuck: The Movie, City Slickers, The Commitments, Dead Again, Doc Hollywood, The Doctor, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, The Doors, The Fisher King, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Gambling Ghost, Highway Patrolman, Hot Shots!, The Hours and Times, Hudson Hawk, The Indian Runner, Jungle Fever, Kafka, L.A. Story, The Last Boy Scout, Let Him Have It, Like Water For Chocolate, Madonna: Truth or Dare, Mediterraneo, Meet the Applegates, My Own Private Idaho, Mystery Date, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, Naked Lunch, New Jack City, Night on Earth, Nothing but Trouble, The Object of Beauty, Only the Lonely, Oscar, Pizza Man, The Quarrel, A Rage in Harlem, The Rocketeer, Salmonberries, The Sandman, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Shadows and Fog, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Thelma & Louise, Toto the Hero, Tous les Matins du Monde, Truly Madly Deeply, Until the End of the World, Waiting, What About Bob?, Year of the Gun