In 1995:
O.J. Simpson was acquitted for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman;
Mississippi ratified the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution;
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City;
The first DVD was made available;
eBay went online;
Calvin and Hobbes ended its ten-year run in newspapers;
Selena was murdered;
Will Ferrell joined Saturday Night Live;
Pierce Brosnan debuted as James Bond;
The History Channel and The WB Network launched;
Natalie Dyer, Leonard Fournette, Logan Paul, Gigi Hadid, Serayah, Ryan Murphy, Dua Lipa, Kendall Jenner, Chase Elliott, Timothée Chalamet, and Gabby Douglas were born;
While Rose Kennedy, Ginger Rogers, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jonas Salk, Wolfman Jack, Eva Gabor, Jerry Garcia, Mickey Mantle, Orville Redenbacher, and Bobby Riggs died;
The following is my list of the ten best films released in 1995:
10) Antonia’s Line
After World War II, Antonia and her daughter Danielle return home to care for Antonia’s dying mother. Their arrival causes a stir within the small community. This is a vivid, lovely film about female empowerment and purpose, a much better version of Chocolate.
It’s a wisp of a fairy tale, an elusive film which doesn’t seem like it’s saying anything, but feels like you’ve witnessed something important. It feels like a major movie, even if it’s all smoke and mirrors.
9) Get Shorty
After a series of misadventures, Miami loan shark and amateur cinephile Chilli Palmer (John Travolta) convinces Hollywood executive, Harry Zinn (Gene Hackman) to make a movie based on his life.
Renee Russo, Dennis Farina, James Gandoflini, and Bette Midler give solid supporting performances, but the highlight is Danny DeVito as arrogant Hollywood superstar Martin Weir.
This insightful film illustrates how money corrupts the artistic process, demonstrating the complicated and laborious process of making movies, full of ridiculous deals and counter offers to get the financing in place.
Equal parts gangster movie, Hollywood expose, and satire, this film based on Elmore Leonard’s novel is witheringly funny.
8) Underground
Blacky Popara and a small cadre of associates are trapped in an underground cave in Yugoslvia at the end of the second World War. Blacky’s supposed best friend Marko Dren, a communist party official, tricks them into believing the war continues on the surface so they will make weapons they believe are used to fight the Nazi threat which he sells for profit.
Blacky eventually discovers the deception and goes above ground to participate in the Cold War, and become a Serbian patriot in the Yugoslav Wars.
Emir Kusturica’s darkly comic portrait of the futility of war and dehumanization of its participants interprets the recent history of Yugoslavia as one continuous war.
The surreal ending, a wedding where all of the characters, dead and alive, reunite to celebrate, led some critics to say this was what would happen “if Fellini had shot a war movie.” This is unfair to Kustirica, who owes more to the black comedy tradition of anti-war films like To Be or Not to Be (1942), M*A*S*H* (1970), Catch-22 (1970), and Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) than Fellini.
7) Safe
This nightmarish film by Todd Haynes follows Carol White (Julianne Moore) as she struggles with multiple chemical sensitivity before turning to a cult-like commune to help her avoid modern chemistry.
As Carol becomes more convinced she’s having a serious medical crisis, those around her become more convinced she’s having a nervous breakdown.
Our inability to identify if Carol’s illness is legitimate makes this film a fascinating look at how we relate to those who see the world differently. Her possibly psychosomatic disorder becomes an avenue to explore paranoia and isolation in the late twentieth century.
Successful Greek filmmaker A (Harvey Keitel) returns to his homeland and searches for lost films from the legendary Manaki brothers.
Director Theo Angelopoulos uses A’s Odysseian quest to discuss the importance of film history, the ways in which film can point us towards a common shared humanity, and explores the ways and reasons why the Balkan States have splintered and broken apart.
This is a film about a filmmaker longing for a film to define his country and give him an identity. Angelopoulos doesn’t quite provide A what he’s looking for, but suggests it’s a possibility, and that’s enough.
5) Toy Story
As soon as this premiered, Woody, and Buzz entered into the consciousness of our Western cultural heritage. Brilliant casting, especially the neurotic Wallace Shawn as Rex and Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, made even the most minor of characters into something memorable.
This love letter to childhood launched Pixar into a major Hollywood player and eventually revolutionized and reinvigorated its parent company, Disney.
4) Richard III
Ian McKellen’s modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s play draws implicit connections between Richard and contemporary politics. When we see Richard seducing the widow of his latest foe, he’s presented as the equivalent to a politician spinning uncomfortable truth into his advantage on Meet the Press.
Besides McKellen in the title role, the phenomenal cast features Jim Broadbent, Annette Benning, Maggie Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Nigel Hawthrone, and Kristin Scott Thomas.
If you like Shakespeare, you’ll love this. If you don’t, this will give you a better appreciation for him and his continued relevance.
Lenny Weinrib (Woody Allen), and his wife, Amanda (Helena Bonham Carter), can’t conceive, so they adopt a baby boy. When the child turns out to be a prodigy, a curious Lenny seeks out the birth mother: Linda Rush (Mira Sorvino), a porn star / aspiring actress.
A modern Greek tragedy, complete with a Greek chorus and a Deus ex machina ending, this is Woody Allen at his most playful, and Helena Bonham Carter at her most sane, but the reason this film is great begins and ends with Sorvino.
Linda Rush is one of my favorite characters, nonchalantly filthy and utterly charming. She’s completely at ease with her porn star career and naively believes quality work in pornography will result in better roles in the future.
Sorvino deservedly won an Oscar, but sadly it would appear she’s content working in independent films, avoiding the limelight attached to high-profile roles.
2) A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995)
In this engrossing four-hour film theory class, Martin Scorsese identifies four roles a film director can play: storyteller, illusionist, smuggler, and iconoclast. He acknowledges many directors shift between them, but argues each has a primary one through which most of their work can, and should, be viewed.
As film has become the dominant medium of the late twentieth century, it’s important we be able to properly read and understand what it is we consume. This projects aids in that endeavor, and provides a rare opportunity to see how one of the best and most accomplished auteurs approaches his craft.
Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is a young American who just ended a long-term relationship with his girlfriend and took a trip through Europe to “find” himself.
Celine (Julie Delpy) is young European returning to university in Paris after visiting her sick grandmother.
The pair meet on the train to Vienna and walk around the city over the course of one evening. What begins as innocent flirtation becomes a symbiotic relationship built on self-discovery. Without the baggage of their pre-existing identities or the burden of a relationship existing beyond this one night, Jesse and Celine don’t have to guard themselves. They can be vulnerable, safe in the knowledge this vulnerability will vanish twelve hours later, when Jesse boards his plane to the United States.
Complications arise when they find themselves drawn to the raw intimacy they’ve created with one another. Despite their limited time together, the closeness they forge is genuine. The movie ends with their parting, but the promise of a future meeting is inevitable, and while this film does not reveal if it is a promise kept, everyone watching the film assumes it must be.
In this film, Richard Linklater creates one of the most fully realized romantic pairings of the late twentieth century. It’s idealized and, in many ways, more fantasy than reality, but it’s a fantasy we want to believe is true.
Twenty years (and two sequels) later, Celine and Jesse remain one of the most vital onscreen relationships. Theirs is the stuff of fairytales, only in this version we see what lies beyond happier ever after and learn, despite the confusion and pain, it’s even more beautiful than we imagined.