Slant Magazine's The 100 Best Films of the 1990s

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The further one sifts through the decade's offerings, the more surprising its highlights seem. This is, after all, the decade during which Terrence Malick broke his two-decade-long sabbatical from filmmaking, a fugue only Stanley Kubrick came close to rivaling, both creating masterworks well worth the wait. The decade when all sorts of Eastern cinema broke through, from sensual Hong Kong mixtapes to cerebral Iranian puzzle boxes. The decade where Robert Altman, Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, David Cronenberg, Steven Spielberg, and others who made their names during the American New Wave of the '70s all broadened their horizons and confirmed their artistry, even with next-generation filmmakers like Gus Van Sant, David Fincher, Todd Haynes, and Quentin Tarantino all nipping at their heels. The decade where a commercial tie-in to a hit TV show could also be perhaps the strangest, most confounding wide-release film of its era (which should've surprised no one, given David Lynch's involvement). The decade that saw a talking pig (Babe) competing against another one (Mel Gibson) for the Best Picture Oscar. The '90s were all that and still found room for Aleksandr Sokurov holding a landscape shot for 40 minutes, James Cameron breaking the $100-million-budget ceiling, Chantal Akerman people-watching, and at least two anarchic, if not downright Marxist, sequels to hit children's movies. Dated? This decade is daft punk.

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  1. 153 new

    Titanic

    1997, in 25 top lists Check
  2. 127 new

    The Blair Witch Project

    1999, in 14 top lists Check
  3. 182 new

    The Matrix

    1999, in 30 top lists Check
  4. 32 new

    The Big Lebowski

    1998, in 26 top lists Check
  5. 13 new

    Pulp Fiction

    1994, in 38 top lists Check
  6. 58 new

    Fight Club

    1999, in 19 top lists Check
  7. 187 new

    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

    1998, in 6 top lists Check
  8. 139 new

    Saving Private Ryan

    1998, in 28 top lists Check
  9. 2 new

    Eyes Wide Shut

    1999, in 11 top lists Check
  10. 110 new

    Face/Off

    1997, in 7 top lists Check
  11. 47 new

    Magnolia

    1999, in 17 top lists Check
  12. 178 new

    Natural Born Killers

    1994, in 9 top lists Check
  13. 19 new

    Being John Malkovich

    1999, in 14 top lists Check
  14. 14 new

    Showgirls

    1995, in 6 top lists Check
  15. 148 new

    Jurassic Park

    1993, in 23 top lists Check
  16. 36 new

    Fargo

    1996, in 26 top lists Check
  17. 66 new

    Se7en

    1995, in 29 top lists Check
  18. 133 new

    Reservoir Dogs

    1992, in 26 top lists Check
  19. 41 new

    Groundhog Day

    1993, in 22 top lists Check
  20. 20 new

    Starship Troopers

    1997, in 9 top lists Check
  21. 69 new

    Terminator 2: Judgment Day

    1991, in 27 top lists Check
  22. 168 new

    Edward Scissorhands

    1990, in 10 top lists Check
  23. 170 new

    Twelve Monkeys

    1995 — a.k.a. 12 Monkeys, in 14 top lists Check
  24. 75 new

    Schindler's List

    1993, in 35 top lists Check
  25. 130 new

    The Silence of the Lambs

    1991, in 36 top lists Check
  26. 195 new

    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

    1999, in 8 top lists Check
  27. 93 new

    Babe: Pig in the City

    1998, in 1 top list Check
  28. 17 new

    Heat

    1995, in 23 top lists Check
  29. 185 new

    Toy Story 2

    1999, in 12 top lists Check
  30. 1 new

    The Thin Red Line

    1998, in 14 top lists Check
  31. 5 new

    Goodfellas

    1990, in 31 top lists Check
  32. 67 new

    Dazed and Confused

    1993, in 7 top lists Check
  33. 22 new

    Rushmore

    1998, in 11 top lists Check
  34. 92 new

    Mononoke-hime

    1997 — a.k.a. Princess Mononoke, in 18 top lists Check
  35. 10 new

    Crash

    1996, in 9 top lists Check
  36. 23 new

    Jackie Brown

    1997, in 5 top lists Check
  37. 113 new

    Casino

    1995, in 11 top lists Check
  38. 136 new

    Lola rennt

    1998 — a.k.a. Run Lola Run, in 9 top lists Check
  39. 186 new

    Ed Wood

    1994, in 9 top lists Check
  40. 46 new

    Before Sunrise

    1995, in 14 top lists Check
  41. 54 new

    Unforgiven

    1992, in 24 top lists Check
  42. 109 new

    Total Recall

    1990, in 8 top lists Check
  43. 77 new

    eXistenZ

    1999, in 3 top lists Check
  44. 52 new

    Lost Highway

    1997, in 10 top lists Check
  45. 84 new

    Gremlins 2: The New Batch

    1990, in 2 top lists Check
  46. 199 new

    The Piano

    1993, in 14 top lists Check
  47. 34 new

    Boogie Nights

    1997, in 12 top lists Check
  48. 11 new

    Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

    1992, in 6 top lists Check
  49. 114 new

    Wild at Heart

    1990, in 6 top lists Check
  50. 83 new

    The Last of the Mohicans

    1992, in 10 top lists Check
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Last updated on Nov 6, 2012; source