The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!(David Zucker)
Rain Man(Barry Levinson)
A Short Film About Killing(Krzysztof Kieslowski)
They Live(John Carpenter)
Ariel(Aki Kaurismäki)
The Chocolate War(Keith Gordon)
Police Story Part II(Jackie Chan)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit(Robert Zemeckis)
The Wash(Michael Toshiyuki Uno)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being(Philip Kaufman)
Tales From the Gimli Hospital(Guy Maddin)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown(Pedro Almodóvar)
As Tears Go By(Wong Kar-wai)
My Neighbor Totoro(Hayao Miyazaki)
Coming to America(John Landis)
Akira(Katsuhiro Otomo)
Tequila Sunrise(Robert Towne)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years(Penelope Spheeris)
Big Top Pee-wee(Randal Kleiser)
Killer Klowns From Outer Space(Stephen Chiodo)
Switching Channels(Ted Kotcheff)
Grave of the Fireflies(Isao Takahata)
Damnation(Béla Tarr)
The Sound and the Fury(Jean-Claude Brisseau)
Cocktail(Roger Donaldson)
On the Silver Globe(Andrzej Zulawski)
Fresh Horses(David Anspaugh)
For archival purposes, I file everything by the year it had its world premiere. Many of these films will have been commercially released in the U.S. a year or two later, so my lists won’t always match up with other folks’ lists.
Films I haven’t yet rated on that scale are
marked with if I
currently think they belong in my top ten. These films are subject to
being shifted around or yanked altogether at any moment, after I revisit
them and they get a numeral. (Lists from prior to about 1988 are
especially suspect, as I compiled them long ago from memories that were
in many cases already pretty dusty.)
A note regarding the Dekalog films:
Even though the TV series didn't air until 1989, I file episodes Five and
Six here, because they're variants of A Short Film About Killing
and A Short Film About Love, respectively, and both of those
premiered in 1988. I also have separate ratings for the two versions of
both films.
Seen but currently unrated (and not
presumptively among my top 10):The Accidental Tourist
(Kasdan); The Accused (Kaplan); The Adventures of Baron
Munchausen (Gilliam); Alien Nation (Baker);
Amsterdamned (Maas); Another Woman (Allen); Bat*21
(Markle); Beaches (G. Marshall); The Bear (Annaud);
Betrayed (Costa-Gavras); Big (P. Marshall); The Big
Blue (Besson); Big Business (Abrahams); Biloxi Blues
(Nichols); Bird (Eastwood); The Blob (Russell); The
Boost (Becker); Bright Lights, Big City (Bridges);
Buster (Green); Camille Claudel (Nuytten); The Camp at
Thiaroye (Sembene & Faty Sow); Casual Sex? (Robert);
Child's Play (Holland); Chocolat (Denis); Cinema
Paradiso (Tornatore); Clara's Heart (Mulligan); Clean and
Sober (Caron); Cocoon: The Return (Daniel Petrie);
Colors (Hopper); Comic Book Confidential (Mann); Cop
(Harris); The Couch Trip (Ritchie); Coverup: Behind the Iran
Contra Affair (Trent & Kasper); Criminal Law (Campbell);
Crossing Delancey (Micklin Silver); Crusoe (Deschanel);
A Cry in the Dark (Schepisi); Da (Clark); Dead Heat
(Goldblatt); The Dead Pool (Van Horn); Dirty Rotten
Scoundrels (Oz); D.O.A. (Morton & Jankel); Dominick
and Eugene (Young); The Dressmaker (O'Brien); Earth Girls
Are Easy (Temple); Eight Men Out (Sayles); 18 Again!
(Flaherty); Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (Signorelli);
Everybody's All-American (Hackford); Far North (Shepard);
For Keeps (Avildsen); For Queen and Country (Stellman);
Frantic (Polanski); Funny Farm (G. R. Hill); The Good
Mother (Nimoy); Gorillas in the Mist (Apted); The Great
Outdoors (Deutch); Hairspray (Waters); A Handful of
Dust (Sturridge); Hanussen (Szabó); Hawks (R.E.
Miller); Heartbreak Hotel (Columbus); Hellbound: Hellraiser
II (Randel); High Spirits (Jordan); Hot to Trot
(Dinner); Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie
(Ophuls); Imagine: John Lennon (Solt); Jack's Back
(Harrington); Kung Fu Master! (Varda); La Lectrice
(Deville); Lady in White (LaLoggia); The Lair of the White
Worm (Russell); The Land Before Time (Bluth); Landscape in
the Mist (Angelopoulos); Let's Get Lost (Weber); Light
Years (Laloux); The Little Thief (C. Miller); Little
Vera (Pitchul); Madame Sousatzka (Schlesinger); Married to
the Mob (Demme); Masquerade (Swaim); Memories of Me
(Winkler); Midnight Crossing (Holzberg); The Milagro Beanfield
War (Redford); Miles From Home (Sinise); Mississippi
Burning (Parker); Mr. North (Huston); Monkey Shines: An
Experiment in Fear (Romero); Moon Over Parador (Mazursky);
Moving (Metter); My Stepmother Is an Alien (Benjamin);
Mystic Pizza (Donald Petrie); The Navigator: A Medieval
Odyssey (Ward); A New Life (Alda); 1969 (Thompson);
Oliver & Company (Scribner); Paperhouse (Rose);
Pascali's Island (Dearden); Patti Rocks (Morris); Patty
Hearst (Schrader); Poltergeist III (Sherman); The
Presidio (Hyams); Pumpkinhead (Winston); Punchline
(Seltzer); Rambo III (Macdonald); Red Heat (W. Hill);
Red Sorghum (Zhang); Running on Empty (Lumet); Salaam
Bombay! (Nair); Satisfaction (Freeman); School Daze
(Lee); Scrooged (Donner); The Serpent and the Rainbow
(Craven); Shakedown (Glickenhaus); She's Having a Baby
(Hughes); Shoot to Kill (Spottiswoode); The Silk Road
(Sato); '68 (Kovacs); Spike of Bensonhurst (Morrissey);
Stand and Deliver (Menendez); Stealing Home (Kampmann &
Aldis); Stormy Monday (Figgis); Story of Women (Chabrol);
The Suitors (Ebrahimian); A Summer Story (Haggard);
Sweet Hearts Dance (Greenwald); Talk Radio (Stone);
Tapeheads (Fishman); A Taxing Woman's Return (Itami);
The Telephone (Torn); Things Change (Mamet); 36
fillette (Breillat); Torch Song Trilogy (Bogart); Track
29 (Roeg); Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Coppola);
Twins (Reitman); Under the Boardwalk (Kiersch); U2
Rattle and Hum (Joanou); Vampire's Kiss (Bierman);
Vibes (Kwapis); Vice Versa (Gilbert); Virgin
Machine (Treut); Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (Ellis);
We Think the World of You (Gregg); Willow (Howard);
Without a Clue (Eberhardt); The Wizard of Loneliness
(Bowen); Working Girl (Nichols); A World Apart (Menges);
The Wrong Guys (Bilson); Young Guns (Cain)
As yet unseen:Baxter (Boivin); The
Firm (Clarke); Gang of Four (Rivette); Iguana (Hellman)
I occasionally write reviews of older movies, but it happens too infrequently to file them by year.