1997 Top Ten List

The Game (David Fincher)

The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)

In the Company of Men (Neil LaBute)

Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (Kirby Dick)

Leila (Dariush Mehrjui)

Funny Games (Michael Haneke)

L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson)

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (Errol Morris)

Breakdown (Jonathan Mostow)

Face/Off (John Woo)

Additional 1997 Films By Rating

Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)

Henry Fool (Hal Hartley)

Titanic (James Cameron)

Same Old Song (Alain Resnais)

Love and Death on Long Island (Richard Kwietniowski)

Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons)

The River (Tsai Ming-liang)

Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) (Roberto Benigni)

Wild Animals (Kim Ki-duk)

Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino)

Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage)

The Ice Storm (Ang Lee)

Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell)

The Spanish Prisoner (David Mamet)

Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven)

My Best Friend's Wedding (P.J. Hogan)

Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (S.R. Bindler)

Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson)

Nil by Mouth (Gary Oldman)

Clockwatchers (Jill Sprecher)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg)

The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo)

The Wrong Guy (David Steinberg)

The Apostle (Robert Duvall)

The Peacemaker (Mimi Leder)

Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)

Fireworks (Hana-Bi) (Takeshi Kitano)

The Kingdom II (Lars von Trier & Morten Arnfred)

Mother and Son (Aleksandr Sokurov)

Scream 2 (Wes Craven)

Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Liar Liar (Tom Shadyac)

The End of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki)

Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher)

Affliction (Paul Schrader)

Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Werner Herzog)

Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith)

Kundun (Martin Scorsese)

The Castle (Michael Haneke)

Lost Highway (David Lynch)

Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai)

Insomnia (Erik Skjoldbjærg)

Live Flesh (Pedro Almodóvar)

Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (Guy Maddin)

Cube (Vincenzo Natali)

Two Girls and a Guy (James Toback)

The Small Town (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

Robinson in Space (Patrick Keiller)

La vie de Jésus (Bruno Dumont)

The Eel (Shohei Imamura)

Cremaster 5 (Matthew Barney)

See the Sea (François Ozon)

At the time I wrote my 1997 top list in the form of a column.

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.

Ratings are on a needlessly precise 100-point scale.

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.

Seen but currently unrated (and not presumptively among my top 10): Absolute Power (Eastwood); Afterglow (Rudolph); Air Force One (Petersen); The Alarmist (Dunsky); Alien Resurrection (Jeunet); Amistad (Spielberg); Anastasia (Bluth & Goldman); As Good as It Gets (Brooks); The Assignment (Duguay); Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Roach); Belly Up (Brant); The Best Man (Avati); Beverly Hills Ninja (Dugan); The Big One (Moore); Black & White & Red All Over (D. Davis & McCoy & Streeter); Booty Call (Pollack); The Borrowers (Hewitt); The Boxer (Sheridan); Brother (Balabanov); A Brother... (Verheyde); Buddy (Thompson); The Butcher Boy (Jordan); Buttoners (Zelenka); Career Girls (Leigh); The Chambermaid on the Titanic (Luna); Character (Van Diem); Children of Heaven (Majidi); Chinese Box (Wang); Con Air (West); Conspiracy Theory (Donner); Contact (Zemeckis); Cop Land (Mangold); Deconstructing Harry (Allen); The Designated Mourner (Hare); Destiny (Chahine); The Devil's Advocate (Hackford); Don King: Only in America (Herzfeld); Dry Cleaning (Fontaine); East Side Story (Ranga); The Edge (Tamahori); The End of Violence (Wenders); Face Down (Eberhardt); FairyTale—A True Story (Sturridge); Family Name (Alston); Fathers' Day (Reitman); The Fifth Element (Besson); Four Days in September (Barreto); 4 Little Girls (Lee); A Friend of the Deceased (Krishtofovich); From Today Until Tomorrow (Huillet & Straub); Gadjo dilo (Gatlif); Gattaca (Niccol); Genealogies of a Crime (Ruiz); Gesche's Poison (Von Waldenfels); G.I. Jane (Scott); Good Will Hunting (Van Sant); Gravesend (Stabile); GRIDLOCK'd (Curtis Hall); Grind (Kentis); Gummo (Korine); A Gun, a Car, a Blonde (Ames); Hav Plenty (Cherot); Hercules (Musker & Clements); Hoodlum (Duke); The House of Yes (Waters); How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Fisher); Hugo Pool (Downey); Hurricane Streets (Freeman); I Love You, Don't Touch Me! (J. Davis); I Went Down (Breathnach); In & Out (Oz); Inside/Out (Tregenza); Jane Eyre (Young); John Grisham's The Rainmaker (Coppola); Junk Mail (Sletaune); The King of Masks (Wu); Kiss or Kill (Bennett); Kitchen (Yim); Kitchen Party (Burns); La vie de Jésus (Dumont); Licensed to Kill (Dong); A Life Less Ordinary (Boyle); The Locusts (Kelley); The Long Way Home (Harris); Love! Valour! Compassion! (Mantello); The Lucky Star (Franco); Ma vie en rose (Berliner); Marius and Jeannette (Guédiguian); Martín (Hache) (Aristarain); The Matchmaker (Joffe); Men in Black (Sonnenfeld); Men With Guns (Sayles); A Merry War (Bierman); Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Eastwood); The Mirror (Panahi); Mr. Jealousy (Baumbach); Mojo (Butterworth); Moon Over Broadway (Pennebaker & Hegedus); Mrs Brown (Madden); Mrs Dalloway (Gorris); Murder at 1600 (Little); Murmur of Youth (Lin); My Son the Fanatic (Prasad); Night Falls on Manhattan (Lumet); Nowhere (Araki); Obsession (Sehr); The Odyssey (Konchalovsky); One Night Stand (Figgis); Open Your Eyes (Amenábar); Oscar and Lucinda (Armstrong); The Other Shore (Cabrera); The Perfect Circle (Kenovic); Post Coitum (Roüan); Private Parts (Thomas); Public Housing (Wiseman); A Queer Story (Shu); The Real Blonde (DiCillo); Red Corner (Avnet); Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (Mirkin); Rough Riders (Milius); The Second Civil War (Dante); Secrets of the Heart (Armendáriz); Seven Years in Tibet (Annaud); Seventh Heaven (Jacquot); Shadow Conspiracy (Cosmatos); She's So Lovely (Cassavetes); Shooting Fish (Schwartz); Smilla's Sense of Snow (August); Soul in the Hole (Gardner); Speed 2: Cruise Control (De Bont); Squeeze (Patton-Spruill); Star Maps (Arteta); The Sticky Fingers of Time (Brougher); Suicide Kings (O'Fallon); Sunday (Nossiter); Suzaku (Kawase); Telling Lies in America (Ferland); The Thief (Chukhrai); Thirteen (Williams); Too Much Sleep (Maquiling); Trouble on the Corner (Madison); Truth Or Consequences, N.M. (Sutherland); Turbulence (Butler); 12 Angry Men (Friedkin); TwentyFourSeven (Meadows); Twin Town (Allen); U Turn (Stone); Ulee's Gold (Nunez); Under the Skin (Adler); Unmade Beds (Barker); Voyage to the Beginning of the World (De Oliveira); Waco: The Rules of Engagement (Gazecki); Washington Square (Holland); Wednesday (Kossakovsky); Welcome to Sarajevo (Winterbottom); The Well (Lang); Western (Poirier); Who Is Henry Jaglom? (Rubin & Workman); Who the Hell Is Juliette? (Marcovich); The Wings of the Dove (Softley); Winter Sleepers (Tykwer); The Witman Boys (Szász); Xiao Wu (Jia); Year of the Horse (Jarmusch)

As yet unseen: Eye of God (Nelson)