100 best '90s movies

- Director: Ang Lee
- Stacker score: 85.41
- Metascore: 80
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 124 minutes

In "Eat Drink Man Woman," semiretired master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) and his aimless three daughters deal with the decline of traditional Chinese culture and their changing lives and romantic prospects through their elaborate weekly Sunday dinner. Part of director Ang Lee's "Father Knows Best" trilogy, the film is also the only of Lee's films to be entirely filmed in his home country of Taiwan. Additionally, the title paraphrases a quote from the classic Confucian "Book of Rites," which reads, "The things which men greatly desire are comprehended in meat and drink and sexual pleasure."

- Director: Robert Altman
- Stacker score: 85.41
- Metascore: 81
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 188 minutes

In "Short Cuts," the disparate experiences of over 20 Los Angeles residents cross in unexpected ways after a waitress accidentally runs over a young boy right before his birthday celebration. These interwoven character arcs are based on nine short stories and a poem by prolific American author Raymond Carver. The film's stacked ensemble cast includes Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Robbins, Andie MacDowell, Robert Downey Jr., Frances McDormand, and Lily Tomlin.

- Director: Todd Solondz
- Stacker score: 85.41
- Metascore: 81
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 134 minutes

The indie film world embraced "Happiness" despite its less-than-wholesome content. The movie details the lives of three sisters all experiencing different degrees of trouble at home, from loneliness and self-pity to a pedophile husband. Suffice to say, nobody finds happiness. Todd Solondz was nominated for Best Director at the Film Independent Spirit Awards for his work.

- Director: Wong Kar-Wai
- Stacker score: 85.41
- Metascore: 78
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 102 minutes

Two cops fall in love with two different women in Hong Kong. Shot in 23 days, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino felt passionate about the film and worked to get it in front of American audiences.

- Director: Robert De Niro
- Stacker score: 85.41
- Metascore: 80
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 121 minutes

Robert De Niro serves as both the star and director of this 1960s mafia crime story about a father who tries to protect his teenage son when a local gangster (Chazz Palminteri) befriends the young man. Palminteri himself wrote the play the film was based on, and also adapted it for the screen.

- Director: Richard Linklater
- Stacker score: 85.41
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 103 minutes

Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" centers on the misadventures of a group of Austin, Texas, high schoolers following their last day of school in 1976. The Criterion Collection regards the film as one of the "best teen films ever made," and Entertainment Weekly ranked it third in the site's list of the 50 best high school movies of all time. "Dazed and Confused" features memorable performances from household names and then-rising stars like Matthew McConaughey and Parker Posey.

- Director: John Madden
- Stacker score: 85.41
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Runtime: 123 minutes

A young William Shakespeare, played by Joseph Fiennes, is running low on cash and ideas when he meets and falls in love with a beautiful woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) who inspires him. The woman is an actor in the theater but disguises herself as a man to do so. The film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Paltrow.

- Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
- Stacker score: 85.41
- Metascore: 78
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 188 minutes

Paul Thomas Anderson followed up his "Boogie Nights" success with this sprawling tale about the meaning of family amongst interconnected characters in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jason Robards starred in what would be one of the last films of Robards' career. The film scored three Oscar nominations, including one for Cruise's performance and another for Anderson's screenplay.

- Director: Richard Linklater
- Stacker score: 85.41
- Metascore: 77
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 101 minutes

Two years after helming "Dazed and Confused," Richard Linklater directed a romantic drama starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy about two young people who meet on a train to Vienna and spend one hopeful night together. While the plot isn't very extensive, a sequel was made in 2004 that picked up the story nine years later ("Before Sunset"), and a third film in 2013 ("Before Midnight") had the couple reuniting again 18 years after their first encounter.

- Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 7.0
- Runtime: 85 minutes

In his feature film debut, Nuri Bilge Ceylan brings audiences a tale based on events from his childhood. The Turkish black-and-white film tells the story of a rural family from the perspective of two young children. The director used members of his own family in the film.

- Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 90 minutes

In "The Promise," a teenager comes of age in Belgium as he tries to be a different man than his criminal father, who traffics illegal immigrants. The highly acclaimed film from the Dardenne brothers is also a part of the Criterion Collection.

- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Runtime: 103 minutes

Based on a memoir by A.E. Hotchner of the same name, "King of the Hill" tells the story of a boy who must survive in a seedy hotel after his mother is placed in a sanatorium and his father takes work as a traveling salesman in the 1930s. Writing for The Dissolve, Noel Murray notes the film "balances an incident-packed script with muted tones, painting a rich, absorbing picture of one boy's struggle to live by his wits."

- Director: Theodoros Angelopoulos
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 80
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 137 minutes

"Eternity and a Day" protagonist Alexandros (Bruno Ganz) is an ailing Greek writer trying to finish the works of a 19th-century poet before his impending death. He obtains a new sense of purpose when he rescues a young Albanian immigrant boy from kidnappers and sets out to return him to his grandmother… however, all is not as it seems. The acclaimed Greek film won the Cannes Film Festival's coveted Palme d'Or prize in 1998.

- Director: Richard Loncraine
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Runtime: 110 minutes

"Richard III" transposes the events of the classic Shakespeare tragedy of the same name onto a fictional 1930s England ravaged by the civil war between the dueling York and Lancaster families. Ian McKellen (who co-wrote the screenplay with director Richard Loncraine) stars as the titular character, who plots to assassinate Lancastrian King Henry and take the throne for himself. This reinvention is based on a National Theatre stage production, in which McKellen also starred.

- Director: Robert Benton
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Runtime: 110 minutes

An adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo's novel, "Nobody's Fool" features Paul Newman as a self-indulgent man who needs to step up when his son, whose marriage failed, returns with his grandson. The film also stars Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

- Director: Woody Allen
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Runtime: 108 minutes

"Husbands and Wives" begins as couple Gabe (Woody Allen) and Judy's (Mia Farrow) are shocked when their best friends (played by Judy Davis and Sydney Pollack) announce they're getting a divorce. Incidentally, this was the 13th and final film that Allen and Farrow made together before the former couple broke up.

- Director: Alfonso Cuarón
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 97 minutes

Before ascending in the directing world for his work on the "Harry Potter" films, Alfonso Cuarón directed this pseudo-fairy tale. "A Little Princess" follows the story of a wealthy girl banished to servitude at a New York boarding school when her father is presumed dead during World War I.

- Directors: Michael Radford, Massimo Troisi
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 81
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 108 minutes

"The Postman" tells the story of the fictional friendship that develops between Italian mailman Mario (Massimo Troisi) and real-life exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret). The film is adapted from two pieces of media: The 1985 novel called "Burning Patience," which itself was based on a 1983 film written and directed by the book's author. Troisi tragically suffered a heart attack and died just a day after principal photography ended, and was later posthumously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

- Director: Peter Jackson
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Runtime: 99 minutes

In this crime drama, two young girls grow close. When their parents separate them because they are worried about their bond, the girls take revenge. The film, based on the 1954 Parker–Hulme murder case, marked Kate Winslet's film debut and also earned Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (the filmmaking couple behind the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy) their first Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay.

- Director: Majid Majidi
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 77
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 89 minutes

Shot on location in Tehran, Iran's capital city, the story tells of Ali and Zahra, a poor brother and sister. After Ali loses Zahra's shoes, they share Ali's shoes while doing their best to avoid telling their parents. "Children of Heaven" was the first Iranian film to receive an Oscar nomination.

- Director: James Foley
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 100 minutes

David Mamet's play found its way to the big screen after winning the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award in 1984. Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, and Jack Lemmon star in the story of real estate agents desperate to make a sale. Pacino was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his performance as Ricky Roma, the best closer in the office.

- Director: Hayao Miyazaki
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 76
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 134 minutes

This Japanese animated fantasy film was distributed by Toho Studios and features many famous voices in the English-language version including Claire Danes, Minnie Driver, and Billy Bob Thornton. While trying to find a cure after being stricken with a fatal curse while trying to protect his village, Ashitaka gets caught in the middle of a battle between two groups and tries to see both sides but in doing so he angers everyone.

- Director: Michael Mann
- Stacker score: 85.95
- Metascore: 76
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 170 minutes

Legendary actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino go head-to-head in "Heat," a cat-and-mouse story about professional bank robbers who accidentally leave behind a clue at their latest heist and find the cops on their tails. Jon Voight and Val Kilmer also star in the almost three-hour film that began as an unproduced television pilot by Michael Mann.

- Director: Olivier Assayas
- Stacker score: 86.49
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 7.0
- Runtime: 95 minutes

This French drama tells the story of a rebellious teenage girl and boy in love who try to escape their current lives. A period piece that takes place in the 1970s, Geoffrey O'Brien, writing for The New York Review in 2018, said the film "can finally be recognized as a singular masterpiece on the most familiar of themes, the sufferings and misfortunes of youthful passion."

- Director: Takeshi Kitano
- Stacker score: 86.49
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 103 minutes

The tension between the common law and a personal sense of justice drives Japanese cult director Takeshi Kitano's film "Fireworks." Kitano stars as main character Nishi, who leaves the police force after a string of personal tragedies. These include his infant daughter's death, his wife's fatal illness, and his business partner's recent paralysis as a result of a gangster attack. To help his loved ones and ease his depression, Nishi borrows from a loan shark and robs a bank to clear his debt, allowing him to give his wife a few final happy memories.

- Director: Walter Salles
- Stacker score: 86.49
- Metascore: 80
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 110 minutes

The award-winning "Central Station" was shot in sequence, uncommon for most films. The storyline follows a young boy mourning the loss of his mother who goes on a journey to find his father with the help of a woman who works at a station in Rio de Janeiro and helps illiterate people write letters.

- Director: Emir Kusturica
- Stacker score: 86.49
- Metascore: 79
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 167 minutes

"Underground" tracks the turbulent history of Yugoslavia from World War II until the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s by capturing this time period through the friendship between two fictional black-market hustlers. The film landed director Emir Kusturica his second Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995, following his 1985 win for "When Father Was Away on Business." Kusturica is one of only nine filmmakers to date who have won the award multiple times.

- Director: Gillian Armstrong
- Stacker score: 86.49
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Runtime: 115 minutes

Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, which was loosely based on the author's life, "Little Women" stars Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, Christian Bale, and Susan Sarandon. The film chronicles the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—as they live and love during and following the American Civil War. Another film adaptation of the same name was released in 2019.

- Director: Lars von Trier
- Stacker score: 86.49
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 159 minutes

"Breaking the Waves" tells the strange romantic tale of a devoutly religious Scottish woman named Bess (Emily Watson), whose husband Jan (Stellan Skarsgård) convinces her that sleeping with another man after he's paralyzed is God's plan. The film was directed by respected Danish director Lars von Trier, who co-created Dogme 95, a film movement that eschewed special effects and modern filmmaking technology in hopes of helping filmmakers earn back power from major studios. Therefore, "Breaking the Waves" follows many of the movement's rules, such as utilizing more down-to-earth production elements.

- Director: Hayao Miyazaki
- Stacker score: 86.49
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 94 minutes

This animated Japanese film tells the story of Porco Rosso, once a World War I pilot who works as a bounty hunter. A mystery curse leaves him with the head of a pig. The film was originally conceived as an in-flight short for Japanese airlines.

- Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
- Stacker score: 86.49
- Metascore: 73
- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Runtime: 136 minutes

In "The Matrix," Keanu Reeves stars as a young hacker drawn into a dramatically different world, discovering that his own reality is a false construction. He joins the rebel underground to fight the people imposing that reality, which leads to some of the most iconic fight sequences in cinema that earned the film four Academy Awards.

- Director: Abbas Kiarostami
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 118 minutes

A group of broadcast journalists posing as engineers show up in a rural village to observe mourning rituals, as they await the death of a very old woman. While they are there, one of them comes to some stunning realizations about life. Calum Marsh, writing for The Village Voice in 2014, called the film, "a deeply, patiently observational film" while noting that "the details Kiarostami emphasizes—a dung beetle struggling to haul away its bounty, an apple rolling haphazardly across an uneven floor, a bone floating down a stream—seem somehow profound in their banality, a mystery of ineffable beauty."

- Director: Nicholas Hytner
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Runtime: 110 minutes

Queen Charlotte and the Prime Minister of England try to keep others from usurping the throne when King George III displays symptoms of madness in this comical biography. Starring Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, and Ian Holm, the film is based on the play "The Madness of George III" by Alan Bennett.

- Director: Wayne Wang
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 139 minutes

Adapted from the Amy Tan novel of the same name, "The Joy Luck Club" tells the story of four aging Chinese-American women and their mothers who meet regularly to share family stories while playing mahjong. At the heart of the film lies the relationships between mothers and daughters and the immigrant experience.

- Director: Majid Majidi
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 80
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 90 minutes

"The Color of Paradise" tells a story about the struggles of a father who does not know how to accept his blind son, Mohammad. The film was nominated by various American critics groups for Best Foreign Language Film. Actor Mohsen Ramezani, who plays Mohammad, is blind in real life.

- Director: Robert Altman
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Runtime: 124 minutes

A scathing satire on the film industry, "The Player" is based on a novel of the same name by Michael Tolkin. Tim Robbins plays a studio executive who is receiving death threats from a writer whose work he rejected, though he isn't sure which writer it is. The film opens with an unforgettable eight-minute-long tracking shot.

- Director: Kimberly Peirce
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Runtime: 118 minutes

Based on the true story of young transgender man Brandon Teena, this film was Hilary Swank's breakthrough film role and one for which she won an Oscar. In the film, Teena relocates to a small Nebraska town and falls in love. When people discover that Brandon was assigned female at birth, things go horribly wrong.

- Director: Ang Lee
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 136 minutes

Ang Lee followed up his "Eat Drink Man Woman" success with a completely different type of movie: a period adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility." Written for the screen by Emma Thompson (who also stars and earned an Academy Award for her script), the film earned a Best Picture nomination—likely in part to its all-star cast, which features Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, and Tom Wilkinson.

- Director: Anthony Minghella
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 162 minutes

A romantic war drama with a stellar cast, "The English Patient" was based on the 1992 novel of the same name. A badly burned patient is tended to by a nurse at the end of World War II, and through a series of flashbacks to his past, we learn about a love affair.

- Director: Henry Selick
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 76 minutes

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" eschewed traditional two-dimensional animation in favor of stop-motion, bringing the dark tale of Jack Skellington to life. A citizen of "Halloween Town," Skellington accidentally discovers "Christmas Town" and decides to celebrate the holiday in his own spooky way. Tim Burton came up with the original story as a poem back in 1982 as an animator for Disney.

- Director: James Cameron
- Stacker score: 87.03
- Metascore: 75
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 137 minutes

Almost 10 years have passed for Sarah Connor and now her son John is targeted by a terminator, who is even more deadly than the first. A protector is sent to save John and Sarah. Writing for Empire in 2000, Bob McCabe called the second installment in the "Terminator" franchise, "A movie that defied expectations, raised the ante for both effects movies and action sequences and gave the world the immortal 'Hasta la vista baby.'"

- Director: Mike Leigh
- Stacker score: 87.57
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 103 minutes

"Life Is Sweet" is the story of a family and their lives in a working-class suburb of London. Alison Steadman, who played suburban wife and mother Wendy in the film, was married to director Mike Leigh at the time of the film's release. The couple divorced in 2001 after almost 30 years of marriage.

- Director: James Ivory
- Stacker score: 87.57
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 142 minutes

Based upon the 1910 novel by E.M. Forster, "Howards End" is the story of three families at the beginning of the 20th century, from different classes, who get caught up in a complicated situation. A Merchant Ivory period piece, the film won three Oscars, including Best Actress for Emma Thompson.

- Director: Mike Leigh
- Stacker score: 87.57
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 131 minutes

Director Mike Leigh effectively employs a semi-improvisational style in the film. "Naked" follows a man as he moves from Manchester to London while trying to outrun a sexual act that did not end well. The film won Best Actor for David Thewlis and Best Director for Leigh at the Cannes Film Festival.

- Director: Neil Jordan
- Stacker score: 87.57
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Runtime: 112 minutes

In this film that featured a shocking twist, a member of the Irish Republican Army, Fergus, bonds with a kidnapped British soldier named Jody. When things go wrong, Fergus flees to London and looks up Jody's girlfriend. The thriller stars Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson, and Forest Whitaker.

- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Stacker score: 87.57
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Runtime: 139 minutes

Starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Winona Ryder, "The Age of Innocence" is a period drama set in 19th-century New York. The plot focuses on a man who is meant to marry one woman but falls in love with her cousin, an outcast among New York's high society. The film is based on Edith Wharton's novel of the same name for which she was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for literature.

- Director: Michael Mann
- Stacker score: 87.57
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 157 minutes

Based on a "60 Minutes" story, "The Insider" delves into the life of whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and the lengths to which Big Tobacco would go to silence him. The film was a major critical success, earning seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Russell Crowe's performance in the leading role opposite Al Pacino.

- Director: Wes Anderson
- Stacker score: 87.57
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 93 minutes

American auteur Wes Anderson followed up his indie hit "Bottle Rocket" with this idiosyncratic story of a high school playwriting wunderkind (Jason Schwartzman) who befriends a downtrodden businessman (Bill Murray) as they both fall for the same woman. The film transformed Murray from big-budget comedy star into indie film darling and earned Anderson an Independent Spirit Award for Best Director.

- Director: Bryan Singer
- Stacker score: 87.57
- Metascore: 77
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 106 minutes

The first major motion picture for Bryan Singer ("X-Men") was "The Usual Suspects." This enthralling whodunit follows a mysterious gangster, Verbal Kint (played by Kevin Spacey), who brings a motley crew of criminals into his orbit, and an ensuing police investigation of a ship full of murders. The gangster earned a spot as one of AFI's top movie villains. The film won two Oscars for Spacey's performance and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie's script.

- Director: Steven Zaillian
- Stacker score: 88.11
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 109 minutes

When a young boy's parents realize he is gifted at chess, they hire a coach, taking the fun out of the game and making the boy wonder if winning is worth it. The film is based on the story of chess whiz kid Josh Waitzkin.

- Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Stacker score: 88.11
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 98 minutes

The story of two identical women living in two different places unfolds in "The Double Life of Véronique." While one woman lives in Poland and the other is in France, their lives are connected. The film won several awards at the Cannes Film Festival.

- Director: Scott Hicks
- Stacker score: 88.11
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 105 minutes

Geoffrey Rush won an Oscar for his breakthrough film role at the age of 45 in "Shine." The Australian biopic centered on the life of piano prodigy David Helfgott (portrayed in the film by Geoffrey Rush, Noah Taylor, and Alex Rafalowicz) and his battle with mental illness. The film received criticism for its depiction of mental illness.

- Director: Thomas Vinterberg
- Stacker score: 88.11
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 105 minutes

Unpleasant family secrets come to light at the 60th birthday celebration for the family patriarch. "The Celebration" became the first movie of the Dogme 95 movement, though filmmaker Vinterberg confessed to breaking the rules.

- Director: Mike Leigh
- Stacker score: 88.65
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 160 minutes

"Topsy-Turvy" is a British musical set in the 1880s. It tells the story of the legendary duo Gilbert and Sullivan and focuses on a time when their partnership almost ended. The film won two Oscars for Best Costume Design and Best Makeup.

- Director: Claire Denis
- Stacker score: 88.65
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Runtime: 92 minutes

"Beau Travail," based loosely on Herman Melville's "Billy Budd," follows a group of French Foreign Legion soldiers and the suffering Sergeant Galoup whose jealousy and obsession have brought him near ruin. The dance scene at the end of the film was shot in just a single take.

- Director: Kaige Chen
- Stacker score: 88.65
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 171 minutes

"Farewell My Concubine" is one of the most successful films to emerge from Chinese Fifth Generation cinema, an era in which young film grads rebelled against the realism and strict formality of films made under the country's state-sanctioned film regulations in the 1950s and 1960s. The film looks at the political upheaval of 20th-century China head-on, following the long, fraught relationship between opera performers Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) and Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung).

- Director: James Ivory
- Stacker score: 88.65
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 134 minutes

"The Remains of the Day" had Oscars written all over it, with huge British stars Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson performing in an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's award-winning novel. The film tells the story in the flashbacks of a butler (Hopkins) who realizes he served a dishonorable man. Hopkins and Thompson earned Academy Award nominations for their roles, while the film itself and director James Ivory also received nods.

- Director: Jane Campion
- Stacker score: 88.65
- Metascore: 89
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Runtime: 121 minutes

Known for its graphic sexual content, "The Piano" featured Holly Hunter as Ada, a woman who doesn't speak and lives in an arranged marriage in New Zealand. When Ada's husband sells her piano, a male neighbor asks her to give him piano lessons, but there are strings attached. Jane Campion became only the second woman in the history of the Oscars to be nominated for Best Director.

- Director: Billy Bob Thornton
- Stacker score: 88.65
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 135 minutes

Billy Bob Thornton received serious praise for his role in "Sling Blade," playing a man with developmental disabilities just released from prison for a murder he committed as a child. He earned even more accolades for the film's script, which won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Country music star Dwight Yoakam made his first major acting appearance in the film as an abusive boyfriend.

- Director: Ridley Scott
- Stacker score: 88.65
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 130 minutes

Best friends Thelma and Louise (Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon) go on a road trip and end up criminals being pursued by police. The film features Brad Pitt in one of his first film roles. Sarandon and Davis received Oscar nods for Best Actress but were beaten out by Jodie Foster for her role as Clarice Starling in "The Silence of the Lambs."

- Director: Danny Boyle
- Stacker score: 88.65
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 93 minutes

Based on Scottish writer Irvine Welsh's first novel, "Trainspotting" is the story of heroin addict Mark Renton and his friends. The film delivered one of the most disturbing scenes in cinema. There was a sequel released in 2017 that shows where Renton and his pals ended up.

- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Stacker score: 88.65
- Metascore: 81
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 99 minutes

Writer and director Quentin Tarantino wasn't even 30 years old when he made "Reservoir Dogs," an indie crime film about a squad of suit-clad criminals who deal with a crime gone wrong. The film's success helped move American filmmaking away from the iron grip of movie studios and more towards independent productions.

- Director: Barbet Schroeder
- Stacker score: 89.19
- Metascore: 93
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Runtime: 111 minutes

"Reversal of Fortune" is based on the true story of socialite and British lawyer Claus von Bülow, the attempted murder of his wife, the ultra-wealthy Sunny von Bülow, and his hiring of attorney Alan Dershowitz to help him overthrow his attempted murder conviction. Sunny von Bülow remained in a vegetative state for the last 28 years of her life and died on Dec. 6, 2008, at age 76.

- Director: Pedro Almodóvar
- Stacker score: 89.19
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 101 minutes

In the Spanish film "All About My Mother," a mother goes to look for the father of her son—one that he never knew existed. The relationships that result from her journey are a major focus of the film. Director Pedro Almodóvar dedicated the film to Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, and Romy Schneider.

- Director: Jim Sheridan
- Stacker score: 89.19
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 133 minutes

"In the Name of the Father" focuses on the real-life drama of an Irishman (Daniel Day-Lewis) falsely accused of murdering four British soldiers on behalf of the IRA. The film captivated audiences and earned a huge cache of award nominations, including seven at the Academy Awards. The story was taken from Gerry Conlon's autobiography, "Proved Innocent: The Story of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four."

- Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
- Stacker score: 89.19
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 155 minutes

Mark Wahlberg officially left his Marky Mark days behind him when he starred in this epic story—the tale of a burgeoning adult film star finding his way in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s. Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore received Oscar nominations for their performances, as did Paul Thomas Anderson for his script.

- Director: Andrew Davis
- Stacker score: 89.19
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Runtime: 130 minutes

This hugely successful drama inspired by true events was a remake of the 1960s TV series, which centered on a doctor accused of murder who escapes from a prison transport and goes on the run to prove his innocence. Tommy Lee Jones won the Academy Award for his role as the U.S. Marshal determined to catch Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford). The third-most-successful film of 1993, "The Fugitive" inspired a remake ("U.S. Marshals") in 1998, in which Jones reprised his part.

- Director: Isao Takahata
- Stacker score: 89.73
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 119 minutes

"Only Yesterday," an animated Japanese film, focuses on a 27-year-old woman as she reminisces about her childhood. The film was based on a manga series about the woman in the film as a young girl. Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw noted, "The frankness with which Takahata evokes Taeko's puberty, her loneliness, her yearnings, and how these mesh with her adult practicality and cheerful resourcefulness, is wonderfully managed. There is real artistry here: it is a must."

- Director: Atom Egoyan
- Stacker score: 89.73
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Runtime: 112 minutes

A bus accident kills many of the children in a small town and tears its residents apart in this heart-wrenching drama. The film won three awards at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, including the Jury Prize.

- Director: David Lynch
- Stacker score: 89.73
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 112 minutes

"The Straight Story" is an unlikely road trip movie that stars Richard Farnsworth as a man who drives across Iowa and Wisconsin in a tractor. David Lynch veered away from his traditional offbeat subject matter to direct this true story of a man trying to reconnect with his sick brother. Farnsworth's performance was nominated for an Oscar, which at the time him the oldest Best Actor contender at 79 years old.

- Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Stacker score: 89.73
- Metascore: 87
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 94 minutes

This is the first film in director Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy. A woman is the sole survivor of a car crash that killed her husband and daughter. The woman, played by Juliette Binoche, sells everything and attempts to start over in Paris.

- Director: Brad Bird
- Stacker score: 89.73
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 86 minutes

The animated film "The Iron Giant" is the heartwarming tale of a boy in the late 1950s who makes friends with a large robot from space and tries to hide him from government agents. Directed by Brad Bird (who would go on to be one of Pixar's most prolific directors), the movie features the voice talents of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., and Vin Diesel. The film won or was nominated for just about every award at the Annies, the animation world's version of the Oscars.

- Directors: Ron Clements, John Musker
- Stacker score: 89.73
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 90 minutes

On the heels of the success of "Beauty and the Beast," Disney created this animated adaptation of one of the oldest stories in Middle-Eastern storytelling. Robin Williams famously voiced the hilarious genie (improvising quite a bit of his dialogue), and the film won two Oscars for its popular soundtrack.

- Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 92
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Runtime: 110 minutes

"Maborosi" filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda's debut narrative feature film is about death, a theme often found in his other films. The film finds a young widow married to a widower after her first husband dies by suicide. It won the Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the Venice Film Festival.

- Director: Éric Rohmer
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 113 minutes

Before starting a new job, a young man takes a summer holiday and winds up juggling three different love interests in this French film. "A Summer's Tale" didn't get its official U.S. release until 2014. The film is part of Éric Rohmer's "Tale of the Four Seasons," and according to the filmmaker was the most personal because it was based on events from his own life.

- Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 119 minutes

In this surreal fantasy film, after people die they stop at a holding area where they choose their own heaven—one pleasant memory from their life that they will live out for eternity. While many of the interviews with the deceased people in the film were scripted, others were done with real people talking in an impromptu manner about their life memories.

- Director: Wong Kar-Wai
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 93
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Runtime: 94 minutes

"Days of Being Wild" marks director Wong Kar-Wai's sophomore film effort. This period film, set in the 1960s, focuses on a young man, Yuddy, who finds out that the woman who raised him is not his mother. Yuddy, a womanizer, falls for two women and cannot choose.

- Director: Robert Redford
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 92
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Runtime: 133 minutes

Based on parts of Richard N. Goodwin's 1988 memoir, "Remembering America: A Voice From the Sixties," "Quiz Show" revolves around the investigation into a game show that may have been fixed and the ensuing scandal. The game show was actually NBC's "Twenty-One," which aired on the network from 1956 to 1958.

- Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Runtime: 92 minutes

Filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski won Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival for "Three Colors: White." Starring Julie Delpy and Zbigniew Zamachowski, the film focuses on the revenge a man seeks after his wife divorces him. The second film in a trilogy that focuses on color, white is seen often throughout the film.

- Director: Spike Jonze
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Runtime: 113 minutes

"Being John Malkovich" is about an unemployed puppeteer (John Cusack) who finds a portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich, who plays himself. The oddball comedic drama earned music video director Spike Jonze an Academy Award nomination for his directing, while other nominations went to Charlie Kaufman for the script and Catherine Keener for her supporting performance.

- Director: Clint Eastwood
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 130 minutes

Clint Eastwood directed himself in this Western about a gunslinger who takes one last job long after retiring to become a farmer. Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris co-star with Eastwood, who won Oscars for Best Picture as well as his directing—plus as a nomination for acting in the film. Meanwhile, Hackman won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

- Directors: John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Runtime: 92 minutes

The sequel to Pixar's smash hit "Toy Story" finds Woody stolen by a toy collector, sending Buzz and friends on a rescue mission to get their cowboy friend back. "Toy Story 2" grossed more than $487 million worldwide at the box office, beating the original by a significant margin, but paled in comparison to the third installment of the franchise which cleared $1 billion worldwide.

- Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 98 minutes

Another Coen brothers hit, "Fargo" had audiences everywhere speaking in a Minnesota accent. This oddball crime story featured a pregnant police chief (played by Frances McDormand) investigating the kidnapping of a woman whose husband hired two hitmen to carry out the job. The Coens won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and Frances McDormand won for her role as Marge Gunderson. In 2014, FX released a TV spinoff of the film, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman, set in the same universe as the movie.

- Director: Sam Mendes
- Stacker score: 90.27
- Metascore: 84
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 122 minutes

"American Beauty" racked up five Oscar wins, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor for Kevin Spacey. He plays Lester Burnham, a sexually repressed suburbanite who falls in love with one of his daughter's underage friends, while his wife cheats on him and his daughter explores her own nascent sexuality. It was director Sam Mendes' feature film debut after first finding fans as a theater director.

- Director: Robert Zemeckis
- Stacker score: 91.89
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Runtime: 142 minutes

Best Picture winner "Forrest Gump" follows the life of a simple man (Tom Hanks) who finds himself at the center of some of the 20th century's biggest moments. The film was based on a book by Winston Groom and earned Tom Hanks an Oscar for his starring role.

- Director: Mike Leigh
- Stacker score: 92.97
- Metascore: 92
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 136 minutes

Filmmaker Mike Leigh is known for his unique approach to the filmmaking process. While the film's screenplay was nominated for an Oscar, much of the script was improvised. "Secrets & Lies" finds a woman establishing a relationship with her biological mother after her adoptive parents die.

- Director: Peter Weir
- Stacker score: 92.97
- Metascore: 90
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 103 minutes

What if you were the star of your own reality show, but didn't know it? That's the story behind "The Truman Show," where Jim Carrey proved his dramatic acting chops as the leading man who has no idea his life has been filmed since birth. While Carrey won a Golden Globe for the part, he failed to receive an Oscar nomination. However, Ed Harris earned an Oscar nod for his supporting role as Christof, the creator of Truman's world (and TV show). Director Peter Weir and screenwriter Andrew Niccol also earned Academy Award nominations for their inventive work on the movie.

- Director: Jonathan Demme
- Stacker score: 92.97
- Metascore: 86
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 118 minutes

"The Silence of the Lambs" dominated the Oscars with awards in the "big five" major categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best (Adapted) Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Jodie Foster stars as an FBI agent-in-training assigned to interrogate a cannibal serial killer (Anthony Hopkins), who claims to have information about a murderer still at large. This is the second cinematic appearance of Hopkins' character Dr. Hannibal Lecter; he originally appeared in the Thomas Harris book "Red Dragon," which was turned into a 1986 film "Manhunter" with Brian Cox playing the murderous doctor.

- Director: Curtis Hanson
- Stacker score: 93.51
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 138 minutes

James Ellroy's 1990 novel turned into this 1950s Hollywood crime noir story that picked up nine Oscar nominations, including a victory for Kim Basinger as Best Supporting Actress for her role as a sex worker made to look like Veronica Lake. The story follows three policemen investigating a series of murders, with corruption at every turn.

- Directors: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
- Stacker score: 93.51
- Metascore: 88
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Runtime: 88 minutes

"The Lion King" was so beloved that it became a long-running hit Broadway musical and was turned into a photorealistic CGI movie starring Beyoncé Knowles. The story follows Simba, a lion cub set to inherit the throne as king of the jungle—until he runs away after being made to believe he caused his father's death. Matthew Broderick, Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, Jeremy Irons, and James Earl Jones all provided voices for an all-star cast.

- Director: Edward Yang
- Stacker score: 94.05
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 237 minutes

This Taiwanese coming-of-age film, set in the 1960s, is about a group of disaffected teenage boys, American rock 'n' roll music, and murder. Ultimately, "A Brighter Summer Day" is a true-crime film. Writing for The New York Times in 2011, A.O. Scott said of the film, "In every aspect of technique—from the smoky colors and the bustling, off-center compositions to the architecture of the story and the emotional precision of the performances—this film is a work of absolute mastery."

- Director: Abbas Kiarostami
- Stacker score: 94.05
- Metascore: 92
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Runtime: 98 minutes

"Close-Up" tells the story of a young man named Hossain Sabzian who impersonates filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf to impress a young woman named Mahrokh Ahankhah and her family. He promises to cast them in his latest film but is later exposed and arrested for fraud. Unlike many films based on real-life events, Sabzian and the Ahankhah family members play themselves on screen.

- Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
- Stacker score: 94.59
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Runtime: 84 minutes

The first early-'90s animated Disney movie to earn legions of fans, "Beauty and the Beast" tells the story of a bookish local girl imprisoned by a cursed French prince who can only regain his human form by earning true love. Alan Menken won two Oscars for his musical contributions to the film, including the title track. Disney released a live-action adaptation of the animated classic in 2017, which was itself an adaptation of a well-known French fairy tale and a 1946 French film.

- Director: Frank Darabont
- Stacker score: 94.59
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 9.3
- Runtime: 142 minutes

In 1982, Stephen King wrote a novella entitled "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption." Twelve years later, it became a massive hit movie, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman as an unlikely set of best friends enduring life in a Maine prison. The film garnered seven Oscar nominations, but its popularity only increased after its initial release. In 2013 alone, the film played on cable TV for more than 150 hours.

- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Stacker score: 95.68
- Metascore: 91
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Runtime: 169 minutes

This epic war movie earned Spielberg his second Academy Award as Best Director. It depicts the story of an Army crew tasked with tracking down the last remaining brother in a family of soldiers who lost their lives in World War II. Tom Hanks stars alongside a mostly younger cast, including Matt Damon as Private Ryan.

- Director: John Lasseter
- Stacker score: 96.76
- Metascore: 96
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Runtime: 81 minutes

Now one of Pixar's most beloved franchises, the original "Toy Story" was a box office smash in 1995 as the second-highest-grossing film of the year. The CGI-animated movie captivated audiences with a story of two toys, a cowboy voiced by Tom Hanks and a space ranger voiced by Tim Allen, who vie for the attention of the boy who owns them.

- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Stacker score: 96.76
- Metascore: 92
- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Runtime: 145 minutes

"Goodfellas" is the first collaboration between Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote the novel on which the movie was based. The movie follows the life of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) who got mixed up with the mob in 1955 while he was still attending high school in New York City. Lorraine Bracco, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro also star in the film.

- Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Stacker score: 97.84
- Metascore: 100
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Runtime: 99 minutes

The third and final film of the arthouse trilogy features a model who runs over a judge's dog and then finds herself in a unique relationship with the judge. The three films of the trilogy are color-themed based on the French flag. They also revolve around the themes of the French republic, which are liberty, equality, and brotherhood.

- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Stacker score: 99.46
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Runtime: 154 minutes

Quentin Tarantino hit mainstream popularity with this scattered melange of Los Angeles crime stories starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, and Bruce Willis. The film earned Tarantino an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and tallied six more nominations. The paltry $8 million dollar budget yielded massive dividends as the movie soared to more than $200 million worldwide in box office receipts.

- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Stacker score: 100
- Metascore: 95
- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Runtime: 195 minutes

AFI named it the eighth-best movie in history and Oscar voters agreed, bestowing a Best Picture award to "Schindler's List" along with six additional statues. The sad but heroic story follows German industrialist Oskar Schindler, who does his best to help save the lives of his Jewish workforce during the Holocaust.

Additional writing by Abby Monteil. Data reporting by Luke Hicks. Story editing by Cynthia Rebolledo. Copy editing by Tim Bruns. Photo selection by Ania Antecka.