10 Movies From the 1990s That Are Perfect

Years before anyone knew what brats had to do with summer, Charli XCX (alongside Troye Sivan) passionately declared an urge to go back to 1999 in a song unsurprisingly called “1999,” the entire thing being a very persuasive argument for the notion that nostalgia is a 20-year cycle. Traveling back almost 20 years from 2018 would have its perks, but perhaps it would be better to go back to 1990.

The song wouldn’t have worked as well or sounded as good, but doing that would mean getting to live throughout the entirety of the 1990s and thereby getting to see all the decade’s classic movies in cinemas. Nowadays, you have to be lucky enough to catch a re-release or a special event screening. Still, many of the best films from the 1990s hold up regardless of where or how you watch them, and some of the most undeniably perfect (i.e., the ones a time traveler would have to go out of their way to see) are found below.

10 ‘Fargo’ (1996)

Director: Joel Coen

Fargo is violent, bleak at times, funny, nerve-wracking, and also oddly heartwarming, in the end. It’s a movie that well and truly has everything, focusing on a series of catastrophic events started by a group of not very smart (and morally questionable) people, with an ultra-competent (and heavily pregnant) police chief being the only person who can potentially solve the whole situation and take down the criminals involved.

Look, as far as Coen Brothers movies go, it’s between Fargo and The Big Lebowski when it comes to crowning their best of the 1990s, with honorable mentions going to the likes of Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink. It’s Fargo that feels the tightest, as well as the most emotionally complete and dynamic, just because of how much it’s able to do within a fairly brief runtime (the anthology series it inspired is also quite good).

9 ‘Toy Story’ (1995)

Director: John Lasseter

Picking a favorite Pixar movie is like picking a favorite child. It’ll drive you up the wall, and then you’ll feel bad about snubbing others. But unlike children, it is somewhat more understandable to favor the first of the bunch, and Toy Story is the eldest child in this comparison that’s already fallen apart. It came first, it proved computer animation was the next big thing, and it was an example of just plain great storytelling.

The technical accomplishment that was releasing Toy Story in 1995 can’t be overlooked, but the film is so much more than a tech demo. Introducing Woody, Buzz, and the rest, the film gives such great arcs for its two lead characters while also being funny, surprising, and sad in ways that prove brutally honest by family movie standards. Toy Story 2 might have even higher highs than Toy Story, but it’s hard to look past the first one just because of how groundbreaking it was, both technically and narratively (telling such a great and self-contained story in only 81 minutes is a screenwriting miracle, really).

8 ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Speaking of great screenplays, Pulp Fiction is also undeniably well-written from front to back, but unlike Toy Story, is far from suitable for all ages. It’s a profane, occasionally bloody, and consistently risk-taking film about several different crime-related storylines, some told out of order and intersecting with each other in continually interesting and surprising ways.

Quentin Tarantino made a name for himself two years earlier with Reservoir Dogs, but that heist-less heist movie, in hindsight, felt like a warm-up for Pulp Fiction (and that’s really saying something, because Reservoir Dogs is excellent in its own right). Pulp Fiction has a cast to die for (and lots of the cast members play characters who do die), it’s endlessly quotable, contains too many iconic scenes to mention, and also has one of the best soundtracks in film history.

7 ‘Princess Mononoke’ (1997)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Similar to the situation with Pixar, it’s very hard to single out one Hayao Miyazaki movie as being his best, but Princess Mononoke is undeniably a strong contender. It’d be a similarly strong contender when looking at the best anime movies of all time, really, being beautifully animated, telling a compelling fantasy story, and having effectively persuasive environmental themes at its center without ever feeling preachy.

Princess Mononoke is also rather mature, compared to a good many animated movies; not in an excessive way, but still to an extent where it’s impossible and foolish for anyone to dismiss it as “just a kid’s movie” or anything along those lines. It’s a movie that’s aged wonderfully in the 25+ years since its release, and there’s no indication that it’ll ever feel like it doesn’t hold up any time soon.

6 ‘Goodfellas’ (1990)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese’s best 1990s movie is also arguably his greatest contribution to cinema: Goodfellas. Such words can’t be spoken lightly, given he’s the filmmaker behind Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), After Hours (1985), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), and Casino (1995). Best to stop there, before getting to 2000. But a bunch of Scorsese-directed classics were released in the 21st century, too.

Anyway, with Goodfellas, Scorsese explores life in the mafia through the eyes of Henry Hill and his wife, Karen, showcasing the ups and downs of such a lifestyle over many years. It’s a film that still feels fresh and exciting when watched today, taking everything that worked about classic gangster movies and remixing such conventions into something fresh; something that itself has proven influential for directors exploring the crime genre post-1990.

5 ‘Chungking Express’ (1994)

Director: Wong Kar-wai

Anyone with doubts over whether a romantic comedy can also be an arthouse film ought to check out Chungking Express, which satisfies in both departments while also being entirely its own thing. The two stories told throughout Chungking Express deal with similar themes but different characters, and ultimately differing outcomes.

Well, the first story doesn’t really end so much as it just stops. But it does so in a way that works, with Chungking Express consistently making creative decisions that sound, on paper, like they might be infuriating, but choices that ultimately work in execution (like the way it continually repeats the same pop songs throughout, in the soundtrack). It’s a film about loneliness that can get pretty sad at times, but Chungking Express is also warm during other moments, and oddly comforting as a result. It’s a uniquely moving journey of a film that ought to be experienced, given how hard it is to put the feeling of watching it into words.

4 ‘The Lion King’ (1994)

Directors: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff

1994 might’ve been the single best year for cinema of the 1990s, with aforementioned films like Pulp Fiction and Chungking Express coming out that year, alongside The Lion King (and many others). The Lion King is a competitor to Toy Story and Princess Mononoke for the title of the decade’s best animated film, putting a more family-friendly spin on a Hamlet-like story, but with lions and a generally more uplifting ending.

Still, at other times, The Lion King can be genuinely moving and upfront about things like death, grief, and the struggles of growing up/living up to what’s expected of oneself. It deals with broad themes well and in a fashion that younger viewers can understand, all the while having a moving score, striking animation, impeccably good voice acting, and a story that’s a rollercoaster ride of emotions.

3 ‘Jurassic Park’ (1993)

Director: Steven Spielberg

It’s hard to imagine there ever being a better dinosaur movie than Jurassic Park. It’s undoubtedly one of Steven Spielberg’s most enduring and well-liked films, and perhaps even one of the best blockbusters ever made, containing excitement, awe, horror, humor, and heart while telling a story about an entrepreneur’s passionate but catastrophic quest to bring dinosaurs back to life and have them feature in a theme park.

The technical qualities of Jurassic Park are still astounding to this day, and there are very few John Williams scores that are quite as great as the one he composed for this film. Additionally, the characters are memorable, and the set pieces are consistently thrilling. Everything a mass-appeal movie should do, Jurassic Park does, and to call it a classic at this stage feels like something of an understatement.

2 ‘Schindler’s List’ (1993)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg’s 1993 output remains unmatched, and he had such a strong year that it’s worth highlighting both those releases. Jurassic Park dominated the box office during the summer months, and then Schindler’s List earned critical acclaim and eventual awards success when it was released closer to the end of the same year (and was also financially successful, too).

Jurassic Park was blockbuster entertainment, while Schindler’s List was a more challenging and somber film, telling the story of Oskar Schindler and the lives he saved during World War II. Both movies were successful in very different fields, and the pair worked together to demonstrate Spielberg truly being one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. It’s hard to think of any other filmmaker who made two films that were both so great and so different that ultimately came out in the same year.

1 ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ (1994)

Director: Frank Darabont

Yes, it’s boring to call The Shawshank Redemption the “most perfect” movie of the 1990s, but it’s one that continually inspires and entertains seemingly all who watch it. Even if it’s not the best movie of all time (some would argue it’s close, though), it might well be the least hateable movie of all time. If The Shawshank Redemption detractors exist, they’re certainly quiet and likely miniscule in number.

It’s a movie largely set in prison that gets heavy at times, but it’s never depressing, and there is tremendous value in the hope it offers. The story about persevering through tough times is clearly one with universal appeal, and The Shawshank Redemption is just so efficient and polished in every area, from the way it looks, to the way it’s acted, to the way it’s paced, and so on. It’s great. But you know that already. Everyone does.

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