The Ten Best Films of 1996
01. Fargo
I stand in awe of "Fargo," a film so exceptional on so many levels. The 1990s have produced a great many dark crime comedies, but "Fargo" surpasses them all -- even "Pulp Fiction." As the prototypical crooked car salesman, William H. Macy was brilliant as a frenetic shell of a man who hires two thugs (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his own wife. Since "Fargo" was made by the Coen Brothers ("Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona"), the plan naturally goes horribly awry. Enter pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson, wonderfully played by the Oscar-worthy Frances McDormand, who hits one goony, glorious Nordic high after another. The Coens have made many good movies in their careers, but "Fargo" transported them into a whole new stratosphere of artistry. It's the best film in years.
02. Secrets & Lies
It's very rare to find a family drama to which you could apply the term, "groundbreaking." But 1996 saw "Secrets & Lies" sweep into theaters with its maelstrom of both humor and pain to outclass every other drama of the year. Brenda Blethyn, in one of the year's great performances, broke hearts as the lower-class Cynthia Purley, a fragile, fidgety woman located by the daughter (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) she gave up more than 20 years ago. Having never mentioned the daughter's existence to her family, Cynthia's end-of-the-film revelation resulted in the year's most emotionally fluid movie sequence. British director Mike Leigh ("Life is Sweet," "Naked") has his masterpiece.
03. Welcome to the Dollhouse
Writer/director Todd Solondz has said he made "Welcome to the Dollhouse" after realizing that his childhood was nothing like "The Wonder Years." Neither, it seems, is Dawn Weiner's, as "Welcome to the Dollhouse" probes the school and home life of the geeky 7th grader her classmates label "Weinerdog." Dawn is picked on by just about everyone: cheerleaders, prepubescent boys, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and even teachers. She's no saint either, as Solondz's complex script points out, but in her own way, she'll find a place in your heart. That's largely due to the performance of newcomer Heather Matarazzo as Dawn, who invests her character with alternating self-pity and stubbornness. The real irony of "Welcome to the Dollhouse" is its R rating, which I suppose means that it's okay for kids to terrorize one another at school, just as long as they don't see it at the movies.
04. Shine
Scott Hicks' "Shine" is the latest great film to hail from Down Under, and like several other films on this list, it adroitly hits almost all the emotions. "Shine" casts three actors to portray pianist David Helfgott, in this, his life story. They're all fine, but Geoffrey Rush,as the elder David, steals the show with his breakthrough performance that walks that "Rain Man" line and still comes down on the side of originality. Having been emotionally abused by his stalwart, cold father (the brilliant Armin Mueller-Stahl), David must abandon his musical gift for a sanitarium, only to rebound late in life in scenes that evoke nothing short of pure joy.
05. Bound
The femme fatale role is about as old as the movie camera itself, but that didn't stop "Bound" from serving up two classic dames who could easily stand beside Stanwyck. Written and directed by newcomers Andy and Larry Wachowski (who here prove themselves worthy of comparison to those other brothers--the Coens), "Bound" concocts a serpentine screenplay with enough twists and turns for three movies. Gina Gershon (nicely rebounding from last year's "Showgirls") and Jennifer Tilly star as two wily ladies (and lovers) out to scam the mob out of $2 million. Like all great film noir, "Bound" is tremendous fun to watch, even though you're on edge from fade-in.
06. Lone Star
Another maverick independent filmmaker scored a masterpiece in 1996. John Sayles, who has made a career out of making such films as "Return of the Secaucus Seven," "Passion Fish" and "City of Hope" truly outdid himself with this contemporary Western drama, which wove a tapestry of Americana more than 20 characters in length. As lawman Sam Deeds, Chris Cooper was an anchor of solidity for a screenplay so full of characters and plot that things could have gotten too muddled. All while examining the racial and familial divides facing the inhabitants of Rio County, Texas, Sayles has created an awesomely entertaining film.
07. The Birdcage
Farce is one of the lost art forms of the 1990s, as audiences have traded the brilliant antics of Preston Sturges for the tomfoolery of Jim Carrey. It came as no small surprise, then, that Mike Nichols' "The Birdcage," the best studio film of the year, turned out to be so clever. In an American update of the French classic, "La Cage aux Folles," Robin Williams and Nathan Lane hit all the right notes as a gay couple who must masquerade as straight in order to impress the conservative Republican family of the fiancee of Williams' son. Nichols and screenwriter Elaine May build great comic tension, while Gene Hackman and Hank Azaria (as the clumsy houseboy Agador Spartacus) prove masters of comic timing.
08. A Family Thing
Richard Pearce's "A Family Thing" came and went last April with hardly any fanfare coming or going. People missed out. Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones, two great casting choices, learn that they are half-brothers in this sincere examination of race and family. Both Duvall and Jones are sterling, but they're both topped by newcomer Irma P. Hall as the pair's blind, no-nonsense aunt. She won't be nominated for an Oscar (barring an absolute miracle), but you won't find a better performance in a 1996 film than Hall's. "A Family Thing" is the year's most unfairly overlooked film.
09. Jerry Maguire
For all his commercial successes, Tom Cruise hadn't delivered a great performance in a great film until his 19th try. "Jerry Maguire," about a sports agent who grows a conscience, is a sheer treasure of a movie, lovingly crafted by director Cameron Crowe as a sports movie, a serious love story and a romantic comedy. Any one of those would have been fine, but "Maguire" succeeds as all three, adding layers of subtlety and sympathy that Cruise movies have just never had before. The marvelous cast of supporting performers is great, but none of them even comes close to the Oscar-worthy work of Cruise. He's always been a movie star. Now he's an actor.
10. Breaking the Waves
The advertising slogan for "Breaking the Waves" reads, "Love is a mighty power." That sounds like a throwaway line in a love song, but when director Lars Von Trier says it here, he means it. Emily Watson, in a daring, lay-it-all-on-the-line performance, plays Bess, a fragile Scotswoman who longs for a miracle after her husband is paralyzed. Bess seeks out other men for sexual fulfillment at her husband's request, but then God, speaking through her, voices His disapproval. Von Trier has fashioned a breathtaking allegory on the need for not religion but faith, not sex but true love.
Copyright 1996 - Danny Linton
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