Safe (1995)
Almost 20 years before “Carol,” Todd Haynes made another movie about a girl named Carol, a simple housewife from California in the 1980s. She lives a small, inconspicuous life until she suddenly discovers she has a strange disease. It’s either allergies or something more complex and unexplored. The film itself does not explain the source of Carol’s ailment, nor does it care: it is primarily a metaphor for the heroine’s suffocating everyday life – which in the third act turns into a genuine nightmare.
Titanic (1997).
James Cameron’s masterpiece is best described by its crazy ratings: box office, audience, academic, whatever. It’s one of those rare films that broke through all class barriers altogether and, almost immediately upon release, imprinted itself forever on the history of cinema. This is Cameron at his best: an epically sweeping yet endlessly sensual story (essentially “Romeo and Juliet” riding an inter-Atlantic liner), a grand visual attraction – and a subtly written tragedy about two people in love. It’s a cliché, but everyone really can find something in “Titanic.” And it does – for 25 years running.
After Life (1998)
Somewhere in limbo, between the worlds of the living and the dead, dead souls are interviewed and talk about their lives. They must reflect on the past and choose a single memory they can take with them to the afterlife. The problem is that not everyone remembers life events in principle. Others would rather not remember them. Hirokazu Koreeda has already established himself in the twenty-first century as perhaps the best author of stories about acquired and biological families. At the end of the twentieth century, he was just finding his style–but he was already surprising in the penetration and sensitivity with which he treats his characters.
Goodfellas (1990)
Since the end of the 70’s the main film of the world cinema about gangsters was “The Godfather”. If anyone could knock it off that pedestal, it was Goodfellas, one of the best pictures in Martin Scorsese’s already terrific filmography. Ray Liotta’s character became the perfect embodiment not only of the badass gangster hero who took the path of crime not because of family duty, but simply because he always wanted to. But also basically a reflection of a man of the satiated hedonistic ’90s.
Basketball Dreams (1994)
It was a pivotal one in the development of popular documentary filmmaking in Hollywood. “Basketball Dreams” tells the story of two African-American teenagers who pursue the dream of making it to the NBA, the world’s premier basketball league. Through intimate portraits of the characters, director Steve James reveals society’s global social problems: flaws in the education system, poor working conditions, and so on. From a small story grows a three-dimensional portrait of an era.
