10. The Fisher King
47 LISTS | 2 TOP SPOTS Terry Gilliam | 137 mins | Comedy/Drama/Fantasy Jeff Bridges | Robin Williams | Adam Bryant | Paul Lombardi
“Despite a slow start, Terry Gilliam’s strangely poetic film eventually gets around to the meaning of life, in no small measure because of Robin William’s noble portrait of an unlikely hero. An ode to life’s simple pleasures as well as its greater ones, Gilliam’s film can best be described as magical” – Joyce J. Persico, The Trenton Times
9. TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY
55 LISTS | 0 TOP SPOTS James Cameron | 137 mins | Action/Sci-Fi Arnold Schwarzenegger | Linda Hamilton | Edward Furlong | Robert Patrick
“The top-grossing film of 1991, and it deserves every single penny. Expertly delivering the kind of high-impact thrills the action audience has come to expect from director James Cameron, “T2” is a worthy if expensive sequel to its cult favorite progenitor. Bristling with stunts and an eye-popping series of special effects, not to mention a reprise of the role Arnold Schwarzenegger was clearly born to play, “T2” demonstrates why the pure adrenaline rush of motion is something motion pictures can’t live for very long without.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
8. THE COMMITMENTS
56 LISTS | 2 TOP SPOTS Alan Parker | 118 mins | Comedy/Drama/Music Robert Arkins | Michael Aherne | Angeline Ball | Maria Doyle Kennedy
“Alan Parker went to Dublin and found there a collection of no-name rockers so Irish they brawl and bicker almost as well as they make music. The Commitments is everything a rock movie ought to be and much more. And so alive. Parker’s affection for Dublin and these offhand amateurs drives his movie. That they never quite make it to the top is where Rocky breaks off and real life begins. Parker has never done it better.” – Noel Taylor, Ottawa Citizen
7. BARTON FINK
62 LISTS | 2 TOP SPOTS Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | 116 mins | Comedy/Drama/Thriller John Turturro | John Goodman | Judy Davis | Michael Lerner
“Those energizing adjectives I just mentioned – bold, provocative, freewheeling – abound in this offbeat fantasy by director Joel Coen and producer Ethan Coen, who wrote the screenplay together. The hero is an intellectual New York playwright who goes to Hollywood during the 1940s, moves into California’s creepiest hotel, and enters into a reluctant friendship with the insurance agent who lives next door. Brilliantly acted by John Turturro and John Goodman, among others, the movie is also a masterful work
of visual art, swinging from hilarity to surrealism as it approaches a climax that defies description.” – David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
6. JFK
66 LISTS | 7 TOP SPOTS Oliver Stone | 189 mins | Drama/History/Thriller Kevin Costner | Gary Oldman | Jack Lemmon | Walter Matthau
“For sheer gall and raw filmmaking skill, if for no other reason, Oliver Stone’s audacious reopening of the Kennedy assassination was the year’s best film. Attacks on its accuracy are beside the point; it is a rabble-rouser designed to shock audiences into agreeing with Stone and many others that Kennedy may have been the victim of a conspiracy. In an incredible three hours of words and pictures, Stone never says exactly who he thinks killed Kennedy, but he makes a persuasive case for the theory that it could not have been Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone. The movie is a technical marvel; an automatic Oscar should be voted to Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia, who edited its rush of images. And another one should go to Joe Pesci, whose supporting performance as a conspirator is a case study in nerves. Kevin Costner supplies the sound, trustworthy center to the film, as New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison. Stone’s critics said Costner makes Garrison seem heroic when actually he was a much more controversial character. But Stone isn’t making an autobiography; he uses Garrison more as a device for organizing his material. No matter what you think about the politics of “JFK,” it’s impossible to deny the film’s artistry, as it uses its big canvas and enormous ambition to re-create a turning point in American history, a shocking death that seemed to open the floodgates for so many tragic events to follow.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
5. BUGSY
79 LISTS | 2 TOP SPOTS Barry Levinson | 136 mins | Biography/Crime/Drama Warren Beatty | Annette Bening | Harvey Keitel | Ben Kingsley
“American Dreaming by the gangster Bugsy Siegel, who, besides inventing himself as a Hollywood celebrity, invented Las Vegas as the playground for our more primitive fantasies. Warren Beatty and Annette Bening are terrific in director Barry Levinson’s smart-ironic, romantic-perverse, funny-poignant take on modern life in a fast, deadly lane.” – TIME Magazine
4. BOYZ N THE HOOD
84 LISTS | 4 TOP SPOTS John Singleton | 112 mins | Crime/Drama Cuba Gooding Jr. | Laurence Fishburne | Hudhail Al-Amir | Lloyd Avery II
“An auspicious first-time feature by a 23-year-old graduate of USC’s Film School. Following the sage advice to write what you know best, Singleton has fashioned a story of his native South Central Los Angeles, a black neighborhood where fathers are rarely present, drugs are a quick fix for pain and police helicopters hover constantly. Yet this is an even-handed portrait of urban black life in which one father can make a difference and gang members can choose to let little kids play. What distinguishes this film from other American pictures this year is the level of writing and the horror of omnipresent violence in daylight amid palm trees. A black “Mean Streets.”” – Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune
3. THELMA & LOUISE
93 LISTS | 4 TOP SPOTS Ridley Scott | 130 mins | Adventure/Crime/Drama Susan Sarandon | Geena Davis | Harvey Keitel | Michael Madsen
“Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis likely will be competing against each other at the Oscars with their loopy, yet tough, portraits of women who rebel against the manipulative, violent and spineless men in their lives. The red rocks of Moab offer the perfect backdrop for a seamless mix of politics and adventure.” – Terry Orme, Salt Lake Tribune
2. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
110 LISTS | 10 TOP SPOTS Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise | 84 mins | Animation/Family/Fantasy Paige O'Hara | Robby Benson | Jesse Corti | Rex Everhart
“An instant classic in every sense of the word. This 30th full-length feature from the Disney wizards not only offers more enchantment per minute than any other movie this year but more genuine artistry as well, from the canny updating of its classic source material to its resplendent animation and sprightly, tightly integrated score. Fifty years from now, future generations are likely to be as entranced as we are by such earlier Disney treasures as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Pinocchio.”” – Carol Cling, Las Vegas Journal-Review
1. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
130 LISTS | 32 TOP SPOTS Jonathan Demme | 118 mins | Crime/Drama/Thriller Jodie Foster | Anthony Hopkins | Lawrence A. Bonney | Kasi Lemmons
“After years of schlock horror movies, the word nightmare has been devalued — we hear it and think, thrills and chills. A true nightmare movie, though, does more than just scare us or give us the cold creeps. It can also be a dark fairy tale for adults, a vehicle for recapturing our childlike wonder in the face of the primal unknown. So it is with Jonathan Demme’s great thriller, the most magical act of storytelling I saw all year. Adapting Thomas Harris’ best-seller about a rookie FBI investigator on the trail of a serial killer, Demme spins a shimmering web of dread and suspense. Jodie Foster plays Agent Starling as a brave, exploratory, life-size heroine: It’s her desperate need to know — to uncover the true face of evil — that propels the movie forward. And Anthony Hopkins’ Dr. Lecter is that face in all its disturbing, seductive glory. As the glittery-eyed genius psychopath whose malevolence is a direct extension of his intelligence, Hopkins — witty, charming, monstrous — gives the most memorable performance of the year, creating a timeless portrait of the demonic made human.” – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Full List:
| R | Film | L | #1 | AR | L% | #1% | TCL | TCL1 | TCL% | TCL1% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Silence of the Lambs | 123 | 30 | 3.01 | 70% | 26% | 48 | 12 | 61% | 20% |
| 2 | Beauty and the Beast | 101 | 10 | 4.21 | 58% | 9% | 44 | 4 | 56% | 7% |
| 3 | Thelma & Louise | 90 | 4 | 5.60 | 51% | 4% | 35 | 3 | 44% | 5% |
| 4 | Boyz N the Hood | 81 | 4 | 5.78 | 46% | 4% | 32 | 1 | 41% | 2% |
| 5 | Bugsy | 75 | 2 | 4.39 | 43% | 2% | 32 | 1 | 41% | 2% |
| 6 | JFK | 61 | 7 | 5.19 | 35% | 6% | 28 | 4 | 35% | 7% |
| 7 | Barton Fink | 58 | 1 | 4.73 | 33% | 1% | 21 | 0 | 27% | 0% |
| 8 | The Commitments | 55 | 2 | 6.65 | 31% | 2% | 23 | 0 | 29% | 0% |
| 9 | Terminator 2: Judgment Day | 50 | 0 | 7.04 | 29% | 0% | 16 | 0 | 20% | 0% |
| 10 | Cape Fear | 44 | 2 | 6.24 | 25% | 2% | 16 | 0 | 20% | 0% |
| 11 | The Fisher King | 43 | 2 | 6.00 | 25% | 2% | 18 | 2 | 23% | 3% |
| 12 | City of Hope | 43 | 2 | 5.67 | 25% | 2% | 18 | 0 | 23% | 0% |
| 13 | My Own Private Idaho | 43 | 5 | 4.81 | 24% | 4% | 23 | 4 | 29% | 7% |
| 14 | Rambling Rose | 42 | 0 | 6.29 | 24% | 0% | 15 | 0 | 19% | 0% |
| 15 | Europa, Europa | 37 | 3 | 4.79 | 21% | 3% | 26 | 3 | 33% | 5% |
| 16 | Jungle Fever | 30 | 1 | 5.45 | 17% | 1% | 12 | 0 | 15% | 0% |
| 17 | An Angel At My Table | 30 | 3 | 4.67 | 17% | 2% | 17 | 1 | 22% | 2% |
| 18 | Life is Sweet | 29 | 3 | 4.57 | 16% | 3% | 18 | 3 | 23% | 5% |
| 19 | Paris is Burning | 28 | 0 | 6.31 | 16% | 0% | 14 | 0 | 18% | 0% |
| 20 | Dead Again | 26 | 1 | 5.55 | 15% | 1% | 7 | 1 | 9% | 2% |
| 21 | City Slickers | 25 | 2 | 6.35 | 14% | 2% | 9 | 1 | 11% | 2% |
| 22 | Grand Canyon | 25 | 0 | 5.50 | 14% | 0% | 15 | 0 | 19% | 0% |
| 23 | The Prince of Tides | 24 | 4 | 5.47 | 14% | 4% | 6 | 1 | 8% | 2% |
| 24 | La Belle Noiseuse | 23 | 1 | 4.64 | 12% | 1% | 15 | 1 | 19% | 2% |
| 25 | Impromptu | 20 | 2 | 4.69 | 11% | 2% | 12 | 2 | 15% | 3% |
| 26 | Defending Your Life | 20 | 0 | 7.00 | 11% | 0% | 6 | 0 | 8% | 0% |
| 27 | Naked Lunch | 21 | 1 | 6.71 | 11% | 1% | 11 | 1 | 14% | 2% |
| 28 | Black Robe | 19 | 1 | 4.14 | 11% | 1% | 8 | 1 | 10% | 2% |
| 29 | Homicide | 18 | 1 | 6.57 | 10% | 1% | 6 | 0 | 8% | 0% |
| 30 | The Doctor | 18 | 0 | 6.17 | 10% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 11% | 0% |
| 31 | Ju Dou | 18 | 2 | 6.50 | 10% | 2% | 9 | 1 | 11% | 2% |
| 32 | L.A. Story | 16 | 0 | 6.82 | 9% | 0% | 6 | 0 | 8% | 0% |
| 33 | My Mother's Castle | 16 | 1 | 5.45 | 9% | 1% | 14 | 1 | 18% | 2% |
| 34 | The Double Life of Veronique | 16 | 5 | 4.09 | 9% | 4% | 9 | 2 | 11% | 3% |
| 35 | My Father's Glory | 15 | 1 | 5.20 | 9% | 1% | 13 | 1 | 16% | 2% |
| 36 | Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse | 13 | 1 | 6.92 | 7% | 1% | 11 | 1 | 14% | 2% |
| 37 | The Man in the Moon | 12 | 1 | 6.73 | 7% | 1% | 7 | 1 | 9% | 2% |
| 38 | Hear My Song | 13 | 1 | 5.63 | 7% | 1% | 6 | 1 | 8% | 2% |
| 39 | Frankie & Johnny | 10 | 0 | 7.29 | 6% | 0% | 4 | 0 | 5% | 0% |
| 39 | Truth or Dare | 10 | 0 | 8.00 | 6% | 0% | 3 | 0 | 4% | 0% |
| 41 | Slacker | 10 | 0 | 7.50 | 6% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 6% | 0% |
| 42 | Fried Green Tomatoes | 11 | 0 | 6.86 | 6% | 0% | 3 | 0 | 4% | 0% |
Lists Included 184 | Top Critics’ Lists Included 80
R Rank
L Total number of lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
AR Average position on ranked top 10 lists
#1 Total number of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year
L% Percentage of total lists where the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year
#1% Percentage of mentions where the film was selected as the best film of the year
TCL Number of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1 Number of times that the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL% Percentage of times that the film was selected as one of the top 10 films of the year on top critics’ lists
TCL1% Percentage of lists where the film was selected as the best film of the year on top critics’ lists