10. Donnie Brasco
79 LISTS | 1 TOP SPOT Mike Newell | 127 mins | Biography/Crime/Drama Al Pacino | Johnny Depp | Michael Madsen | Bruno Kirby
Donnie Brasco centered on Al Pacino’s best performance in years, as an aging hood named Lefty who develops a strong affection for a younger man (Johnny Depp) and sponsors him for the Mob–a bad decision, as it turns out. Directed by Mike Newell, it also had effective work by Michael Madsen as Lefty’s superior, in a story that made the life of crime seem like a boring, unrewarding and deadly career choice.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum
9. AS GOOD AS IT GETS
81 LISTS | 5 TOP SPOTS James L. Brooks | 139 mins | Comedy/Drama/Romance Jack Nicholson | Helen Hunt | Greg Kinnear | Cuba Gooding Jr.
“Boasting dialogue that has the welcome tang of authenticity, James L. Brooks’ latest is an exhilarating contradiction: an “up” movie about being down-and-out. Best of all, the story of three strangers — Scrooge-like Jack Nicholson, defeated Greg Kinnear and weary Helen Hunt — forming a makeshift family has the highest concentration of eccentric characters since “The Accidental Tourist.”” – Amy Longsdorf, Morning Call
8. ULEE’S GOLD
84 LISTS | 3 TOP SPOTS Victor Nunez | 113 mins | Drama Peter Fonda | Patricia Richardson | Christine Dunford | Tom Wood
“Victor Nunez is an American treasure who’s maintained his obscurity despite the elegance of his films and the fact that he’s custom-built three of them around prominent actors – Ed Harris (“A Flash of Green”), Ashley Judd (“Ruby in Paradise”) and now “Ulee’s Gold” with Peter Fonda, whose beekeeper Ulysses Jackson is the best work of his career. A kind of Homeric sequel – Ulysses has long ago come back from the war, his wife Penelope is dead and his son (Telemachus?) is in prison for armed robbery – “Ulee’s Gold” is a redemption tale, a soul story, a parable. Think of Fonda and Nunez in that Sistine Chapel posture, finger touching finger, bringing Ulee’s tale to life.” – John Anderson, Newsday
7. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE
87 LISTS | 3 TOP SPOTS Iain Softley | 102 mins | Drama/Romance Helena Bonham Carter | Linus Roache | Alex Jennings | Charlotte Rampling
“A narrow but deserving victory for this exquisitely observed, emotionally wrenching expedition into the darkest corners of the human heart. Director Iain Softley and screenwriter Hossein Amini explore all the angles of author Henry James’ doomed romantic triangle in an Edwardian-era tale that offers temptation, deceit, betrayal and guilt – but no sense of redemption to blunt its razor edge.” – Carol Cling, Las Vegas Journal-Review
6. THE ICE STORM
95 LISTS | 6 TOP SPOTS Ang Lee | 112 mins | Drama Kevin Kline | Joan Allen | Sigourney Weaver | Henry Czerny
“A regional, period film that had a universal message. In a stunning display of talent, Taiwan-raised filmmaker Lee, whose previous picture was an excellent adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” shifted his gaze to two sets of dysfunctional Connecticut Yankee parents in 1973 dealing badly with the sexual revolution as well as their four, alienated teenage children. To watch this story unfold is to experience profound sadness at couples and families that don’t connect with open hearts. What could have been banal seems so important here.” – Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune
5. THE FULL MONTY
95 LISTS | 5 TOP SPOTS Peter Cattaneo | 91 mins | Comedy/Drama Robert Carlyle | Tom Wilkinson | Mark Addy | Wim Snape
“Oh no, English people undressing! A group of unemployed, sad-looking Englishmen in a depressed, northern town decide to shake their in-the-buff booties for money. Their courageous bid to upgrade themselves from flabby losers to “Flashdance” winners is painfully funny and even touching.” – Desson Howe, The Washington Post
4. THE SWEET HEREAFTER
163 LISTS | 30 TOP SPOTS Atom Egoyan | 112 mins | Drama Ian Holm | Sarah Polley | Caerthan Banks | Tom McCamus
“Atom Egoyan’s heartbreaking drama takes place in a small Canadian town in the dead of winter, as a cloud of grief settles over it. Fourteen children are killed in a school bus accident, and a lawyer (Ian Holm) arrives to interview possible clients for a class-action suit. He may seem to some like an ambulance chaser, but he’s only going through the motions; his own daughter may die any day from drug abuse, and he shares more with the grieving parents than they know.
Egoyan’s story circles around the central fact of the accident, moving back and forth in time as the lawyer and the audience come to know the people in the town. Some of them have secrets that the accident will betray. All have a deep hopelessness, evoked by the film’s sad, beautiful cinematography. Egoyan, whose last film was the seductive (and also sad) “Exotica,” is a director whose films see human weakness with a special poignancy.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
3. BOOGIE NIGHTS
163 LISTS | 20 TOP SPOTS Paul Thomas Anderson | 155 mins | Drama Mark Wahlberg | Julianne Moore | Burt Reynolds | Luis Guzmán
“Paul Thomas Anderson’s delirious porn-world epic is the most sheerly pleasurable movie I saw all year, and what makes it such a kicky and resonant experience is that its very subject is pleasure. Tracking the rise and fall of Dirk Diggler, a triple-X superstar who rides the waves of post-counterculture hedonism until he can’t stand up anymore, Anderson roots his movie in a definitive recreation of the funky, bedazzled, cocaine-and-disco ‘70s, an era that is only just beginning to enter the realm of pop mythology because it now seems like the last moment in American life when people simply did what they wanted. Anderson embodies that ecstatic, shoot-the-works spirit in the gleeful freedom of his filmmaking. You feel, at every moment, that he’s in love with what he’s showing you, whether it’s Mark Walhlberg, as Dirk, flashing his beautiful gaze of macho innocence as he dreams of becoming a “big bright shining star”; the high comedy of on-set porn shoots that play like Ed Wood without clothes; the cocky desperation of Burt Reynolds’ flashpot auteur saying “sexy!” in the back of a limo as he “directs” a gruesomely unerotic hardcore video; the ferocity of Heather Graham’s Rollergirl removing her cheerleader mask to reveal the scary rage beneath; or – the year’s most indelible scene – the thrill-happy dementia of Alfred Molina’s motormouth addict merging himself with the chorus of “Sister Christian,” a song that, in Boogie Nights, becomes a heavy metal requiem, a shrine to the eternal, unholy American quest for the next high.” – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
2. TITANIC
175 LISTS | 27 TOP SPOTS James Cameron | 194 mins | Drama/Romance Leonardo DiCaprio | Kate Winslet | Billy Zane | Kathy Bates
“If you want a brilliantly well-written, convincing film account of the ill-fated voyage of the “Titanic,” you’ll have to rent the 1956 Eric Ambler-scripted British picture “A Night to Remember.” This movie is something else. It’s a wild romance and one of all-time top cliffhanger movies. For two hours, Cameron draws a superheated, over-the-top, class-crossing romance between frustrated society girl Rose (Kate Winslet) in first class and the poor but dashing Irish artist jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) in steerage. Then, for the last hour and 14 minutes, he pulls out all stops, putting his lovers, and the thousands of “Titanic” crewmates and passengers, through heaven and hell as the ship, with maximum high tech special effects, strikes an iceberg and sinks spectacularly. Breathlessly exciting and deliriously crazy, “Titanic” is one of a kind: a knockout extravaganza whose inflated budget produces delightfully mad and entertaining results.” – Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
1. L.A. CONFIDENTIAL
233 LISTS | 80 TOP SPOTS Curtis Hanson | 138 mins | Crime/Drama/Mystery Kevin Spacey | Russell Crowe | Guy Pearce | Kim Basinger
“Director and co-writer Curtis Hanson’s adaptation of the James Ellroy novel is the finest example of modern film noir since “Chinatown.” Set in the early ’50s, it untangles a police scandal that reaches from the Hollywood precinct to Mickey Cohen’s mob to City Hall, and features some of the year’s most memorable performances from Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell, Russell Crowe, Danny DeVito, and Kim Basinger.” – Jack Mathews, Newsday
Full Top 50:
| R | Film | L | #1 | AR | L% | #1% | TCL | TCL1 | TCL% | TCL1% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L.A. Confidential | 233 | 80 | 3.1 | 76% | 31% | 110 | 33 | 72% | 25% |
| 2 | Titanic | 175 | 27 | 4.1 | 57% | 10% | 79 | 12 | 52% | 9% |
| 3 | Boogie Nights | 163 | 20 | 4.5 | 53% | 8% | 75 | 11 | 49% | 8% |
| 4 | The Sweet Hereafter | 163 | 30 | 4.3 | 53% | 12% | 91 | 21 | 60% | 16% |
| 5 | The Full Monty | 95 | 5 | 5.0 | 31% | 2% | 33 | 1 | 22% | 1% |
| 6 | The Ice Storm | 95 | 6 | 6.6 | 31% | 2% | 47 | 2 | 31% | 2% |
| 7 | The Wings of the Dove | 87 | 3 | 5.3 | 29% | 1% | 38 | 2 | 25% | 2% |
| 8 | Ulee's Gold | 84 | 3 | 5.6 | 28% | 1% | 47 | 2 | 31% | 2% |
| 9 | As Good As It Gets | 81 | 5 | 5.7 | 27% | 2% | 30 | 2 | 20% | 2% |
| 10 | Donnie Brasco | 79 | 1 | 6.2 | 26% | 0% | 32 | 0 | 21% | 0% |
| 11 | In the Company of Men | 79 | 3 | 6.2 | 26% | 1% | 45 | 0 | 30% | 0% |
| 12 | Chasing Amy | 77 | 1 | 6.0 | 25% | 0% | 34 | 0 | 22% | 0% |
| 13 | Amistad | 71 | 10 | 6.3 | 23% | 4% | 30 | 6 | 20% | 5% |
| 14 | Face/Off | 71 | 2 | 5.1 | 23% | 1% | 30 | 2 | 20% | 2% |
| 15 | Good Will Hunting | 67 | 2 | 5.8 | 22% | 1% | 29 | 2 | 19% | 2% |
| 16 | The Apostle | 64 | 4 | 5.6 | 21% | 2% | 37 | 2 | 24% | 2% |
| 17 | Wag The Dog | 59 | 1 | 6.3 | 19% | 0% | 33 | 0 | 22% | 0% |
| 18 | Contact | 48 | 5 | 5.3 | 16% | 2% | 14 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 19 | Ponette | 48 | 1 | 7.0 | 16% | 0% | 26 | 1 | 17% | 1% |
| 20 | Eve's Bayou | 48 | 1 | 5.1 | 16% | 0% | 24 | 1 | 16% | 1% |
| 21 | Shall We Dance? | 46 | 4 | 5.3 | 15% | 2% | 24 | 1 | 16% | 1% |
| 22 | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control | 44 | 3 | 5.8 | 14% | 1% | 31 | 2 | 20% | 2% |
| 23 | Waiting For Guffman | 43 | 0 | 7.0 | 14% | 0% | 18 | 0 | 12% | 0% |
| 24 | Jackie Brown | 42 | 0 | 7.1 | 14% | 0% | 21 | 0 | 14% | 0% |
| 25 | Men in Black | 41 | 1 | 6.5 | 13% | 0% | 13 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 26 | Deconstructing Harry | 36 | 1 | 5.9 | 12% | 0% | 20 | 1 | 13% | 1% |
| 27 | Grosse Point Blank | 32 | 0 | 6.0 | 10% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 6% | 0% |
| 28 | Mrs Brown | 29 | 2 | 5.8 | 10% | 1% | 17 | 1 | 11% | 1% |
| 29 | Happy Together | 27 | 0 | 5.5 | 9% | 0% | 21 | 0 | 14% | 0% |
| 30 | Kundun | 27 | 2 | 4.7 | 9% | 1% | 21 | 1 | 14% | 1% |
| 31 | Crash (1996) | 23 | 3 | 4.7 | 8% | 1% | 18 | 3 | 12% | 2% |
| 32 | La Promesse | 24 | 2 | 4.7 | 8% | 1% | 18 | 2 | 12% | 2% |
| 33 | My Best Friend's Wedding | 23 | 1 | 5.8 | 8% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 6% | 0% |
| 34 | Cop Land | 22 | 0 | 7.1 | 7% | 0% | 7 | 0 | 5% | 0% |
| 35 | Starship Troopers | 19 | 0 | 7.4 | 6% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 6% | 0% |
| 36 | Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery | 18 | 0 | 6.5 | 6% | 0% | 7 | 0 | 5% | 0% |
| 37 | Underground | 15 | 0 | 5.8 | 5% | 0% | 14 | 0 | 9% | 0% |
| 38 | Lost Highway | 16 | 0 | 6.3 | 5% | 0% | 10 | 0 | 7% | 0% |
| 39 | The Daytrippers | 16 | 1 | 5.7 | 5% | 0% | 12 | 1 | 8% | 1% |
| 40 | Welcome To Sarajevo | 15 | 1 | 7.0 | 5% | 0% | 10 | 1 | 7% | 1% |
| 41 | John Grisham's The Rainmaker | 15 | 0 | 7.8 | 5% | 0% | 7 | 0 | 5% | 0% |
| 42 | Hard Eight | 14 | 1 | 5.0 | 5% | 0% | 10 | 1 | 7% | 1% |
| 43 | 4 Little Girls | 14 | 0 | 5.1 | 5% | 0% | 8 | 0 | 5% | 0% |
| 43 | FairyTale: A True Story | 14 | 0 | 5.6 | 5% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 3% | 0% |
| 45 | Washington Square | 13 | 0 | 6.7 | 4% | 0% | 8 | 0 | 5% | 0% |
| 46 | Career Girls | 12 | 0 | 5.5 | 4% | 0% | 7 | 0 | 5% | 0% |
| 47 | Gattaca | 12 | 0 | 6.6 | 4% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 3% | 0% |
| 48 | The Hanging Garden | 12 | 1 | 6.6 | 4% | 0% | 7 | 1 | 5% | 1% |
| 49 | Air Force One | 11 | 0 | 7.8 | 4% | 0% | 3 | 0 | 2% | 0% |
| 49 | In & Out | 11 | 0 | 7.3 | 4% | 0% | 5 | 0 | 3% | 0% |
Lists Included 305 | Top Critics’ Lists Included 152
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