This list, representing a personal top 50 films from the decade of the 1990s (submitted to criterionforum.org) and carrying on from similar lists I’ve done starting with the 1940s, turned out to be far more challenging than originally expected. While making it, I learned how difficult it can be to separate contemporary perceptions from the [...]

The time is once again approaching for a top 50 list to stagger out of the gate, with the 1990s due for consideration in a few short weeks. Things are starting to solidify, but some holes still have to be addressed. There are also those movies that I haven’t seen since they were first released [...]

Seventeen years after its release, The Grifters is looking like one of the better films to use film noir themes since color cinematography eliminated the true noir aesthetic. It’s unapologetically populated with morally corrupt characters, and has an extraordinarily bleak and abrupt ending. The film also wisely avoids becoming overly ambitious, seeming even shorter than [...]