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ELIGIBLE TITLES FOR 1992

VOTE THROUGH APRIL 30

Please post in this thread if you think anything needs to change about the list of eligible titles.

Can you please add

Las Soledades (Raul Ruiz)
It’s Now or Never (Chang Kwok-Hei)

Added, thanks

Can you add Whispers in the Dark please?

Done

Can You add Alison Maclean's Crush and Indochine please?

Done, thanks

Here’s a few to the please add pile.
The Blue Eyes of Yonta which is surprisingly laidback for its plot and a great way to see a culture that really gets pushed out of global impressions otherwise.

I really love Michael Ritchie and although the later half of his career can be embarrassing Diggstown manages to provide a lot of what made him so interesting in the first place: success becomes the ultimate failure never worth the sacrifice.

Twist is just a fun documentary told in a fun way that manages to find a little grime to even this mild American system.

The Oil Hell Murder is Gosha’s last work and a masterpiece of filth really getting at how a person can utterly degrade themselves.

Finally, Noises Off, because Capt. Ascott doing a silly play will always be fun for me.

All added, thanks!

This year is looking really tough for me. I think I just barely have ten films I’m particularly passionate about. Worse yet so far surefire viewings have landed on the weaker side of things. The Kiarostami is good and will likely make my list, but it seems like a weaker variant of what I’ve seen before. Even though it’s post Close-Up it feels even more a transition film between between his later experimentalism and his children’s films.

Even weaker is Tavernier’s epic The Undeclared War which gets a lot of mileage out of its subject matter, but feels in the shadow of something like Shoah or The Battle of Algiers. Weirdly I think it would work better at an even greater length. Part of this is that the strict adherence to the French Perspective continually beggars the viewer on basic questions that their voices would inherently answer. From the title down it’s clear why a French only perspective was chosen, but I think that was a poor choice.

There's a lot I'm really enthusiastic about in this year though admittedly less than in the previous one. Still, only my top 5 is locked down. The rest I could rank pretty arbitrarily really. I do love the Kiarostami film. It's among my favorites of his and I consider it a kind of career peak high point. It could easily be a contender for #1 for me though I have to give Erice the edge.

Please add Veikko Aaltonen's Tuhlaajapoika, John McTiernan's Medicine Man and Dardenne Brothers' Je pense à vous (listed as 1993 at IMDb or Letterboxd but apparently released in 1992).

All added, thanks!

A pair of good enough movies that I’ll probably remain warm to for years even as I recognize them as trifles.

Unlawful Entry makes me appreciate Observe and Report all the more as it’s such a good student of this film. It moves so smoothly that when the bottom drops out it hits like a violent pit. It’s as disturbing as I’ve ever seen one of these ‘90s films be.

Epstein and Friedman provide a different kind of social consciousness with Where Are We?. This is a truly lovely doc from the video age. There’s a fundamental optimism borne out from this kind of friendly and open approach even as we witness and hear of some truly terrible everyday occurrences. Humans can live together anywhere even if they aren’t necessarily living well.

All that said this film will mostly live in my memory as showing to me that a movie scored entirely to Aquarium is one of my personal hells.

Can you add Adam Curtis' Pandora's Box please? All 6 episodes are available on Youtube, though part 2 is only available in full frame and unedited from a different channel. I highly recommend it, particularly if you enjoy his video essays. His early work is more like a regular documentary (more interviews and straight forward narration, less found footage, abstract musings & Skinny Puppy videos). The subject matter is as relevant as ever, particularly with what is going on in the US now with Trump: the attempts to use scientific rationalism to improve society ends up with the unintended consequence of creating modern dystopias. Part 1: Soviet Unon's building a society of engineers & using economic planning to control people, Part 2: Rand Corp. & US use of game theory to control war/conflict, Part 3 Keynes vs Friedman economics and the rise of Thatcher. Will hopefully get to 4-6 tomorrow.

Added

Tavernier’s other film from this year, L.627, is a significantly better film and just out of reach as one of his best. Tavernier allows this to be a grower as the routines of the policier mixed with some general personalities gives way to personalized drama. I really love this narrative strategy and as applied to this critique of state it’s delicious.

Schrader also gives the gift of an artist just doing right by the audience since although Light Sleeper is his weakest film with this basic structure it’s more hopeful nature helps it to stand out alongside several truly great performances. In particular Sarandon might be at her absolute best here with her cool ease making it hard to tell how much of her reality is self delusion. I especially like how Schrader finally removes the Pickpocket ending from its redemptive Christianity to this self assured nirvana. My only complaint is with a minor plot of two scenes shamelessly turning this to American Gigolo in a way that feels like Schrader being unsure of how to get the plot to where he wants it to be.

I’ve been trying to write up for my number one film of of the year, Batman Returns, which has no real competition in that position, but I’m overwhelmed by the good present to know even where to begin.

Probably best in Bo Welch’s production design which so completely transports us to a fully other world that I can’t even think of other fantasies which succeed at this post 1930s. Welch is in a lot of ways the defining voice of the ‘90s aesthetic and this seems clearly his masterwork allowing the film to exist on a plane of pure character. The film is really unique and special in the modern age for not having any trace of psychological realism, but instead presenting a fractured psyche embodied by three main poles.

Catwoman I think is the most successful pole as this deranged anti-hero born from personal tragedy and death. She takes on the language of justice, specifically feminism, as a burning fire unable to distinguish. Pfeiffer gives one of my all time favorite performances playing essentially three characters. There’s timid pre-tragedy Selina, Catwoman, and sly psychotic Selina. They work so well on the dramatic level, but perhaps more importantly the comedic.

This is a really hilarious film not just for the sake of comedy but in a way that is so fully integrated to the dramaturgy that no depth could be achieved without.

It's at the top of my list as well. We had some interesting discussions in a few threads comparing it in the context of other films. I didn't reread, but I remember the discourse fondly

Basic Instinct might take the W for the year for me, though. I've come to appreciate it as a deceptively silly and simple work that's incredibly complex, but that complexity allows the audience to engage with it as silly and simple or more, dependent on mood. I wrote an exhaustive rundown on why here

Hey, swo, would you add Of Mice and Men, please?

Done

There's a small chance I may have 10 to make a list by the deadline.

Can I get Billy, How Did You Do It? added? IMDb lists it as 1991, but it is wrong. It was shown for the first time on the BBC in January 1992 and later that year in Germany, as per https://www.filmportal.de/film/billy-ho ... 7861fc5d70.

Added. I agree with putting it in 1992. The evidence for 1991 is weak (just the year listed on IMDb, not a specific date). Criterion and MoC also call it a 1992 film on their releases that include it as an extra

Friendly reminder!

swo17 wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 4:52 am ELIGIBLE TITLES FOR 1992

VOTE THROUGH APRIL 30

Please post in this thread if you think anything needs to change about the list of eligible titles.

Hotell E (Priit Pärn)
A Sense of History (Mike Leigh)

These two shorts are a perfect tonic for anyone currently disillusioned with the state of America. One pulls the dull nonsensical skin of the American dream off to reveal the unsurprising darkness beneath, while the other is a jovial stroll down memory lane with the type of man that power always seems to attract.

I might also mention Bob Roberts here, only it's not a short and it may hit a little too close to the bone for some