For No Particular Reason, 12 Great Overlooked American Films of the '90s

12. Donnie Brasco (Newell,1997) Let's put it this way. About a half hour into this one, my wife, who's a huge Johnny Depp fan, asked me who was playing the title character. That's how far Depp dives into this character, and he's not even the best reason to see the film. That would be Al Pacino, for once not playing Al Pacino. His moving performance as a loser who pays the price for trusting the wrong person is among his best, and that's saying a lot.

11. City of Hope (Sayles, 1991) Along with Linklater's Slacker, this is the missing link between Nashville and Magnolia. Sayles' epic tells the story of the death and potential rebirth of a New Jersey city (based, presumably on Newark). The film features many of Sayles' stock company (David Straithairn, Joe Morton, Vincent Spano) in their ususal fine form, and is an object lesson to Stephen Gaghan, Paul Haggis and their ilk on how to balance social commentary with a multiple-character storyline.

10. Falling Down (Schumacher, 1993) OK, so this is not exactly an unknown film, nor is it without some significant flaws. But there are some beautiful individual moments here from both Robert Duvall and Michael Douglas, especially in their final confrontation on the Santa Monica Pier. Unfortunately, this was marketed as a Death Wish- style answer to Rodney King-induced racial paranoia. For all its brutality, it's much more subtle than that. With the possible exception of Stone's NBK, it is Hollywood's most accurate portrayal of America struggling with the terrifying possibility that in the post-Cold War era, we'd have no one to turn the guns on but ourselves

9. Devil in a Blue Dress (Franklin, 1995) This is a film that you look back on and wonder how the hell it didn't become a huge hit with a boatload of sequels. For my money, Franklin (whose One False Move should be on this list as well) does a better job of capturing 40's style L.A. noir than Curtis Hanson did in the much more successful L.A. Confidential. Featuring a perfect match of character and actor in Denzel Washington's portrayal of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins and some brilliant characterizations by Tom Sizemore and others, the film is perhaps most memorable for Don Cheadle's explosive performace as Mouse. Has there been as electrifying a film debut since?

8. The Rapture (Tolkin, 1991) A one-of-a-kind film, truly complex in the best sense of the word (and the spirit of this blog). Mimi Rogers gives an astonishing performance as a really bad girl who suddenly finds the Spirit and changes her ways. When her husband, a former hitman who has also seen the Light (David Duchovny, in his one passable movie role) is murdered, she and her five year old daughter head out to the desert to await the apocalypse. What happens to them out there must be seen to be believed. Compelling then, the film holds even more power in our latest Age of Awakening.

7. A Simple Plan (Raimi, 1998) For my money, this is the best American film noir of the 90's, or at least the film that best captures the spirit of noir 1.0. A simple premise--four buddies out hunting in the frozen woods come across a crashed small plane with no survivors and a briefcase containing several million dollars. What to do? Betrayal, double-cross, triple-cross and assorted mayhem ensue, all made plausible by Raimi's steady hand and a group of strong, subtle performances (hell, even Bill Paxton comes to life here). Unfortunately, this film will go down in history as the Fail-Safe to Fargo's Dr. Strangelove, which I think accounts for its weak showing in its initial release. But in its own serious way, it is brilliant at capturing the claustrophobia of the wide open space, creating its own sub-genre, film blanc.

6. Henry Fool (Hartley, 1997) For me, Hartley's first three films (Trust, The Unbelievable Truth and Simple Men) were the essence of early 90's indie film. More deadpan than Wes Anderson, with dialogue as stylized as Mamet and incredible comic timing, these films were like Beckett on the 5:11 to Mineola. What separates Henry Fool from these early works, and from Hartley's subsequent efforts, is its ambition. Here, Hartley deals with some major issues like identity and the creative process, but not in an obtrusive way. A slow, quiet masterpiece, with a brilliant central performance by James Urbaniak.

5. State of Grace (Joanou, 1990) Where have you gone, Gary Oldman? You can keep Joe Orton, Sid Vicious and Vlad the Impaler--for my money this is Oldman's best performance, and one of the best performances of the last two decades, period. Classic gangster fare, with betrayal and violence in a Westies-style Irish gang of New York, this film had the misfortune to be released in 1990, the annus mirabilis of the gangster film (seen Goodfellas and Miller's Crossing, anyone?). And what a cast! Ed Harris, Sean Penn, Robin Wright, John C. Reilly, John Turturro...but it's Oldman's unusual twist on the classic violent psycho role that will stay with you.

4. Fresh (Yakin, 1994) Talk about falling through the cracks. This film had a double misfortune, in that it came out (and was lumped in with) the spate of gangsta films that followed Boyz 'n' the Hood, while it was also released around the same time as another, much more comfortable film with chess as a central theme, Searching for Bobby Fischer. It's a real shame, because this is so much more than a gangster picture or a feel-good chess story. Young Sean Nelson is wonderful as the main character trying to survive a rough family situation, deal with the accidental schoolyard shooting of a girl on whom he had a crush, and rescue his sister from the clutches of a slimy drug dealer. What saves him is chess, and the strategy he contrives to solve his problems is worthy of any grand master.

3. Rosewood (Singleton, 1997) Remember when John Singleton was the West Coast Spike, when he wasn't doing crap like the Shaft remake or 2 Fast 2 Furious? (OK, Four Brothers wasn't too bad). Sure there was garbage like Poetic Justice (almost saved by Pac) and Baby Boy, and there was Higher Learning, where his reach just barely exceeded his grasp. But there was Boyz, and there was Rosewood, a forgotten masterpiece and Singleton's only attempt at a historical film. It is a straightforward retelling of the destruction of an all-black town by its white neighbors in 1923, a crime that the state of Florida didn't even acknowledge until 50 years later. Outstanding performances by Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle (there he is again) and Jon Voight, but what makes this film truly special is the way in which Singleton brings to life a long-lost world. This was the world that Zora Neale Hurston explored literally and in her fiction, the self-sufficient, prosperous towns created by freed slaves in Georgia and northern Florida a century ago. And by the way, did you notice that there are a lot of African-American-themed films on this list (see #1)...?

2. A Perfect World (Eastwood, 1993) After winning the Oscar for directing Unforgiven, Eastwood made this surprising, mournful, funny yet ultimately tragic story of a criminal on the run who, almost accidentally, takes a young, fatherless boy as hostage. This is Kevin Costner's last great performance, the end of his run which began with The Untouchables; Waterworld and The Postman were just a gleam in his eye. As the film morphs into a road movie, with the two of them being chased by Eastwood's bumbling cop, his relationship with the boy deepens and grows in the most moving and believable way. As he has always done, Eastwood pulls off the miracle of telling a straightforward, all-American story while subverting and challenging the nature of American myth at the same time. A wonderful, unfairly forgotten film; I'll take it over Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby any day.

1. Beloved (Demme 1998) I have never gone into a theater so ready to hate a film. First of all, it's my favorite American novel of the last 50 years. Second, it's a completely unfilmable book. Third, its director had abandoned his iconoclastic, goofy/violent work of the 80's (Something Wild, Married to the Mob) to make important pictures like Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. Fourth, it was going to be another Color Purple, right? Oprah was going to Spielbergize it and make it a happy negro story. Finally, I frickin' hate Oprah; who the hell was she to bring Toni Morrison to the screen, let alone play Sethe? But there I was: myself, and the 20 or so kids in my NYC high school Advanced Placement Lit class. They had read the book, so I figured I owed them one, and off we went into this three-hour plus epic of slavery and infanticide. I expected the worst, but let me tell you something. My kids did not even move. I don't think anyone went to the bathroom. I didn't even hear anyone breathe. For the entire term, I had been preaching to them about the transformative power of art. When we walked out of the film, I think they finally understood. Where to begin? Oprah's astonishing incarnation of Sethe? Danny Glover, perfect as Paul D? Thandie Newton, terrifying and pathetic as the title character? Kimberly Elise who, like her character Denver does in the book, ends up walking away with the story? The glorious Beah Richards as Baby Suggs? The fact that Oprah and Demme don't compromise an inch, that the film features multiple narrators and an achronological storyline? Remember, Beloved was panned, ripped and demolished by the critics upon its release, more so than any film on this list. Was it an anti-Oprah backlash? Was it too serious and too long for people? Well, the good news is that the film is starting to show up on TV more and more, and I am convinced that it will take its place among the great American epics of all time. In fact, I'm going out on a limb to say that aside from Ford's Grapes of Wrath, Beloved is the greatest film adaptation of a classic American novel. Ever.