Items25The creator’s order
  1. 1GoodFellas (1990)GoodFellas (1990) 8.7/10 on IMDbReleased 12 Sept 1990Scorsese makes the attractions of belonging feel as immediate as the cost of staying. Gliding entrances, abrupt violence and increasingly frantic editing turn Henry Hill's social ascent into a narrowing trap. It leads this year's selection for the way style carries the moral argument rather than…0
  2. 2Close-Up (1990)Close-Up (1990) 8.2/10 on IMDbReleased 9 May 1990A man impersonates a filmmaker, and the people involved help reconstruct what happened. Kiarostami makes the boundary between documentary and performance productive: wanting a place in cinema becomes a recognisable human need. The year's most searching choice for viewers interested in how a camera…0
  3. 3Days of Being Wild (1990)Days of Being Wild (1990) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased 15 Dec 1990Wong Kar-wai builds a world of missed connections through repeated gestures, humid interiors and people who cannot keep the same emotional time. Leslie Cheung's charm never makes his evasions harmless. Its unfinished feeling belongs to the film's understanding of longing, making it a richer…0
  4. 4Miller's Crossing (1990)Miller's Crossing (1990) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased 21 Sept 1990The Coens turn a gangster power struggle into a problem of reading loyalties, with Gabriel Byrne's reserve doing as much work as the ornate dialogue. Hats, doorways and a patch of woodland become part of its visual logic. Choose it for a tightly controlled alternative to the year's more feverish…0
  5. 5To Sleep with Anger (1990)To Sleep with Anger (1990) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased 12 Oct 1990Danny Glover's visiting storyteller changes the temperature of a Los Angeles household without needing to announce his intentions. Charles Burnett lets family disagreements, inherited customs and an uneasy sense of the supernatural coexist. It earns a high place for making a domestic gathering feel…0
  6. 6Life Is Sweet (1991)Life Is Sweet (1991) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased 22 Mar 1991Mike Leigh finds room for appetite, embarrassment, frustration and affection inside an ordinary family. Alison Steadman's warmth and Jane Horrocks's defensive sharpness keep the comedy from smoothing out the hurt. Its 1990 festival premiere places it here; the catalogue's 1991 commercial date does…0
  7. 7The Match Factory Girl (1990)The Match Factory Girl (1990) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased 12 Jan 1990Aki Kaurismaki uses spare dialogue, repetitive work and exact framing to make a woman's restricted choices palpable. Kati Outinen's stillness invites attention to tiny changes in expression. This is the year's sharpest compact counterweight to expansive American storytelling, with dry humour that…0
  8. 8Dreams (1990)Dreams (1990) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased 11 May 1990Kurosawa gives separate dreams their own colours, rhythms and emotional rules, moving from childhood wonder to landscapes marked by human damage. The painted world of the Van Gogh episode is only one of its pleasures. Choose it as an anthology of cinematic imagination rather than a plot-driven…0
  9. 9Ju Dou (1990)Ju Dou (1990) 7.6/10 on IMDbReleased 21 Apr 1990The colour and architecture of a dye mill turn a hidden relationship into something visually overwhelming. Gong Li gives the central woman's desire and vulnerability force without reducing her to either. It stands out among the year's melodramas for making social constraint visible in the spaces…0
  10. 10Metropolitan (1990)Metropolitan (1990) 7.2/10 on IMDbReleased 3 Aug 1990Whit Stillman's young New Yorkers discuss class and romance with a confidence their behaviour keeps undermining. The pleasure lies in hearing social theories collide with jealousy, uncertainty and the logistics of getting home. Its precise conversational comedy offers a different account of…0