1991 was the year when pop culture shifted on its axis. In 1991, three guys from Seattle got together and released a monumental, instantly iconic album, Forget it. Nirvana changed music forever, but there were also cultural shifts in movies. T2: Judgment Day broke new ground in the world of special effects, with James Cameron once again setting the tables. Movies like Silence of the lambs sent shock waves and became one of the first horror films to reign supreme at the Oscars. John Singleton became the youngest and first black director to be nominated for Best Director for his loving, heartbreaking story of black youth in Compton. While directors such as Oliver Stone, Spike Lee and Ridley Scott continued as pioneers for the subject they explored. 1991 was a great movie year. Here are 12 movies that are still on the rise today.
12 tropical fever
Spike Lee is a filmmaker so attached to his Brooklyn heritage that his filmography shakes to the beat of the city he knows best. Lee is known for his aesthetic and social audacity, but not necessarily his ability to make scenes sensual. Using both his formal precision and his political stubbornness, tropical fever plays on the social anxieties of mixed-race relationships and tries to have an honest conversation about how racism still permeates Italian-American households. Pairing a sexually dynamite pair in Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra, the two begin a love affair that threatens the fabric of their households. Lee also makes the film a critique of the crack-era politics of the time, but there are still some questions about the ending.
11 People under the stairs
Wes Craven, a jewel of the haunted house horror subgenre, takes two Twin Peaks alumni - Everett McGill and Wendy Robie - turning them into greedy sadistic landlords from hell. Starring Ving Rhames and young Brandon Adams, the two form an unlikely bond as they attempt to steal gold from the landlords. The movie packs a hilariously gory punch as Adams gets trapped in the house and is forced to navigate what turns Craven into a terrifying puzzle. Denouncing the disposition of landlords who seek endless wealth and ignore the economic inequality of the people they benefit from, People under the stairs takes the "kill your landlords" message literally, as they take the bodies of the landlord's victims and turn them into zombies.
10 Thelma and Louise
A groundbreaking and instantly iconic film when it was released, Thelma & Louise takes a spin on repurposing the Western ethos as a progressive take on outlaws on the run against the sparse backdrop of the Southwestern desert. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon star in Ridley Scott's sleek direction as they empower and free themselves from the clutches of possessive men, while also realizing that the love they have for each other is all they need.
9 Night on Earth
Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch was part of a renaissance of independent filmmakers that emerged from the NYU school of artists. His films had a unique blend of comedy, Zen realism and aimlessness with a cast of cool characters that immediately left his blueprint as an indelible piece of American cinema. Night on Earth is a series of vignettes that get to the heart of the relationship between taxi driver and passenger. How that one short ride can be as intimate, epic, and tragic as any relationship you have, but in such a short amount of time. The conversations range from the calmness of Winona Ryder smoking a cigarette in the West Coast Hills to the manic energy of Giancarlo Esposito on the streets of New York.
8 Having lunch naked
The marriage of two sinister spirits over mediums, David Cronenberg and famed novelist William S. Burroughs, was the perfect marriage. Having lunch naked is a drug-driven, schizophrenic noir that combines elements of body horror with his thematic suggestions of art as politics. Starring Peter Weller as the Burroughs surrogate, he treats his life, his intuitions, and a barely legible mystery at the center of his drug addictions to put his sexuality front and center. It's a confusing movie, but one of Cronenberg's more rewarding if you stick with it.
7 Point pause
At the heart of Kathryn Bigelow's surfer, zen, heist film is the unmistakable friendship that beckons when a cop goes undercover to break up a gang of bank robbers. Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze make the perfect pair as their bond almost forges a friendship that breaks the shield and promises that Reeves swore to protect as a cop. Swing as the wise surfer, whose way of life appeals to the ex-quarterback in Reeves, is intoxicating and makes the end of their brotherly ways all the more heartbreaking. Point pause is one of the best.
6 The Last Boy Scout
The perfect screenwriting muse for Tony Scott's film style and verisimilitude was Shane Black's hilariously violent pen. I have the Deadly weapon franchise, Black was known for writing one-liners and creating a certain form of the hardboiled detective. Perfectly cast in the lead role was Bruce Willis, with his hangover on his arm and each scene smoking a cigarette as if they added years to his life, Willis delivered line after line of degradation and swarm. Adding in an element of football and gambling only made the action better, with an insane opening sequence that showed Scott had what it takes to direct a football movie if it ever came to pass. The Last Boy Scout is a wonderfully delirious romp and an excellent buddy cop movie. With Damon Wayans playing the disgraced quarterback, unwilling to help Willis with his investigation, the movie was a perfect fit for Scott and his talents.
5 Bart Finn
Part cautionary tale of artistic arrogance, but also an utterly terrifying plunge into the mind of a writer experiencing a creative block, Bart Finn is one of the more terrifying films in the Coen brothers' filmography. Filled with a Stanley Kubrick-esque dread in the corridors of a ghoulish Hollywood hotel, the Coens lead us through the halls of John Turturro's ghost as he battles his fear, external pressures, and a land full of sketchy liars feigning whims in trying to cover up their creative facades. Bart Finn is effective because it stems from the Coens' distaste for the film industry and their treatment of writers as factory workers. For many people, this is perhaps the best film by the Coen brothers.
4 Silence of the lambs
Although he was only in the film for 24 minutes, in a running time of almost 2 hours, Anthony Hopkins created a persona so evil and creepy that his presence haunted the entire film. From his sinister smile to the way he never blinks when he talks to the nosy Jodie Foster, Hopkins got into the mind of Hannibal Lecter's serial killer, leaving almost no trace of humanity. Instead, dive into the cold, ruthless intelligence he would later embody to the extreme in Ridley Scott's Hannibal. Silence of the lambs was the last film at the Oscars to win the Big Five awards for actor, actress, director, screenplay and picture.
3 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
James Cameron is no stranger to innovation. The blockbuster director is known for pushing technology forward or waiting for technology to catch up to achieve his grandiose and meticulous vision. That's the case for Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Cameron's collaboration with the VFX team Industrial, Light, and Magic. Together, Cameron and the team created an iconic villain in one fell swoop with Robert Patrick, a robot that changes shape into liquid metal. Beyond that, Cameron took his original villainous creation in Arnold Schwarzenegger and paved a new path for him to become a hero never seen before. Along with a helicopter stunt that still melts the brain, T2 is an indelible piece of sci-fi action and one of the great sequels ever made.
2 Boyz N The Hood
One of the great directorial debuts of the last 40 years, John Singleton gave South Central Los Angeles the cinematic treatment along the lines of Charles Burnett's Murderous sheep. A film about the trappings of masculinity, economic inequality and black anger under the grip of a state that cares nothing about your livelihood. With great performances from Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut and Cuba Gooding Jr. like three friends caught in a cycle of violence that will forever change the course of their lives, Singleton's Boyz N The Hood is a masterpiece.
1 JFK
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JFK is Oliver Stone at the height of his hallucinatory, paranoid fever dream powers. Creating a masterpiece of aesthetics, storytelling, entertainment and editing with his strongest, most trusted collaborator, cinematographer Robert Richardson, JFK is a three-hour ride packed with character and twisty plot twists. Backed up also by a searing score from maestro John Williams, Stone gave Americans a reason to reconsider what they had been told about John F. Kennedy's assassination. Dominating big over the American psyche, Stone's opus to question the American institutions of power was a box office hit, garnering two Oscars along with eight nominations.
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