Best Picture: # 67 Original Release Date: July 6, 1994 Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 2 hours, 22 minutes Director: Robert Zemeckis Quick Impressions: What can be said about Forrest Gump that hasn’t already been set to music by Weird Al? Probably plenty, but the lyrics of his parody of “Lump” kept …
Best Picture: # 66Original Release Date: November 30, 1993Rating: RRuntime: 3 hours, 15 minutesDirector: Steven Spielberg Quick Impressions:I anticipated that watching Schindler’s List with my twelve-year-old might be difficult because of her age. Since she’s so young, I had considered carefully pre-screening the film, preparing her for difficult scenes, asking …
Best Picture: #65Original Release Date: August 7, 1992Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 10 minutesDirector: Clint Eastwood Quick Impressions:Never in my life have I seen a film that inspired me to take action more than Unforgiven. What did it inspire me to do, you ask? Shoot that sheriff. Despite my jokes about …
Best Picture: # 64Original Release Date: February 14, 1991Rating: RRuntime: 1 hour, 58 minutesDirector: Jonathan Demme Quick Impressions:The Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorite Best Picture winners because it’s just so watchable. I’m tempted to say, “It’s impossible not to like this movie,” but that’s not true. …
Best Picture: #63Original Release Date: November 21, 1990Rating: PG-13Runtime: 3 hours, 1 minuteDirector: Kevin Costner Quick Impressions:My sister got trapped in Alaska last week. She and her fiancé took a vacation, then their flight home got cancelled, leaving them stuck in the airport for two days living their own personal …
Best Picture: #62Original Release Date: December 13, 1989Rating: PGRuntime: 1 hour, 39 minutesDirector: Bruce Beresford Quick Impressions:Like Oliver!, the first cinematic obsession of my young childhood, Driving Miss Daisy is a Best Picture winner that people usually bring up so they can complain about how it’s not as good a …
Best Picture: #61Original Release Date: December 16, 1988Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 13 minutesDirector: Berry Levinson Quick Impressions:“I love this movie,” I told my daughter in excitement as we prepared to watch Rain Man. Then I realized I had only seen it once (as a new release on home video when …
Best Picture: #60Original Release Date: April 15, 1988Rating: PG-13Runtime: 2 hours, 43 minutesDirector: Bernardo Bertolucci Quick Impressions:The Last Emperor is bewildering to experience. I know very little Chinese history, and Emperor Pu Yi’s life unfolds in such a dramatic, startling way that my daughter and I could not help frequently …
Best Picture: #59Original Release Date: February 6, 1987Rating: RRuntime: 2 hoursDirector: Oliver Stone Quick Impressions:Just because I watched Platoon with my twelve-year-old does not mean you should watch Platoon with your twelve-year-old. This is a disturbing film that might traumatize children (or even adults). I’ll talk more about that later, …
Best Picture: #58Original Release Date: December 20, 1985Rating: PGRuntime: 2 hours, 41 minutesDirector: Sydney Pollack Quick Impressions:Autobiographical writing is difficult to do well. I remember once having a conversation with my daughter in the park about which is true, fiction or non-fiction. I told her, “It really depends. Non-fiction can …
