Adithya Seshadri
1995 as a whole was a wonderful year for cinema. It had to be one of the most versatile years ever, with greats proving their mettle while relatively younger directors rising to give some of the best Hollywood movies ever. The Oscars the following year was one of the most debatable ever as it polarised the critics and viewers alike who felt the deemed missed out their deserved. Enough said, let’s dive inside into the list of top movies of 1995.
15. Crumb
Crumb is a non-fictional documentary based on the life of an underground cartoonist Robert Crumb. Although most of the biographical documentaries are believed to be preaching and boring, this documentary redefined documentaries as a genre and not as a type of cinema. Although it was widely acclaimed for its honest and daring portrayal of its lead it is still a mystery as to how the best documentary of the decade missed out on being nominated for the Academy Award for the best Documentary feature category.
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14. Toy Story
The movie with zero haters, this 81 minute gem is rated 100% fresh at rotten tomatoes. Toy Story was not only innovative but set a benchmark for all animated films to follow. It rewrote trends and most importantly entertained adults and children alike. I don’t remember any other animation feature claiming this feat.
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13. Clueless
The best coming-of-age film of the year, Clueless has a charm that’ll definitely woo you. Clueless is loosely based on the 1815 novel “Emma” adapted with a modern setting and packed with enough satire. It’s not flawless, but it has its heart at the right place that’ll definitely warm you.
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12. 12 Monkeys
James Cole is a convict who is sent back in time to catch the people who have spread a deadly virus upon the mankind. While the cast deliver some of their best work, it is the direction and writing that sets it apart. The movie unfolds as a thriller but is often catalysed by eccentricity which has been handled brilliantly by Terry Gilliam.
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11. Braveheart
Is it historically accurate? No. Did it deserve to win the Best Picture at Oscars? Hell, No. Is it a good film? Certainly, yeah. Well, technically it is more than a good film, it’s a great film. Mel Gibson’s direction was groundbreaking especially those battle sequences which was nothing like anything audiences had ever seen. That coupled with some decent performances make it a good film. But obviously, in the year of several masterpieces it didn’t deserve to be on the top five. Let’s talk about winning later.
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10. Casino
This gangster drama had a tremendous cast, a brilliant screenplay, the master of gangster films behind the camera, yet the fact that this masterpiece not getting the fame it deserves remains to be a mystery. It is no Goodfellas but it’s not a bad film either. Casino has to be that unlucky younger brother who is always overshadowed by his older brother not because of the fact that the elder one is superior but he just came before the younger.
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9. La Haine
The rawest film of the year, perhaps the decade, La Haine was French Cinema at its blasting best. Rooted to its French origin yet connectible in a global level, it was a celebration of honest and gritty filmmaking. Depicting 20 hours of the lives of three young individuals , this movie received a standing ovation and a Best Director award at the ’95 Cannes festival.
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8. Babe
Unarguably the weirdest movie of the year, perhaps of the decade, Babe tells a story of a piglet which out of the fear of being eaten by its owners becomes a sheepdog. Although featuring a ground breaking special effects, the movie had a wonderful core and a beautiful spirit which it managed to showcase undiluted.
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7. Safe
Safe affects you and deeply disturbs you but not in a traditional sense of disturbance but something within your deep psychology which it instigates. Directed by Todd Haynes and featuring Juliane Moore who gives in one of her career best performance, tells the tale of an affluent suburban housewife who starts developing allergies. Although, its ending has been considered ambiguous and unworthy of the beginning, Safe is one of the rare dramas you carry with you for a very long time.
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6. Apollo 13
Just imagine watching a film like gravity in theatres twenty years ago. Needless to say, the last two decades have seen a major transformation for technical and special effects in Cinema, but Apollo 13 made two decades ago with some state-of-the art technical precision and great scientific accuracy. But behind all this technical marvels, there is a wonderful drama, with mastered direction and skilled acting that makes it one of the best space films ever made.
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5. Underground
Underground tells the story of friendship between two friends from the beginning of World War 2 to the beginning of Yugoslov wars. Highly political, deeply exhausting yet mightily impressive Underground fell prey to political controversies upon its released for spreading Serbian propaganda. But the movie was highly acclaimed by critics worldwide and also won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes that year.
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4. Before Sunrise
The movie that gave the best couples on celluloid, Jesse and Celine. The most surprising thing about the movie is when you look back about watching it, it never really had any storyline. It is just two youngsters talking, literally anything and everything that crosses their minds. This genuineness with some brilliant performances from Hawke and Delpy makes it one of the evergreen classics. Richard Linklater makes us enjoy and admire a film which for its whole length is just a conversation between two teenagers. That I’d say has been his greatest achievement so far.
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3. The Usual Suspects
“I don’t know who Keyser Soze is, but whoever he is, he’s going to get gloriously drunk tonight”, said Kevin Spacey after winning his best Supporting Actor Oscar. The character Keyser Soze has very much become a part of Hollywood culture. Directed by the brilliant Bryan Singer and starring a plethora of cast who don’t miss a single note, The Usual Suspects stands as an example of how a crime thriller should be. And, about the ending, you’ll never see that coming.
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2. Heat
I’d have paid to watch just the coffee shop scene which featured the greatest actors of this generation Al Pacino and Robert De Niro conversing, where both these actors are literally competing with each other to get the better out of themselves and in the due process making this film a cult classic. Micheal Mann has never been so great ever before nor ever since, where in this movie he employs every trick in his, adding depth to each and every sub character but at the same time not diverting attention from the two central pivots, without whom this movie could certainly not be what it is today.
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1. Se7en
David Fincher failed in the most epic fashion with his debut Alien 3. But eventually, he made the entire Hollywood look at him with Seven. A veteran cop on the verge of retirement along with a rookie cop try to track down the serial killer who is knocking out his victims based on the seven cardinal sins. David Fincher creates an aura, which slowly soaks us in uneasiness that when the final climax act plays out we’re completely knocked out. Regarding the mystery killer, I’ll let you guys find him out, he comes in at the last thirty minutes and bloody owns the screen since. I get extremely pissed when people call The Silence of the Lambs as the best murder mystery ever made. There is a guy named David Fincher who is churning these out with better qualities like a goddamn factory.
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