Courtesy of the folks over at Fandango Groovers, I have been presented with the following challenge – pick a year, any year, since the birth of cinema that I consider “the best” and select my top 5 from that year.
NARROWING DOWN …
… was a difficult task. I figure that, outside of the silent cinema era, I can pick at least 5 films from almost every year that I have thoroughly enjoyed.
So I have devised a rather random calculus – first, I went to my list of 100 Must See Films (in real need of being updated, BTW) and focused on the years which cropped up most frequently on the top part of the list (numbers 1-60). The following years appeared most often: 1995, 1959, 1955, 1948, with each year producing three titles.
So for the tie-break, I looked at the wider list of films released in each respective year and counted the number of films seen in that year. 1995 produced the longest list of films of note in my opinion.
THE SHORTLIST
With that very nerdy explanation behind us, I present to you my 1995 shortlist:
- Die Hard With a Vengeance
- Se7en
- Sense and Sensibility
- The Usual Suspects
- Casino
- Before Sunrise
- Circle of Friends
- Clueless
- Devil in a Blue Dress
- French Kiss
- A Single Girl
- Strange Days
- 12 Monkeys
- A Walk in the Clouds
- While You Were Sleeping
This does not include the handful of films that I have yet to see that I know I must:
- Toy Story
- La Heine
- Safe
To prove further why 1995 was simply awesome, here are those films I have seen, enjoyed but the simply did not make the top 15:
- Apollo 13
- Hackers
- Bad Boys
- Braveheart
- Leaving Las Vegas
- Crimson Tide
- Circle of Friends
- Before Sunrise
AND THEN THERE WERE FIVE
So without further ado, here are the My Top 5 of 1995.
- Se7en
- Sense and Sensibility
- The Usual Suspects
- While You Were Sleeping
Please be sure to visit FANDANGO GROOVERS to check out what others have declared as their favorite “movie year.”
Oh my!! I ALMOST picked 1995 as my year because Sense & Sensibility is one of my top 5 fave of ALL TIME. I also love A Walk in the Clouds and Circle of Friends, but I could only find FOUR I REALLY love and the fourth one is Die Hard 3. So I guess 1995 is my ‘runner-up’ year, in fact I’ll add that in my post.
Btw, I saw Strange Days not that long ago, can’t say I love it but it’s really an interesting film and Ralph is sooo gorgeous in the movie. Oh and I’ve always loved Angela Bassett.
ruth recently posted..My Movie Year: The Year 2000
Oh I could watch Strange Days on a loop, Ruth! But it sounds like you did enjoy it enough 🙂
Oh and Tom Sizemore is really creepy in it. I wish I had asked him about that wig when he was on one of the panels at TCFF. It looked really itchy!
ruth recently posted..Weekend Viewing Roundup and Battleship (2012) guest review
True that wig was one for the ages!
Nice one. I love this meme, Andy always thinks of the best ideas! Unfortunately I have been so blinkered I completely forgot to do this one. But you have done a cracking job!
Scott Lawlor recently posted..DVD Review – The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers
Thanks Scott! It was a lot of fun 🙂
Great post! Love your choice, Casino, Se7en and Sense and Sensiblity are one of my favorite movies. Strange Days is also a great movie, very underrated too.
sati recently posted..All Good Things
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Iba, you win! 1995 was an amazing year of movies indeed! You must see La Haine, great, great flick.
Castor recently posted..Watch: Enchanting Trailer & Clip from Short Film ‘Pitch Black Heist’ with Michael Fassbender
Cheers, Castor. Looking back it was quite an awesome year, indeed!
A great year! Not too far off from ’94! 🙂 The only titles missing from your otherwise spot-on selections, in my opinion, are The Bridges of Madison County and Mr. Holland’s Opus. Oh, how I just heart those movies. Not a dry eye between the two of them! And props to you for at least mentioning Die Hard with a Vengeance — that one is so underrated.
Wonderful!
Hey Dave
I LOVE Die Hard with a Vengeance! One of my favorite aspects of the film is it lovely portrayal of the greater NYC area; showing places that may not end up in the guide books.
As much as I love a good old weepie, I must admit that Bridges was too much for me in the ‘strings being pulled’ department. I will admit however that as I type this I am clearly picturing the scene near the end when they are in their cars and the decision has to be made … rather sad.
I’ve been seeing this meme on quite a few other great blogs. ’95 was a great year. no argument there! Loved your choices.
The Focused Filmographer recently posted..It’s “Time to Vote Tuesday!” 95
It is quite popular, eh?
Wow, ’95 was really a good year, and not just because it was the year I graduated college. 🙂 I like that you inserted the underrated Die Hard with a Vengeance on this shortlist!
Ja recently posted..Cinco De Mayo Will Be Kind To Mayeather, Not Cotto
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I’ve been seeing this blogathon everywhere recently, I like it! Your choice is perfect, I totally agree, especially for Seven and Usual Suspects! I should really see Sense&Sensibility soon 🙂
Diana aka Aziza recently posted..The Godfather II [1974]
I think this was such a popular meme because it was so much fun to think about your fave films in terms of when they were made. And to see them grouped as such was a lot of fun. Even though I did not select the “TCM Years” I was quite surprised at how years I typically did not think of as great movie years actually were!
Good stuff! Your post has reminded me that I really need to see Strange Days. I think it was just playing at the local theater, too… Ah well, I’ll just have to bump it up in Netflix. 😀
Eric recently posted..Movie Project #12: The Bourne Identity [2002]
It had been on Starz the other night – unfortunately I do not have Starz so I missed it 🙁
Great choices for ’95, big fan of Se7en and Usual Suspects, but have yet to see Strange Days, I’ll be sure to add that to the list. Hmmm, I didn’t see Show Girls anywhere in your posts though, I’m guessing that was a typo… hehe, I kid, I kid 🙂
ZombieBodhi recently posted..5 Best 1980 Horror Movies
For a second I thought about mentioning it … but I saw sense and left it on the editing room floor 😉