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:

1. Die Hard With a Vengeance
2. Se7en
3. Sense and Sensibility
4. The Usual Suspects
5. Casino
6. Before Sunrise
7. Circle of Friends
8. Clueless
9. Devil in a Blue Dress
10. French Kiss
11. A Single Girl
12. Strange Days
13. 12 Monkeys
14. A Walk in the Clouds
15. While You Were Sleeping

This does not include the handful of films that I have yet to see that I know I must:

1. Toy Story
2. La Heine
3. 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:

1. Apollo 13
2. Hackers
3. Bad Boys
4. Braveheart
5. Leaving Las Vegas
6. Crimson Tide
7. Circle of Friends
8. 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

• Strange Days

• While You Were Sleeping

---

Please be sure to visit FANDANGO GROOVERS to check out what others have declared as their favorite “movie year.”