# Top 5 of 1991 | Archive

An episode of [Filmspotting](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/73330112), 14 Oct 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/d28227f8-56d8-46d9-b2c5-b3d3012db5ab/de5a0c73-3a89-4388-beb2-b4e20145b8ef/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=83c52568-54c6-438a-8751-b3d3012db5c3

The 1991 movie year turns 35 this year. T2, Barton Fink, Boys in the Hood. In 2014, Adam and Josh looked back a mere 23 years for their Top 5 of '91. Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you join the Filmspotting Family. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:03] Speaker 1: What kind of a show are you guys putting on
[0:05] Speaker 1: here today? You're not interested in art?
[0:07] Speaker 2: No.
[0:08] Speaker 1: Well, look, we're going to do this thing. We're going
[0:09] Speaker 1: to have a conversation.
[0:13] Speaker 3: Hey, Film Spotters. Archive drop time. Josh, we're going back.
[0:17] Speaker 3: Can it really be? 35 years to 1991. Now, before
[0:24] Speaker 3: we take a brief look at our lists and set
[0:26] Speaker 3: them up a little bit, I do have to give
[0:28] Speaker 3: you some bad news. What you don't know is that
[0:31] Speaker 3: producer Sam gave me the option of this or another
[0:36] Speaker 3: potential top five from the archive that he was tying
[0:41] Speaker 3: into Halloween and horror. And that was top five movie animals.
[0:48] Speaker 1: You're never going to allow that, that, that I feel
[0:52] Speaker 1: like that was, if you were ever going to loosen
[0:55] Speaker 1: up the grip a little bit, it was, it was starting.
[1:00] Speaker 1: You were, you were starting to have like a more
[1:02] Speaker 1: relaxed life. And then Michael Phillips and I, without your approval,
[1:07] Speaker 1: did Top 5 Movie Manimals. And it was just, the
[1:11] Speaker 1: clamps came down. Went off the rails. Never again.
[1:17] Speaker 3: Now, in fairness, and I could be wrong. I could
[1:21] Speaker 3: be wrong. You tell me with a clear head, Josh.
[1:24] Speaker 3: Be unbiased. Do you think Top 5 Movie Manimals... would
[1:31] Speaker 3: get more downloads than the top five movies of 1991?
[1:36] Speaker 1: Well, it's not all about the downloads. Sometimes it's about
[1:40] Speaker 1: the art. Okay. And you make those choices. You do.
[1:44] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[1:45] Speaker 1: We've chosen, we've chosen commerce over art.
[1:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, I did.
[1:49] Speaker 1: I definitely did. So, all right, that's fine.
[1:52] Speaker 4: Okay.
[1:53] Speaker 3: Top five films of 1991. We will not belabor this
[1:58] Speaker 3: too much, but I'm looking over our lists here really quickly.
[2:01] Speaker 3: Looks like a pretty darn good year. So good, in fact,
[2:04] Speaker 3: that we have a bunch of films and only one, no,
[2:09] Speaker 3: two crossover between us.
[2:11] Speaker 1: Okay, I'll take that. Great year. And I mean, the
[2:14] Speaker 1: ones that you have that I don't, and I think
[2:17] Speaker 1: this is probably rare, I would happily have all of
[2:23] Speaker 1: those on my list and feel like it was respectable
[2:27] Speaker 1: and movies that I really love. So yeah, 91, man,
[2:29] Speaker 1: what a year. Yeah.
[2:32] Speaker 3: Well, we hope you enjoy this look back at our
[2:35] Speaker 3: top five films of 91. Remember that access to the
[2:38] Speaker 3: Film Spotting Archive and top fives like this, and yes,
[2:41] Speaker 3: Movie Manimals. Josh, get it ready. When we come out
[2:45] Speaker 3: of this, we'll have it ready. What show number is
[2:48] Speaker 3: Movie Manimals so they can look it up easily?
[2:51] Speaker 1: You think I know that off the top of my head?
[2:53] Speaker 3: Well, that's what Google is for, Josh.
[2:55] Speaker 4: All right.
[2:56] Speaker 3: We'll make it easier on them. Access.
[2:59] Speaker 1: Adam, the number of shows that have done Movie Manimals,
[3:03] Speaker 1: it's going to be endless. Oh, I know. It won't
[3:06] Speaker 1: be the first result. How am I going to find
[3:07] Speaker 1: our show?
[3:09] Speaker 3: Access to the Film Spotting Archive is just one of
[3:10] Speaker 3: the benefits of joining the Film Spotting Family. Learn more
[3:14] Speaker 3: at filmspottingfamily.com. This list is from May 2014. Not an anniversary,
[3:20] Speaker 3: so we must have had another very good reason to
[3:23] Speaker 3: tie it into that year.
[3:25] Speaker 1: One of our annual.
[3:27] Speaker 3: year by year lists at that point. Enjoy.
[3:30] Speaker 2: See, it's basic dog psychology. If you scare them and
[3:34] Speaker 2: get them peeing down their leg, they submit. Yet if
[3:37] Speaker 2: you project weakness, you draw aggression.
[3:39] Speaker 1: That's how people get hurt. You see, fear.
[3:44] Speaker 2: Causes hesitation and hesitation will cause your worst fears.
[3:49] Speaker 1: To come true. So it's simple.
[3:52] Speaker 2: You project strength, to avoid conflict.
[3:55] Speaker 1: Peace through superior firepower.
[3:57] Speaker 3: You're listening to this very special Keanu Reeves-infused edition of
[4:01] Speaker 3: Film Spotting with Josh Larson. I'm Adam Kempinar. Patrick Swayze
[4:04] Speaker 3: there as Bodhi in Catherine Bigelow's Point Break. My number
[4:08] Speaker 3: one film of 1991, actually not, my number five probably,
[4:11] Speaker 3: if it was really 1991, but it's not.
[4:14] Speaker 1: I am an FBI agent.
[4:17] Speaker 3: I know you are, Josh.
[4:18] Speaker 1: I know you are.
[4:20] Speaker 3: One of the memorable lines among many. from that film,
[4:24] Speaker 3: Point Break. And truly, if we were reflecting back on
[4:27] Speaker 3: these films as we saw them, I was 15 years
[4:30] Speaker 3: old in 1991.
[4:31] Speaker 1: You were 16, 17? Yeah, probably 16.
[4:33] Speaker 3: So, you know, we probably didn't have the refined taste, Josh,
[4:37] Speaker 3: that we have now. But Point Break would have been
[4:39] Speaker 3: in my top five. Not going to make my top
[4:41] Speaker 3: five now as we get back to our year-by-year countdowns.
[4:44] Speaker 3: We started at 2004. The year before film spotting began,
[4:48] Speaker 3: we've been counting back. We actually stopped at 93.
[4:51] Speaker 1: Yeah, I had people quite concerned about this. I'm sure.
[4:54] Speaker 1: That we skipped 92. That we skipped 92.
[4:55] Speaker 3: Just pretended it didn't happen.
[4:57] Speaker 4: Uh-huh.
[4:57] Speaker 3: We'll get back to that at some point.
[4:58] Speaker 2: Okay.
[4:58] Speaker 3: But because of our sacred cow discussion of My Own
[5:01] Speaker 3: Private Idaho. From 1991, we thought it was only appropriate
[5:04] Speaker 3: that we'd share our five favorite films from that year. Josh,
[5:07] Speaker 3: what is your number five?
[5:08] Speaker 1: Well, it was a really rich year, first of all.
[5:09] Speaker 1: I mean, looking back at this, and I must have
[5:12] Speaker 1: seen an awful lot of movies in 1991 for whatever reason,
[5:15] Speaker 1: because only a handful of the significant titles in my
[5:19] Speaker 1: own private Idaho was one of them are movies I
[5:21] Speaker 1: hadn't seen before. So that was good. I felt like
[5:24] Speaker 1: I'd done a decent amount of homework as far as
[5:26] Speaker 1: that goes. My number five is Boys in the Hood,
[5:29] Speaker 1: which I did see in 91. It was this out-of-nowhere
[5:32] Speaker 1: blast from writer-director John Singleton. Singleton, he came directly out
[5:37] Speaker 1: of a USC film program to write and direct this drama,
[5:40] Speaker 1: which is about a promising African-American teen playing by Cuba
[5:43] Speaker 1: Gooding Jr., who's trying to balance family, friendship, schooling, and
[5:46] Speaker 1: just plain old adolescence, really, in this gang-infested neighborhood of
[5:50] Speaker 1: South Central Los Angeles. Boys in the Hood had a
[5:53] Speaker 1: huge impact on the film scene when it came out.
[5:55] Speaker 1: I mean, Singleton was nominated for Best Director by the Oscars,
[5:59] Speaker 1: which made him the youngest ever and the first African-American
[6:02] Speaker 1: for that honor. It was also selected for the 1991
[6:04] Speaker 1: Cannes Film Festival and took in $ 60 million that year,
[6:07] Speaker 1: which is huge for this type of movie at that time. Now,
[6:12] Speaker 1: 91 actually saw three significant dramas from African-American directors. We
[6:16] Speaker 1: had Singleton's Boys, There was New Jack City from Mario
[6:19] Speaker 1: Van Peebles and then Straight Outta Brooklyn from Maddie Rich,
[6:22] Speaker 1: another low budget effort. And these led to a wave
[6:26] Speaker 1: of hood films in the 90s. You had Menace to Society.
[6:29] Speaker 1: We got Juice, Fresh, Friday are a couple of those.
[6:33] Speaker 1: What I think made Boys in the Hood distinctive was
[6:36] Speaker 1: maybe the thoughtfulness that it brought to this story of
[6:40] Speaker 1: trying to survive as a kid in a place where
[6:42] Speaker 1: crime has become so integrated into the community. Boys really
[6:47] Speaker 1: made this a matter of the heart and head, I think,
[6:49] Speaker 1: as much as it was a matter of performing the
[6:52] Speaker 1: right action or taking the right action to get out
[6:56] Speaker 1: of these situations or to resolve these things. So really
[6:58] Speaker 1: heady film, my number five film for 1991.
[7:01] Speaker 2: Why don't y'all take a look at that sign up there?
[7:03] Speaker 2: See what it says? Cash for your home. You know
[7:07] Speaker 2: what that is?
[7:08] Speaker 1: It's a billboard.
[7:12] Speaker 2: What are y'all, Amos and Andy? You step in and
[7:14] Speaker 2: he's fetching? I'm talking about the message, what it stands for.
[7:19] Speaker 2: It's called gentrification. It's what happens when the property value
[7:23] Speaker 2: of a certain area is brought down.
[7:26] Speaker 1: Huh?
[7:27] Speaker 4: You listening? Yeah.
[7:28] Speaker 2: They bring the property value down. They can buy the
[7:31] Speaker 2: land at a lower price. Then they move all the
[7:33] Speaker 2: people out, raise the property value, and sell it at
[7:36] Speaker 2: a profit. Now, what we need to do is we
[7:38] Speaker 2: need to keep everything in our neighborhood, everything, black.
[7:42] Speaker 3: It's an honorable mention for me. It is a really
[7:44] Speaker 3: good film. My number three of 1991, if it was 1991.
[7:48] Speaker 1: You really put this together.
[7:49] Speaker 3: Oh, I gave some thought to it. As it is now, Josh,
[7:52] Speaker 3: just an honorable mention. But it's always true of these
[7:54] Speaker 3: lists to an extent that you're counting down the top
[7:56] Speaker 3: five films of a given year as you remember them.
[7:59] Speaker 3: Not necessarily the same thing as just an overall top five.
[8:03] Speaker 3: If we were going to do this right, we would
[8:05] Speaker 3: both spend about three weeks counting. picking from our top
[8:08] Speaker 3: 10 or 12 initial films from this list and we'd
[8:11] Speaker 3: rewatch all of them and reevaluate all of them.
[8:13] Speaker 1: For sure.
[8:14] Speaker 3: That just can't happen here as we're doing a weekly show.
[8:17] Speaker 3: It especially becomes true, though, the further back we go
[8:20] Speaker 3: in time because they aren't as fresh in our memories necessarily,
[8:24] Speaker 3: nor were they movies that either of us probably reviewed
[8:27] Speaker 3: unless we've had a reason to revisit them. As we said,
[8:29] Speaker 3: we were teenagers in 1991. So I wasn't writing reviews
[8:33] Speaker 3: anyway for my student newspaper in high school at the time.
[8:37] Speaker 3: I wasn't really thinking critically about these films. It's hard
[8:40] Speaker 3: to go back, and I haven't seen a lot of
[8:42] Speaker 3: these 91 films that stood out to me that were
[8:44] Speaker 3: on my short list recently. So it was a tough
[8:47] Speaker 3: list to put together. I always consider for these year-by-year
[8:49] Speaker 3: countdowns the five films I can't live without that have
[8:53] Speaker 3: to be salvaged for all time, though I'm going to
[8:56] Speaker 3: immediately render that criterion completely worthless because Irene Jacob from
[9:01] Speaker 3: The Double Life of Veronique, sorry, gone, been discarded for
[9:05] Speaker 3: eternity in favor of Edward Furlong.
[9:08] Speaker 4: You're not here to kill me. I figured that part
[9:11] Speaker 4: out for myself. So what's the deal?
[9:14] Speaker 1: My mission is to protect you. My number five, Terminator 2. Understandable.
[9:20] Speaker 1: Judgment Day.
[9:21] Speaker 3: I was 15 that summer when it came out. I
[9:23] Speaker 3: remember going to see that movie with a couple friends,
[9:25] Speaker 3: seeing it on the big screen, and just being so
[9:28] Speaker 3: charged up by that movie as we walked out. And
[9:31] Speaker 3: I've caught up with just parts of it over the years.
[9:33] Speaker 3: I've never sat down and watched the movie from start
[9:35] Speaker 3: to finish, probably since that summer of 91, unfortunately. But
[9:38] Speaker 3: it does always seem to hold up. And it's made
[9:41] Speaker 3: many top five lists over the years, so I really
[9:43] Speaker 3: don't have a whole lot more to say about it.
[9:45] Speaker 3: But top five dream sequences, mother-son movies, time travel movies,
[9:48] Speaker 3: it's been an honorable mention many times as well. I
[9:51] Speaker 3: was a big fan of the first Terminator movie, and
[9:54] Speaker 3: Schwarzenegger's T-800 was already such a great screen villain. I
[9:58] Speaker 3: love that line from Reese in Terminator 1 where he
[10:00] Speaker 3: says it can't be bargained with it can't be reasoned
[10:02] Speaker 3: with it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear and
[10:04] Speaker 3: it absolutely will not stop ever until you are dead
[10:07] Speaker 3: well Terminator 2 gives us that same thing just a
[10:11] Speaker 3: better model that same lack of empathy and that objective
[10:14] Speaker 3: but even better and more efficient at killing And there
[10:17] Speaker 3: are great action sequences to this movie that don't feel
[10:20] Speaker 3: dated at all, and characters who aren't just there to
[10:22] Speaker 3: serve a function for the plot, but are conflicted and
[10:26] Speaker 3: dramatic and evolve over the course of the movie. So
[10:28] Speaker 3: for me, it still stands up, even though, as I said,
[10:31] Speaker 3: I haven't had a chance to view it in its entirety.
[10:32] Speaker 3: It stands up with Die Hard and some of those
[10:34] Speaker 3: other movies from the mid to late 80s and early
[10:37] Speaker 3: 90s as all-time great action films.
[10:39] Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. It does hold up. I've watched it
[10:41] Speaker 1: more recently, and for reasons I'll get into a little
[10:44] Speaker 1: later in my list, Another one that I can say
[10:46] Speaker 1: for sure holds up because I just rewatched it this
[10:48] Speaker 1: weekend is my number four, and that's Beauty and the Beast.
[10:51] Speaker 1: The real reason this Disney film is on my list, though,
[10:54] Speaker 1: is because my daughters and I recently took this Disney
[10:57] Speaker 1: princess quiz. I don't know if you've done this, Adam.
[11:00] Speaker 1: Tells you which Disney princess you would be based on
[11:02] Speaker 1: the questions and your answers. I got Belle, so had to.
[11:08] Speaker 4: Pick Beauty and the Beast.
[11:17] Speaker 1: Belle's key to this film, I think, how they've envisioned
[11:20] Speaker 1: this character, especially in the whole Disney princess debate, you know,
[11:24] Speaker 1: about how they may or may not serve as role
[11:26] Speaker 1: models for girls. I don't think that's the only way
[11:28] Speaker 1: you should look at Disney films, but I think it's
[11:30] Speaker 1: an important way. And as far as Beauty and the
[11:32] Speaker 1: Beast goes, I really appreciate how Belle's independence and her
[11:36] Speaker 1: refusal to bow to conventional romance is established right in
[11:39] Speaker 1: that amusing opening number where she sings about this longing
[11:43] Speaker 1: for more than this provincial life, and that's juxtaposed in
[11:46] Speaker 1: the same song with the buffoonish Gaston's cocksure plan to
[11:49] Speaker 1: marry her. The animators throughout this movie are very sure
[11:53] Speaker 1: to give her a sense of skeptical intelligence. Even when
[11:56] Speaker 1: she's imprisoned by the beast, she senses something more than
[11:59] Speaker 1: his gruffness, isn't afraid to challenge his bravado, Later, after
[12:03] Speaker 1: he does transform into the human prince, we get one
[12:06] Speaker 1: of my favorite little details. She looks at him with
[12:09] Speaker 1: this squinting eye and raised eyebrows as if she's not
[12:12] Speaker 1: quite sure she believes what she's saying. And I also
[12:14] Speaker 1: like to think that maybe she's lamenting the disappearance of
[12:16] Speaker 1: the big hairy beast, because I know a lot of
[12:18] Speaker 1: people prefer the beast to that Kendal prince at the end.
[12:21] Speaker 1: There's a lot more, though, to like about Beauty and
[12:23] Speaker 1: the Beast beyond Belle. There are really some standout animation sequences,
[12:27] Speaker 1: including that ballroom dance scene that's an early experiment in
[12:30] Speaker 1: computer animation. The Beast himself is a wonderful character, even
[12:34] Speaker 1: when he's prowling on all fours and they make him
[12:36] Speaker 1: very animalistic. His eyes hint at this longing for his
[12:39] Speaker 1: lost humanity. And there's also this undercurrent of a ghostly
[12:43] Speaker 1: sadness to the film that recalls Jean Cocteau's 1946 Beauty
[12:48] Speaker 1: and the Beast. So I appreciate that about it. This
[12:51] Speaker 1: movie really did confirm Disney's return to relevance by being
[12:54] Speaker 1: one of the best films of 1991.
[12:57] Speaker 3: Sorry, I was just staring off into the distance thinking
[12:59] Speaker 3: about you as a Disney princess. I sort of missed
[13:02] Speaker 3: that you were done there.
[13:02] Speaker 1: You should take it. Do it with Sophie sometime.
[13:05] Speaker 3: Yeah, that does highlight, though, a key difference between us
[13:08] Speaker 3: in terms of, and we've talked about this before, our
[13:09] Speaker 3: difference in appreciation for animated movies. Because I remember seeing
[13:13] Speaker 3: Beauty and the Beast the year it came out in 1991.
[13:16] Speaker 3: I remember really liking it. Probably my number 16 or
[13:20] Speaker 3: 17 movie of 91.
[13:22] Speaker 1: Did you see that with your high school buddies right
[13:24] Speaker 1: after T2? It was a double feature that night.
[13:26] Speaker 3: If only.
[13:27] Speaker 1: If only.
[13:28] Speaker 3: If only. For my number four, I go back to
[13:30] Speaker 3: that Terminator quote I just referenced a little bit ago
[13:33] Speaker 3: about not being able to bargain with and reason with
[13:36] Speaker 3: these killing machines. That applies to the villain from my
[13:39] Speaker 3: number four pick, Hannibal Lecter, from Jonathan Demme's The Silence
[13:43] Speaker 3: of the Lambs. It's actually what makes that character so
[13:45] Speaker 3: disturbing and scary, I think, far more than the T-800
[13:49] Speaker 3: or the T-1000 later, that he doesn't just want to
[13:51] Speaker 3: kill you. He probably wants to eat you or at
[13:55] Speaker 3: least have some fun torturing you along the way. For me,
[13:58] Speaker 3: that is more terrifying than Schwarzenegger or Robert Patrick in
[14:02] Speaker 3: the Terminator films.
[14:03] Speaker 1: And I'm not sure there's a.
[14:04] Speaker 3: More terrifying figure that's ever been on screen than Hannibal
[14:07] Speaker 3: Lecter as far as I'm concerned. And that's where Jonathan
[14:09] Speaker 3: Demme and his use of point of view shots throughout
[14:12] Speaker 3: his entire filmography really comes into play and is really
[14:15] Speaker 3: effective in this film because it puts you in Clarice's
[14:19] Speaker 3: position of looking into that glass box he's imprisoned in.
[14:22] Speaker 3: And when he moves, when he comes closer to the glass,
[14:24] Speaker 3: he's moving towards you. And I, as a viewer, want
[14:27] Speaker 3: to actually physically back up that introduction to him, that
[14:30] Speaker 3: point of view camera. We see him first from Clarice's
[14:34] Speaker 3: point of view. He's just standing still in the dead
[14:37] Speaker 3: center of that box, and he's looking right at us.
[14:40] Speaker 3: Just that, him standing there, is creepy enough. The way
[14:43] Speaker 3: his eyes light up when he says, Jack Crawford sent
[14:46] Speaker 3: a trainee to me. He's just spinning with possibilities what
[14:50] Speaker 3: he can do with poor Clarice. And so far with
[14:53] Speaker 3: Terminator 2 and Silence of the Lambs, I'm going with
[14:56] Speaker 3: kind of conventional genre picks here, an action movie and
[14:59] Speaker 3: here a serial killer film. But I'm as susceptible to
[15:02] Speaker 3: those serial killer detective thrillers as anybody else. And I
[15:05] Speaker 3: just think the combination of Demi's visual approach with Lecter's
[15:10] Speaker 3: unique qualities as a villain, he's the last person in
[15:13] Speaker 3: the world you ever want to spend any time with.
[15:15] Speaker 3: And the person you could find yourself not wanting to
[15:18] Speaker 3: pry yourself away from because the conversation would be so stimulating.
[15:22] Speaker 3: That cat and mouse game between him and Jodie Foster
[15:24] Speaker 3: is something I really appreciate about that film in addition
[15:26] Speaker 3: to the scares and the thrills along the way.
[15:29] Speaker 1: You want a story about seeing these films back in 91?
[15:32] Speaker 2: Yes.
[15:33] Speaker 1: This will probably be somewhat of a confession. I don't
[15:35] Speaker 1: think I've ever talked to my parents about this. So
[15:38] Speaker 1: Debbie and I are going on a date to see
[15:40] Speaker 1: Silence of the Lambs, right? Going into the theater, 930 show.
[15:44] Speaker 1: parents are coming out of The Seven Show or whatever
[15:46] Speaker 1: it was. And they were, you know, they were fine
[15:50] Speaker 1: with us going to movies. Not like they were restrictive
[15:52] Speaker 1: at all, but for whatever reason, as creepy as this
[15:54] Speaker 1: film was, this shows you the impact it had on people.
[15:56] Speaker 1: They run into us in the parking lot and are like,
[15:58] Speaker 1: you're not going to that movie.
[15:59] Speaker 3: Wow.
[16:00] Speaker 1: You guys go do something else. You're not going to
[16:03] Speaker 1: that movie. But you went. We're rebellious teens. Okay, well...
[16:07] Speaker 1: We'll go do something else, get in the car, wait
[16:09] Speaker 1: for them to pull out of the parking lot, get
[16:12] Speaker 1: out of the car, go to the movie.
[16:14] Speaker 3: Nice.
[16:14] Speaker 1: Yeah, that was my version of acting out, Adam.
[16:16] Speaker 3: Love it.
[16:17] Speaker 1: My number three Terminator 2 Judgment Day. No shame in
[16:20] Speaker 1: making this a top five film from 1991. It does
[16:23] Speaker 1: hold up, as I've seen it recently. Might be Arnold
[16:25] Speaker 1: Schwarzenegger's best movie. You'd probably say Predator, I know, from
[16:28] Speaker 1: our list last week.
[16:29] Speaker 3: I wouldn't go quite that far, but it's number two.
[16:32] Speaker 1: Okay.
[16:32] Speaker 3: Or maybe just Behind the Running Man.
[16:34] Speaker 1: Okay. It could be James Cameron's best movie, though Aliens
[16:37] Speaker 1: is probably definitely in the running there. But either way,
[16:40] Speaker 1: it's an action movie landmark. I mean, it's inventive. It's propulsive.
[16:44] Speaker 1: It's big, but never bludgeoning. It doesn't mistake chaos for excitement,
[16:48] Speaker 1: which is what a lot of contemporary action movies do
[16:51] Speaker 1: these days. And you're right. Cameron and screenwriter William Wisher Jr.
[16:55] Speaker 1: had this great idea of turning Schwarzenegger into the good
[16:58] Speaker 1: guy this time around. And that just worked wonderfully in
[17:01] Speaker 1: terms of reinventing that character, but using some of the
[17:04] Speaker 1: same qualities, some of the same things that made the
[17:07] Speaker 1: original Terminator so fascinating. And this advanced cyborg, the T-1000
[17:11] Speaker 1: that you get from Icy Robert Patrick, just an ingenious creation.
[17:16] Speaker 1: I did name him as one of my top five
[17:18] Speaker 1: movie robots last year. And I talked about how Patrick's performance,
[17:22] Speaker 1: plus all the new CGI technology that enabled it, is
[17:25] Speaker 1: probably the hallmark of this franchise for me. He's a
[17:27] Speaker 1: good looking boy. Do you mind if I keep this picture?
[17:30] Speaker 2: No, go on. There was a guy here this morning
[17:33] Speaker 2: looking for him, too.
[17:34] Speaker 1: Yeah, a big guy on a bike. Has that got
[17:36] Speaker 1: something to do with this? No. I wouldn't worry about him. Now,
[17:44] Speaker 1: going back to that action, I think one thing that
[17:47] Speaker 1: stands out compared to what we get today frequently is
[17:49] Speaker 1: how judicious Cameron is in doling it out and choosing
[17:52] Speaker 1: when to lay it on heavy, when to back off,
[17:55] Speaker 1: when to allow the suspense to build. Even Captain America,
[17:58] Speaker 1: the Winter Soldier, which I liked quite a bit, in
[18:00] Speaker 1: the end gives into one of these deadening climaxes of
[18:03] Speaker 1: endless fights and huge explosions, while T2 manages a finale
[18:08] Speaker 1: that's not only in proportion with the rest of the film,
[18:11] Speaker 1: but really somewhat poetic, too.
[18:14] Speaker 3: My number three is The Fisher King, the movie that
[18:17] Speaker 3: made me love Terry Gilliam as a director and also
[18:20] Speaker 3: kind of ruined him for me, maybe, because it has
[18:24] Speaker 3: all the anarchic spirit. and visual flights of fancy you
[18:28] Speaker 3: get with Gilliam and expect from him, but with a
[18:31] Speaker 3: fairly conventional narrative, actually. And that through-line, I guess, is
[18:36] Speaker 3: what really keeps that movie together for me and really
[18:38] Speaker 3: draws me to it. It is a redemption tale times two,
[18:41] Speaker 3: and what's better than redemption when it feels earned, as
[18:44] Speaker 3: it does for both of these characters, Jeff Bridges and
[18:47] Speaker 3: Robin Williams. If you're not familiar with The Fisher King,
[18:49] Speaker 3: Bridges plays a shock jock, and his flippant words on
[18:53] Speaker 3: air that he really wasn't even thinking about one morning
[18:55] Speaker 3: prompt a madman to go shoot up a restaurant. And
[18:58] Speaker 3: then later, as he's dealing with the aftermath of this
[19:02] Speaker 3: and trying to figure out kind of who he is
[19:04] Speaker 3: and what he wants to be and what kind of
[19:06] Speaker 3: person he is, Bridges' character meets Robin Williams' character, a
[19:09] Speaker 3: homeless man on the street who has these visions of
[19:13] Speaker 3: chasing the Holy Grail and fighting against the Red Knight.
[19:16] Speaker 3: And this may be the last time, perhaps the only time,
[19:19] Speaker 3: I didn't look at his entire list of films, that
[19:21] Speaker 3: Robin Williams and all that manic energy had been employed
[19:24] Speaker 3: to good effect, but it is here.
[19:26] Speaker 4: You know, there's a lot of standout.
[19:40] Speaker 3: You know, there's a lot of standout sequences in The
[19:50] Speaker 3: Fisher King for me, but that Grand Central Station one,
[19:53] Speaker 3: I think everyone probably looks to justifiably when Williams is
[19:57] Speaker 3: following the woman he's in love with, Amanda Plummer, and
[20:00] Speaker 3: it turns into this symphony where everyone is dancing. And
[20:03] Speaker 3: if you like Jeff Bridges... He's great here. He's charming
[20:06] Speaker 3: and tortured at the same time as he often is.
[20:08] Speaker 3: And there's a little bit of crossover with this movie
[20:10] Speaker 3: and the Williams character with my own private Idaho, Josh,
[20:13] Speaker 3: in that the Williams character takes refuge.
[20:15] Speaker 1: His name's Perry.
[20:16] Speaker 3: He hides in these fantasies whenever his past is dredged up,
[20:21] Speaker 3: whenever he's overloaded emotionally, just like Mike, the River Phoenix
[20:25] Speaker 3: character in Idaho. Anytime things get a little too heavy
[20:28] Speaker 3: for him and he really starts thinking about the past,
[20:30] Speaker 3: he falls asleep. prey to that narcolepsy and just has
[20:34] Speaker 3: to shut himself down. A little bit of that in
[20:35] Speaker 3: Fisher King as well. But I love that film. It's
[20:37] Speaker 3: my number three.
[20:38] Speaker 1: My number two is an homage, really, to Gilliam, an
[20:41] Speaker 1: obvious one in a lot of ways, especially his brand
[20:44] Speaker 1: of inventive insanity, so much that Gilliam lent his name
[20:47] Speaker 1: to the marketing for it. It's Delicatessen, which was sold
[20:50] Speaker 1: in the U.S. as Terry Gilliam Presents Delicatessen. This is
[20:53] Speaker 1: a French film from co-directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.
[20:57] Speaker 1: Jeunet would go on to make Amelie And it's just
[21:00] Speaker 1: this wonderfully odd little movie. It's set in a post-apocalyptic
[21:03] Speaker 1: apartment building where the landlord is a cannibal butcher. But
[21:07] Speaker 1: things are so desperate here that the neighbors don't really
[21:09] Speaker 1: seem to mind. Despite all of this, there's a life-affirming
[21:13] Speaker 1: sense of whimsy to the film that mostly characterizes it.
[21:16] Speaker 1: It has a visual creativity that gets some of that across.
[21:20] Speaker 1: There's certainly affection for its oddball characters, and it's a
[21:24] Speaker 1: very communal film. Rather than rooted in one person or
[21:27] Speaker 1: their story, you get a sense of what's going on
[21:29] Speaker 1: in this entire apartment building, which is kind of cool.
[21:32] Speaker 1: So take away the cannibalism, really, and it's not all
[21:36] Speaker 1: that different from Amelie.
[21:37] Speaker 3: Well, you know how I am with whimsy. So, delicatessen.
[21:41] Speaker 1: Haven't seen it. Haven't seen it.
[21:42] Speaker 3: Though I did really like Amelie, so there's really no excuse.
[21:46] Speaker 3: And it is one among a handful of movies I
[21:47] Speaker 3: really hoped to catch up with before forming my list
[21:50] Speaker 3: and just wasn't able to do a good pick. My
[21:52] Speaker 3: number two is the film... we discussed at length in
[21:55] Speaker 3: the first segment of the show. It is Gus Van
[21:57] Speaker 3: Sant's My Own Private Idaho, and if up to now
[21:59] Speaker 3: my five, four, and three picks have all been essential
[22:02] Speaker 3: as pieces of entertainment with artistic touches and flourishes that
[22:06] Speaker 3: make them worthy of a top five list, this one
[22:09] Speaker 3: I think is essential as a piece of art, as
[22:11] Speaker 3: a film of its time that is also timeless, and
[22:14] Speaker 3: unlike any other film of that year or any other year.
[22:17] Speaker 3: You think about how you can find relatives of Even
[22:20] Speaker 3: the Fisher King, but especially Terminator 2 and Silence of
[22:23] Speaker 3: the Lambs in other films, in similar movies. I'm just
[22:26] Speaker 3: not sure you can do that. As much as there
[22:28] Speaker 3: are elements combined from different genres, as we mentioned in
[22:31] Speaker 3: our review, the road movie, the Western, whatever, there is
[22:34] Speaker 3: something about My Own Private Idaho to me that feels
[22:37] Speaker 3: sometimes familiar, but the totality of it is a truly
[22:41] Speaker 3: unique vision.
[22:41] Speaker 1: It's my number two. All right, you already stole my
[22:43] Speaker 1: thunder for my number one, actually. It is the Fisher King.
[22:46] Speaker 1: I was wild about this movie when it came out
[22:49] Speaker 1: in 91. and I think I've seen it probably twice
[22:52] Speaker 1: since then. And yeah, it's a magical experience. And you're
[22:56] Speaker 1: right about Gilliam, the way you described. I think I'm
[22:59] Speaker 1: probably a little more forgiving of some of his other
[23:01] Speaker 1: stuff than you are, but I definitely can see and
[23:03] Speaker 1: understand and often feel that same sort of resistance to
[23:06] Speaker 1: the manic nature of his films. He's sort of like
[23:10] Speaker 1: one of these all or nothing major league hitters in
[23:13] Speaker 1: a lot of ways. He always swings for the fences
[23:15] Speaker 1: and especially with the creative ambition of these projects. And
[23:18] Speaker 1: he's just as likely to strike out as he is
[23:20] Speaker 1: to hit home run. For me, the Fisher King, it's
[23:22] Speaker 1: his grand slam. It just all does come together. Maybe
[23:25] Speaker 1: it is due to that script, which is by Richard LaGravenese,
[23:29] Speaker 1: who did a lot of good work. For me, though,
[23:33] Speaker 1: with the Fisher King, the hectic nature that can overwhelm
[23:36] Speaker 1: Gilliam's films, it pauses for a certain poignancy that feels
[23:40] Speaker 1: new in some ways to his work. And you can
[23:43] Speaker 1: feel it both in the visuals and in the performances
[23:46] Speaker 1: of this film. The visions of the Red Knight that
[23:48] Speaker 1: you talked about, that Williams' character has, those are really
[23:51] Speaker 1: haunting images that Gilliam provides. And both Bridges and Williams
[23:55] Speaker 1: are very effective at humanizing what are extreme characters when
[23:59] Speaker 1: you think about it. But the way they bring them
[24:02] Speaker 1: to life and the way Williams energy, as you talked about,
[24:04] Speaker 1: is used, it is spot on. I mean, overall, I
[24:08] Speaker 1: think there's a rooting in reality here that none of
[24:10] Speaker 1: Gilliam's other films really have. And somehow doing that makes
[24:15] Speaker 1: the flights of fancy that he takes all the more magical.
[24:17] Speaker 1: So Fisher King, my best movie of 91.
[24:20] Speaker 3: Obviously a great pick. My number one is we speak
[24:22] Speaker 3: about creative ambition here. And as I was talking about
[24:25] Speaker 3: art versus entertainment, how about the struggle at the core
[24:27] Speaker 3: of this movie? the playwright turned screenwriter John Turturro in
[24:31] Speaker 3: the Coen Brothers film Barton Fink. It's my number four,
[24:35] Speaker 3: currently my number four Coen Brothers movie as I rank
[24:38] Speaker 3: them on Letterboxd. And that's a tough list to crack.
[24:41] Speaker 4: Yes, it is.
[24:41] Speaker 3: I like a lot of those films. But yeah, it's
[24:43] Speaker 3: top five worthy as you consider all their films for me.
[24:46] Speaker 3: Another one that's made a handful of top five lists
[24:48] Speaker 3: over the years here. So I actually want to go
[24:51] Speaker 3: to some comments from the critic Mike D'Angelo. In 2009,
[24:54] Speaker 3: when A Serious Man came out, he did a feature
[24:56] Speaker 3: for the AV Club called Scenic Routes, where he focused
[24:58] Speaker 3: on a specific scene from Barton Fink. And he talks
[25:01] Speaker 3: about the symbolism of the movie, how Joel and Ethan
[25:03] Speaker 3: Cohn put the movie's symbols right in the audience's face,
[25:06] Speaker 3: rather than, as Mike says, subtly deploy them in the
[25:09] Speaker 3: margins or confine them to dream sequences. He says, not
[25:12] Speaker 3: only does that constitute a sort of respect, but it
[25:14] Speaker 3: allows them to tackle real emotion, in this case, loneliness
[25:17] Speaker 3: and longing, without feeling exposed as they can and inevitably
[25:20] Speaker 3: do claim that it was just a giggle to them.
[25:23] Speaker 3: And that really did strike a chord with me because
[25:25] Speaker 3: I think that blatant use of symbolism throughout Barton Fink
[25:29] Speaker 3: is what can make the movie seem challenging and difficult
[25:33] Speaker 3: on an initial viewing, but only more rewarding when you
[25:36] Speaker 3: see it on repeated viewings. And it's another one like
[25:39] Speaker 3: My Own Private Idaho that's a depressing movie at times,
[25:42] Speaker 3: but so starkly and absurdly funny at times that it
[25:46] Speaker 3: balances that out and D'Angelo, it's funny, his inspiration to
[25:49] Speaker 3: write that piece was that he was having a conversation
[25:52] Speaker 3: with a couple other colleagues at Toronto where they had
[25:56] Speaker 3: just seen A Serious Man, and he wasn't as warm
[25:58] Speaker 3: to that Coen Brothers film as they were. He just
[26:01] Speaker 3: thought that they handled the same subject matter better in
[26:04] Speaker 3: Barton Fink and realized that they could have called Barton
[26:07] Speaker 3: Fink a serious man, which is undoubtedly true because part
[26:10] Speaker 3: of that character's problem is his pretentiousness, how he views
[26:13] Speaker 3: himself as more serious, as better than everyone around him
[26:16] Speaker 3: in Hollywood, including the characters he writes, which is really
[26:19] Speaker 3: a key flaw. For me, another one is Inside Llewyn Davis.
[26:23] Speaker 3: When we talked about that movie, I couldn't help but
[26:25] Speaker 3: think about that film riffing on that same type of
[26:28] Speaker 3: Barton Fink character, where you've got a character there who's
[26:30] Speaker 3: a folk musician, and he's got this real focus on
[26:33] Speaker 3: being a professional, just as Barton Fink does, but they're
[26:35] Speaker 3: both failures, and they're both artists with high art aspirations,
[26:39] Speaker 3: but working within sort of low art slash popular areas.
[26:42] Speaker 3: medium so this is a subject the Coen brothers keep
[26:45] Speaker 3: going back to for me in really interesting ways I
[26:47] Speaker 3: like a serious band but I like Inside Llewyn Davis
[26:49] Speaker 3: and Barton Fink even more and it's my number one
[26:52] Speaker 3: I don't guess this means much to.
[26:54] Speaker 2: You hell yeah I could tell you some stories.
[26:56] Speaker 4: And that's the point that we all have stories the
[27:00] Speaker 4: hopes and dreams of the common man are as noble
[27:03] Speaker 4: as those of any king the stuff of life why
[27:06] Speaker 4: shouldn't it be the stuff of theater.
[27:08] Speaker 3: Okay as promised Josh do you have it do you
[27:10] Speaker 3: have the number.
[27:11] Speaker 1: Episode 507, Top 5 Movie Manimals, which Michael Phillips and
[27:16] Speaker 1: I paired with, yikes, Tusk.
[27:20] Speaker 3: Tusk?
[27:20] Speaker 1: Do you remember Tusk? Wow, I do.
[27:23] Speaker 3: And I love knowing that I was gone and Michael
[27:28] Speaker 3: Phillips had to sit in for me and review Tusk.
[27:31] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[27:32] Speaker 1: Kevin Smith. It was a Kevin Smith thing. Yes.
[27:36] Speaker 3: Taking one for the team. Wow, Michael.
[27:38] Speaker 1: Well done. Well done.
[27:41] Speaker 3: We remind you that if you're interested in learning more
[27:43] Speaker 3: about becoming a Film Spotting Family member, you can get
[27:47] Speaker 3: all that info and learn about the benefits at filmspottingfamily.com.
[27:52] Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
[27:53] Speaker 4: This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

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