Hello everyone! Since you guys seemed to like my previous blog “My Top Ten Favorite 80s Movies” I figured I should just go ahead and do 90s too! I will be excluding horror movies since they would most likely take up a lot of this list. I’m going to try to focus on my favorites to watch and the ones that impacted me the most. Anyways, spoiler alert and lets dive in!
CONTENT WARNING: Some of these films are not the happiest nor do they touch on light subject matter. Reader discretion is advised.
10. Clueless
If you’re a movie lover you already know all about Clueless. Our main character is Cher (Alicia Silverstone.) She is shallow, rich and socially successful, though I find her kind of dumb. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other to help herself get better grades in their classes. Her reasoning was iffy but at least she did something? Next, she decides to give hopelessly klutzy new student Tai (Brittany Murphy) a makeover. When Tai becomes more popular than she is, Cher realizes that her disapproving ex-stepbrother (Paul Rudd) was right about how misguided she was — and falls for him.
9. American History X
Oh what a transition from Clueless to this… If you watched this movie I am honestly surprised. Our main character here is a neo-Nazi by the name of Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton.) The opening scene shows us how he ends up going to prison after killing two black youths who tried to steal his car. This is how I found out about curb stomping. Honestly, it was very hard for me to watch. Upon his release, Derek vows to change his ways in hopes to prevent his younger brother, Danny (Edward Furlong) from following in his footsteps. I think its funny how their actors have the same first name. Anyways, as he struggles with his own deeply ingrained prejudices and things like that he watches their mother grow sicker, Derek wonders if his family can overcome a lifetime of hate. I definitely recommend this movie. It was so interesting for me to watch. It also impacted me a ton.
8. Boys Don’t Cry
Gah, this one is worse than American History X. Regardless of that this movie stands on its own for so many reasons. Our main character is a ftm transgender man named Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank.) He escapes his hometown under threat when his ex-girlfriend’s brother discovers that he was assigned female at birth. He did not like it at all and started trying to seriously hurt or kill Brandon. Brandon finally in the small town of Falls City, Nebraska, falls for Lana (Chloë Sevigny), an aspiring singer, and begins to plan for their future together without letting her know about his transition. This is where things get bad and I really had to close my eyes. Lana’s ex-convict friends, John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Tom (Brendan Sexton III), learn Brandon’s secret and things change from friendly to violent very quickly. I cried so many times while watching this movie. It was so moving and so incredibly sad. 10/10.
7. The Parent Trap
Back to the lighter movies now. The Parent Trap was one of my absolute favorite movies as a kid. I always wanted to go to the little summer camp where they met. Oh yeah, if you haven’t seen this movie its about twins named Annie and Hallie both played by Lindsey Lohan. They were separated at birth but now have found each other at this summer camp. The funny thing is that their divorced parents are living on opposite sides of the Atlantic, each with one child. After meeting at camp, the twins decide to swap lives so they could get to know their other parent. There’s a montage with a Beatles song behind it which is so fun. They give each other lessons on how to act like the other as well BUT PLOT TWIST, their father is getting engaged and they have to devise a plan to stop it and get their parents back together.
6. Practical Magic
I know I said no horror, which is good because this isn’t a horror movie. I remember the first time I watched this movie. The whole atmosphere of the movie was just so interesting to me. It’s about two witches, Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman), born into a magical family. The story goes on and Gillian the more promiscuous one leaves home and travels around the country going from man to man, but when one of Gillian’s boyfriends, Jimmy Angelov, dies unexpectedly (murdered by sally because he was a douche bag.) During some of the opening scenes of the movie young Sally casts a spell to create a man who doesn’t exist to fall in love with her. She does this after witnessing some dark parts of love which makes her want to never fall in love. After the murder the police start to investigate. Surprisingly we get detective Gary Hallet who looks exactly like the man Sally made a spell for when she was younger. The girls try to escape by using magic, but instead of resurrecting Jimmy, they get something much more dangerous.
Thank you all for reading this week and make sure to keep up with next week because I’ll be doing part two of this series! Feel free to comment your favorite 90s movies too! See ya!
