Dog Days of summer
It's month number nine in our '90s Movie of the Month Club. This month we focus on the best '90s movies released in the month of September... a handful of which might be considered among the greatest films of all time.
This is September. Summer is transitioning into Fall which means the nights are getting longer and all of the mosquitoes are dying. Let's watch some movies.
Goodfellas (1990)
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighborhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Set in 1929, a political boss and his advisor have a parting of the ways when they both fall for the same woman.
Director: Joel Coen
Cast: John Turturro, Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden
Postcards from the Edge (1990)
Mike Nichols directed this adaptation of actress Carrie Fisher's thinly-veiled autobiographical novel, which stars Meryl Streep as Suzanne Vale, an actress whose drug habits land her first in a detox center and then at the home of her flamboyant actress/singer mother Doris Mann played by Shirley MacLaine.
Director: Mike Nichols
Cast: Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Quaid
The Fisher King (1991)
Two troubled men face their terrible destinies and events of their past as they join together on a mission to find the Holy Grail and thus to save themselves.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams, Mercedes Ruehl
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV,” Mike Waters is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike’s estranged mother.
Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves
Singles (1992)
Romantic comedy about six of Seattle’s young people, most of whom live in the same apartment building and whose lives revolve around the city’s ever-expanding music scene. The interrelated stories about each character’s progress through the singles scene are intriguing and often very funny, and the soundtrack is a grunge fanatic’s dream, with the likes of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Mudhoney.
Director: Cameron Crowe
Writer: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick
Dazed and Confused (1993)
The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a “no drugs” pledge.
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Jason London, Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey
True Romance (1993)
Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.
Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Michael Rapaport, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt
Clockers (1995)
Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug lord Rodney Little. When a night manager at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike’s older brother turns himself in as the killer. Det. Rocco Klein doesn’t buy the story, however, setting out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Mekhi Phifer
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city’s black jazz clubs.
Director: Carl Franklin
Cast: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals
Fallen Angels (1995)
This Hong Kong-set crime drama follows the lives of a hitman, hoping to get out of the business, and his elusive female partner.
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Cast: Leon Lai, Michelle Reis, Takeshi Kaneshiro
The Ice Storm (1995)
In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hood family is skidding out of control. Then an ice storm hits, the worst in a century.
Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver
Se7en (1995)
Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the “seven deadly sins” in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Sommerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer’s mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.
Director: Curtis Hanson
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Russell Crowe
American Beauty (1999)
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter’s attractive friend.
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch
Trouble deciding which movie to watch tonight? Spin the wheel. Let fate decide.
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