10. COURAGE UNDER FIRE

Although its title sounds like a Hallmark movie of the week, Courage Under Fire is much smarter and much more entertaining that its title suggests.  Meg Ryan, who sheds her typecast from rom-coms, stars as a captain in the US Army who is nominated to become the first woman to receive a Medal of Honor.  Meanwhile, Denzel Washington is a Lieutenant Colonel assigned to determine if she’s worthy of the enormous honor. 

Courage Under Fire is directed by Edward Zwick, who’s best known for Glory and Legends of the Fall.  This might be his best work, but the film is mostly powered by Washington’s great performance and a great screenplay by Patrick Sheane Duncan.  His story studies the power, politics and corruption that drive the decisions behind the wars we fight.  This is one that’s certainly too good to be a Hallmark Channel special.

9. THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT

Milos Forman may be the only director in the world who has the ability to persuade the world that Amadeus Mozart was a giggling moron and that Larry Flynt was one of the most important advocates of protecting the First Amendment.  The People vs. Larry Flynt focuses on Flynt’s battle to prove that Freedom of the Press extends to his crude magazine.  The film captures the perseverance and crudity of Flynt, but even more so, it studies the American culture – a culture where sex sells and freedom is granted to anyone who can afford it.  And if that’s not a big enough accomplishment to call a film one of the year’s ten best, getting a magnificent performance out of Courtney Love ought to be.

8. JERRY MAGUIRE

In the movie business, unlike the professional sports industry, financial success isn’t linked directly to performance.  Need proof?  Only one film out of the top 10 films at the box office in 1996 was truly great – and that film was Jerry Maguire. 

The title character is a sports agent (portrayed by Tom Cruise in his best performance to date) who is fired from his corporation after suggesting that clients deserve more from their agents.  Along with the help from a single mother/accountant, Jerry Maguire battles the corporation to win over athletes, and manages to win the heart of everyone around him, too, including the accountant, her young son, and about 25 million moviegoers.  And deservingly so, as Jerry Maguire is one of the funniest and best romantic comedies of the decade.

7. SECRETS & LIES

Mike Leigh has made several good films in the past, including High Hopes, Life is Sweet and Naked, but none have achieved the widespread acclaim of his most recent film, Secrets & Lies.  As proof, this is the first of Leigh’s films that have completely floored me.  It tells the story of an adopted young, successful black woman who is surprised to discover that her biological mother is an unsuccessful but sweet white woman. 

Like all of his previous films, Leigh does a wonderful job casting talented actors who have a refreshing authenticity.  Even in a year with so many great performances by lead women, Brenda Blethyn should be a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination.  Her performance is the heart of Secrets & Lies, but she is surrounded by a strong supporting cast which includes Timothy Spall and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

6. TRAINSPOTTING

Choose life.  Choose a job.  Choose a career.  Choose a family.  Choose to see Trainspotting. From its brilliant opening “Choose life” dialogue to its final moments, Danny Boyle’s nonstop drug opus manages to be funny, tragic and extremely entertaining. 

Ewan McGregor stars as a heroin addict who has good intentions of coming clean, but can never kick the habit that destroys him and his closest friends.  Even though it’s only his second film, director Danny Boyle gets closer to the pure adrenaline rush of Pulp Fiction than any of the copycat films from the past two years. 

It slightly misses at its goal to persuade its viewers that drugs are more harmful than cool, but its heart is in the right place.  And it’s easy to forgive, since Trainspotting injects you with a high that has no dangerous side effects.

5. THE CRUCIBLE

Forty-three years after its Broadway debut, Arthur Miller’s acclaimed play finally received the screen adaption it deserved in 1996.  Scripted by Miller himself, and starring a pair of stars (Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder) from Martin Scorsese’s wonderful The Age of Innocence, The Crucible should have been an award darling and one of the biggest blockbusters of the year.  Instead, it was the year’s biggest flop, earning around $7 million.  Apparently, in the 17th century, if you said someone was a witch, people would believe you, but in the 20th century, if you say a movie is a must-see, people assume you’re lying.  Their loss – The Crucible remains an essential story that is told with as much justice on the screen as it is in the theater.

4. THE ENGLISH PATIENT

Perhaps Elaine Benes was right when she claimed that The English Patient was too long, but she’s certainly wrong when she states that it’s boring.  The English Patient, in a strange way, creates a slow burn much like Michael Mann’s Heat.  However, the comparisons stop there.  Perhaps a closer companion film would be David Lean’s 1962 masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia.  Both are long, British films set to a breathtaking desert backdrop, and now both are Best Picture winners.  As a rule of thumb, whenever a film warrants comparisons to a film of Lawrence of Arabia’s caliber, it’s worthy of every award it receives.  Sorry Elaine – maybe you just need to see it a third time.

3. FLIRTING WITH DISASTER

As good as Secrets & Lies was, it wasn’t even the best movie of 1996 about an adopted child in search of their biological parents.  That honor belongs to Flirting With Disaster, David O. Russell’s hilarious film that mixes the humor of a Farelly brothers film with the brilliant unfolding structure of a Coen brothers masterwork. 

Ben Stiller stars as a neurotic New Yorker who refuses to name his recently born child until he meets his biological parents.  So, along with his wife and newborn, he sets out on an adventure that gets funnier and more ingenious with every twist.  Flirting With Disaster isn’t just one of the funniest films of 1996 – it’s one of the best comedies of the nineties.

2. BREAKING THE WAVES

Lars von Trier’s Grand Prix-winning film may be the most ambitious study of God and religion ever filmed.  Emily Watson gives one of the greatest debut performances of all time as Bess, a sweet and devout believer who is convinced that her husband’s paralyzing work injury was a direct result of her prayer requests.  When she’s asked to compromise her values to keep her husband alive, her actions begin to oppose the rules of her church.  It’s an emotional journey that states that God’s understanding and compassion for His people far exceeds our grasp.  Breaking the Waves is not an easy watch, but it’s a film that leaves its viewers more paralyzed than the characters it portrays.

1. FARGO

For years now, Joel and Ethan Coen have been making great movies.  Yet, not even a resume that includes Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink could prepare us for the greatness that is Fargo.  This is their masterpiece, and it boasts a screenplay that deserves to ranked alongside the all-time greats. 

William H. Macy costars as Jerry Lundegaard, a desperate car salesman who arranges to have his wife kidnapped in hopes of receiving a large ransom payment from his father-in-law.  He hires two clueless conmen to arrange the kidnapping, and their incompetence leads to a triple homicide in a small town in rural Minnesota – which introduces us to Marge Gunderson, the brave and very pregnant police chief who makes it her top priority to solve the crime. 

Fargo is enormously creative, darkly funny and massively entertaining.  But is it really the best film of the year?  In the words of Marge Gunderson, “Oh, you betcha, yeah.”  And it’s really not even close.