When the Motion Picture Academy looked at 1995, it gave its Best Picture award to Braveheart, which is not, alas, a sitcom where Mel Gibson opens an inn in Vermont. It does have some good bits, but I think these movies are better:
1. Safe
Written and directed by Todd Haynes
A parable about an egoless person who consumes her life rather than living it, even—or especially—when she turns her back on "consumerism."
2. Smoke
Directed by Wayne Wang
Written by Paul Auster
An ode to connections, coincidence, and place. Probably the best thing Paul Auster ever wrote.
3. Twelve Monkeys
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Written by David and Janet Peoples, from a story by Chris Marker
The shot of the giraffes galloping through the city is one of my favorite moments in any movie.
4. Maborosi
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Written by Yoshihisa Ogita, from a novel by Teru Miyamoto
Tricks of the light.
5. Toy Story
Directed by John Lasseter
Written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow, from a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft
"This isn't flying. This is falling with style."
6. The City of Lost Children
Directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Written by Caro, Jeunet, Gilles Adrien, and Guillaume Laurant
If Twelve Monkeys was 1995's best semi-surrealist science-fiction saga, this is the film for viewers who prefer all that without a "semi" prefixed to it.
7. Shanghai Triad
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Written by Bi Feiyu, from a novel by Li Xiao
A gangster movie in an opium haze.
8. Funny Bones
Directed by Peter Chelsom
Written by Chelsom and Peter Flannery
Jerry Lewis's best performance. And no, I'm not the sort of person who thinks the phrase "Jerry Lewis's best performance" is a punchline.
9. Get Shorty
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Written by Scott Frank, from a novel by Elmore Leonard
It's easy to mock so many of the movies that tried to surf the jetstream of Pulp Fiction. But this one's good.
10. Welcome to the Dollhouse
Written and directed by Todd Solondz
"All of junior high school sucks. High school's better....They'll call you names, but not as much to your face."
Honorable mentions:
11. La Ceremonie (Claude Chabrol)
12. Tierra (Julio Medem)
13. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondō)
14. Electronic Superhighway (Nam June Paik)
15. The Drivetime (Antero Alli)
16. Clueless (Amy Heckerling)
17. A Close Shave (Nick Park)
18. Underground (Emir Kusturica)
19. Casino (Martin Scorsese)
20. The Wife (Tom Noonan)
Full disclosure: I have a bit role in #15. But frankly, speaking as a critic, I think the movie would have been better without me.
A bonus Best Documentary prize goes to Nick Broomfield for Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam. And a bonus Best Mockumentary prize goes to Peter Jackson and Costa Botes for Forgotten Silver.
Of the films of 1995 that I haven't seen, I'm most interested in Salaam Cinema.