The Best and Worst Movies of 1994
The 10 Best Movies of 1994
1. Pulp Fiction: Quentin Tarantino’s wild ride is the most exhilarating crime film since Mean Streets and the best picture of the year.
2. Quiz Show: Robert Redford uses a ’50s TV scandal to rage satirically and profoundly at media control of hearts and minds.
3. Hoop Dreams: A great basketball documentary that says more about love and family than any ’94 film.
4. Ed Wood: Tim Burton’s look at Hollywood’s schlockiest director, played by Johnny Depp, is a funny and eloquent tribute to the art of making art.
5. The Boys of St. Vincent: John N. Smith’s Canadian film about the cover-up of sexual abuse of children by Christian brothers handles an explosive subject with stinging subtlety and features the performance of the year by Henry Czerny as Brother Lavin.
6. Four Weddings and a Funeral: Hugh Grant’s elegant, star-making performance brings the bloom back to romantic comedy.
7. Red Rock West: John Dahl, the most stylish new directing talent since Tarantino, puts the sizzle back into film noir with this and The Last Seduction.
8. Bullets Over Broadway: Woody Allen returns to peak comic form in a farce that tackles moral questions between the laughs.
9. Cobb: Ron Shelton turns out the Raging Bull of base-ball movies with Tommy Lee Jones finding the genius and the jerk in slugger Ty Cobb.
10. Spanking the Monkey: A shocking comedy about incest that marks a striking debut for writer-director David O. Russell, with another first-timer, Kevin Smith, running close behind for the witty anarchy of Clerks.