1994 is considered one of those holy film years but 1995 might be even better tbh. Toy Story is one of the most important and influential films of my entire life (the sequel even more so) so I may have to say its best of the year... but there are so many bangers that I discovered later in life. Not going to do a ranking, but simply list some of the important films from this year: Toy Story (John Lassetter) Heat (Michael Mann) Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater) Fallen Angels (Wong Kar Wai) Casino (Martin Scorsese) Tommy Boy (Peter Segal) Billy Madison (Tamra Davis) Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii) Se7en (David Fincher) Friday (F. Gary Gray) Goldeneye (Martin Campbell) Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach) Babe (Chris Noonan) Desperado (Robert Rodriguez) Braveheart (Mel Gibson) Mallrats (Kevin Smith) Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (Steve Oedekerk) Clueless (Amy Heckerling) Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis) The Usual Suspect (Written by Christopher McQuarrie... fuck this director more so than the other shitheads on this list) 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam) Showgirls (Paul Verhoveen) Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondou) Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee) Bad Boys (Michael Bay) Die Hard with a Vengence (John McTierian) La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz) The Basketball Diaries (Scott Kalvert) Rumble in the Bronx (Stanley Tong) Strange Days (Katherine Bigelow) Kids (Larry Clark) Safe (Todd Haynes) Welcome to the Dollhouse (Todd Solondz) The American President (Rob Reiner) Batman Forever (Joel Shcumacher) Clockers (Spike Lee) Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin) Heavyweights (Steven Brill) A Goofy Movie (Kevin Lima) Jumanji (Joe Johnston) A Little Princess (Alfonso Cauron)
I'll be honest I don't think I have seen any movie from 1995 more times than I have seen Heavyweights. Out of all the comedies that year I think that holds up the most. It might be the perfect PG family comedy.
Also the humor in Heavyweights punched up so well that I think it is one of the few comedies of that era where you can't watch back and not cringe at parts. I just watched a clip from Major Payne...jesus.
I am watching Fair Game starring Billy Baldwin and Cindy Crawford. It is better than most 2024 films that I’ve watched.
A forgotten gem where Middle School me was excited to see a topless Cindy Crawford but as an adult I realized it was a body double as Cindy’s face wasn’t in the shot. But I gotta give credit for it having the most mid90s action movie trailer
First devil in a blue dress viewing last night. Plot was a bit expected/tropey (I know it was a novel adaptation) but man the performances are unreal
One of my controversial takes on 1995: Did Babe really need to be nominated for an Oscar? Like it was a sweet movie but come on. Even as a kid I thought that was a little weird.
A lot of the hype around Babe at the time was because of the visual effects and the realism of the animals talking. I get it at the time. Not my favorite, but not mad that it's nominated.
Babe was directed by Chris Noonan; Miller was a co-writer and a producer and there seemed to be some power struggles/regrets about him not directing it, which is why he did end up directing Babe 2. Babe 2 is so much weirder and so much more of a George Miller movie. (There's a scene where a dog is hanging upside down by its foot and his head is dipping under water!) I do prefer the first one though and think it definitely deserved awards recognition.