The 10 Best Movies of 1994

The year turns 30 and I am not feeling a way about it at all!

This is a weird week. It’s the lead-up to my birthday on Sunday, I finished my first draft of Popcorn Disability, and there’s no big movies to review. So, suffice it to say, I scrambled to find something to write about. (I did have a long rambling theory on the Armie Hammer redemption tour but might save that till it’s actually worth writing about.) Not to mention, as I promised last week, I wanted to write something way peppier.

This week I was fortunate to introduce a screening of Oliver Stone’s 1994 feature Natural Born Killers at the Egyptian Theatre as part of Netflix’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of the year. Yes, 1994 is now officially 30. Or, if you’re doing millennial math, that was only about 10 years ago. I wanted to celebrate 10 movies, released in 1994, that mean a lot to me and I would consider the best. The joy of this list is that you all are welcome to jump into the comments and tell me what I forgot to include!

10. Little Women

We joke in film critic circles about the death of the mid-budget movies, or the demise of movies for adults. But when I rewatch Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 adaptation of Little Women it’s hard not to feel like we’re missing more movies like it. Sure, Louisa May Alcott’s novel had been adapted two times before this one, and would be adapted again in 2019 by Greta Gerwig. But to rewatch this one, with a script by the always amazing Robin Swicord, is to just be reminded of the fall and family. No disrespect to my Lady Greta but everyone in this cast is so pitch perfect, particularly Kirsten Dunst’s Amy — who I still haven’t forgiven for burning Jo’s manuscript — and Winona Ryder as Jo. And while Christian Bale’s Laurie is probably the creepiest of the group — he’ll marry any March that will have him, dammit — there’s a reason he made a generation of teen girls swoon.