Best films of the last 20 years (1986-2005)

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A few of us were in the story war room the other day and the "AFI's Best 100 Films of All Time" list happened to be on the table. Naturally, for a group of story folks, discussion ensued about the validity of some of the films on that list. Then I proposed that we make our own lists except to limit them to our 20 favorite/best films from the past 20 years (1986-2005). They must be films that we like but also qualify to be on a "best of" list (ie - no guilty pleasure films, "so bad it's good" films, or sentimental favorites).


The task proved to be a lot more difficult than we expected; off the top of my head I had listed 37 films and had the excruciating task of eliminating 17 of them. (Interestingly, there was a general consensus as we looked up release dates for certain films that a lot of our favorites were made in the early 80's, out of range of our 20 year cutoff point).

Here are mine (off the top of my head and subject to change at any moment) and in order by release date:

Aliens (1986)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Die Hard (1988)
Totoro (1988)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
Delicatessen (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Unforgiven (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Se7en (1995)
Toy Story (1995)
The English Patient (1996)
Slingblade (1996)
Trainspotting (1996)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Rushmore (1998)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

20 Notables/favorites (1986-2006):

Laputa (1986)
T2 (1991)
Red (1994)
Nixon (1995)
Fargo (1996)
King of the Hill (1997)
LA Confidential (1997)
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Iron Giant (1999)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Amores Perros (2000)
Amelie (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
Y Tu Mama También (2001)
City of God (2002)
The Pianist (2002)
The Incredibles (2004)
Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
Grizzly Man (2005)

Check out more lists at CLOCKROOM