Hits & Disses

4) White: A spurned husband's bittersweet revenge drives the second installment in Polish director Krzystof Kieslowski's masterful trilogy based on the French revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

5) The Lion King: Instant animated Disney classic.
6) Pulp Fiction: Reservoir Dogs was better, but so what? The biggest crime will be if Samuel L. Jackson's outstanding performance gets lost in all the hype surrounding Travolta's comeback.

7) Four Weddings and a Funeral: Witty, wry, semisophisticated romantic comedy starring an actor named Grant -- Hugh, not Cary.

8) Barcelona: There will always be room on my list for any movie sporting dialogue such as "Americans aren't more violent than other people. They're just better shots."

9) The Last Seduction: The best and darkly funniest film noir since Body Heat. Linda Fiorentino is hell in heels.

10) (tie) Spanking the Monkey, What Happened Was..., Clerks: Maybe size really doesn't matter. These three small, independent films rocked the Sundance Film Festival and proved once again that bigger (as in budget) isn't necessarily better.

Honorable mention: Mia Farrow's acting reached new heights in Widow's Peak, twelve-year-old Sean Nelson played a pint-size prince to Machiavellian perfection in Fresh, and Kathleen Turner's star power juiced up John Waters's suburban sociopath satire, Serial Mom.