Lifetime Movies: 1990

Winner: Goodfellas

This needs no explanation and I know Vin will have more to say in his post. What separates this from so many of the other elite films of all time is that it's just so much damn fun. Dances with Wolves? Really?

Films of Note:

The Adventures of Ford Fairlaine: The most disappointing movie ever. Phantom Menace? Ok, maybe, but...this was Andrew Dice Clay. The Diceman. Teenage Me was expecting Caligula in a leather jacket (not that I knew what Caligula was at the time). What I got was, my god, I still don't know what I got. No nudity, for one. No nudity! How was that possible. And am I remembering a koala?

Edward Scissorhands: When people talk about what a visionary Tim Burton is they're thinking about this magical modern fairy tale. This twenty year old magical not-so-modern-anymore fairy tale. Is it that he won't or that he can't make original stories like this anymore? Long sigh.

The Grifters: An absolutely underrated noir gem (produced by Martin Scorsese). Annette Bening gives one of my favorite performances ever.

Miller's Crossing: I remember hearing about this Coen Brothers film a few years later when I got to college. Particularly how it was a precursor to the Tarantino-led indie cool scene. I know I felt hipper once I saw it.

Side Out: Still the best beach volleyball movie in the history of cinema.

Tremors: One of the best "B" monster movies ever. One of those movies that just exceeds all expectations despite there being no reason that it should. Plus, my favorite sitcom dad, Michael Gross from "Family Ties", as a right-wing gun nut.

Vincent & Vincent Vs. Robert & Al

Or...D'Onofrio and Gallo vs De Niro

I have had it with Italian American actors. Pacino and DeNiro were great in the 70's into the 80's and then into the 90's...but recently are they even on our radar? I mean we put them on a pedestal and they rose to the occassion...but think how many times they let us down (Meet the Fockers, the Godsend, Showtime, Rocky and Bulwinkle, Revolution, 88 Minutes, Righteous Kill, Simone)...I mean its been dredful for Italian American Icons lately. So I now put my money not on the first tier or even the second tier Italian American actor...I put all my eggs into the 3rd tier...and its better...its safer...

It feels right to watch a film with Vincent D'Onofrio...sure he can be bombastic, and sometimes funny and sometimes scary and sometimes over the top...man, but you watch him...and are those not the same things we watch DeNiro for (ie, Taxi Driver, and Casino, and King of Comedy)...I mean the line "Great Ass" is heard over and over again in my head when I think of Pacino...or Pacino yelling at Philip Seymour Hofman in Scent of a women...man they were great...YES WERE great in caps. I just feel more of a connection to Vincent Gallo's depressive, self loathing in Brown Bunny, Hide and Seek and Buffalo 66, then I do to DeNiro's bullshit in those focking Anylze this bullshit. Its time for the new old wave (D'Onofrio and Gallo are like close to 50 years old at the time of this writting so we dont have long with them)...deep down you know I an right...deep down you love Gomer Pyle, and you love how cool D'Onofrio looked in The Cell and Men in Black...deep down you now as you watch the 10 seconds of background screen time that Gallo has in Goodfellas...you know he could have been big...he could have been huge but Pacino and Deniro kept both of these guys back in the Italian American Minor Leage Double A ball for actors...who I say do we have?...who can fill the void of new young Italian American actors?..."The Situation"?...man its bleak out there...keep looking boys and girls...keep searching for the next wave...dont forget people like D'Onofrio (whose acting in Staten Island tears apart anything DeNiro and Pacino have done collectively in 10 years)...don't forget Vincent Gallo...these are the backbone of Italian American cinema.