For the previous 10 years, the Friday section has conducted a poll to gauge our readers’ picks and pans. And it was fun. But this year, we’ve opted for a slightly different approach.
Few things raise as much rancor as what were the top movies of the year. After all, one person’s “North” is another person’s “Forrest Gump.”
That’s why we have put aside the kind of wild, subjective conjecture that creates the annual bumper crop of brawl-inducing Top 10 lists. Instead of concentrating on the best or worst, we opted for the all-inclusive. Namely, a list of all the movies that opened in Chicago last year and for music lovers, all the albums and pop singles, country singles and R&B singles that made it into the Top 10.
For those who don’t want to start the year without a few Top 10s, this guide could be quite handy in helping you to create your own by jogging your memory regarding the films that opened about this time last year. Which, for our purposes, would be the ones near the top, as the list is in chronological order.
The Saint of Fort Washington
Shadowlands
The Air Up There
Police Story III
The Harms Case
The Crush
Cabin Boy
American Cyborg: Steel Warrior
House Party III
Philadelphia
In the Name of the Father
Iron Will
Careful
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
The Thing Called Love
Intersection
The War Room
A Day at the Beach
Blink
The Accompanist
Golden Gate
Car 54 Where Are You?
I’ll Do Anything
Romeo is Bleeding
Gunmen
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
My Father, the Hero
Combination Platter
Jamon, Jamon
Blue
The Getaway
My Girl 2
Blank Check
Naked
Blue Chips
Reality Bites
Leon, the Pig Farmer
On Deadly Ground
Sugar Hill
8 Seconds
Body Snatchers
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
Angie
China Moon
The Cement Garden
Greedy
The Chase
Guarding Tess
For a Lost Soldier
Sirens
Scent of Green Papaya
Lightning Jack
The Ref
The Paper
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
Germinal
Highway Patrolman
Four Weddings
Savage Nights
Fiorile
Monkey Trouble
Above the Rim
The Hudsucker Proxy
D2: The Mighty Ducks
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer
Major League II
Jimmy Hollywood
Thumbelina
The House of the Spirits
Flight of the Innocent
Clifford
Byrne: Between the Teeth
Bitter Moon
Threesome
Twenty Bucks
Max, My Love
The Trial
Leprechaun II
La Belle Epoque
Serial Mom
Cops and Robbersons
White Fang II
We Never Die
Mother’s Boys
Surviving the Game
Bad Girls
The Inkwell
Backbeat
Guelwaar
Wicked City
Brainscan
Chasers
You So Crazy
With Honors
No Escape
32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
The Favor
Raining Stones
PCU
Naked in N.Y.
Being Human
When a Man Loves a Woman
Babyfever
3 Ninjas
Red Rock West
Cronos
Clean Slate
Crooklyn
The Crow
Dream Lover
Maverick
Even Cowgirls get the Blues
Wittgenstein
Blue
Beverly Hills Cop III
Widow’s Peak
Little Buddha
The Flintstones
Kika
Ginsburg
The Cowboy Way
Renaissance Man
Endless Summer II
The Princess and the Goblin
Dialogues with Madwomen
City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold
Speed
Zero Patience
Wolf
Getting Even With Dad
Fear of a Black Hat
White
Why Has Bodhi-Darma Left For the East?
Wyatt Earp
The Lion King
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Reifenstahl
I Love Trouble
Little Big League
Blown Away
The Shadow
Baby’s Day Out
Go Fish
Forrest Gump
Suture
A Tale of Winter
True Lies
Angels in the Outfield
Grief
Two Small Bodies
The Client
North
That’s Entertainment III
The Slingshot
Lassie
Spanking the Monkey
The Wedding Gift
The Mask
It Could Happen to You
Black Beauty
Living Proof
Foreign Student
Ciao Professore
Clear and Present Danger
Little Rascals
Barcelona
Airheads
A Man in Uniform
In the Land of the Deaf
In the Army Now
Mi Vida Loca
Cachao
Andre
Corrina, Corrina
Eat Drink Man Woman
A La Mode
Calendar
In Custody
Blankman
Color of Night
Natural Born Killers
Wagons East!
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Divertimento
Mazeppa
Camp Nowhere
Fresh
Milk Money
A Simple Twist of Fate
The Advocate
My Life’s in Turnaround
The Secret Rapture
A Good Man in Africa
Killing Zoe
Woman from the Lake of Scented Souls
Trial by Jury
The Next Karate Kid
Quiz Show
Blue Sky
A Million to Juan
Timecop
The Blue Kite
Princess Caraboo
Where the Rivers Flow North
The Shawshank Redemption
And God Spoke
Terminal Velocity
The New Age
Bhaji on the Beach
Cows
Jason’s Lyric
The River Wild
Sleep With Me
Rapa Nui
The Scout
Ed Wood
Only You
Sunday’s Children
The Specialist
The Genius
The Browning Version
Pulp Fiction
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
I Like It Like That
Exit to Eden
Little Giants
Second Best
Love After Life
Cyberpunk
Hoop Dreams
Love Affair
Radioland Murders
Helas Pour Moi
Puppet Masters
Bullets Over Broadway
The Road to Wellville
Silent Fall
Stargate
Squanto
Imaginary Crimes
DROP Squad
Freedom on My Mind
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The War
Oleanna
Clerks
Double Dragon
Atlantis
I Don’t Want to Talk About It
Chicken Hawk
The Seventh Continent
Interview With the Vampire
The Santa Clause
The Boys of St. Vincent
Star Trek Generations
The Swan Princess
The Professional
The Conformist
The Last Seduction
Miracle on 34th Street
A Low Down Dirty Shame
Junior
The Pagemaster
Heavenly Creatures
Caro Diario
A Place in the World
L’Enfer
Cobb
Trapped in Paradise
Red
Disclosure
Nostradamos
Drop Zone
What Happened Was. . .
Floundering
Totally F++++d Up
Speechless
Queen Margot
Dumb and Dumber
Richie Rich
Mixed Nuts
Little Women
Cafe Au Lait
To Live
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
Vanya on 42nd Street
Streetfighter
Nell
Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter)
Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book
I.Q.
