Tyler Durden's Best Of The Year

1997 will be coming soon, as I have to re-watch As Good As It Gets, Donnie Brasco & Titanic, the three films I really liked out of 1997.

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"George, this is a little too much for me. Escaped convicts, fugitive sex... I've got a cockfight to focus on."

What about L.A. Confidential?

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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Watch Malick's The Thin Red Line. Made in the same year. It will change the way you look at war and war film.

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"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

Why is everything he likes the best thing ever

it feels good in your gut to type stuff like that

basically the best feeling ever

L.A Confidential never really did anything for me.

Maybe you could watch it again with the other three and see if it gets you going this time?

Watch it instead of the bafflingly popular As Good As It Gets.

Also, are they the only '97 choices? Because, if they are, I can settle this for you right now. It's Donnie Brasco. Look forward to your write up. You're welcome.

Best film of 1997?





But my favourite of 1997 would be:

I got bored of Gattaca halfway through. Another film that never really did anything for me, me usually being a fan of Ethan Hawke.

1997 was a very solid year. I think I summed up about 10 1997-released films in my thread that I really liked / loved. Next to the ones I listed, other critically-acclaimed films of '97 include:

The Sweet Hereafter: I haven't seen this one myself, but some blogs I frequent rate it very, very highly.

Lost Highway: I consider this to be a lesser Lynch, but there's people that think it's one of Lynch's best.

The Full Monty is a British film about some blue-collar men who decide to strip to make money for various reasons. I myself didn't think it was good enough to make my runners-up list, but I know people that really like this one.

Deconstructing Harry, Princess Mononoke and The Apostle are films that some might consider to be contenders for the # 1 spot, but I had several issues with all of them.

It seems hard to believe that you only really liked 3 films out of 1997. Of course, As Good As It Gets would be an excellent pick

Those are all good films (except The Sweet Hereafter and The Apostle; I have not yet seen them), but they're films I don't really think I would choose them as best of the year. I also remebered another film from 1997 that I did like that could be chosen as best of the year; Tarantino's underrated Jackie Brown, which I especially enjoyed for Samuel L. Jackson's performance as Ordell Robbie.

1997: As Good As It Gets


1997 has been the hardest year so far to choose the best of the year, with a select group of good films released in this year. To start off with, I will name the runner-ups; James Cameron's Titanic, which isn't as good as Terminator 2: Judgement Day or Aliens, but still is a fantastic historical epic;Quentin Tarantino's underrated Jackie Brown, which has been accused of trying to be too adult, but stands as one of the best of Tarantino's career and features a good performance from Samuel L. Jackson;and finally Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, which I liked for Robin Williams' brilliant performance and the well-written screenplay. Other films I liked were The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Face/Off & Starship Troopers, but would never be the best of the year. It came down to a close competion between As Good As It Gets & Donnie Brasco. Donnie Brasco is an underrated gem, with a remarkable script and great acting (especially from Pacino), but ultimately, As Good As It Gets gave me warmth, humour and overall enjoyment. It remains the best film of 1997.

Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) is an acid-tongued, rude, mean, obsessive-compulsive novelist living in New York. He is habitually insulting to everyone, most especially to his gay artist neighbour, Simon (Greg Kinnear), who has the most adorably ugly dog ever. Every morning, Melvin takes the same route to the same resturant to have the same breakfast at the same table with the same watiress named Carol (Helen Hunt), who is a single mother trying to raise her ailing son. Melvin enjoys living his routine existence, until Simon is hospitalised and Melvin is forced by Simon's agent (Cuba Gooding Jr.) to take care of Simon's dog. This forced act of kindness and his growing friendship with Carol the waitress helps Melvin start to care about people other than himself.



The story of this film sounds a bit routine, but the incredible casting and hilarious dialogue are what make this movie greater than what it would have been with routine actors and a considerable screenplay. The dialogue is tart and funny, creating some of the best lines put on film. All the characters are well-written and well-conceived and each scene is as good as the one that precedes it. The screenplay should have won all the awards in 1997, and is also another of my favorite scripts.

The performances are brilliant in this film. As Carol, Helen Hunt is compassionate, warm and the perfect mix of emotion and humour as Carol the waitress. The best of her career this performance remians (a bit of Yoda-speak then). Greg Kinnear is even better as the thankfully non-stereotypical gay character. Kinnear is a truly underrated acting talent and this is also the performance of his career. Of course, the star of the show is Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall. It's possibly the greatest comedic performance of anyone's career, and if not, certainly one of the most memorable. Udall's behaviour is perfectly captured in the delivery of Nicholson's lines and physical movements. To pick his finest moment is hard, but if there is one to be chosen, it would most definitely have to be: "This is New York. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,". This is Nicholson's performance of a lifetime and he has never topped Melvin Udall (nope, not even in Cuckoo's Nest).

As Good As It Gets is definitely deserving of it's awards and I do not understand why many people on this site dislike. If not the greatest, it's certainly my favourite comedy, taking No. 1 in my top 5 (2. The Hangover, 3. The Big Lebowski, 4. Little Miss Sunshine, 5. Superbad). I loved As Good As It Gets, for the humour, the warm moments and most importantly, the career best performances.

As Good As It Gets was good. Jack was great in it. I'd give it a

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1996 will be posted as soon as tomorrow. 1995 may take a little longer as I will need to go over my choices tonight.

1996: Fargo


Joel & Ethan Coen's brilliantly twisted experience is definitely the best of 1996, but had some heavy competition. The main runner-up is Gregory Hoblit's courtroom thriller Primal Fear, which is fueled by a stellar performance from Edward Norton. Other runner-ups are Mission:Impossible, Independence Day, Jerry Maguire, Scream & Trainspotting. 1996 was a great year for film, putting out both thought-provoking dramas, twisted comedies & mega-exciting blockbusters.

1987. A Minneapolis automobile salesman named Jerry Lundergaard (William H. Macy) is in severe financial trouble. He travels to Fargo, North Dakota to hire two criminals named Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) & Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stomare) to kidnap Jerry's own wife and demand a ransom from Jerry's wealthy father-in-law Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell). Jerry makes a deal to split the $80,000 ransom with Carl & Gaear, but plans to demand more and keep the money for himself. All goes to plan, until the two are pulled over by a police officer, with Jean (Jerry's wife) unconscious in the back of the car. Gaear panics and kills the police officer and two innocent motorists who witnessed the murder as they were driving by. Enter Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), a heavily pregnant police chief who investigates these deaths. She deduces the chain of events and slowly begins to unravel the case.

Fargo is a marvelously twisted black comedy and the excellence of this film mostly comes the film's script and performances. The script is remarkably well-written by the extraordinary Coen's Brothers, who can make us laugh about the most darkest things. In this film, you laugh at murder, blackmail, kidnapping, prostitution and mostly, gruesomely funny violence. Another contributing factor to the hilarity of the script is the mannerisms given to many of it's characters. "You betcha, yah; Oh, yah?". I laughed the most at these moments in the film. They generate genuine hilarity.

However, the performances are possibly the best part of this film. In a nonsensical film that you would believe the events to believe largely false (although it does have a disclaimer declaring that Fargo is based on true events), the performances make it seem real. As Wade Gustafson, Harve Presnell is antagonistic, ruthless and downright phenomonal. Peter Stomare is cold and menacing as Gaear Grimsrud, creating one of the best villians who shows emotion only when a woman runs into a tree throughout the entire film. However, outdoing both of them, William H. Macy is even better as the panicky, conniving and likeable Jerry Lundergaard who is caught up in a murder-kidnapping plot when he was trying to do pay his debts. You can't help but feel sorry for him. My personal favourite performance from this film is Steve Buscemi as Carl Showalter, an funny-looking, violent little fella who uses the amount of uses of f--k in a sentence I have ever heard. But the standout is the Oscar-winning Frances McDormand as Marge. She really makes the film feel real with her mannerisms, investigation skills and her down to earth personality.



Also, kudos to the soundtrack. I especially liked the piece Fargo, North Dakota, which is used throughout the movie as the theme. The song was played when McDormand accepted her Oscar.

Fargo isn't the Coen's best (that honour goes to The Big Lebowski), but is still a hilarious, well acted saga of murder and blackmail.

1995 may be posted as soon as today. It is harder to choose the best than 1997. It's come down to Toy Story, Casino, Heat, Braveheart or Se7en. Each and every a great film that is worthy of best of the year.

Fargo was great. Kind of changed the way I looked at woodchippers.

I've not seen Fargo for more years than I care to remember and, while I liked it, I seem to remember it being a bit overrated. Maybe it was because it was the first Coen Brothers film that a lot of people had seen (Would you say that Miller's Crossing or Barton Fink was their most seen film before this? Even then, that's mostly for a cinema interested crowd and not the general public) so it was a whole new world to them?

Good film, though, of the films you had on your shortlist, I'd have gone with Scream. But then, I love that film.

I love Scream as well. I especially liked Matthew Lillard in the role of Stu.

Miller's Crossing & Barton Fink were, I think, underrated on their release and took a while to find their audience. I remember reading a Top 100 Most Underrated Movies List and Miller's Crossing took away #1.