Best Movies of 1996
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
The RockBay's best film by a distance, because for once he cast actors who could carry the noise.Read the review
Romeo + JulietThe noise is a fair price for the one thing that matters, which is two teenagers making Shakespeare's verse sound like something they thought of themselves.
TrainspottingBoyle films heroin as a rush first and a bill later, and the ninety-four minutes never once sag.
FargoA snowbound crime comedy where the only decent person is a pregnant cop, and that is the whole joke.
The CrucibleScofield's Danforth is the reason this version frightens: a court that cannot admit error without destroying the men who run it.
The Portrait of a LadyCampion builds a gorgeous airless trap around Isabel Archer, then casts an actress who plays the cage better than the freedom.
Marvin's RoomA play about caregiving survives a director who shoots it like television, because Keaton, Streep and DiCaprio all refuse to raise their voices.
Mission: ImpossibleBrian De Palma's franchise opener stages two of the great action set pieces of the 1990s, and they carry a plot knotted enough to need a second look.
The Secret AgentHoskins and Bale find the grief in Conrad, but Hampton films the irony out of the book and leaves a plodding tragedy behind.
Frankenstein and MeA well meaning monster movie for children that mistakes a boy's enthusiasm for a story and stalls long before the reveal.