1990 Cii Movie Awards

This list and awards compiled February 28, 2013
                      For the criteria of choosing the awards, click here.

Top 10 Films of 1990

1. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
2. To Sleep with Anger (Charles Burnett)
3. Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty)
4. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
5. The Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismäki)
6. Die Hard 2 (Renny Harlin)
7. Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich)
8. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante)
9. The Bonfire of the Vanities (Brian De Palma)
10. Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner)

Honorable Mentions: Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen), The Hunt for Red October (John McTiernan), Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder), Home Alone (Chris Columbus)

Best Actor

Warren Beatty - Dick Tracy
* Danny Glover - To Sleep with Anger
Jeremy Irons - Reversal of Fortune
Ray Liotta - Goodfellas
Hossain Sabzian - Close-Up

Best Actress

Mary Alice – To Sleep with Anger

Laura Dern – Wild at Heart

Anjelica Huston – The Grifters

* Kati Outinen – The Match Factory Girl

Julia Roberts – Pretty Woman

Best Supporting Actor

Sean Connery – The Hunt for Red October

Robert De Niro – Goodfellas

Andy Garcia – The Godfather, Part III

Al Pacino – Dick Tracy

* Joe Pesci – Goodfellas

Best Supporting Actress

* Lorraine Bracco – Goodfellas

Kim Cattrall – The Bonfire of the Vanities

Glenne Headly – Dick Tracy

Diane Ladd – Wild at Heart

Sheryl Lee Ralph – To Sleep with Anger

Best Director

* Warren Beatty – Dick Tracy

Charles Burnett – To Sleep with Anger

Renny Harlin – Die Hard 2

Abbas Kiarostami – Close-Up

Martin Scorsese – Goodfellas

Best Screenplay

* Goodfellas (Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese)

Joe Versus the Volcano (John Patrick Shanley)

Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)

Reversal of Fortune (Nicholas Kazan)

To Sleep with Anger (Charles Burnett)

Best Cinematography

The Bonfire of the Vanities (Vilmos Zsigmond)

Days of Being Wild (Christopher Doyle)

* Dick Tracy (Vittorio Storaro)

The Godfather, Part III (Gordon Willis)

The Match Factory Girl (Timo Salminen)

Best Editing

Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)

Dick Tracy (Richard Marks)

* Goodfellas (Thelma Schoonmaker)

The Hunt for Red October (Dennis Virkler & John Wright)

Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich)

Best Film Score

Dances with Wolves (John Barry)

Dick Tracy (Danny Elfman)
Edward Scissorhands (Danny Elfman)

* The Hunt for Red October (Basil Poledouris)

Best Production Design

The Bonfire of the Vanities

* Dick Tracy

Edward Scissorhands

Miller’s Crossing

Total Recall

Best Ensemble Cast Performance

Close-Up

Dick Tracy

* Goodfellas

Miller’s Crossing

To Sleep with Anger

1990's Films Seen (39 feature films as of 02.28.2013)

Arachnophobia (Frank Marshall, 1990)
Awakenings (Penny Marshall, 1990)

Back to the Future: Part III (Robert Zemeckis, 1990)

Bird on a Wire (John Badham, 1990)

The Bonfire of the Vanities (Brian DePalma, 1990)

Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)

Cyrano de Bergerac (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1990)

Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990)

Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-Wai, 1990)

Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990)

Die Hard 2 (Renny Harlin, 1990)

Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990)

The Freshman (Andrew Bergman, 1990)

Ghost (Jerry Zucker, 1990)

The Godfather, Part III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990)

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante, 1990)

The Grifters (Stephen Frears, 1990)

Home Alone (Chris Columbus, 1990)

The Hunt for Red October (John McTiernan, 1990)

Joe Versus the Volcano (John Patrick Shanley, 1990)

Kindergarten Cop (Ivan Reitman, 1990)

King of New York (Abel Ferrara, 1990)

Look Who’s Talking Too (Amy Heckerling, 1990)

The Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismäki, 1990)

Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen, 1990)

My Blue Heaven (Herbert Ross, 1990)

Predator 2 (Stephen Hopkins, 1990)

Presumed Innocent (Scott Turow, 1990)

Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990)

Problem Child (Dennis Dugan, 1990)

The Rescuers Down Under (Henry Butoy & Mike Gabriel, 1990)

Reversal of Fortune (Barbet Schroeder, 1990)

Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich, 1990)

Spaced Invaders (Patrick Read Johnson, 1990)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Steve Barron, 1990)

To Sleep With Anger (Charles Burnett, 1990)

Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)

Wild at Heart (David Lynch, 1990)

Cii Movie Awards: OVERVIEW

The Cii (Cinema is Imagination) Movie Awards is a deeply personal list of favorite films, performances and technical achievements within a particular calendar year.  They are chosen by me and me alone, based on my own tastes, interests, biases and appreciations.  I try to be fair in my viewing but I strive in no way toward any presumed objectivity.  

Criteria:

• All release dates are according to imdb (even if they are wrong).

• I must have seen at least 25 feature films from a calendar year before I can make a top 10 list of films for that year.

• I must have seen at least 35 feature films from a calendar year before I can make an awards list for that year.  I try to see as many of the critically acclaimed performances as I can, though I am not an Oscar completist.

• These are not rolling lists and a new list will be completely redone at some point in the future.  Usually, I will only redo a list if I have given particular study to that year (rewatching films on the list as well as watching previously unseen films).

Bias Caveat:

• I am an auteurist and often view “lesser works” by favorite filmmakers in higher esteem than many might afford. 
• Time is always a bias as some films are impactful upon viewing and fade over time, and for other films, time and thought only increase appreciation.  It is impossible to change this and is one of the beautiful variables in the appreciation of any artform.  
• I live in a small town in northeast Mississippi.  The 2 local theaters (totaling 18 screens) play the standard, mainstream Hollywood films of the moment.  I see most of my films on DVD, Blu-ray or via internet streaming.  I have a region-free DVD player but limited funds.  Because of all of this, I have an extreme American/English language bias to my film viewing.  I try to watch as broadly as I can, as I am able, but there are always the limits of knowledge, availability and language (I know of some films I'm anxious to see that have been released on DVD in France or Japan yet without English subtitles).
• I will disclose all the movies I have seen from a calendar year at the bottom of each list.  I like knowing what pool of movies a list is made from so I assume others may be interested too.  I first got the idea from Ed Gonzalez's lists over at Slant.  

Awards Process:

• Top Ten: Instead of a best picture award, I number a top 10 list in order of preference. These are the top feature films from that year in my estimation (no shorts or music videos, though miniseries and TV movies are eligible).  I choose these films for very personal reasons. #1 can be assumed to win best picture.  In addition, the Honorable mentions are just a continuation of the top 10 (though unnumbered, they are ordered in the same manner).
• Performances (Leading Actor/Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress): I choose 5 (occasionally 6) performances in each of the standard performance categories.  These are chosen very carefully from a much broader field and are completely subjective.  It is easy to name possibilities, harder to narrow it down.  The nominees are harder for me to choose than the winners.  When I narrow down my field, I am also deciding how quintessential a performance is (in my estimation) to my enjoyment/appreciation/understanding of that performer.  That said, when I am nominating, I am still choosing what I truly believe to be the best performances in that category that calendar year.  Previous wins/nominations have no bearing on my decision.  I am usually more inclusive of comedy and action films in the acting categories than most end of the year awards groups.
• Best Director: I choose 5 directors to particularly highlight in the Best Director category.  This is a very subjective category where I am awarding a director’s work that I feel displayed particular depth, clarity, insight, skill and carefulness while also giving the material the best chance to succeed.  Naturally, the top 5 movies for the year give the majority of the director’s nominations, but it isn’t always a direct copy of the top 5.  Sometimes I choose to highlight a director whom I feel “rose above” what they normally do to create a unique and lasting work.
• Best Screenplay: I don't differentiate between Adapted and Original scripts.  It doesn't matter to me.  What does matter is every aspect of writing -- story structure, dialogue, character development, thematic motifs, etc.
• Best Cinematography: A nomination based on how I feel the cinematography united itself with the story to create a unique synthesis that uniquely expresses the themes and narrative movements.  It is not based on what I felt were the prettiest pictures made that year.  For a film to be in contention for me, the cinematography (film stock, lighting, framing, filters) must be visually compelling and conceptually strong, tying the visual to the abstract narrative.  
• Best Production Design: Again, I'm seeking to highlight synthesis not disconnected, abstract beauty.  The production designer uses the sets, costumes and locations to best express the themes and narrative.  
• Best Editing: Same as the above two technical categories, except with editing.  Rhythm, unity, movement, focus, and purpose are essential.
• Best Score: The category that fluctuates the most for me.  This is an award for the score that is compelling both as stand-alone music and as a musical expression or accompaniment to the narrative and themes.  It is the hardest to judge because it is the easiest to separate from the narrative context and to appreciate on its own (and I do quite enjoy film scores as music).  Usually, a score that evokes images and themes from the film when played as a stand-alone piece is a score I consider nominating.  Other scores may be very serviceable in the film, but it does little to point me back to the film when I'm outside it.  I may only nominate 2 or 3 scores a year, depending on how many I have truly gotten to experience.
• Ensemble Cast Performance: I choose 5 ensemble casts that highlight all the performances given in a film.  These tend to be ensemble pieces where there are lots of bit parts and supporting performances, but not always.

An Image: Bugsy (Barry Levinson, 1991)

Bugsy (Barry Levinson, 1991)
It is strange to say that this was one of my favorite movies when I was younger.  Strange, because this is not at all a kids movie.  It is dark and violent and sexual and understated and talky and complicated.  I recorded it off TV one night because I was seeking to see as many Academy Award nominated movies as I could at that time.  I was probably 11 or 12.  I had bought the soundtrack already and had soaked in Ennio Morricone's musical interludes.  I loved Beatty in Dick Tracy and considered this, even then, to be his counterpoint to the do-good cop from the comics.

I probably didn't understand it much more than loving the spectacle of a stylish gangster who moves to Hollywood and speaks well enough and persuasively enough to always get what he wants.  That and I liked that someone could be a visionary within a strange realm and be belittled and forgotten, even by history.  That inspired me, somehow.

Now I watch the film and I can't help but feel a little nostalgic.  The movie is nostalgic enough, but couple that with my own experience of having watched the film probably 5 or more times as a young movie buff.  I remember the look of the empty Flamingo Hotel, the suit Beatty wears when he is walking in the desert, the tongue-twister repeated over-and-over at the beginning.  But the image I most want to remember from Bugsy is the one above, the one where the artifice of the sets meets with the artifice in the smirks, where the line between text (fact) overlaps subtext (truth) and is swallowed up in context (perception).  Maybe that's what nostalgia is.  Maybe that's why I still call Bugsy a favorite.

Jean-Luc Goddard

Jean-Luc Goddard

09.09.2009

A girl and

A rocket

Meet and run

From the police

Reading aloud pages

From A Method of

Reaching Extreme Attitudes

The stolen car

Is violently smashed

By way of Breton.

Fin.