The best movies of the 1990s, ranked

Director Quentin Tarantino

Cast Samuel L Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman

Most ’90s moment Uma Thurman’s Mia Wallace puffs away over dinner at Jack Rabbit Slims. Who said smoking wasn’t cool?

Blood, guns, gangsters, drugs, more blood and cheeseburgers; Quentin Tarantino’s disorientating black-comedy masterpiece is a lesson in post-modern storytelling and one of the most iconic films of the ’90s. Taking four of the most clichéd storylines from the ‘pulp fiction’ crime tales of mid-twentieth-century America, hacking them apart and churning them back together to create something entirely new, ‘Pulp Fiction’ is an intoxicating, thrilling ride, as trashy as it is refined, delighting and disgusting. JC

Director Joel Coen

Cast Frances McDormand, William H Macy, Steve Buscemi

Most 90s moment A character getting fed through a wood chipper is the sort of gruesome set piece you’d only see in a Best Picture nominee post-Pulp Fiction.

All due respect to their wonderful early films, but this midwestern crime comedy is where the Coen brothers went from idiosyncratic indie darlings to Oscar-winning godheads, even if it’s really a variant on the themes the two have explored since their debut, 1984’s Blood Simple. As cold as that movie is sweaty, Fargo also involves a botched scheme hatched by a desperate loser, ‘professional’ criminals more violent than smart and Frances McDormand getting the jump on them all. As small-town police chief Marge Gunderson, McDormand gives one of the most memorable performances of the decade, waddling through the snow seven months pregnant, speaking in folksy aphorisms and allowing herself just enough cynicism to suspect the dweeb at the local car dealership (Macy, great for different reasons) may have something to do with all the dead bodies turning up lately. The Coens have rarely loved a protagonist more – and neither have we. MS

Director Martin Scorsese

Cast Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci

Most ’90s moment The ‘You think I’m funny?’ bit isn’t inherently ‘90s – the scene takes place in the 1960s, after all – but it’s one of the most iconic film moments of the decade, endlessly referenced and parodied even today. 

Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic was once thought of as a next-generation The Godfather, but it turns out that was selling it short: three decades later, it’s debatable which of the two is more influential. Certainly, Goodfellas holds a bigger spot in the contemporary public imagination, in part because it always seems to be playing on TV somewhere, and because whenever you happen to catch it, you’ll always stop to watch, no matter what you’re doing or how many times you’ve seen it. It’s not just that it’s impossibly engrossing, even though it is, telling the true-ish tale of mobster Henry Hill (a never-better Ray Liotta) in one of the few biographical films that goes from one end of a person’s life to the other without ever losing steam or feeling rushed. It’s also just extremely easy to watch – never have two and a half hours flown by so fast. 

Director Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff

Cast Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones (voices)

Most ’90s moment Rowan Atkinson as king’s helper Zazu, singing ‘I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts’.

Imagine ‘Game of Thrones’ with less flaying and more speeches about being yourself, and you’ll end up with something close to ‘The Lion King’. This Disney classic is truly epic, following royal lion cub Simba as he grows up to avenge the murder of his father. It’s a children’s movie that’s not afraid to shy away from dark, complex issues like revenge, destiny, death and politics, and its villain Scar (played by Irons) is genuinely spine-chilling. Add to this an Elton John soundtrack that’s burned into the minds of most ’90s kids and it’s no surprise the film has spawned Broadway’s third-longest-running show ever. KL