The Silence of the Lambs continued its dominance for five weeks until Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze debuted. Eventually, the #1 spot was taken by City Slickers, which ended the year as the #5 hit of 1991, and which we get into below. But one movie that never topped the box office still became not just an Oscar winner, not just one of the year's top earners, but a cultural moment, debated by critics, audiences, and scholars: Thelma & Louise.
The brainchild of writer Callie Khouri, Thelma & Louise was born of her frustration with women's parts in cinema, and was originally set to be an indie film with Khouri directing. When the script got into Ridley Scott's hands, however, things changed: he came on as producer, and, after several others passed, eventually took on the directing reins, enticing actresses like Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Goldie Hawn before the final duo of Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon were cast. And when it finally did come out, oh my goodness, what a furor. Was it feminist? Was it anti-male? Khouri and critic Janet Maslin said people who were offended were mis-aligning their sympathies (a nice way of saying, "a hit dog will holler"). It's a conversation that's still being had as subsequent generations discover the film; that, and what happens after the fade to white in the final frame, a sequence parodied over and over again in films (Wayne's World 2), television (Family Guy), commercials, and beyond. It's also the movie that changed the fortunes of the ab-solutely hunky drifter Louise takes up with, one Brad Pitt. And, did you know, just 19 days ago, a musical version of the film premiered in London, written by Callie Khouri with original songs by Neko Case? The legacy continues...
And it all happened here, in 1991, just one among these twelve releases:
The Comfort of Strangers
release: April 1991
dir: Paul Schrader
pr: Angelo Rizzoli, Jr.
scr: Harold Pinter, from the novel by Ian McEwan
cin: Dante Spinotti
Vacationing English couple in Venice becomes entangled with a weird Canadian couple who live there. Maybe you're sick of Paul Schrader's obsession with the relationship between violence and sexual desire, but I love it, it's one of the reasons I watch movies. Natasha Richardson and Rupert Everett are the beautiful young couple come to find out what their relationship actually is, enticed and repulsed - simultaneously - by Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren, each with their own strange homoerotic (panerotic?) undercurrent in each interaction. A lush, gorgeous movie, visually and aurally (that score!), with a climax that shocks even as you understand its inevitability. Then a terrible, repetitive denouement.
Mister Johnson
release: April 1991
dir: Bruce Beresford
pr: Michael Fitzgerald
scr: William Boyd, from the novel by Joyce Cary
cin: Peter James
Bruce Beresford's follow-up to Driving Miss Daisy, another dramedy about race relations in a rural setting, this time a British Colonial outpost in 1920s Nigeria. Charming, handsome Maynard Eliziashi is titular Mister Johnson, obsequious and scheming, identifying as English despite being a born-and-raised Nigerian, whose attempts to adopt the manner, culture, and perceived success of the occupier instead become an unwelcome, grotesque reflection of the colonial power's patronization and hypocrisy towards its "subjects." An ashamed, bitter film, hidden beneath a light, you might say comic, tone for 2/3 of its runtime. No need to hammer home the point, the performers and Beresford do it justice.
Poison
release: April 5 (NYC)
dir: Todd Haynes
pr: Christine Vachon
scr: Todd Haynes, from stories by Jean Genet
cin: Maryse Alberti
A triptych of queer-coded (or queer-obvious) vignettes, adapted/inspired by three tales of French author Jean Genet, thematically connected by crime, alienation, and societal smothering of the individual, with one being in the style of a true crime documentary, one being in the style of a scholocky b-flick from the late 50s, and one being in the style of a prison drama intercut with clearly stageset pastoral fantasies. A showcase for the behind-the-scenes crew, as their skill and film knowledge buttress the pastiche, ultimately calling to mind not just the obvious genres they lampoon but also the films of Andy Milligan, James Bidgood, John Carpenter, John Waters, Rainer Werner Fassbinder...among others. Yet it doesn't rest there, within these stylizations is a palpable sense of anger: about the bullying of queer kids, about the ostracization of people with STDs and HIV, about the criminalization of homosexuality. And it's still slyly funny.
Impromptu
release: April 12
dir: James Lapine
pr: Stuart Oken / Daniel A. Sherkow
scr: Sarah Kernochan
cin: Bruno de Keyzer
Female writer George Sand falls for rising musician Frédéric Chopin in Romantic France. Of the trilogy of George Sand/composer movies I watched this past year (this, A Song to Remember, and Song Without End), this is easily the best one, with a marvelous Judy Davis at her fiery, passionate best as the woman who refused to behave like a lady - and in this film, she feels like someone whose books you'd want to read, a rare thing for most biopics, she's that exciting to watch. The 40 minutes or so spent at a countryside attempted salon thrown by ambitious socialite Emma Thompson is the highlight, as the "geniuses" of Sand's set are exposed for the barbarians they are, the upper classes are exposed for the hypocrites they are, and everyone is given at least three great scenes to play together. One of my favorite discoveries from this year, even before it ended on the most audacious darkly comic note I can think of.
A Rage in Harlem
release: May 3
dir: Bill Duke
pr: Kerry Rock / Stephen Woolley
scr: John Toles-Bey and Bobby Crawford, from the novel by Chester Himes
cin: Toyomichi Kurita
Adaptation of a Chester Himes novel (remember Cotton Comes to Harlem and Come Back, Charleston Blue?) in which naive bookkeeper Forest Whitaker stumbles into a scheme crossing the Mason-Dixon that involves gold and femme fatale Robin Givens. I read this was Givens' first screen role, which seems insane, she plays it with the confidence and sharpness of a veteran. Plot details are negligible, this is more about capturing the vibrance of Harlem in the 1950s, with beautiful, colorful depictions of a nightlife that lived beyond the sight of the white NYPD: the Undertakers Ball, the bordello-club run by out-and-proud trans woman Big Kathy, the performances by Screamin' Jay Hawkins (as himself), and so on. It's a lightly comedic, entertaining crime flick.
What About Bob?
release: May 17
dir: Frank Oz
pr: Laura Ziskin
scr: Tom Schulman, story by Alvin Sargent & Laura Ziskin
cin: Michael Ballhaus
A rewatch! Bill Murray is Bob, a mass of neuroses assigned to pompous therapist Richard Dreyfuss, whose family he follows on vacation, gradually earning everyone's exception...except the doc, of course. It's a hilarious movie, you understand both sides - both Murray and Dreyfuss are empathetically written and performed, though never, never, never compromising the hysterical comedy it seeks to deliver - and it's ultimately about how being right doesn't mean you have to be an asshole,
An Angel at My Table
release: May 19 (NYC)
dir: Jane Campion
pr: Bridget Ikin
scr: Laura Jones, from the books by Janet Frame
cin: Stuart Dryburgh
Biopic of New Zealand author Janet Frame, based on her memoirs. Director Jane Campion and star Kerry Fox do a great job conveying a woman who's all interior, who legitimately looks wound up, in pain, until she's writing. Still, I felt a remove from the film, and I don't know how to explain except that, for all of Campion's talent, she is, for me, a filmmaker I don't always get. My loss, I'm sure.
Backdraft
release: May 24
nominations: Best Sound (Gary Summers / Randy Thom / Gary Rydstrom / Glenn Williams), Best Sound Editing (Gary Rydstrom / Richard Hymns), Best Visual Effects (Mikael Saloman / Allen Hall / Clay Pinney / Scott Farrar)
dir: Ron Howard
pr: Pen Densham / Richard Barton Lewis / John Watson
scr: Gregory Widen
cin: Mikael Salomon
Sibling rivalry between brothers in the Chicago Fire Department, while an arsonist targets city officials. Sometimes heartfelt, sometimes silly, it at least boasts two wonderful performances in Robert De Niro's fire inspector and Donald Sutherland's imprisoned arsonist who's consulted to profile the current one.
Jaw-dropping stunt and effects work, like insane, like how did no one die? Score's fun, but you may have heard it several times before if you've seen the Japanese Itron Chef, which used the score for its theme and background music. I'll always have a soft spot for firefighter movies, no matter how silly the ending.
Hudson Hawk
release: May 24
dir: Michael Lehmann
pr: Joel Silver
scr: Steven E. deSouza and Daniel Waters, story by Bruce Willis & Robert Kraft
cin: Dante Spinotti
Bruce Willis is a notoriously brilliant cat burglar recruited by an international conglomerate out for worl domination. A live-action cartoon - there are BOI-I-I-I-I-INGs and slide whistles and self-aware Wilhelm Screams - harkening back to the Hope-and-Crosby Road films - the Oscar-winning "Swingin' on a Star" becomes a narratively important tune - with all the over-the-top villainy and physics-defying action that would suggest. The movie bombed on release and received the Razzie Award for Worst Picture of the Year but while uneven, I found it a marvelously funny, inventive picture. I want six more movies with the Willis-Aiello combo, and villains Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard are so obnoxious, they come back around to becoming good performances; and besides that, the sets!
Thelma & Louise
release: May 24
wins: Best Original Screenplay
nominations: Best Director, Best Actress (Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon), Best Cinematography, Best Editing (Thom Noble)
dir: Ridley Scott
pr: Mimi Polk Gitlin / Ridley Scott
scr: Callie Khouri
cin: Adrian Biddle
Two besties attempt a vacation and wind up on the run from the law. How had I never seen this movie, this funny, warm, heartfelt look at friendship challenged and strengthened by an act that rides a fine line between self-defense, vigilantism, and fed-up vengeance for a lifetime's worth of trauma? That sounds so serious, and there's a lot that is serious - Geena Davis's scuffle outside the bar, Susan Sarandon's diner date with Michael Madsen, the climactic decision they make together - but there's a lot that's fun, that speaks to the bond these women have together, that allows for the unexpected levity even in harrowing situations: Thelma's impression of Louise, the brief Brad Pitt excursion, taking on the lewd tuck driver. It's somehow even better than its reputation.
Soapdish
release: May 31
dir: Michael Hoffman
pr: Alan Greisman / Aaron Spelling
scr: Robert Harling and Andrew Bergman, story by Robert Harling
cin: Ueli Steiger
A rewatch! Sally Field is a soap opera diva who finds herself threatened not just from schemers on her own show, but from the arrival of her nieve, the return of an old paramour, and a long-kept secret. A love letter to daytime TV and the weirdos who make it happen, quotable dialogue from start to finish, game performances from the entire ensemble (Whoopi! Kevin Kline! Cathy Moriarty! Robert Doney, Jr.!), almost completely undoes itself with a transphobic joke at the last minute, then picks itself back up. Every detail, from Field's facial expressions to the sets to Moriarty's hair, is fine-tuned for maximum camp. And I've quoted Goldberg's, "Now why can't I write like this?" delivery for decades.
City Slickers
release: June 7
wins: Best Supporting Actor (Jack Palance)
dir: Ron Underwood
pr: Irby Smith
scr: Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel
cin: Dean Semler
In which New Yorkers take part in a cattle run in The West. Mid-life coming-of-age comedy, a valentine to gorgeous vistas and salt-of-the-earth capability that's not dependent on how you fight or even whether you're a man, but on following through on responsibility to yourself, the people you meet, and the world around you. Funny, and not strenuously so. And lovely!
Tomorrow, the biggest hit of 1991!
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