The A.V. Club recently published a three-part series listing their top 50 films from the ’90s. As expected the likes of Tarantino, Scorsese, Fincher and the Coen Brothers appear, several, multiple times. What was unexpected was the complete lack of women directors, no black directors and very few foreign films.
Critics such as Aisha Harris of Slate, Carrie Rickey and NPR’s Linda Holmes have engaged with A.V. Club writers on Twitter and published alternate lists. I find the lack of women directors on the list surprising considering that during the ’90s, many critically acclaimed films and cult following films were directed by women.
The most obvious omission is Amy Heckerling’s Clueless. As a woman of a certain age the film left an indelible imprint on my life. Other glaring omissions include Jane Campion’s The Piano, Kimberly Peirce’s Boys Don’t Cry, Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own and personal cult favorites Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning and Jamie Babbit’s But I’m a Cheerleader.
The A.V. Club published a list of outliers, orphans and personal favorites where Kathryn Bigelow and Jane Campion made the cut.
What women directed films from the ’90s would you have put on the list?
The 50 best films of the ’90s (The A.V. Club)
Some Glaring Invisibility on A/V Club’s Best Films of the ‘90s? (Carrie Rickey)
50 Other Best Movies of the 1990s (Browbeat: Slate’s Culture Blog)
The best films of the ’90s: outliers, orphans and personal favorites (The A.V. Club)
