The three greatest movies of the 1990s, according to Zoë Kravitz
Although some decades are going to be considerably better than others, you can define each by its cinematic trends, wherein, if you look at the 1980s, you can easily see it as one of the most awful periods for cinema (perhaps ever), with a decline in innovative and genuinely interesting films following the blockbuster boom.
Even Quentin Tarantino highlighted how dire the decade was for cinema, arguing on Joe Rogan’s podcast that it was the “worst” and a time of “self-censorship”, and hence, for many movie lovers, the 1990s is seen as one of the most fruitful decades for exciting new developments within the medium. It brought with it a beacon of hope, harking back to those beautiful days of the New Hollywood era, which ruled over the industry in the late 1960s and 1970s.
This time of renewed creativity was spurred by various reasons, from the increase in funding and opportunities for indie filmmakers to the development of cheaper and more accessible filming equipment, with the Indiewood boom evidence of a golden time for cinema, showing that before franchises dominated, there were mainstream films that were genuinely subversive and creatively stimulating.
One of the people with a soft spot for the decade is Zoë Kravitz, even though she was born just two years before it started, once admitting that she has a “really nostalgic place in my heart for ’90s films”, revealing her three favourites in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
The actor highlighted her love for two movies penned by Tarantino, which feel like definitive time capsules of the era, the first being Natural Born Killers, which Oliver Stone went on to direct, with the former providing the story (and subsequently using this experience and paycheque to get a step closer to his magnum opus, Pulp Fiction).
Natural Born Killers tells the tale of a couple with a troubled past who embark on a killing spree, and while it was critically praised, it remains one of the decade’s most controversial films for its apparent influence over various real-life copycat crimes.
Kravitz also loves the other film that Tarantino wrote but didn’t direct in the ‘90s, True Romance, which sees a similar set-up of a devoted couple getting themselves caught up with the law. However, the protagonists in this one, Clarence and Alabama, aren’t natural-born killers; they just want to live a better life together, making for a beautiful film, underscored by Tarantino’s propensity for capturing both the innate humour and violence that can be found in human interactions.
Interestingly, Kravitz didn’t pick out any movies that the man directed himself, although it seems like she’s a big fan of his decade-defining work. Rather, she revealed, “Reality Bites is one of my favourite movies of all time”, namedropping the Ben Stiller-directed comedy that certainly encapsulated the Gen X zeitgeist of the era.
With a great cast of actors, including Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder, the film is beloved by many, like Kravitz, even if she wasn’t old enough to relate to the generation that the film captures so well. Still, the mark of a good film is if it endures, and all these years later, Reality Bites still invites viewers who find themselves struggling to navigate early adulthood, which is a confusing time for anyone, no matter when you were born.
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