1988 Top Ten List

Dekalog, Six (Krzysztof Kieslowski)

The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris)

The Moderns (Alan Rudolph)

Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)

Midnight Run (Martin Brest)

Bull Durham (Ron Shelton)

Beetlejuice (Tim Burton)

A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton)

Drowning by Numbers (Peter Greenaway)

The Vanishing (George Sluizer)

Additional 1988 Films By Rating

A Short Film About Love (Krzysztof Kieslowski)

The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese)

Alice (Jan Svankmajer)

Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies)

Dekalog Five (Krzysztof Kieslowski)

Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears)

Die Hard (John McTiernan)

High Hopes (Mike Leigh)

Medea (Lars von Trier)

Miracle Mile (Steve De Jarnatt)

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (David Zucker)

Rain Man (Barry Levinson)

A Short Film About Killing (Krzysztof Kieslowski)

Big (Penny Marshall )

They Live (John Carpenter)

Ariel (Aki Kaurismäki)

The Chocolate War (Keith Gordon)

Police Story Part II (Jackie Chan)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)

The Wash (Michael Toshiyuki Uno)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman)

Tales From the Gimli Hospital (Guy Maddin)

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar)

The Serpent and the Rainbow (Wes Craven)

As Tears Go By (Wong Kar-wai)

My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)

Coming to America (John Landis)

Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo)

Mississippi Burning (Alan Parker)

Tequila Sunrise (Robert Towne)

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (Penelope Spheeris)

Earth Girls Are Easy (Julien Temple)

Big Top Pee-wee (Randal Kleiser)

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (Stephen Chiodo)

Switching Channels (Ted Kotcheff)

Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata)

Damnation (Béla Tarr)

The Sound and the Fury (Jean-Claude Brisseau)

Criminal Law (Martin Campbell)

Cocktail (Roger Donaldson)

On the Silver Globe (Andrzej Zulawski)

Fresh Horses (David Anspaugh)

For archival purposes, I file everything by the year it had its world premiere. Many of these films will have been commercially released in the U.S. a year or two later, so my lists won’t always match up with other folks’ lists.

Ratings are on a needlessly precise 100-point scale.

Films I haven’t yet rated on that scale are marked with if I currently think they belong in my top ten. These films are subject to being shifted around or yanked altogether at any moment, after I revisit them and they get a numeral. (Lists from prior to about 1988 are especially suspect, as I compiled them long ago from memories that were in many cases already pretty dusty.)

A note regarding the Dekalog films: Even though the TV series didn't air until 1989, I file episodes Five and Six here, because they're variants of A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love, respectively, and both of those premiered in 1988. I also have separate ratings for the two versions of both films.

Seen but currently unrated (and not presumptively among my top 10): The Accidental Tourist (Kasdan); The Accused (Kaplan); The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Gilliam); Alien Nation (Baker); Amsterdamned (Maas); Another Woman (Allen); Bat*21 (Markle); Beaches (G. Marshall); The Bear (Annaud); Betrayed (Costa-Gavras); The Big Blue (Besson); Big Business (Abrahams); Biloxi Blues (Nichols); Bird (Eastwood); The Blob (Russell); The Boost (Becker); Bright Lights, Big City (Bridges); Buster (Green); Camille Claudel (Nuytten); The Camp at Thiaroye (Sembene & Faty Sow); Casual Sex? (Robert); Child's Play (Holland); Chocolat (Denis); Cinema Paradiso (Tornatore); Clara's Heart (Mulligan); Clean and Sober (Caron); Cocoon: The Return (Daniel Petrie); Colors (Hopper); Comic Book Confidential (Mann); Cop (Harris); The Couch Trip (Ritchie); Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair (Trent & Kasper); Crossing Delancey (Micklin Silver); Crusoe (Deschanel); A Cry in the Dark (Schepisi); Da (Clark); Dead Heat (Goldblatt); The Dead Pool (Van Horn); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Oz); D.O.A. (Morton & Jankel); Dominick and Eugene (Young); The Dressmaker (O'Brien); Eight Men Out (Sayles); 18 Again! (Flaherty); Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (Signorelli); Everybody's All-American (Hackford); Far North (Shepard); For Keeps (Avildsen); For Queen and Country (Stellman); Frantic (Polanski); Funny Farm (G. R. Hill); The Good Mother (Nimoy); Gorillas in the Mist (Apted); The Great Outdoors (Deutch); Hairspray (Waters); A Handful of Dust (Sturridge); Hanussen (Szabó); Hawks (R.E. Miller); Heartbreak Hotel (Columbus); Hellbound: Hellraiser II (Randel); High Spirits (Jordan); Hot to Trot (Dinner); Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (Ophuls); Imagine: John Lennon (Solt); Jack's Back (Harrington); Kung Fu Master! (Varda); La Lectrice (Deville); Lady in White (LaLoggia); The Lair of the White Worm (Russell); The Land Before Time (Bluth); Landscape in the Mist (Angelopoulos); Let's Get Lost (Weber); Light Years (Laloux); The Little Thief (C. Miller); Little Vera (Pitchul); Madame Sousatzka (Schlesinger); Married to the Mob (Demme); Masquerade (Swaim); Memories of Me (Winkler); Midnight Crossing (Holzberg); The Milagro Beanfield War (Redford); Miles From Home (Sinise); Mr. North (Huston); Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear (Romero); Moon Over Parador (Mazursky); Moving (Metter); My Stepmother Is an Alien (Benjamin); Mystic Pizza (Donald Petrie); The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (Ward); A New Life (Alda); 1969 (Thompson); Oliver & Company (Scribner); Paperhouse (Rose); Pascali's Island (Dearden); Patti Rocks (Morris); Patty Hearst (Schrader); Poltergeist III (Sherman); The Presidio (Hyams); Pumpkinhead (Winston); Punchline (Seltzer); Rambo III (Macdonald); Red Heat (W. Hill); Red Sorghum (Zhang); Running on Empty (Lumet); Salaam Bombay! (Nair); Satisfaction (Freeman); School Daze (Lee); Scrooged (Donner); Shakedown (Glickenhaus); She's Having a Baby (Hughes); Shoot to Kill (Spottiswoode); The Silk Road (Sato); '68 (Kovacs); Spike of Bensonhurst (Morrissey); Stand and Deliver (Menendez); Stealing Home (Kampmann & Aldis); Stormy Monday (Figgis); Story of Women (Chabrol); The Suitors (Ebrahimian); A Summer Story (Haggard); Sweet Hearts Dance (Greenwald); Talk Radio (Stone); Tapeheads (Fishman); A Taxing Woman's Return (Itami); The Telephone (Torn); Things Change (Mamet); 36 fillette (Breillat); Torch Song Trilogy (Bogart); Track 29 (Roeg); Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Coppola); Twins (Reitman); Under the Boardwalk (Kiersch); U2 Rattle and Hum (Joanou); Vampire's Kiss (Bierman); Vibes (Kwapis); Vice Versa (Gilbert); Virgin Machine (Treut); Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (Ellis); We Think the World of You (Gregg); Willow (Howard); Without a Clue (Eberhardt); The Wizard of Loneliness (Bowen); Working Girl (Nichols); A World Apart (Menges); The Wrong Guys (Bilson); Young Guns (Cain)

As yet unseen: Baxter (Boivin); The Firm (Clarke); Gang of Four (Rivette); Iguana (Hellman)

I occasionally write reviews of older movies, but it happens too infrequently to file them by year.