My favorite Movies of 1996
by blaisegrisson | created - 10 Dec 2010 | updated - 20 Mar 2015 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Breaking the Waves (1996)
R | 159 min | Drama
Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr
Votes: 71,523 | Gross: $4.04M
2. Fargo (1996)
R | 98 min | Crime, Thriller
Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare
Votes: 725,886 | Gross: $24.61M
3. Trainspotting (1996)
R | 93 min | Drama
Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd
Votes: 725,056 | Gross: $16.50M
4. Sling Blade (1996)
R | 135 min | Drama
Karl Childers, a simple man hospitalized since his childhood murder of his mother and her lover, is released to start a new life in a small town.
Director: Billy Bob Thornton | Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter
Votes: 98,745 | Gross: $24.48M
5. Secrets & Lies (1996)
R | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook
Votes: 47,140 | Gross: $13.42M
6. Shine (1996)
PG-13 | 105 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.
Director: Scott Hicks | Stars: Geoffrey Rush, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Justin Braine, Sonia Todd
Votes: 56,667 | Gross: $35.81M
7. The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
R | 130 min | Biography, Drama
The story of controversial pornography publisher Larry Flynt, and how he became a defender of free speech.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton, Brett Harrelson
Votes: 100,669 | Gross: $20.19M
8. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Romance
Shakespeare's famous play is updated to the hip modern suburb of Verona still retaining its original dialogue.
Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 244,596 | Gross: $46.35M
9. The Apartment (1996)
R | 116 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A recently engaged man sees a former lover and becomes obsessed with meeting her again.
Director: Gilles Mimouni | Stars: Romane Bohringer, Vincent Cassel, Jean-Philippe Écoffey, Monica Bellucci
Votes: 15,905
10. The Crucible (1996)
PG-13 | 124 min | Drama, History
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Director: Nicholas Hytner | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield, Joan Allen
Votes: 40,148 | Gross: $7.34M
11. The English Patient (1996)
R | 162 min | Drama, Romance, War
At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 200,509 | Gross: $78.65M
12. Hamlet (1996)
PG-13 | 242 min | Drama
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Derek Jacobi, Kate Winslet
Votes: 40,029 | Gross: $4.41M
13. Jude (1996)
R | 123 min | Drama, Romance
In late 1800s England, Jude plans to go to the city and attend university but marries early and becomes a stonemason. When his wife leaves, he moves to the city, where he befriends his liberal cousin Sue.
Director: Michael Winterbottom | Stars: Christopher Eccleston, Kate Winslet, Liam Cunningham, Rachel Griffiths
Votes: 11,114 | Gross: $0.41M
14. Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A New York girl sets her father up with a beautiful woman in a troubled marriage while her stepsister gets engaged.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Goldie Hawn, Julia Roberts, Edward Norton
Votes: 39,392 | Gross: $9.71M
15. Jerry Maguire (1996)
R | 139 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former colleague.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston
Votes: 286,803 | Gross: $153.95M
16. The Birdcage (1996)
R | 117 min | Comedy
A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's right-wing moralistic parents.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest
Votes: 100,459 | Gross: $124.06M
17. Basquiat (1996)
R | 107 min | Biography, Drama
The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.
Director: Julian Schnabel | Stars: Jeffrey Wright, Michael Wincott, Benicio Del Toro, Claire Forlani
Votes: 22,026 | Gross: $2.96M
18. Marvin's Room (1996)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama
After seventeen years, a fiercely independent woman and her rebellious son return home and together they turn the family she left behind upside down.
Director: Jerry Zaks | Stars: Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro
Votes: 29,997 | Gross: $12.78M
19. Lone Star (1996)
R | 135 min | Drama, Mystery, Western
When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, Stephen Mendillo, Stephen J. Lang
Votes: 32,295 | Gross: $13.27M
20. Stealing Beauty (1996)
R | 118 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
After her mother commits suicide, a young woman travels to Italy in search of love, truth and a deeper connection with herself.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Liv Tyler, Carlo Cecchi, Sinéad Cusack
Votes: 30,397 | Gross: $4.57M
21. Brassed Off (1996)
R | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The coal mine in a northern English village may be closing, which would also mean the end of the miners' brass band.
Director: Mark Herman | Stars: Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor, Stephen Tompkinson
Votes: 20,929 | Gross: $2.56M
22. Crash (1996)
NC-17 | 100 min | Drama
After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims who use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger
Votes: 66,288 | Gross: $2.04M
23. Flirting with Disaster (1996)
R | 92 min | Comedy
A young man, his wife, and his incompetent case worker travel across country to find his birth parents.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore
Votes: 19,981 | Gross: $14.89M
24. A Time to Kill (1996)
R | 149 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In Canton, Mississippi, a fearless young lawyer and his assistant defend a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter, inciting violent retribution and revenge from the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey
Votes: 181,476 | Gross: $108.77M
25. Emma (1996)
PG | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
While matchmaking for friends and neighbours, a young 19th Century Englishwoman nearly misses her own chance at love.
Director: Douglas McGrath | Stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, James Cosmo, Greta Scacchi, Alan Cumming
Votes: 41,589 | Gross: $22.20M
26. Kolya (1996)
PG-13 | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A confirmed bachelor is in for the surprise of his life when a get-rich-quick scheme backfires and leaves him with a pint-sized new roommate.
Director: Jan Sverák | Stars: Zdenek Sverák, Andrey Khalimon, Libuse Safránková, Ondrej Vetchý
Votes: 16,212 | Gross: $5.73M
27. The Eighth Day (1996)
118 min | Comedy, Drama
An unusual and wonderful friendship develops between a busy but unhappy salesman and a resident of a mental asylum.
Director: Jaco Van Dormael | Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Pascal Duquenne, Miou-Miou, Henri Garcin
Votes: 10,075 | Gross: $0.33M
28. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
G | 91 min | Animation, Drama, Family
A deformed bell-ringer must assert his independence from a vicious government minister in order to help his friend, a gypsy dancer.
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise | Stars: Demi Moore, Jason Alexander, Mary Kay Bergman, Corey Burton
Votes: 171,518 | Gross: $100.14M
29. Michael Collins (1996)
R | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
Neil Jordan's historical biopic of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, the man who led a guerrilla war against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the National Army during the Irish Civil War.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Julia Roberts, Ian Hart
Votes: 33,732 | Gross: $11.09M
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