1988: Overstreet's Favorite Films

Here is the current (but occasionally updated) list of my favorite films from 1988.

In order to understand the purpose and meaning of this list, please read my introduction to the Looking Closer Favorite Films lists here.

•

1988

1. Midnight Run
2. My Neighbor Totoro*
3. Distant Voices, Still Lives*
4. Die Hard
5. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
   
6. Dangerous Liaisons
7. The Unbearable Lightness of being
8. Grave of the Fireflies*
9. Cinema Paradiso
10. A Fish Called Wanda
11. The Last Temptation of Christ
12. Running on Empty
13. The Accidental Tourist
14. The Thin Blue Line
15. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
16. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
17. Beetlejuice
18. I’m Gonna Git You Sucka
19. Tin Toy
20. The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey
21. Frantic
22. Big
23. Rain Man
24. Mississippi Burning
25. The Chocolate War

• Shoot to Kill
• Married to the Mob
• The Vanishing

As-yet Unseen or Unratable Films of 1988

36 fillette (Catherine Breillat)
A Cry in the Dark
A Handful of dust
A Short Film About Killing (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
A Short Film About Love (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
A Tale of the Wind (Joris Ivens)
A Taxing Woman’s Return
A Time of Destiny
A World Apart (Chris Menges)
Above the Law (Andrew Davis)
Akira
Alice
Another Woman
Apartment Zero (Martin Donovan)
Ariel (Aki Kaurismaki)
As Tears Go By (Wong Kar-wai)
Ashik Kerib (Sergei Parajanov)
Biloxi Blues
Bird (Clint Eastwood)
Brain Damage (Frank Henenlotter)
Bright Lights, Big City
Bull Durham
C.A.T. Squad: Python Wolf (William Friedkin)
Camille Claudel
Candy Mountain (Robert Frank/Rudy Wurlizter)
Chocolat (Claire Denis)
Clara’s Heart (Robert Mulligan)
Clean and Sober
Cobra Verde (Werner Herzog)
Colors
Coming to America
Crossing Delancey (Joan Micklin Silver)
Crusoe (Caleb Deschanel)
Damnation
Days of Eclipse (Aleksandr Sokurov)
Dead Ringers
Dominick and Eugene
Dragons Forever
Drowning by Numbers (Peter Greenaway)
Drums of Winter
Eight Men Out
Essai d’ouverture
Funny Farm
Gang of Four (Jacques Rivette)
Ghosts…of the Civil Dead (John Hillcoat)
Golub
Gorillas in the Mist
Hairspray (John Waters)
Hanussen
High Hopes (Mike Leigh)
Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie
It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow By Reading Books (Richard Linklater)
Jacob (Mircha Daneliuc)
July (Darezhan Omirbaev)
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (Stephen Chiodo)
La lectrice (Michel Deville)
Lady in White
Landscape in the Mist (Theo Angelopoulos)
Legend of the Holy Drinker
Little Dorrit
Little Vera
Madame Sousatzka
Maniac Cop (William Lustig)
Maria (Aleksandr Sokurov)
Medea (Lars Von Trier)
Memories of Me
Miracle Mile (Steve De Jarnatt)
Monkey Shines (George A. Romero)
My Uncle’s Legacy
Mystic Pizza
Paperhouse (Bernard Rose)
Pascali’s Island
Permanent Record
Phantasm II (Don Coscarelli)
Puissance de la parole
Red Heat (Walter Hill)
Rembrandt Laughing (Jon Jost)
Salaam Bombay!
School Daze
Scrooged (Richard Donner)
Stand and Deliver
Stormy Monday
Story of Women (Claude Chabrol)
Straight, No Chaser
Sunset (Blake Edwards)
Switching Channels (Ted Kotcheff)
Tales from the Gimli Hospital (Guy Maddin)
Talk Radio (Oliver Stone)
Talking to Strangers (Rob Tregenza)
Tequila Sunrise (Robert Towne)
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
The Boost
The Days of Eclipse
The Dead Pool
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
The Documentator (Istvan Darday/Gyorgy Szalai)
The Lair of the White Worm (Ken Russell)
The Last of England (Derek Jarman)
The Little Thief
The Milagro Beanfield War
The Moderns (Alan Rudolph)
The Music Teacher
The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick
The Serpent Rainbow (Wes Craven)
The Summer of Miss Forbes (Jaime Hermosillo)
The Vanishing
The Venus Trap (Robert van Ackeren)
The Wizard of Speed and Time (Mike Jittlov)
Thelonious Monk:
They Live (John Carpenter)
Thou Shall Not Kill
Time of the Gypsies (Emir Kusturica)
Torch Song Trilogy
Trois places pour le 26
Tucker: The Man and His Dream
Two Moon Junction (Zalman King)
Vampire’s Kiss (Robert Bierman)
Vice Versa
Voices of Sarafina!
Without a Clue
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Working Girl
Young Einstein (Yahoo Serious)
Zero City (Karen Shakhnazarov)