The Last Decade of Cinema: 25 Films from the Nineties

Ryan (“Moonlighting”: An Oral History) takes readers on a chatty and sometimes meandering journey through 1990s cinema. He argues that decade was the last one that generally and consistently offered movies that positively impacted adults. The book has a chronological order; each chapter represents a single year, and it includes profiles of two or three movies that were released during that time period. His film choices focus on movies geared toward mass-market adult audiences. His selections include Goodfellas, Pretty Woman, The Prince of Tides, Terminator 2, Malcolm X, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Clueless, The Big Lebowski, and Eyes Wide Shut. He gives his critical assessment and background on how the films were made with behind-the-scenes anecdotes. The book also contains interviews with director Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth), screenwriters C. Tyger Williams (Menace II Society) and Helen Childress (Reality Bites), and actress Natasha Gregson Wagner (Two Girls and a Guy). The book’s epilogue offers 30 additional ’90s films worth seeing.