AKIRA
***½
Japan
In the genre marked by earnestly insipid protagonists and awe-inspiring post-apocalyptic cityscapes, this was a milestone: the most expensive animated feature then made in Japan as well as the one that converted the largest amount of Westerners into anime fanatics. It has aged well: while the characters are as vacant as ever, the visuals are bewitching. But its landmark status is probably the main reason it’s still seen as more valuable than the many equally competent and tighter animes that have been exported since.
dir: Katsuhiro Otomo
voices of: Mitsuo Awata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Tesshô Genda, Hiroshi Ôtake

ANOTHER WOMAN
*****

BAGDAD CAFÉ
***½
West Germany
A middle-aged Bavarian woman is left stranded in the middle of a desert by her husband, but stumbles upon a seedy motel, and goes on to transform its occupants.
A much-loved arthouse comedy, with a charming central performance. It was so successful that it spawned an American sitcom starring Whoopi Goldberg.
dir: Percy Adlon
cast: Marianne Sägebrecht, Jack Pallance, C.C.H. Pounder, Christine Kaufman

BEETLEJUICE
**
USA
A recently deceased couple attempts to scare off the obnoxious occupants of their former home.
Tedious comedy with Expressionist trappings.
dir: Tim Burton
cast: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Glenn Shadix

BIG
***
USA
A 13-year-old boy wishes to grow up, and his wish is granted by a carnival machine.
Sweet and inoffensive kiddie fantasy.
dir: Amy Heckerling
cast: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, John Heard, Jared Rushton, Robert Loggia, David Moscow

BULL DURHAM
***
USA
A baseball groupie chooses between an experienced player and a rookie.
A likable baseball comedy.
dir: Ron Shelton
cast: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins

DANGEROUS LIAISONS
*****
USA
Two French aristocrats compete in sexual power games.
A seductive, compelling adaptation of a classic novel. The leads are about as note-perfect and mesmerising as any screen duo ever has been.
dir: Stephen Frears
wr: Christopher Hampton
ph: Philippe Rousselot
cast: Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz, Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves, Mildred Natwick

DEAD RINGERS
***
Canada
Identical twin gynecologists share the same women, lifestyle and fertility clinic.
A unique, fascinating, but cold and alienating exploration of identity.
dir: David Cronenberg
cast: Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von Palleske, Barbara Gordon, Shirley Douglas

DIE HARD
***½
USA
There's piles of moronic plotting here, but it's still essentially a tense, involving, satisfying action vehicle.
dir: John McTiernan
cast: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, Alexander Godunov, De-voreaux White, William Atherton 

DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS
***
USA
A con man comedy that gets predictable after a while, but remains enjoyable nonetheless.
dir: Frank Oz
cast: Michael Caine, Steve Martin, Glenne Headly, Anton Rodgers, Barbara Harris, Frances Conroy

A FISH CALLED WANDA
*****
USA
An uptight British barrister falls for an American con artist.
Arguably the decade's funniest, cleverest comedy. A wild, original, fast-moving mix of satire, slapstick and just about everything else.
dir: Charles Crichton
wr: John Cleese
cast: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin

HAIRSPRAY
**
USA
A campy concoction where John Waters seems to be parodying something, but it isn't clear what exactly.
dir: John Waters
cast: Divine, Ricki Lake, Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Deborah Harry, Colleen Ditzpatrick, Michael St. Gerard, Leslie Ann Powers, Jerry Stiller, Mink Stole, Pia Zadora

THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
*
USA
The personal crises of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jarring dialogue, tunnel vision. A shallow, forced, immature attempt at profundity.
dir: Martin Scorsese
cast: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie

MIDNIGHT RUN
*½
USA
A bounty hunter gets stuck with an embezzler in demand.
The formulaic bonding between your token unlikely buddies. It takes over two hours - and myriad plotholes - to get to the part where an embarrassed-looking de Niro and a desperate-to-be-liked Grodin finally realise they've been bonding all along.
dir: Martin Brest
cast: Robert de Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton, Dennis Farina, Joe Pantoliano

OLIVER & CO.
***
USA
Oliver Twist with a cast of homeless dogs and a kitten.
Disney goes gritty. It's entertaining in parts, but as a whole it's forgettable, despite some excellent animation.
dir: James Mangold, Timothy J. Disney, Jim Cox
voices of: Joey Lawrence, Billy Joel, Cheech Marin, Richard Mulligan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Dom De Luise

RAIN MAN
***
USA
After his father dies, a salesman discovers that he has an autistic elder brother.
An entertaining but predictable road movie, unremarkable beyond Hoffman's memorably showy performance.
dir: Barry Levinson
cast: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino

A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING
****½
Poland
An anti-social youth commits a brutal killing without motivation.
A feature-length expansion upon the fifth episode of Kieslowski's "Decalogue", it's a grim, violent, forceful condemnation of capital punishment.
dir: Krzysztof Kieslowski
wr: Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
ph: Slawomir Idziak
ed: Ewa Smal
m: Zbigniew Preisner
cast: Miroslaw Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, Jan Tesarz

A SHORT FILM ABOUT LOVE
***½
Poland
A 19-year-old spies through binoculars on a prostitute living in an apartment directly across from his.
Closer in terms of tone and treatment to the Decalogue than the one "About Killing", this eccentric, tender love story affords sympathy for its troubled characters even at their most objectionable.
dir: Krzysztof Kieslowski
wr: Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
cast: Olaf Lubaszenko, Grazyna Szapolowska, Stefania Iwinska

SPLENDOR
***
Italy
The owners of an old-movie theatre reminisce just before it's sold to be transformed into a furniture store.
A diverting piece of nostalgia, easily forgotten.
dir: Ettore Scola
cast: Marcello Mastroianne, Massimo Troisi, Marina Vlady, Paolo Panelli, Pamela Villoresi, Giacomo Piperno

THE THIN BLUE LINE
****½
USA
A famous, influential documentary where Errol Morris sets out to prove the innocence of a hitchhiker convicted of murder. So convincing that the case was later reopened and the hitchhiker set free. Compelling, compulsory viewing.
dir: Errol Morris

TORCH SONG TRILOGY
**½
USA
A decade in the life of a Jewish part time female impersonator.
Adapted from a popular Broadway play, the first mainstream feature to sympathize with a drag queen as a central protagonist was an otherwise unnotable bitter-sweet big-screen sitcom.
dir: Paul Bogart
cast: Harvey Fierstein, Anne Bancroft, Matthew Broderick, Brian Kerwin, Karen Young, Eddie Castrodad

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
***
USA
Amid the political turmoil of Prague in the late 60s, a philandering doctor gets romantically involved with a mysterious painter and a naive photographer.
There's a pleasing, unexpected European sensibility to this well-crafted literary adaptation. Plot-wise, it balances a central love triangle against a complex political landscape with some skill. And yet it isn't terribly engaging, since after three hours, you're left knowing very little about any of the characters, and you're less interested than you were at the beginning.
dir: Philip Kaufman
cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin

THE VANISHING
***½
Netherlands/France
After the sudden disappearance of a young woman, her husband becomes obsessed with uncovering the facts behind her disappearance.
An oddly structured, intriguing and chilling thriller. Slowly, it crawls beneath your skin. Later re-made in Hollywood by the same director to far lesser acclaim.
dir: George Sluizer
cast: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna Ter Steege

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT
*****
USA
In a world where cartoon characters live alongside humans, a down-and-out detective searches for the murderer of a cartoon studio mogul.
Animation and live action are seamlessly and wondrously integrated in this inventive, hilarious and atmospheric noir throwback.
dir: Robert Zemeckis
cast: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Stubby Kaye
voices of: Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner, Amy Irving, Lou Hirsch, Mel Blanc

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
***½
Spain
A temperamental actress is dumped by her longtime lover. Chaos ensues.
A funny, frantic, outrageous farce, highly representative of the director's output during this period.
dir: Pedro Almodóvar
cast: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Maria Barranco, Rossy de Palma

WORKING GIRL
***½
USA
A naive big city secretary turns ambitious.
A predictable but charming and enjoyable contemporary Cinderella story, in need of a tougher satirical edge.
dir: Mike Nichols
cast: Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack

A WORLD APART
***
USA
A 13-year-old girl witnesses the anti-Apartheid struggles in the 60s.
Civilised, honourably dull political drama.
dir: Chris Menges
cast: Barbara hershey, Johdi May, Jeroen Krabbé