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Edition · 1998
The Year in Film · 1998

Best of 1998

The films that defined 1998 — ranked by IMDb score.


These films defined 1998 — the year's highest-rated releases, ranked by IMDb score. Some are awards bait, some are popcorn fare, some quietly snuck in under the radar. All earned their place on the list.

  1. 01.
    Barking at the Stars

    Barking at the Stars

    1998·Dir. Zdravko Šotra·95 min·8.6

    Comedy about teachers and students at a high school in a small provincial town. Mihailo tries to win the heart of a girl his brother is also chasing.

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  2. 02.
    Saving Private Ryan

    Saving Private Ryan

    1998·Dir. Steven Spielberg·169 min·8.6

    As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

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  3. 03.
    American History X

    American History X

    1998·Dir. Tony Kaye·119 min·8.5

    Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.

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  4. 04.
    Tholi Prema

    Tholi Prema

    1998·Dir. A. Karunakaran·136 min·8.3

    Balu falls in love with Anu who has come to her grandfather's house from the US. He even saves her life during an accident, but he is still not able to express his love to her.

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  5. 05.
    The Kingdom II

    The Kingdom II

    1998·Dir. Lars von Trier·280 min·8.2

    The mutant fetus is born. Dr. Helmer comes under heavy scrutiny for a botched operation that left a patient braindead, and begins to dabble in the dark arts in order to ward off those seeking an end to his career. Hypochondriac Mrs. Drusse finally does have something bad happen to her medically when an ambulance hits her.

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  6. 06.
    Satya

    Satya

    1998·Dir. Ram Gopal Varma·170 min·8.2

    A young man named Satya comes to Mumbai from South India in search of a job. Jailed for something he did not do, the once-honest young man meets an underworld boss, Bhiku Mhatre in jail and joins his gang.

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  7. 07.
    The Truman Show

    The Truman Show

    1998·Dir. Peter Weir·103 min·8.2

    In a picture-perfect seaside town, an insurance salesman begins to realize that his entire existence may be staged and observed by a vast unseen audience as part of a reality TV show.

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  8. 08.
    More

    More

    1998·Dir. Mark Osborne·6 min·8.1

    A factory worker in a dark, gray world assembles devices that promise happiness. In his spare time he tinkers to create something better, and finally succeeds in perfecting his invention, which allows people to see life through rose-colored glasses, but he has to pay a price for his success.

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  9. 09.
    The Big Lebowski

    The Big Lebowski

    1998·Dir. Joel Coen·117 min·8.1

    Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White Russians, is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski, a wheelchair-bound millionaire, and finds himself dragged into a strange series of events involving nihilists, adult film producers, ferrets, errant toes, and large sums of money.

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  10. 10.
    Everything's Gonna Be Great

    Everything's Gonna Be Great

    1998·Dir. Ömer Vargı·109 min·8.1

    When Altan swipes prescription drugs from his brother Nuri's pharmacy, they soon find themselves on a dangerous but funny road trip to get rid of the stuff and escape the mafiosi Altan tried to double-cross. Along the way, the brother who are compete opposites finally bond.

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  11. 11.
    Hornblower: The Even Chance

    Hornblower: The Even Chance

    1998·Dir. Andrew Grieve·100 min·8.1

    Portsmouth, 1794. Under thundery skies and in lashing rain, 17-year-old midshipman Horatio Hornblower takes the first tentative steps of his naval career, but a feud with a shipmate causes complications.

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  12. 12.
    Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

    Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

    1998·Dir. Guy Ritchie·105 min·8.1

    A card shark and his unwillingly-enlisted friends need to make a lot of cash quick after losing a sketchy poker match. To do this they decide to pull a heist on a small-time gang who happen to be operating out of the flat next door.

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  13. 13.
    Central Station

    Central Station

    1998·Dir. Walter Salles·111 min·8.0

    An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

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  14. 14.
    The Wounds

    The Wounds

    1998·Dir. Srđan Dragojević·103 min·8.0

    This film follows two Belgrade youths on their rise to gangster legends in a decaying society.

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  15. 15.
    The Legend of 1900

    The Legend of 1900

    1998·Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore·170 min·8.0

    Musician Max Tooney goes to sell his prized Conn trumpet to a music shop, where he plays the instrument one last time. The shopkeeper recognises the song as one on a record matrix he found and asks who the piece is by. Tooney tells the story of an infant found abandoned in the first class dining room of the four-stacker ocean-liner SS Virginian on 1 January 1900. Danny Boodman, a coal-man from the boiler room, names the boy Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon 1900, after himself, the fruit crate the boy was found in, and the year, and raises him as his own.

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  16. 16.
    Black Cat, White Cat

    Black Cat, White Cat

    1998·Dir. Emir Kusturica·127 min·8.0

    A small-time hustler makes a deal with a notorious gangster to whom he owes money: marry his teenage son to the latter's daughter. However, the young lovers are not as agreeable.

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  17. 17.
    Perfect Blue

    Perfect Blue

    1998·Dir. Satoshi Kon·82 min·8.0

    Rising pop star Mima quits singing to pursue a career as an actress. After she takes up a role on a popular detective show, her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima's reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia.

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  18. 18.
    The Celebration

    The Celebration

    1998·Dir. Thomas Vinterberg·101 min·8.0

    The family of a wealthy businessman gather to celebrate his 60th birthday. During the course of the party, his eldest son presents a speech that reveals a devastating secret that turns the night into a battle of truth and denial.

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  19. 19.
    On Board

    On Board

    1998·Dir. Serdar Akar·102 min·7.9

    Sailors want to remain in their small world, which is warm and cozy and full of lies, but their routine life turns upside down when one of them gets mugged and badly beaten.

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  20. 20.
    The Last Days

    The Last Days

    1998·Dir. James Moll·87 min·7.9

    Five Jewish Hungarians, now US citizens, tell their stories: before March 1944, when Nazis began to exterminate Hungarian Jews, months in concentration camps, and visiting childhood homes more than 50 years later. An historian, a Sonderkommando, a doctor who experimented on Auschwitz prisoners, and US soldiers who were part of the liberation in April 1945.

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  21. 21.
    Jerry Seinfeld: I'm Telling You for the Last Time

    Jerry Seinfeld: I'm Telling You for the Last Time

    1998·Dir. Marty Callner·75 min·7.8

    Taped for HBO in August 1998, on the final date of Jerry Seinfeld's tour appearances at New York City's Broadhurst Theater, I'm Telling You for the Last Time presents the standup comedian's so-called "final" standup, or at least his final tour with the standup material that made him famous.

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  22. 22.
    Eternity and a Day

    Eternity and a Day

    1998·Dir. Theo Angelopoulos·133 min·7.8

    Famous writer Alexander contracts a terminal illness. He receives a letter from his wife describing a summer day 30 years ago, and leaves his seaside home to remember his past. This journey will allow him to wander between the past and the present, and encounter unexpected people, allowing him to collect unforgettable memories in the final moments of his life.

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  23. 23.
    Goodnight, Mister Tom

    Goodnight, Mister Tom

    1998·Dir. Jack Gold·108 min·7.8

    A shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond.

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  24. 24.
    Happiness

    Happiness

    1998·Dir. Todd Solondz·140 min·7.7

    The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.

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  25. 25.
    The Glass Agency

    The Glass Agency

    1998·Dir. Ebrahim Hatamikia·108 min·7.7

    An armed veteran of the Iran-Iraq War takes hostages at a travel agency after failing to raise enough money for his injured comrade to travel abroad for medical treatment.

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  26. 26.
    Cabaret Balkan

    Cabaret Balkan

    1998·Dir. Goran Paskaljević·102 min·7.7

    20 people's paths crisscross one night in violent mid-'90s Belgrade.

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  27. 27.
    Babylon 5: In the Beginning

    Babylon 5: In the Beginning

    1998·Dir. Michael Vejar·94 min·7.7

    Londo Mollari, the Centauri Emperor, recounts the initial contact between the Humans and Minbari, which resulted in a major incident and subsequent war, for an eager pair of youngsters wanting a story about love and conflict.

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  28. 28.
    Mulan

    Mulan

    1998·Dir. Tony Bancroft·88 min·7.7

    When Imperial China calls one man from every family to defend the empire from invading Huns, a young woman disguises herself as a soldier to take her ailing father’s place. Facing ruthless invaders, brutal training, and the risk of execution if discovered, she must decide who she truly is— and what she’s willing to fight for.

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  29. 29.
    Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

    Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

    1998·Dir. Jim Stenstrum·77 min·7.7

    After going their separate ways, Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, and Fred reunite to investigate the ghost of Moonscar the pirate on a haunted bayou island, but it turns out the swashbuckler's spirit isn't the only creepy character on the island. The sleuths also meet up with cat creatures and zombies... and it looks like for the first time in their lives, these ghouls might actually be real.

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  30. 30.
    The Thin Red Line

    The Thin Red Line

    1998·Dir. Terrence Malick·171 min·7.6

    The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived.

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  31. 31.
    Rushmore

    Rushmore

    1998·Dir. Wes Anderson·93 min·7.6

    When a beautiful first-grade teacher arrives at a prep school, she soon attracts the attention of an ambitious teenager named Max, who quickly falls in love with her. Max turns to the father of two of his schoolmates for advice on how to woo the teacher. However, the situation soon gets complicated when Max's new friend becomes involved with her, setting the two pals against one another in a war for her attention.

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  32. 32.
    The Crazy Stranger

    The Crazy Stranger

    1998·Dir. Tony Gatlif·102 min·7.6

    A man is looking for a singer he had heard on cassette. He finds much more.

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  33. 33.
    The Barber of Siberia

    The Barber of Siberia

    1998·Dir. Nikita Mikhalkov·180 min·7.6

    Douglas is a foreign entrepreneur, who ventures to Russia in 1885 with dreams of selling a new, experimental steam-driven timber harvester in the wilds of Siberia. Jane is his assistant. On her travels, she meets two men who would change her life forever: a handsome young cadet Andrej Tolstoy with whom she shares a fondness for opera, and the powerful General Radlov who is entranced by her beauty and wants to marry her.

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  34. 34.
    The Dinner Game

    The Dinner Game

    1998·Dir. Francis Veber·80 min·7.6

    For Pierre Brochant and his friends, Wednesday is “Idiots' Day”. The idea is simple: each person has to bring along an idiot. The one who brings the most spectacular idiot wins the prize. Tonight, Brochant is ecstatic. He has found a gem. The ultimate idiot, “A world champion idiot!”. What Brochant doesn’t know is that Pignon is a real jinx, a past master in the art of bringing on catastrophes...

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  35. 35.
    Train of Life

    Train of Life

    1998·Dir. Radu Mihăileanu·103 min·7.6

    In 1941, the inhabitants of a small Jewish village in Central Europe organize a fake deportation train so that they can escape the Nazis and flee to Palestine.

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  36. 36.
    The Red Violin

    The Red Violin

    1998·Dir. François Girard·130 min·7.6

    300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.

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  37. 37.
    Earth

    Earth

    1998·Dir. Deepa Mehta·101 min·7.6

    It's 1947 and the borderlines between India and Pakistan are being drawn. A young girl bears witnesses to tragedy as her ayah is caught between the love of two men and the rising tide of political and religious violence.

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  38. 38.
    Run Lola Run

    Run Lola Run

    1998·Dir. Tom Tykwer·80 min·7.6

    Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. She has 20 minutes to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.

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  39. 39.
    Lovers of the Arctic Circle

    Lovers of the Arctic Circle

    1998·Dir. Julio Medem·112 min·7.6

    As young children, Otto and Ana become best friends, leading to the marriage of Ana's mother to Otto's father. When Otto and Ana become teenagers, they begin a sexual relationship, which they hide from their parents. The two fall deeply in love and seem destined to spend the rest of their lives together. However, their relationship is tested when Otto's mother dies and the two are separated.

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  40. 40.
    West Beirut

    West Beirut

    1998·Dir. Ziad Doueiri·105 min·7.6

    In 1975, the long slog of civil war has recently begun in Beirut. Two friends, Tarek and Omar, suffer during the Lebanese civil war. Conflicts arise when they decide to cross from West to East, crossing the Muslim-Christian line that divides Beirut.

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— End of Chapter —