What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
RELEASED: December 25, 1993 BOX-OFFICE: $10,032,765
QUICK THOUGHTS: I haven’t seen this film in a long, long, long time, but it was released five years after Rain Man and eight years before I Am Sam, which is to say it was released in that prime era where playing mentally handicapped people was something of an Oscar magnet, and for Leonardo DiCaprio it earned him an Oscar nomination as he outshined Johnny Depp in the battle of Teen Beat cover boys. Strangely enough, co-star Juliette Lewis went on to star as a mentally retarded girl in The Other Sister in 1999, a film that is also quite good.
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Titanic (1997)
RELEASED: December 19, 1997 BOX-OFFICE: $600,788,188
QUICK THOUGHTS: I really like this movie. I know it has become the “in thing” to do to make fun of it, but what’s fashionable has never been my thing. I don’t enjoy this movie for any other reason than I think it taps so well into human emotion. So many critics like to point at it and say, “Yeah, I know what’s going to happen. The boat sinks.” Well, you just proved your worth in the community of worthwhile opinions. If you find it overly cheesy and just aren’t down with it, that’s fine, but don’t worry if you are willing to admit you like this movie it won’t make you any less cool.
