The Best Movies & Shows Released in 1996 on Kanopy

This drama was the first feature written and directed by an out Black lesbian, Cheryl Dunye, and it is an absolute joy: a cheeky faux-documentary that ingeniously blends lesbian dating life with a historical dive into Black actors in 30s Hollywood. Dunye plays Cheryl, a self-effacing version of herself, an aspiring director working at a […]

Renton (McGregor), a Scottish twenty-something junkie, must choose to clean up and get out, or continue following the allure of the drugs and the influence of friends. Find out if he chooses life in this brutal yet entertaining Danny Boyle masterpiece. While definitely not for the faint of heart, Trainspotting still manages to be funny at times, […]

Three years before the Wachowskis released The Matrix, their debut, Bound, was already one of the most visually stunning crime thrillers of the 1990s. If you look at the film as a straightforward genre piece, it’s as thrilling as the best of the genre: vulnerable heroines, suspenseful sequences taking place mostly in one enclosed location, […]

Told with grace and maturity without sensationalizing its subject matter, Dead Man Walking expertly walks the line between taking a moral stand and keeping the messy humanity of its characters intact. Though it may seem just like a legal drama or prison film on the surface, writer/director Tim Robbins weaves in commentary on class and […]

As Nicole Holofcener’s directorial debut, Walking and Talking stands out not only for its honest dialogue and wonderful performance from the young Catherine Keener, but also for its portrayal of female friendship in a genre which too often portrays mindless cliches. The movie focuses on two best friends as one of them gets engaged and […]

With an ensemble cast featuring a young Natalie Portman and a less murderous Uma Thurman, Ted Demme’s “Beautiful Girls” recreates the worries and woes that thrive in the minds of a tight knit group of working class friends stuck in their own small town Massachusetts world. Warm, quirky and filled with champagne diamonds, both metaphorical […]

Not enough movies tell the stories of the down-on-luck, kind of uncool wolf-pack that still goes out into town with their wallets on chains hanging from their pockets and try their luck with the ladies. Mike, heart-broken actor-comedian pines over his ex long after she’s been gone, while his guys – Trent, Rob and Sue […]

Many people have forgotten that representation and diversity in media isn’t meant just to fill a quota or to signal virtue– the push for it is in response to the way many of these stories were silenced, repressed, and shut out. Lilies might have been overlooked for quite a while, but its 2023 restoration has […]

There are people in life that have a one of a kind voice that you can’t help but listen to, as they provide different perspectives that challenge your own in compelling ways. The Whole Wide World tries to capture the fairly elusive pulp fiction writer Robert E. Howard, but through the perspective of the one […]

Films about drug dealing aren’t particularly new, but the way Pusher delves into their lives feels different– more realistic than glamorous, somewhat like a guerrilla documentary, with the handheld camera as a silent, unnamed witness. As the camera follows low-level dealer Frank through the course of a week, Kim Bodnia skillfully garners empathy with the […]

Given current events, there’s no denying that the discussion around abortion rights can be a bit tense. That being said, this tension isn’t new. It’s been in debate for decades, which is why there aren’t many films that handle the topic. As such, Citizen Ruth is a rare film. It’s a rare film that possibly […]

There’s no shortage of media depicting alcoholism, but many of them come across as preachy, sanctimonious, and coming from someone that hasn’t gone through it. Steve Buscemi’s directorial debut is another character study of an alcoholic pushed to drink because of losing both his job and his girlfriend, but the way Buscemi writes, directs, and […]