277 articles
M. Butterfly (film)
M. Butterfly (1993) is David Cronenberg's film of David Henry Hwang's Tony-winning play, starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone as a French diplomat and the male Peking Opera spy he believed was a woman; a critical and commercial disappointment adapted from the Boursicot-Shi Pei Pu affair.
Maborosi (幻の光)
Maborosi (幻の光, Maboroshi no hikari) is Hirokazu Kore-eda's 1995 debut fiction feature, adapted from Teru Miyamoto's novel, about a widow rebuilding her life after her husband's unexplained suicide; it won the Venice Golden Osella for cinematography.
Madadayo (まあだだよ)
Madadayo (まあだだよ, "Not yet") is Akira Kurosawa's 1993 final film, his 30th, based on writer Hyakken Uchida; a professor's students honor him yearly with "Not yet!" birthday toasts.
Magnolia (film)
Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 New Line Cinema drama (188 minutes), interweaves Los Angeles lives toward a rain of frogs, with Jason Robards, Tom Cruise, and Julianne Moore, and a soundtrack of Aimee Mann songs that inspired the screenplay.
Man on the Moon (film)
Man on the Moon is a 1999 American biographical comedy-drama directed by Miloš Forman, starring Jim Carrey as comedian Andy Kaufman, with Danny DeVito and Courtney Love.
Marble Ass
Marble Ass (Dupe od mramora) is Želimir Žilnik's 1995 Serbian feature about trans sex workers Merlin and Sanela in wartime Belgrade; it premiered at the Berlinale, won the Teddy Award for best feature, and starred the real Merlinka, Vjeran Miladinović.
Martín
Martín, released as Martín (Hache), is a 1997 Spain-Argentina drama by Adolfo Aristarain about an Argentine film director in Madrid and his son Hache, who comes to live with him after a drug overdose. It won Havana's top prizes and acting awards for Luppi, Roth, and Poncela.
Marvin's Room (film)
Marvin's Room (1996) is a Jerry Zaks drama adapted from Scott McPherson's play, starring Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro; estranged sisters reunite over a leukemia diagnosis, with Keaton earning an Oscar nomination.
Midnight Sun (2018 film)
Midnight Sun (2018 film), also known as a remake of Taiyō no Uta (Song to the Sun), is an American teen romantic drama directed by Scott Speer, starring Bella Thorne and Patrick Schwarzenegger as teens in a nighttime romance shaped by xeroderma pigmentosum; it earned $27.4 million worldwide and 21% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mo' Better Blues
Mo' Better Blues is a 1990 Spike Lee musical comedy-drama, his first film with Denzel Washington, about jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam, scored by Bill Lee and the Branford Marsalis Quartet, originally titled Love Supreme.
Monster's Ball
Monster's Ball is a 2001 American drama directed by Marc Forster, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry as a racist death-row guard and an executed prisoner's widow; Berry won the 2002 Best Actress Oscar.
Mr. Holland's Opus
Mr. Holland's Opus is a 1995 American drama directed by Stephen Herek, starring Richard Dreyfuss as composer-turned-teacher Glenn Holland, released January 19, 1996, Oscar-nominated for Best Actor.
Murder in the First (film)
Murder in the First is a 1995 American courtroom drama directed by Marc Rocco, written by Dan Gordon, starring Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, and Gary Oldman, about an Alcatraz prisoner's trial after three years in solitary confinement.
My Days of Mercy
My Days of Mercy is a 2017 romantic drama by Tali Shalom-Ezer, starring Elliot Page and Kate Mara as lovers on opposite sides of the death penalty debate; premiered at TIFF 2017, released 2019.
My Name Is Joe
My Name Is Joe (1998) is a Ken Loach drama, written by Paul Laverty, starring Peter Mullan as a recovering alcoholic in Glasgow; Mullan won Cannes Best Actor and the film took three British Independent Film Awards.
My Own Private Idaho
My Own Private Idaho is Gus Van Sant's 1991 independent drama starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as street hustlers, loosely adapting Shakespeare's Henry IV; it won Phoenix the Venice Volpi Cup and joined the National Film Registry in 2024.
My Summer of Love
My Summer of Love is a 2004 British drama directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, adapted from Helen Cross's novel, starring Natalie Press, Emily Blunt, and Paddy Considine; it won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film and the Edinburgh Michael Powell Award.
Mystery, Alaska
Mystery, Alaska (1999) is a Jay Roach comedy-drama written by David E. Kelley and Sean O'Byrne, starring Russell Crowe, about a 633-person Alaskan town whose pond hockey team faces the New York Rangers in a televised exhibition game.
Nell (film)
Nell is a 1994 American drama film directed by Michael Apted and starring Jodie Foster as a woman raised in isolation, with Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson.
Nil by Mouth (film)
Nil by Mouth (1997) is Gary Oldman's only film as writer-director, a semi-autobiographical drama of domestic violence and addiction in south-east London starring Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke, who won Best Actress at Cannes; it won two 1998 BAFTAs and was remastered in 4K by the BFI in 2022.
Not One Less (一个都不能少)
Not One Less (一个都不能少) is Zhang Yimou's 1999 neorealist drama about a teenage substitute teacher in rural Hebei who searches the city for a student who left school to work; it won the 1999 Venice Golden Lion.
Not Without My Daughter (film)
Not Without My Daughter is a 1991 American biographical drama directed by Brian Gilbert, based on Betty Mahmoody's memoir of escaping Iran with her daughter.
Nothing Personal (1995 film)
Nothing Personal (1995), originally titled Fanatic Heart, is a Thaddeus O'Sullivan drama set in Belfast during the 1975 IRA ceasefire, the first feature centered on Loyalist paramilitaries, adapted from Daniel Mornin's novel All Our Fault, starring James Frain, Ian Hart, and John Lynch.
Nouvelle Vague (1990 film)
Nouvelle Vague (1990), Jean-Luc Godard's French-Swiss drama starring Alain Delon and Domiziana Giordano, competed at Cannes 1990; a countess saves a drowning man, lets him drown, then meets his double. Not the 2025 Linklater film.
October Sky
October Sky (1999), Joe Johnston drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, and Laura Dern, adapted from Homer Hickam's memoir Rocket Boys, an anagram of the title, about a Coalwood, West Virginia teen inspired by Sputnik to build rockets.
Once Were Warriors (film)
Once Were Warriors (1994) is Lee Tamahori's debut New Zealand drama, adapted from Alan Duff's novel, about the Heke whānau in South Auckland; highest-grossing NZ film to that date, starring Temuera Morrison and Rena Owen.
Only Yesterday (1991 film)
Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ, Omohide Poro Poro) is Isao Takahata's 1991 Studio Ghibli animated drama, adapted from Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone's manga, about 27-year-old Taeko Okajima's Yamagata trip and childhood memories; it topped Japan's 1991 box office and reached U.S. theaters only in 2016.
Paradise Lost (실락원) (1997 film)
Paradise Lost (失楽園, Shitsurakuen; 실락원) is Yoshimitsu Morita's 1997 Japanese film adapting Junichi Watanabe's bestseller, starring Koji Yakusho and Hitomi Kuroki as adulterous lovers; it earned 4.5 billion yen, ranked second among 1997 Japanese films, and made "shitsurakuen" a buzzword of the year.
Passion Fish
Passion Fish is John Sayles's 1992 American independent drama starring Mary McDonnell and Alfre Woodard, about a paralyzed soap opera actress and her nurse in Louisiana; Oscar-nominated, Independent Spirit Award winner.
Peppermint Candy (박하사탕)
Peppermint Candy (박하사탕, Bakha satang) is Lee Chang-dong's 1999 South Korean drama, released January 1, 2000, telling factory worker Kim Yong-ho's 1979–1999 life in reverse through seven episodes tied to the Gwangju massacre, 1987 torture, and 1997 crisis.