Putting together last week's list of my favorite screenplays of the 2000's was relatively easy. I came up with about ten worthy candidates and narrowed from there. When I started putting together this week's list -- my favorite screenplays of the 1990's -- things got a lot more complicated. I had a much larger list of worthy candidates to choose from. It made me realize that a) the 90's, particularly the late 90's, was a genuinely incredible time for film, and b) I was going to have to split my list into two halves: 1995 -- 1999 and 1990 -- 1994.

So, in support of all the great screenwriters currently on strike, what follows is my favorite screenplays produced between 1995 and 1999. Read that last sentence carefully! If you've got movies you'd add to or subtract from my list, I would love to hear them, but make sure your choice fits the criteria. On my 2000's list, I was getting comments like "How DARE you not include Citizen Kane, you freaking idiot?"

Now then, with all apologies to the scripts it killed me to leave off (Office Space, A Simple Plan, As Good As it Gets, Chasing Amy, Lone Star, Three Kings, Swingers, Jackie Brown, Kingpin, I could go on and on), here is my alphabetical list:

In 1925, a spelunker (best word ever) named Floyd Collins got stuck in a cave in Kentucky. He was there for almost two weeks, and the resulting 1920s-style news frenzy was apparently one of the first such events, highlighted by "hourly radio bulletins and...nationwide newspaper headlines." Taking a book on the events by Robert Murray and Roger Brucker as his inspiration, Billy Bob Thornton's long-time writing partner Tom Epperson has adapted a screenplay for a Floyd Collins feature; Thornton is expected to both direct and star in the picture for Paramount.

Thornton, who has only directed two films - the little-seen Daddy and Them and 2000's tepidly-reviewed All the Pretty Horses - since he burst onto the scene with Sling Blade has yet to prove that his success with that film wasn't a fluke. The Floyd Collins story is a fascinating one; hopefully Thornton's film will be, as well. (As an aside, there's also a musical about Collins - anyone seen it?)