The Last Seduction (1994)

Linda Fiorentino's Bridget Gregory is the coldest, funniest, most complete femme fatale of the 1990s — in a noir so good it transcends the genre entirely.

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The film

Bridget Gregory steals seven hundred thousand dollars of drug money from her husband and goes to ground in small-town New York, where she finds a willing patsy and begins constructing something terrible. John Dahl directs it as pure-blooded noir, but the engine is Fiorentino: a performance of total, gleeful amorality that critics immediately ranked among the decade's best.

Famously, it premiered on cable before its cinema run — which made it ineligible for the Academy Awards. Fiorentino lost a near-certain Best Actress nomination to a technicality, and the injustice has followed the film ever since. It deserves a place on this shelf as the genre's critical high-water mark.

Editions: what to look for

Availability has historically lagged the film's reputation, but restored editions exist and turn up reliably. Check the listing for region coding and whether it's a restored transfer — this is a film that rewards a decent presentation.