BOB STRAUSS' TOP 10 MOVIES OF '96.

1. ``Flirting With Disaster'' David O. Russell's cannily constructed comedy touched on everything we need from and fear about our loved ones. The rare farce that's entirely honest about human behavior.

2. ``The People vs. Larry Flynt'' Social history as seen through the eyes of a smut-peddling sociopath - and the vision turns out to be clearer than most. Director Milos Forman carefully undresses every hypocrisy, but also every promise of his adopted country in this emblematic American success story, while Woody Harrelson and Courtney Love proudly lobby for a constitutional right to freedom of excess.

3. ``Fargo'' A perfect little gizmo of a film. Eccentric and wicked but oddly comforting, considering it's about very violent events in the midst of a Minnesota white-out. Frances McDormand's way-pregnant, Great Northern Columbo is the most memorable figure in all the Coen brothers' movies - and that's way memorable.

4. ``The Whole Wide World'' A delicate love story about raging passions. Two very different literary types, who only have each other to relate to in rural 1930s Texas, sadly discover that some things love just can't conquer. Played with sass and sensitivity by Vincent D'Onofrio and Renee Zellweger, the film is based on the life of Robert E. Howard, the disturbed creator of Conan the Barbarian.

5. ``The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' Religious intolerance. Sexual obsession. Genocidal prejudice. Nothing like that old Disney magic - which some thought was noticeably missing from and others felt was way too abundant in this cartoon adaptation of Victor Hugo's semi-classic. Complaints acknowledged, this was still the first big-budget, animated musical to seriously attack adult issues. And, oh yeah, it's the most beautiful-looking picture the studio's ever made.

6. ``Big Night'' The food was the hook. But the real nourishment in this small, exquisitely seasoned film is the detailed, instinctive way Tony Shalhoub and co-writer/director Stanley Tucci play two immigrant Italian brothers, failing as restaurateurs but succeeding as artists in 1950s New Jersey. One of the best films about siblings ever.

7. ``Shine'' Director Scott Hicks came up with a medley of shrewd visual ideas that lift this mad musician biography above the run of such things. Superb acting, especially from Australian stage veteran Geoffrey Rush, didn't hurt, either.

8. ``Star Trek: First Contact'' Why can't all Hollywood action movies be as smart, exciting and downright cinematic as this first full-fledged ``Next Generation'' feature? Clever plotting, great villains in the Borg, and actual acting - not to mention an opening shot to blow you through the back of your seat - provide a model you wish more blockbusters would follow.

9. ``Breaking the Waves'' Audacious and annoying, Lars von Trier's punishing examination of religious dementia and sexual degradation would be just another overreaching Euroart monster without the luminous presence of Emily Watson. In her first screen appearance, the young English actress gives the bravest and best performance of the year. A devastating portrait of vulnerability at its rawest.

10. ``Evita'' Big, loud and vulgar, and they sing it all the way. The polite complaints to be lodged against this hyped-to-the-moon extravaganza are as numerous as Eva Peron's character flaws. But as with Argentina's demagogue demigoddess, it matters not. From Madonna's perfect casting to Alan Parker's ``more is more'' directing philosophy, ``Evita'' is a bold, beyond-movie experience unlike anything filmed before it.

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Photo: David Patrick Kelly, left, and Ben Stiller in ``Flirting With Disaster.''