1989's Oscar Nominees

oh craptain

yuck

My Left Foot is a good film.

i still need to see that one, p sure the moment i finish it's the winner of this lot

You won't catch me saying Driving Miss Daisy is "a reasonably watchable middlebrow movie with two fantastic performances in it," not here nor in print anywhere. Nope, you won't catch me saying that.

Dead Poets Society has a legitimate claim to being the very worst nominee of the '80s

DPS would be second. I might feel more strongly about it if a certain joint hadn't dropped that summer.

Yep. I'd also probably have a little more fondness for Bot4oJ weren't the right ta-ta coming just around the corner from Stone.

I keep forgetting Stone won a directing Oscar this year: the last director/picture split until 1998.

Yikes at this list.

Probably the last year I saw all 5 BP nominees and for that reason alone is evidence of why hah.

wow, Basinger looked genuinely nervous

what a list

my left foot, out of these.

there were a decent number of other contenders released this year, many of which probably would have made it in today w/the extra slots. do the right thing, glory, enemies: a love story, valmont, henry v (branagh was nommed for director iirc?), fabulous baker boys, crimes and misdemeanors, drugstore cowboy, a dry white season, sex lies and videotape, etc etc

i remember seeing Glory as a kid and thinking it was one of the greatest things i'd ever seen. obv now one can see plainly it has its flaws, but i mean of course they'd put up miss daisy over that and spike lee.

i haven't seen field of dreams in a million years but iirc while it isn't best picture-worthy it does a good job of doing what it sets out to do. maybe the second best movie on here after my left foot (though i've never seen born on the 4th of july)

thx to Omar's listing of some films that were not nominated, that list looks even more craptastic than it did at first glance. as I recall it, born on the 4th of july was as heavy-handed as every other oliver stone movie. it was like being slapped in the face with a less-than-fresh fish for two hours. but its heart was in the right place.

Field of Dreams is the good to Dead Poets' evil

Field of Dreams glorifies baseball so it cannot be good.

I've only seen the first two (strong aversion to the other three). I re-watched--wanted to see how "American Pie" was used--and posted about Born on the Fourth of July recently. I liked it, so, in a stirring two-way race, Born on the Fourth of July.

clem, out of curiosity, what's your aversion to MLF? It probably remains the best film of its kind, and one of the sharpest about mother-son love (and what a relief to make a film about a poet who's an asshole).

eternal ban for River of Dreams for having Shoeless Joe hit the wrong way in the movie simply cos Liotta was a righty

Esp since MLF used mirrors the same year so DLDs right foot could sub for his left.

Lol at billy Joel Freudian slip

OMG

i was wondering wtf you were talking about until I re-read it a seventh time

Sorry should have read DDL. Too many acronyms while on mobile.

Cap’n Save-a-Poet

this is even less interesting than 2004's or 1956's oscar nominees

My interest in the Academy Awards took a big hit in 1980 after Raging Bull inexplicably lost, continued to wane through the '80s as big, prestige films like Out of Africa and the Merchant-Ivorys reasserted themselves, and by '89 it was almost nil. Bit of a rebound in the early '90s, then I became very interested in the documentary category after Hoop Dreams and Crumb, now it's close to nil again.

After Cocktail, BOT4OJ seems like the post-Risky Business 80s Cruise movie people talk about the least. Even Legend and All The Right Moves have more present day cachet. I guess I should finally watch it and figure out why.

Of the Costner films I've seen, I've never seen one I wouldn't watch a second time (though Dragonfly and Draft Day might be a tough sell). Anyway, easy vote for Field of Dreams here for me.

My best:

1. Enemies, A Love Story (Paul Mazursky)
2. Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant)
3. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)
4. Ariel (Aki Kaurismäki)
5. Say Anything… (Cameron Crowe)
6. Kiki’s Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki)
7. Henry V (Kenneth Branagh)
8. The Fabulous Baker Boys (Steve Kloves)
9. High Hopes (Mike Leigh)
10. Chocolat (Claire Denis)

HONORABLE MENTIONS: The Killer (John Woo), My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan), Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies), and sex, lies, and videotape (Steven Soderbergh).

I loved Drugstore Cowboy. I haven't seen it in decades, I suspect it has not aged all that well.

It's aged beautifully -- why wouldn't it? So have Mala Noche and My Own Private Idaho. What a three-film run.

I don't know, I remember its having a very late-80s sensibility. Beautifully shot, though.

Most of the praise it earned was wrong. It doesn't "glamorize" drug use but it does present The Lifestyle as exciting in a grotty way. The cast is first-rate.

I just watched Drugstore Cowboy again last week for the first time in over 30 years. I like it more now.

Can't scare up any details online, but I think there was a big brouhaha at the NY Film Critics awards that year involving Kael, Driving Miss Daisy, Do the Right Thing, and Casualties of War (which tied for runner-up in the Best Director category, presumably on the bloc strength of rabid Paulettes--being one myself, of course my #1 for '89).

I wondered why she never reviewed Do the Right Thing.

Driving Miss Daisy: saw it for the first time around 5 years ago when i was watching every BP winner. not as racist or backwards as I was lead to believe. still, not a film i enjoyed.

my favorites from this year would be Drugstore Cowboy, Kiki's Delivery Service, Santa Sangre.

I was 11 in 1989, which is fitting as Driving Miss Daisy, Dead Poets Society, and Field of Dreams are basically an 11-year-old's idea of what serious, grown-up cinema looks like. Saw Born on the Fourth of July some years after that and, in keeping with most of my experiences with Stone, didn't like it much. Never saw My Left Foot.

Of course, it is ridiculous that the Academy obviously saw Do the Right Thing and Crimes and Misdemeanors and yet snubbed them for the top prize. I think Siskel and Ebert (rightfully) campaigned for Say Anything in a few of the top categories on their show; John Mahoney in that film is just about my Platonic ideal of a supporting performance.

We'll assume the exception is your enthusiastic embrace of JFK.

yes, my ballot would've made room for Johns Cusack and Mahoney.

I'm INCARCERATED, LLOYD

is a fun thing to shout at random people

Only real exception is Talk Radio, most of which I can very easily credit to Eric Bogosian.

JFK strikes me as typically fevered Stone. If that's your kinda thing, the film certainly gives you a lot of it. The queer stuff is somehow even more grotesque than fellow GLADD-targets Silence of the Lambs and Basic Instinct.

Sorry, hon, but the film isn't as fevered and unhinged as the ILX thread I guess you haven't read (and you should).

I'll curl up with it tonight once I'm done work for the day.

A Thread about the film JFK

Started watching My Left Foot last night ... did not finish

Which means that a movie that definitely shouldn't have won best picture is also, unfortunately, the best movie in this lineup

oh, boo. What bored you?

xp Just kidding, Field of Dreams is

I just couldn't find an entry point in any of it; struck me as the kind of late '80s drab nothingness

My fave Jim Sheridan DDL flick is maybe The Boxer, which is a solidly unpretentious irish troubles movie and has a pretty beautiful soundtrack. It's also maybe the most normie DDL role, very unflashy. But he's great. As is Emily Watson.

Both are damn hot.

Great 1989 movies not mentioned

Tetsuo The Iron Man
The Seventh Continent (maybe my fave Haneke)
Society
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Mystery Train
Casualties of War
How To Get Ahead in Advertising
The War of The Roses

I've hated all the pre-Code Unknown Hanekes I've seen but haven't yet tried Seventh Continent. Is it worth it if I deeply loathe Funny Games and Benny's Video?

Xxp You can understand why it's impossible for DDL to resist her and why she'd go against the bullshit domestic rules the IRA had.

I would say give it a go. Its got a lot of warmth towards it's characters compared to Funny Games.

Almost every film Michael listed is better than this drabshow

give tetsuo the oscar

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5 people are beyond help

I detest cheap sentiment.