Oscars 1989: Best Picture

Steel Magnolias

Do the Right Thing

When Harry Met Sally

Field of Drams

War of the Roses

5. Crimes and Misdemeanors or The War of the Roses

Kathleen Turner should have been nominated that year.

This list of the highest rated films that year puts Do the Right Thing at the top.

Are the regular Oscars fans busy watching Monday Night Football?

The Fabulous Baker Boys is not a film I have seen. Do dataloungers recommend it?

R6, you’ve resisted Michelle Pfeiffer being slinky on a piano? She’s quite fabulous.

Spike Lee says with some satisfaction that no one remembers Miss Daisy but film schools teach Do The Right Thing.

I remember Kim Basinger making a comment about Spike being snubbed.

Awe I really liked Driving Mrs Daisy .It had a good moral message and became well known enough across the US to have resonance .We could do with a 2018 equilivent given the current worrying political and social climate in the US.

Miss, not Mrs.

sex, lies, and videotape remains one of my favorite movies, so no, I don't think you're crazy at all. Spader was sublime in that film.

Awe I really liked Driving Mrs Daisy .It had a good moral message and became well known across the USA so had resonance .We need a 2018 equilivent given the current worrying political and social climate in the USA .

R13, we heard you the first time, Mary.

I vote for those dead poets

1989 was similar to 1999, another great year for movies that weren’t nominated.

Yes OP, you're crazy

I loved Henry V.

Faye Dunaway should have won Best Actress for Burning Secret in my alternate universe.

Both Bridges and Michelle are fabulous in Fabulous. It's fun.

Oliver Stone won his second Best Director Oscar that year. I don’t think he deserved either one.

How this film was not nominated for Best Picture or Best Actress remains a mystery to me.

Shamefully overlooked for best picture and best actress in a leading role. I danced for fuck's sake! Did Tandy dance?

1989 was a crappy year for the movies. No real American or foreign masterpieces were released that year. But I do have a soft spot for The War of the Roses, which is deliciously mean-spirited.

I recently decided to watch Do The Right Thing and Driving Miss Daisy for the first time. Oh boy - I had to turn the first one off after 20 minutes because I found it so annoying (it felt too self-conscious for my taste and I don't think I could stand looking at Spike Lee's ugly mug for over 2 hours). The second one was even worse, but I actually managed to hatewatch it in its entirety. What a schmaltzy piece of shit that one is.

Do the Right Thing is a great picture, though. It has some of Lee's heavy handedness, but it's a powerful film. Danny Aiello's performance is excellent.

[quote] I also would have liked James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Meg Ryan, and Jeff Bridges to be nominated. Am I crazy?

No, just boring.

I thought Malcolm X and Summer of Sam were Lee's best. Do the Right Thing is too schematic and preachy for me.

There’s usually an Oscar-nominated film each year that I absolutely love, but 1989 just doesn’t have one, even though I like a lot of the films mentioned. Out of the nominees, I think “My Left Foot” was the best by far, and “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” “Henry V,” “sex lies and videotape“ should have been nominated, and there were a lot of films to fill out that fifth slot. I don’t even hate the sentimental choices that the Academy picked even if they are punchlines, so I’d be fine if “Driving Miss Daisy” still got nominated.

So just give Best Picture to the one movie from 1989 that truly endures, especially on DL. Fuck me gently with a chainsaw, the award goes to “Heathers.”

This was the year of She-Devil. This thread is triggering me.

I'm so upset I forgot to sign r29.

Fabulous Baker Boys also features a very funny performance from Jennifer Tilly.

Fabulous Baker Boys, all the way -

Michelle has never been 'Slinky-er"; and Jeff Bridges was a Dreamy Bad Boy who didn't want to be 'rescued.' (Or did he?)

Michelle Pfeiffer in Fabulous Baker Boys is the type of Oscar-nominated performance that is a brilliant performance but also a star performance, kind of like Julia Roberts a year later in Pretty Woman. But Pfeiffer's is far superior. She's just so good in the role, so beautiful, but completely captivating and charismatic.

Jeff Bridges is so good in that too, but it's not a showy heroic role that will snag an Oscar. Steve Kloves only directed one other movie (that tanked) then switched solely to screenwriting.

Kloves adapted all but one of the Harry Potter books to screen, so I don’t think we need to have too much pity for him.

And R33, the amazing thing about Pfeiffer is that she was the critical favorite that year. She basically had a clean sweep of the top critics, then lost to Jessica Tandy. Pfeiffer is amazing and I can’t really complain about Tandy having an Oscar, but I can’t see a young, hot star sweeping the critics then losing to an elderly woman in 2018.

The thing about Pfeiffer in Baker Boys is that I'm sure the character of Suzie is fine on paper, but it's really the case of an actor completely transforming the role and adding that something special onscreen that you can't find in the script.

And her chemistry with Bridges is electric.

I wasn't feeling pity for Kloves, just curious why he didn't direct more.

R27 , agree there. Lee's best film is Malcom X, with 25th Hour being a very close 2nd.

Lee sure got screwed over with Malcolm X: only 2 Oscar nominations. It's such an amazing story and beautifully made. I'd watch it again over Unforgiven in a minute.

Heathers was clearly the best movie released in 1989.

"I can't see a young, hot star sweeping the critics then losing to an elderly woman"

Gaga could stlll lose to Glenn, although she's not so young and hot.

I lost to this ancient crone in 2003.

When Harry Met Sally was criminally overlooked. It is easily the best romantic comedy since Annie Hall. Well written, well acted, great soundtrack.

Pfeiffer has the unusual distinction of winning all the critics awards that year (there were only four basically that people paid attention to.)

Yet she lost to Jessica Tandy. The odd thing was the narrative was Tandy FINALLY gets her Oscar. Actually she never had much of a film career or gave an Oscar caliber performance prior to this. (The Birds I guess was the closest thing.)

If they had just waited awarded Pfeiffer this year they could have given it to Tandy 2 years later for Fried Green Tomatoes instead of the odd flash in the pan of Mercedes Ruehl.

Glory was my favorite that year.

R41 I think R35 was referring to the top two critics awards -- New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association. I doubt that Gaga will win there or even be nominated. They usually don't go for popular fare.

Green Book is this year’s Driving Miss Daisy. If it wins, people will start cringing by summer.

r47 it really is but in today's woke age, I have a feeling Green Book is going to get some backlash before the Oscars. There's already criticism that it's a white man's view of a black man's life.

Boy, those nominations. That’s an awful lot of treacle.

R37, I interviewed the late Michael Ballhaus once and asked him about the stunning cinematography on Baker Boys - he said he basically directed the film. He was nice about it, such a gentleman, very humble and generous to Kloves. He said that was the one that he pretty much directed.

It was probably well known in the biz which is why Kloves only directed one other time.

I love Baker Boys - it’s my go-to holiday film so I’ve seen it a lot. There’s a lot to love about it. I thought Beau Bridges deserved a BSA nomination as well, he picked up a few critics awards too. But Pfeiffer swept the lot of awards - kind of classy that you’ve never heard her moan about the loss either. Be Kind Rewind needs to do a video on this.

Baker Boys was seen as this downbeat film, especially in the context of all sentimental films that did get nominated. I don’t think it was a huge hit either but it’s a terrific film.

R50, that’s very interesting. I hadn’t heard that before about the cinematographer’s contribution. It may be my all-time favorite movie.

1. Heathers

2. Dead Poets Society

3. Men on Film commentary on "Little Spikey Lee"

[quote]I thought Beau Bridges deserved a BSA nomination as well,

Why was he considered supporting when he was co-lead with Bridges? The story was about the brothers. Jeff's romance was a subplot. In fact, Pfeiffer was more supporting than Beau. She arrives later in the film and then has stretches when she's absent. In fact, we only see her on screen when she's with the brothers, particularly Jeff.

[quote]Green Book is this year’s Driving Miss Daisy. If it wins, people will start cringing by summer.

Nah, any movie that wins now will be long forgotten and on HBO by then. The winner and nominees are usually on Home Video by Oscar week. In Daisy's day it was the end of pictures playing sometimes a year in theaters and coming back as an Oscar winner. Movies had lives.

Golden Globes...

Drama... Winner Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, Glory, Crimes and Misdemeanors, & Do the Right Thing

Comedy/Musical Winner Driving Miss Daisy, The Little Mermaid, When Harry Met Sally..., Shirley Valentine, & The War of the Roses

r53 I think Pfeiffer being Lead was pretty much because the "Makin' Whoopee" number and the performance itself brought her to a whole other level of stardom, pretty much A-list. I know she had worked for over a decade up to that film, but that really is a star-making performance. There was so much buzz about it and she was riding on the buzz of her three strong performances from 1988 (Married to the Mob, Tequila Sunrise and her Oscar nomination for Dangerous Liaisons).

As good as both Bridges were in that movie, Pfeiffer was a scene-stealer and she just brought that star quality that makes it such a great film (although all three are fantastic).

Amazing in the year if DO THE RIGHT THING that DRIVING MISS DAISY won.

R53 Because Jeff Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer were considered movie stars, and Beau merely a utility player. Had they pushed him for lead, he would not have gotten the nomination.

DO THE RIGHT THING sucked.