The Usual Choices
Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
Die Hard (John McTiernan)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorcese)
Rain Man (Barry Levinson)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)
But how about...
A Handful of Dust (Charles Sturridge)
As this Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited) adaptation started to unfurl, I was initially convinced that I was going to rapidly lose interest. So slow, with characters who are so boring, that I could feel a couch-coma coming on. And then it happened, bit by bit, the displays of the utmost cruelty and quiet callousness, the vicious intervention of Fate, the inane everyday occurrences or even amusing little adventures which abruptly become horrors. I was riveted as these well-mannered and privileged souls completely ruined their lives. And at no point did I feel pity for any of them - it was all well-deserved for being so emotionally feeble and disgustingly classist I guess. Ha ha: serves you right, ya rich bastards. An uncharitably smug cinematic experience.
...and what about...
Things Change (David Mamet)
A little-known charmer. Oldtimer shoeshiner of Sicilian extraction is called upon by a Chicago Godfather to 'fess up to a murder he didn't commit in exchange for later wealth. A soft-hearted hoodlum babysits and feels sorry for the poor old bugger, taking him out for a live-it-up-before-prison weekend. Don Ameche (who I've never had much time for, even when he was a young guy) and Joe Mantegna (does he ever get sick of playing mobsters?) are a terrific double-act and the humour is gentle, the sentimentality is minimal and the bloodshed is refreshingly zero. I initially panicked when a potentially-cruel ending unexpectedly reared its ugly head, but it all works out perfectly.
...not to mention...
Beetlejuice (Tim Burton)
While the film initially comes across as just a Michael Keaton showpiece (and let's face it, he deserves the accolade...it's a comic tour de force), there is so much more going on in this to tickle your pleasure centre: the nifty use of claymation; Harry Belafonte calypso soundtrack; cartoonish gross-outs that would make kindy kids giggle; the comedy stylings of Catherine O'Hara, & Jeffrey Jones; back-for-one-last-gasp Sylvia Sidney (who sounds remarkably like Stan Lee); the happy, uplifting ending. Made when Tim Burton was still fresh (he seems to have lost his sense of humour somewhat in recent years), this is an even better horror-comedy than Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)
This is a classic example of appearance subjugating substance and craft being deemed to be more important than the telling of a good story. Sure, the idea is novel (Cartoon World interacting with Actual World), and it is a commendable technical feat, but even with great dollops of sexual innuendo (and maybe because of that), it remains immature in both vision and delivery. I may be the only viewer who thought that the cartoon characters looked , well, "flat" and "pale" compared to their flesh'n'blood companions. And the new and rather annoying character of Roger Rabbit is shown up by the likes of the Warner Bros icons which populate the film: he just ain't in their league.
My Top 10 Films of 1988
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| On holiday, Jack Black wishes he'd packed the Nair. |
#02 A Dead Ringers (Cronenberg)
#03 A Dangerous Liaisons (Frears)
#05 A- The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kaufman)
#06 A- Things Change (Mamet)
#07 A- Punchline (Seltzer)
#08 A- Beetlejuice (Burton)
#09 A- Running On Empty (Lumet)
#10 A- Mississippi Burning (Parker)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 A- A Fish Called Wanda (Crichton)
#12 B+ A Handful of Dust (Sturridge)
#13 B+ Eight Men Out (Sayles)
#14 B+ Heathers (Lehmann)
#15 B+ Die Hard (McTiernan)
#16 B+ Bull Durham (Shelton)
#17 B+ Married to the Mob (Demme)
#18 B+ Shoot to Kill (Spottiswoode)
#19 B+ Working Girl (Nichols)
#20 B+ Big (Marshall)
#21 B+ Bat*21 (Markle)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Biloxi Blues [an okay memoir film which adds another quirky Christopher Walken performance to the cinematic firmament]
> B Tucker: The Man and His Dream [the story of the little guy ruined by the big guys...told too mildly]
> B Another Woman [another Woody-impersonates-Ingmar pic which bangs on a bit]
> B Madame Sousatzka [Shirley does well, but it's all fairly predictable and far too tame]
> B The Dead Pool [aka Dirty Harry V: Old Same Old Same Old]
> B Frantic [Polanski does Hitchcock...but forgets to add the little touches of humour]
> B Evil Angels / A Cry in the Dark [written by Australians, directed by an Australian, about Australians, set in Australia, featuring Australian actors, starring Meryl Streep]
> B The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! [it's amazing how funny and forgettable a one-joke film can be]
> B Gorillas in the Mist [yeah...big monkeys and stuff...]
> B Rain Man [Dustin goes for cute & cuddly while Tom runs rings around him]
> B- The Chocolate War [now featuring a feelgood ending where a kid gets his teeth knocked out]
> B- Monkey Shines [a good episode of The Night Stalker, hidden inside a 113 minute movie]
> B- Stealing Home [too schmaltzy film redeemed by a very endearing performance by Jodie Foster...but not enough]
> B- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels [Steve & Michael are clearly not Bing & Bob or Dean & Jerry or Bert & Ernie]
> B- The Accused [watching the bastards get their just-desserts = excellent; but having to watch the rape...]
> B- Young Einstein [too silly]
> B- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen [looks great; meanders storywise - yep, it's yet another Terry Gilliam movie]
> B- Appointment With Death [dull Agatha Christie...whodunnit?? whocares??]
> B- Beaches [nothing like a good cry to make you feel better]
> C Twins [stupid & mirthless, twice]
> C Jack's Back [serial killer story that tries to add something fresh but goes flat in the attempt]
> D Paperhouse [fantasy-horror-children's film which is too much of a stew for any movie]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1988 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Apartment Zero (Donovan); Betrayed (Costa-Gavras); Bird (Eastwood); Brain Damage (Henenlotter); Clean and Sober (Caron); Da (Clark); Distant Voices, Still Lives (Davies); Dominick and Eugene (Young); Drowning By Numbers (Greenaway); Ghosts…of the Civil Dead (Hillcoat); High Hopes (Leigh); Lady in White (LaLoggia); The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorcese); Little Dorrit (Edzard); Midnight Run (Brest); The Milagro Beanfield War (Redford); Miracle Mile (DeJarnatt); The Moderns (Rudolph); The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (Ward); Paris By Night (Hare); Pumpkinhead (Winston); Rocket Gibraltar (Petrie); Scrooged (Donner); Soursweet (Newell); Stand and Deliver (Menendez); Talk Radio (Stone); Willow (Howard)
Best Performances of 1988
Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons
Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist
Jodie Foster in The Accused
Melanie Griffith in Working Girl
Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man
Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda
Meryl Streep in Evil Angels / A Cry in the Dark
Sigourney Weaver in Gorillas in the Mist
But how about...
Tom Hanks in Punchline
Tom has been called the James Stewart of our time; I've always found him to be pleasant but many of his lauded performances strike me as overrated. In Punchline though, he is excellent as a talented, emotionally-immature and unstable stand-up comedian who wants to break into the big time for reasons of self-preservation. While the stand-up routines aren't as funny as needed (the film's biggest flaw), Tom nails the weird schizophrenia of funny + desperation. Bitter and angry at the world (he's the family disappointment), Tom is totally aware that he is falling towards rock-bottom, despite his gift for comedy. No booze or drugs as crutches - just a decent man trying to salvage his life before he falls apart. And the "Singin' in the Rain" scene is a movie classic.
...and what about...
Gena Rowlands in Another Woman
Now, this is an acting challenge: okay...play a middle-aged female intellectual who eavesdrops on people-in-therapy, and what she hears leads her to question her own life; she must be absolutely serious right through (even though Life is full of occasional humorous moments); and spout psycho-self-help examinations which must still sound as if a person would actually say them. Big ask. And yet, this terrific actress somehow manages it. While the tale itself is pretty thin and is in danger of disappearing up its own clacker (def: Australianism, coarse slang for sphincter), Gena single-handedly rescues the whole show. She even makes you care about someone who the average person would dismiss as being boringly self-absorbed. Somebody throw her a bouquet.
...not to mention...
Jodhi May in A World Apart
The story of the struggle to defeat apartheid in South Africa is a heroic story which is sorely undertold in cinema. AWA is possibly the best of this rare breed, and by basing it around the 13 year old daughter of an activist, we get to see not only the cruelty of oppression, but also its peripheral assault on the innocents. Jodhi is very moving as a child who just wants her Mum & Dad back, and passes through the realisation that adults are capable of the utmost villainy, onto becoming a political rebel herself. She grows up before your eyes, but with none of the usual joy of personal discovery. Coming of age indeed.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Meryl Streep in Evil Angels / A Cry in the Dark
"The dingo's got my bay-bee!"
"We're talkin' about my bay-bee daughter, not some objecktt!"
"Ya carried a six-pack up the rock? I thought you wuz cracked!"
"Crikey, how's yer kidneys?"
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| The new Chicago White Sox uniform offers plenty of leg room and comes with an airbag. |
"Mind me platypus duck, Bill. Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred."
Oh, rack off.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1988
#01 Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers
#02 William Hurt in The Accidental Tourist
#03 River Phoenix & Martha Plimpton in Running On Empty
#04 Tom Hanks in Punchline
#05 Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice
#06 Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda
#07 Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons
#08 Gena Rowlands in Another Woman
#09 Jodhi May in A World Apart
#10 John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Gene Hackman in Mississippi Burning
#12 Tom Hanks in Big
#13 Winona Ryder in Heathers
#14 Christopher Walken in Biloxi Blues
#15 Jodie Foster in Stealing Home
#16 Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist
#17 Kevin Costner & Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins in Bull Durham
#18 Don Ameche & Joe Mantegna in Things Change
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Jodie Foster in The Accused [physically demanding, emotionally demeaning and I can't watch it]
> Melanie Griffith in Working Girl [a good fit rather than a performance achievement]
> Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man [I swear I see him wink at us while he goes for our heartstrings]
> Sigourney Weaver in Gorillas in the Mist [dwarfed by the scenery and the other primates]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1988 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Accidental Tourist (Lawrence Kasdan)
SILVER: Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
BRONZE: Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jeremy Irons (Dead Ringers)
SILVER: William Hurt (The Accidental Tourist)
BRONZE: Tom Hanks (Punchline)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Gena Rowlands (Another Woman)
SILVER: Glenn Close (Dangerous Liaisons)
BRONZE: Shirley MacLaine (Madame Sousatzka)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice)
SILVER: Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda)
BRONZE: Christopher Walken (Biloxi Blues)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jodie Foster (Stealing Home)
SILVER: Geena Davis (The Accidental Tourist)
BRONZE: Genevieve Bujold (Dead Ringers)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: River Phoenix & Martha Plimpton (Running on Empty)
SILVER: Don Ameche & Joe Mantegna (Things Change)
BRONZE: Kevin Costner & Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins (Bull Durham)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jodhi May (A World Apart)
SILVER: Winona Ryder (Heathers)
BRONZE: Mayim Bialik (Beaches)
The Alternate Razzies for 1988 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEARPaperhouse (Bernard Rose)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Yahoo Serious (Young Einstein)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Meryl Streep (Evil Angels / A Cry in the Dark)
