Randomness... 1986
Friday, December 6, 2024 at 9:00AM by Nathaniel R
Continuing our 80s retros for a couple more weeks. Strangely when I examined it on Letterboxd (are you following me there?) I realized I’d seen fewer films from 1986 than I had the years surrounding it. I'm not sure why this is. Anyway, I thought it might be fun to also share Letterboxd lists to go along with this 80s party, so 1986 is here. Okay, Let’s jump right into the favourites, alphabetically…
NATHANIEL'S TOP TEN OF 1986
(as of this moment - there's more left to see)
Aliens (James Cameron, US)
The best film of the franchise. One of the best films of its entire decade of cinema. One of the best sequels of all time. One of the best sci-fi films of all time. One of the best action films of all time. One of the best female protagonists of all time. One of the best monster movies of all time. Best Best Best Best Best. That it's not quite the very best film of 1986 is kind of a miracle in and of itself.
Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beinex, France)
I first saw this a couple of years after 1986, I think as a video store rental? I was scandalized by the opening sex scene (I was convinced the actors were actually “doing it”). There isn’t enough sex AT ALL in contemporary cinema but there was quite a lot more of it in 80s cinema, even in the films from relatively prudish Hollywood. Anyway, I never quite got over baby cinephile horny love for Jean Hugues-Anglade or Beatrice Dalle. I perked up for years afterwards whenever they showed up randomly in a French film (both actors are still working but it feels like a million years since they were in anything that garnered international attention).
On another more Oscar-infused note: it’s forever interesting to me that the portion of Oscar voters who opt to participate in the foreign film category voting (a self-selecting bunch) will sometimes make bold choices like this one that make you think they actually love global cinema and are paying attention to what’s hot and other times pick the safest dullest titles imaginable that aren’t at all likely to endure in the cultural conversation. How do these two modes coexist so consistently?
The Color of Money (Martin Scorsese, US)
When I finally saw this (for a Supporting Actress Smackdown) I was surprised that it wasn’t just a lazy legacy sequel. That was a dumb assumption since Martin Scorsese was behind the camera. The main trio (Newman, Cruise, and Mastrantonio) are all quite wonderful and its solid adult entertainment throughout… though it’d be the first of these top ten films I’d drop if I saw more films from this annum.
The Fly (David Cronenberg, Canada)
Another title I didn’t see in theaters at the time though it was the first Cronenberg I ever saw. It wasn’t until the Aughts that I fully came around to Cronenberg fandom via A History of Violence but this is easily his most accessible title before that one. Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis were a couple at the time (and would marry the next year) and are both pretty special in the movie. The actors were honored by the Saturn Awards (with a win and a nomination, respectively). Yes, the Saturn Awards are often embarrassing but because they are devoted to genre films you will occasionally see an Oscar worthy player who has no shot at making the big race get a little prize and that, my fellow movie-lovers, makes the Saturns and all focused awards alternatives that aren't trying to "predict" with their ballots, worthwhile in the long run. This is also why I’ve felt protective of the Golden Globes despite their many mishaps, since they would honor worthy things (on occasion) that Academy voters would never think to cherish... mostly comedic work but sometimes daring or off-kilter performances from major stars that absolutely deserved recognition.
Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, US)
The first Woody Allen film I saw in theaters was Broadway Danny Rose (1984) which my older brother took me to. He was the easiest member of my family to convince to drive me to the movies – our tastes are quite different but we still talk movies on occasion. The only thing I remember about that first peak at the Woody Allen universe was that we both laughed really loudly at the film's helium joke. The next year my parents took us all to Purple Rose of Cairo at my insistence (they regretted it; I most certainly did not!) By Hannah and Her Sisters I had realized that this Woody Allen person made a movie every single year and I should see them all on opening weekend (simpler times!) I did for while but there were a lot of bad ones and I eventually fell off of this habit. I’m way off topic now. Sorry. This Woody Allen picture deservedly went all the way to the major Oscar contention, winning Original Screenplay and both Supporting categories which proved to be the first of two wins for each of the actors in question; Dianne Wiest is a genius (duh) and deserved both of her trophies but to be frank, I’ll never understand either of Michael Caine’s wins so in my world he’d be Oscarless. (Max Von Sydow is better in the same film if they had to have a double act on Oscar night)
Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz, US)
I’ve bemoaned this fact many times over the years at The Film Experience but the 1980s were the lowest of low points for the movie musical genre. There were barely any of them made during the entire decade (at least outside of Bollywood) but of the few English language musicals that did emerge, this and The Little Mermaid. So basically the composing team of Howard Ashman (RIP) & Alan Menken, were the only thing keeping musicals alive outside of musical theaters stages in this particular decade. Little Shop is old school wonderful then and still wonderful now from that classic “Skid Row” opening to its kitschy white picket suburban finale.
It’s been a treat to see the stage show re-embraced here in NYC in a now long-running Off Broadway revival. 2024 Anecote: I was eating at this restaurant "Bea" with friends (recommend) and it is right next to the West Side Theater where "Little Shop" is playing. To our delight a spontaneous jump rope party began happening in the street just outside the window we were looking out of. When the crowd got large and boisterous the actors in the theater (right before call time) must have heard it and the stars playing Seymour (I think Corbin Bleu?) and Audrey (Drag superstar Jinkx Monsoon) came out of the theater and gleefully joined in the fun, jumping and laughing! Since I'd already seen it and stage shows are expensive I didn't catch Jinkx’s run as Audrey (the classic Ellen Greene role). I’ve seen three productions on stage since moving to NYC including Ellen Greene herself a sold-out two or three day revival with Jake Gyllenhaal as Seymour, and frankly no one has ever measured up to Greene's shoulda-been Oscar nominated star turn in this film version – not even Ellen herself. Oh to have a time machine and be able to see her legend-making run Off Broadway in 1982!
My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, UK)
I felt so naughty seeing this one the first time. So risque. So gay. (Was not yet out of the closet obviously). I’ve heard from a couple of sources that this 80s British classic doesn’t quite hold up. While I haven’t seen the movie in quite a long time I refuse to believe this. Steamy moments involving the very hot duo of young bleached blonde punk Daniel Day Lewis playing an unemployed punk and twink cute British Indo-Guyanese actor Gordon Wanecke playing a driven young Pakistani entrepreneur were seared into my young brain forever more. TMI – you've been warned – Years later in college my first ever sexual encounter followed (was caused by?) a brief discussion of this movie. We began talking about the movie and then this guy abruptly licked my neck like he was cosplaying DDL.
Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Coppola, US)
It’s difficult to get a bead on the current critical consensus of Francis Ford Coppola’s mid-career period. He never reascended to the God Auteur level post Apocalypse Now but there’s lots of good stuff sprinkled throughout the filmography. This time-travelling romantic dramedy is the best of his 80s films. It doesn’t hurt that lovely nimble Kathleen Turner was smack dab in the middle of her peak years as a bonafide Movie Star. I still wish she’d won the Oscar since this was her sole nomination (and she’d already deserved to take home the gold in 1981 and 1984.)
A Room With a View (James Ivory, UK)
While I loved this Edwardian era comedy at the time, I think I would have only placed it as the second or third best of 1986. I’ve only grown exponentially fonder of if it over the years. Now it’s officially my pick as Best Movie of the Decade (you heard me) given that it’s as perfect a film experience as there is. This British classic is endlessly rewatchable, dependably hilarious, sneakily horny, subtly moving, brilliantly acted, swiftly told, and swoonily romantic, and it’s all of those things simultaneously, never straining for effect. Meeting James Ivory was one of the greatest moments of my movie-loving life an we celebrated the movie extensively right here in 2020. Team Experience wrote extensively about this movie a couple of years ago in this limited series.
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
Yes yes, it’s a 1984 picture but I try to go by US release and/or Oscar submission year unless the dates vary too greatly. I didn’t see my first Almodovar until the international breakthrough of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. From then on I was absolutely hooked. For whatever reason though I didn’t get around to screening this one for a long long time. When I finally did see this indelible and nonchalantly offensive comedy in the Aughts, twenty or so years after its release, it knocked my socks off. No description can prepare you for how absurd it all is, so you’ll just have to see it for yourself. With Almodóvar mainstays Carmen Maura, Chus Lampreave, and Kiti Manver all cast to perfection.
Honorable Mentions?
Was 1986 a weak year or have I just not seen enough movies? I admit, sheepishly, that I have not seen Platoon (the only Best Picture winner in the past 50 years that I haven’t seen). Anyway, the closest title to this top ten is Bill Sherwood’s seminal gay indie Parting Glances. As a kid I was also into Ridley Scott’s Legend which premiered in Europe in 1985 and hobbled through an ill-received American release in the spring/summer of 1986 but I dont remember much about it beyond loving Tim Curry’s giant black horns and the costume design / makeup look of a fairie. I also loved Pretty in Pink back in the day.
Oscar vs Nathaniel (though I still have a lot to see)
Picture: Platoon | A Room With a View
Director: Oliver Stone, Platoon | James Ivory, A Room With a View
Actress: Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God | Sigourney Weaver, Aliens
Actor: Paul Newman, The Color of Money | Jeff Goldblum, The Fly
Supporting Actress: Dianne Wiest, Hannah and Her Sisters* | OR Maggie Smith, A Room With a View.
Supporting Actor: Michael Caine, Hannah and Her Sisters | Denholm Elliott, A Room With a View **
Original Screenplay: Hannah and Her Sisters | Hannah and Her Sisters
Adapted Screenplay: A Room With a View | A Room With a View
Art Direction: A Room with a View | Little Shop of Horrors
Cinematography: Platoon | Peggy Sue Got Married***
Costume Design: A Room With a View | A Room With a View OR Peggy Sue Got Married
Film Editing: Platoon | Aliens
Score: Round Midnight | Aliens
Original Song: “Take My Breath Away” Top Gun | “Take My Breath Away” Top Gun ****
Sound: Platoon | Aliens
Sound Effects Editing: Aliens | Aliens
Visual Effects: Aliens | Aliens
Makeup: The Fly | The Fly
* If you accept Dianne Wiest as supporting than yes, give her the win. I go back and forth but today I’m going lead which means it’s Dame Maggie with ease.
** I still have some key supporting players to see and I go back and forth on who is the best male supporting player in '86 but I will say that everyone in A Room With A View is a joy. You could fill the whole Best Supporting Actor list from that movie and I wouldn’t complain very much, though I might be angry to still see Steve Martin snubbed for Little Shop of Horrors.
The cinematography of Peggy Sue Got Married is so lovely
*** Of the Oscar nominees for cinematography, Peggy Sue Got Married is absolutely my choice (wrote about it here). That said I feel the need to shout out Peter Biziou for 9½ Weeks. Whatever you might say about that film -- and people have said a lot -- you can't say that Biziou is anything close to a journeyman. Biziou would win the Oscar for his one and only nomination two years later (Mississipi Burning) but he ought to have been in the mix more. Oscar voters really undervalued him. The Welsh DP is retired now but his filmography which ran from 1969 to 2005 is impressive: Bugsy Malone, Time Bandits, Pink Floyd The Wall, Another Country, A World Apart, Damage, In the Name of the Father, The Truman Show, and Unfaithful among a handful of others.
**** This is the year of "Live to Tell" by Madonna in At Close Range, so that absolutey is a better song than "Take My Breath Away" for Top Gun. But since I haven't seen it in context (I assume it's the closing credits which is always a bummer) I shouldn't vote for it on principle.
Okay, that's a wrap on 1986. Next we'll indulge 1987 for probably too long but wrap up 88 and 89 quickly to close out this time travelling.
Reader Comments (16)
I don't recall how Live to Tell is used in At Close Range, but I don't think it's used during the closing credits. I do recall that the score uses the song's melody prominently throughout the movie, which is cool.
My main takeaway from watching that movie during lockdown was that we need to return to the era when we used pop music better in films, so.....
My favorite 1986 movie is True Stories, directed by David Byrne. If you haven't seen it, go watch it right now! What a sweet, mad movie musical.
Other favorites you didn't mention:
Manhunter - This will always be in the shadow of Silence of the Lambs, but it's great on its own merits, with an excellent early Joan Allen performance.
Heartburn - And this will always be in the shadow of Meryl's other Mike Nichols collaborations, but it's such a great comfort movie, despite its flaws.
What? Wiest as the lead? It's a clear ensemble piece; she's under 25% of the film. The movie has no lead.
Hannah and Her Sisters is easily the best film of that year, IMO. I like A Room With a View, but it's far from being transcendental - Ivory's masterpiece is The Remains of Day - and I'm not saying that from a place of underestimating comedies. If you have to go light, Moonstruck would totally be my choice, or Tootsie.
That said, my film of the decade IS Hannah and Her Sisters. Masterful in every single way.
Sadly, Ridley Scott did not direct Aliens…
I want to love Peggy Sue Got Married. But rather than being a good movie, it’s Kathleen Turner willing a bad movie to become a good movie. It’s a bizarre and creepy fable (of some kind) that has very little to say. And the third act is just unbearable.
You look at Body Heat, The War of the Roses and Romancing the Stone (practically perfect films) and wonder how Turner got her sole Oscar nomination for that mess.
Ok let's get the Michael Caine shade out of the way,I never understand the 2nd win but the first one was well deserved esp in what is a fairly weak line up
Hopper's in for the wrong film,Dafoe ne or the film itselfver impressed me in Platoon and Berenger is only marginally better,Elliot's fine but it was a career nod rather like Caine's and one of them was always going to win it.
I'd give Caine his 2nd win for Youth in 2015 with that awful line up one of Oscars worst I can't understand how he missed at all.
Ok a Top 10,no 1 has been no1 since I saw it on TV in the early 1990' and it has never changed and Ripley is my favourite cinema icon ever and no-one could have played her like Sigourney.
1 Aliens
2 The Fly
3 Ferris Bueller's Day Off
4 Poltergeist II The Other Side
5 Hannah And Her Sisters
6 Wildcats
7 Pretty In Pink
8 Mona Lisa
9 Jumpin' Jack Flash
10 Stand By Me
I loved catching up with this year during the supporting actress smackdown. My top ten (with Salvador being my biggest -86 blindspot):
Back to School - watch this movie at least once a year and still spend more time laughing than not. Rodney Dangerfield at his funniest.
Little Shop of Horrors - Suddenly Seymour still chokes me up every time
Matador - so twisty and fun
A Room With A View - pure delight
My Beautiful Laundrette - love the deliciously unexpected music cues
Hannah and her Sisters - Top-tier Allen
Jean de Florette - greed, deception, the color pallette!
Extremities - my angel Farrah deserved more dramatic film roles and this movie shows why
Aliens - still prefer the original, but Sigourney just so rad
Big Joys, Small Sorrow - the grandpa is so sweet
Nathaniel, I loved your history of Woody at the movies!!! So fascinating to read that. He’s been my favorite filmmaker for 20 years ever since I discovered his films one summer and rented a bunch of them over summer break and felt like I unlocked something magical that was all for me. Hannah and her Sisters has always been my favorite of his films. I love Wiest & Caine’s wins so much. I wish Barbara Hershey and Woody himself had also been nominated. Max Von Sydow was truly great too. Perfect cast from top to bottom. Also, if there is ever an article on top soundtracks from Woody’s films, this is definitely top 5. I listen to it often.
The Fly is perfection as well. It’s a crime that Jeff Goldblum wasn’t nominated. Has he ever done anything even remotely as good as this? He’s playing an actual character here. It’s phenomenal work. Geena Davis is great too.
Betty Blue! Sasha Stone’s recommendation of this a few years ago on her Oscar podcast pointed my attention to this. It is fantastic! Loved watching it. Can’t believe I had never heard of it anywhere. Equally stunning is that it was actually nominated for Foreign Film. Should have won!
Hey, no mention of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet???
Here is my list of the best films of 1986. Aliens is a film that still gives me chills but it's got some amazing action sequences, cool effects, and an ensemble cast that many would kill for.
I never got the love for Turner I always find her a blustery cumbersome actress,always doing way too much and she lacks warmth,I only ever enjoyed her in Body Heat and that 86 Oscar was Weaver's not hers.
Turner never once convinces as a girl and also doesn't play her emotions of a teen girl either,she's always Kathleen strident and capable.
My own 86 Actress nominees
Weaver Aliens
Matlin Children Of A Lesser God
Spacek Night Mother
Andrews Duet For One
Fonda The Morning After
1986 movies that I want to rewatch: 9 1/2 Weeks, Blue Velvet, Extremities (Farrah Fawcett), Wildcats (Goldie Hawn), Blue Velvet, Violets Are Blue (a Sissy Spacek movie that with a heart-tucking ending that I remember loving) and Hannah and Her Sisters.
*Funny thing-I just watched Tarzan Escapes (1936) from my MGM Tarzan 4-Pack this morning. There’s a scene mid-movie where Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan) does some underwater escapading with Tarzan. When she pops out of the water and chats with him, she/Hannah’s ma & Mia’s real life ma, is the spitting image of Barbara Hershey in Hannah (or vice-versa). (Maureen has wet hair and curls, Lee/Hershey has wet hair/curls when she has a fight with Frederick/Max. Made me wonder if Holly/Dianne was given the John Farrow genes in that film family…
Movies that I never got around to seeing yet:
-Absolute Beginners,
-At Close Range,
-Desert Bloom,
-Ginger & Fred,
-Heartbreak Ridge,
-Mona Lisa,
-The Morning After and
-Something Wild.
Did young Nathaniel miss Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Stand By Me? Pop a can of Classic Coke and don your leather bomber jacket and straight leg jeans to watch the best of 1986 teen cinema
Weaver absolutely should have won this.
And it's funny that she broke through the genre bias, but Goldblum and Davis couldn't, despite phenomenal performances. The ending of that movie destroys me.
As for Madonna and Live to Tell (a truly great song), I think that like Into the Groove it was deemed ineligible for being a new song in the film but not written for the film. I think co-writer co- producer Patrick Leonard said that once.
Oddly enough, I haven’t seen many movies from 1986. Many of the well known movies I’ve never seen, some I only felt a lukewarm response to, and a few I didn’t like at all.
I’ve also gotten the release dates wrong on some movies, using the UK or European release, or just making a mistake.
I liked:
Aliens: dir. James Cameron, with Sigourney Weaver.
F/X: with Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Diane Venora, I saw this multiple times, such fun.
Mona Lisa: with Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine (in truly scary mode)
A Room With a View
Running Scared: dir. Peter Hyams, with Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal, a wonderful duo. This one also watched multiple times.
Little Shop of Horrors
Round Midnight: dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Ruthless People: a black comedy hit with Bette Midler
Something Wild: dir. Jonathan Demme
International films I also liked:
The Fringe Dwellers: dir. Bruce Beresford
Ginger and Fred: dir. Federico Fellini
The Green Ray: dir. Eric Rohmer
Jean de Florette/ Manon des Sources, dir. Claude Berri
And some other US films:
Down By Law: dir. Jim Jarmusch
Down and Out in Beverly Hills (US remake of Boudo Saved From Drowning), dir. Paul Mazursky
Violets Are Blue: dir. Jack Fisk, with Sissy Spacek, Kevin Kline, Bonnie Bedelia
Crimes of the Heart: dir. Bruce Beresford, with Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard
Hannah and Her Sisters is the topmost tier of Woody Allen's 80s heyday. It honestly should have been the only choice for Best Picture winner.
Dianne Wiest was so superb in this film. Her win was the most clear victory I had ever seen until Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (coincidentally, another Woody Allen film!). She was in no way the lead actress. It's a full ensemble. She is a perfect actress in a perfect role.
I think initial sex scene of 'Betty Blue' has to be one of the greatest film openings - it's so rare to see genuine female pleasure in sex scenes, particularly in mainstream films directed by a man. And I loved the frank depiction of nudity - it's not about exploitation, it's simply about "being" - being comfortable and vulnerable with someone you love with your heart and soul. And really, when the bodies are two of the most beautiful in film, what is there to complain about?
Play polytrack, the ultimate low-poly racing game featuring loops, jumps, and high-speed action. Create, share, and race on custom tracks. Join the global PolyTrack community today!