It was an even better for getting married. At least if you were Katie-Bar-The-Door and the Mythical Monkey.
P.S. I'm sure the head of my alternate Oscar pal, Erik Beck, will explode when he sees I didn't pick Denzel Washington's supporting performance in Glory—and I don't blame him. Let's just say I'm saving Denzel Washington's award for Malcolm X, which I think is the best performance of his career and the one I'd want you to see if you were only going to see one.
PICTURE (Drama)
winner: Do The Right Thing (prod. Spike Lee)
PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: When Harry Met Sally ... (prod. Rob Reiner and Andrew Scheinman)
PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso) (prod. Franco Cristaldi and Giovanna Romagnoli)
ACTOR (Drama)
winner: Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot)
ACTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: John Cusack (Say Anything)
ACTRESS (Drama)
winner: Michelle Pfeiffer (The Fabulous Baker Boys)
ACTRESS (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Meg Ryan (When Harry Met Sally ...)
DIRECTOR (Drama)
winner: Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing)
DIRECTOR (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Cameron Crowe (Say Anything)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Sean Connery (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Laura San Giacomo (sex, lies and videotape)
SCREENPLAY
winner: Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally ...)
Not explode. Just a mild tingling. I'm glad you showed love to Connery and San Giacomo, neither of whom got love from the Oscars.
ReplyDeleteIf I have a gripe, it's your "good year". I think it's one of the single best years for film. But I think you do too and we just being more subtle.
I also think that you, like me, probably show some influence from Danny Peary's Alternate Oscars here. Though I disagree with much in that book, it was his choice of John Cusack for Best Actor for Say Anything that made me re-evaluate his performance in what has always been one of my favorite films.
“I got a question. If you guys know so much about women, how come you’re here at like the Gas ‘n’ Sip on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?”
“By choice man.”
You're right -- by "good," read: best of the decade, top to bottom. Years like that come along every now and then, and you wind up happily spending what feels like every free weekend in a theater.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to get started on When Harry Met Sally
ReplyDeletebut I must
Nothing that Billy Crystal did has aged well with me, but I can handle this one -- maybe best. His acting limitations seem suitable for the creep [read: "any guy"] he portrays.
Meg Ryan is as her best, which I don't think is all that good.
But
[GIANT pet peeve here]
Reiner and Ryan's choice to include the film's best-known set-piece makes me want to scream.
The fake orgasm in Katz's is great, really affects Harry (deeply, and in-the-moment embarrassment over the noise), and sets up Reiner's mom for a killer punchline.
But the Sally character has been established as the sort of character who would **never** act that out, and certainly not in public. The straitlaced, keep-my-pine-nuts-out-of-my-dressing,, persnickety neurotic that they spent a movie developing
dis-a-fucking-pears
in service of a forty-second joke.
I hate shit like that, tough guy.
But the Sally character has been established as the sort of character who would **never** act that out, and certainly not in public.
ReplyDeleteYou're not going to get an argument from me.
But it is an iconic film moment, thus the award, and I guess you could argue that Sally has matured by that point to being able to say things like that out loud. At least that was my take on it at the time.
tough guy.
ReplyDeleteDid you see the Nats signed Dan Haren to a one year deal? Sort of another one year rental of an Edwin Jackson-type pitcher without having to give Jackson himself a three-year deal.
"But it is an iconic film moment"
ReplyDeleteBoy is it ever. I remember seeing this film (at the Uptown in DC) and the punchline at the end got perhaps the biggest laugh I've ever heard in a movie theater. So yeah, Mister Muleboy has a point about selling out Sally's character for a 40-second joke, but since we all still remember that joke 23 years later, you could argue that Reiner didn't make that bad a trade.
BTW, I saw this movie with my then-girlfriend and her mother. If I could have vanished through the cracks in the floor during this scene, I would have gladly done so.
"BTW, I saw this movie with my then-girlfriend and her mother. If I could have vanished through the cracks in the floor during this scene, I would have gladly done so."
ReplyDeleteCould be worse. My mom came home with a rented movie one night in 1990, saying "the critics all say this is the best film of the 80's." Do you know what it's like to watch Blue Velvet with your mom?
Do you know what it's like to watch Blue Velvet with your mom?
ReplyDeleteOh my God!
Mister S. said...
ReplyDelete"But it is an iconic film moment"
Hey, is that the Mister S? How you doing, buddy?! Haven't laid eyes on you since the Nats were in RFK!
I'm not even sure my e-mail is the same as it was then, but you can always scroll down the right hand side of the page to "View My Complete Profile" -- e-mail is tucked away there.