As the Reagan decade drew to a close, the movies were richer then at anytime since the glory days of the 70’s. The mainstream thrived with Batman, the third Indiana Jones Film, and the second Lethal Weapon movie. Family films were getting a good name again with The Little Mermaid. Al Pacino was back on screen after a long lay-off with Sea of Love. The direct to video market produced as much cheese as Wisconsin. And the independent film movement gained real traction with three trend setting films that established the careers of Spike Lee, Gus Van Sant, and Steven Soderbergh.

Here’s a look back at how the staff of All Movie Guide feel about this influential twelve months.

Perry Seibert
1989 was my “big bang” year for film; the twelve months that my love for movies exploded into something grandiose. Even though I was only 15, and hadn’t experienced the tumultuous emotions at the heart of my favorite movies from that year, this was the moment in my personal history where I could begin to recognize how deeply complicated life can be. And it was also the year I fell forever and unreservedly in love with movies because they both spoke to me about these scary new realities, and allowed me to escape from them when that’s what I needed.

sex, lies, and videotape: For me, Steven Soderbergh’s funny, intimate, and clear-eyed look at sexual and emotional dysfunction opened a new understanding of what films could be about.

Do the Right Thing: With the exception that it’s about race instead of sex, the same thing I wrote above applies. I still find it unfathomable that a major studio funded this, still the best film ever made about race relations in America.

Crimes and Misdemeanors: Woody Allen’s most assured intertwining of drama and comedy until Husbands and Wives.

Roger & Me: Michael Moore perfected his persona with his first movie, and for an idealistic teenager like I was, growing up in Michigan full of moral outrage and a sarcastic sense of humor, it was hard to find a more sympathetic voice.

The Fabulous Baker Boys: Of the Bridges brothers, Jeff gets all the good press, but he and Beau pull of an acting pas-de-deux that makes one wish they gave out awards for performing together at the Oscars.

My Left Foot

Drugstore Cowboy

Field of Dreams

Say Anything

Heathers

Tracie Cooper
1989 in alphabetical order:

The Abyss: Old school FX. James Cameron’s other boat movie. Sea aliens!

Back to the Future Part II: Hoverboards. McFly family 2.0: Dysfunction in the Suburbs of 2015. Hoverboards! Evil slumlord Biff. Sports almanac that nearly ruined the world. HOVERBOARDS!

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Party animal Abe Lincoln. Napoleon at the water park. Socrates hitting on high school girls at the mall. Early Keanu. Power chords.

Born on the Fourth of July: Pre-couch jumping Tom Cruise. ‘Nam. PTSD. Pain and misfortune. F***ed up s**t.

Heathers: Mean Girls pre-Columbine (and pre-Mean Girls). Christian Slater in his glory days. Winona Ryder’s name not yet tattooed and subsequently lasered off the arm of Johnny Depp.

Lonesome Dove: The Old West. Cowboys. Hardship. Horses. Awesome.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: Kirk + Spock = BFF. Vulcan cults. Space, the final frontier. Sad absence of KHAAAAAN!

Twin Peaks: Laura Palmer RIP. David Lynch before “Lynchian” was a word. Madness, 80s style.

When Harry Met Sally: Blah blah Meg Ryan fakes it blah blah. Overrated but enjoyable.

Nathan Southern
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Terry Gilliam, UK/West Germany) – This is the movie that not only made me fall in love with movies, but gave me a glimpse of the visual and conceptual spectrum that movies are capable of realizing – replete with its semi-transparent animated constellations swimming through the heavens, the title character’s majestic ride through the night sky on a cannonball, the lunar ocean that solidifies into sand, and oh, so many other visual wonders. My first exposure to this movie happened a few months shy of my 11th birthday, when my dad and I caught the Baron’s grand exploits for the first time at the Maple 3 Theater in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and both felt completely mesmerized and enthralled – so enthralled that we returned a week or two later with my then-5-year-old brother in tow and caught it a second time. That was the night that I downed a 40 oz. coke and felt so wired that I went out of my mind with insomnia and only got about 10 minutes of sleep before school the next morning. The catch? I’m sure that 95% of that had everything to do with the infectious energy from the movie and nothing to do with the caffeine. Rock on, Terry Gilliam!

sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderbergh, USA)

The Fabulous Baker Boys (Steve Kloves, USA) – I’m ashamed to admit that I missed this one when it bowed in October of 1989… and have regretted it ever since. The movie that introduced wunderkind Steve Kloves to the world (who was only 29 at the time!), it gently mixes character comedy and thoughtful drama. Real-life siblings Jeff and Beau bridges play off of each other with the deftness of old pros – they portray Jack and Frank Baker, a two-piano music act rapidly careening down the tubes, until it gets a boost, and then some, from the arrival of svelte lounge singer Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer). No one writes dialogue with the rhythm or hip bounce of Kloves, and few directors on their first time out could handle subtle emotional changes with the gentle hand of a musician. Jennifer Tilly steals the film as one of the pair’s tryouts when searching for a new act. ##”Who can take a rainbow…?”##

Romero (John Duigan, USA)

Mama, There’s a Man in Your Bed!/Romauld et Juliette (Coline Serreau, France)

Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, USA)

Paperhouse (Bernard Rose, UK) – This gothic, blood-free horror outing creates its own visual mythology onscreen, via fantasies that it conjures up from the fevered imagination of a deeply ill young girl. In the process, it taps into some universal fears of childhood on an almost primal level – including the fear of an abusive and violent father. The images have a haunting clarity and asceticism. It isn’t an accident that the film impacted me more on an emotional level, at 11 years old, than any other movie that year; I still find it powerful, of course, but children will invariably feel more affected by it, perhaps even scarred. Too bad that – with the single exception of Immortal Beloved – Briton Rose (a veteran music video director at the time) never quite lived up to the early promise he showed here.

Jason Buchanan
I’ll leave discussion of the classics and the box-office behemoths to the folks who are truly qualified to discuss such matters, because for me personally the year 1989 was all about purging the neon-drenched excess of the Reagan-era and truly pushing the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable entertainment. It’s a process that may not have always yielded the most aesthetically pleasing results, but an important stepping stone into the 1990s, where filmmakers seemed to be much more comfortable taking risks that may not have been possible in the days of My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite, and the Snorks.

The Death King: In the wake of his highly controversial 1989 chunk-blower Nekromantik, transgressive-minded German filmmaker Jorg Buttgereit nearly ventured into art-house territory with this repulsive, bleak, yet undeniably study in suicide and death. Buttgereit was attempting to do something more with the horror genre than string together an endless series of teenagers getting sliced in half, and even if this isn’t your particular cup of entrails you’ve got to give him credit for trying. Viewers who have skipped their depression medication might consider taking a pass on this one though… it’s quite the bummer.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen: Working at one of the last successful “mom and pop” video stores in the region during the mid-1990s, I’d frequently be approached by frustrated parents in search of something other than the worn out copy of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids that had been viewed so many times the tape – and their sanity – was about to snap. Whenever confronted by such parental malaise, I’d usually recommend Time Bandits (one of my personal childhood favorites). Had the little ones already seen that, I’d go straight to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen as the back-up plan. Almost without fail, the parents would return on my next shift grateful that there were still some hidden gems to be plucked off of those dusty old shelves

The Killer : The first time I attempted to watch John Woo’s seminal action classic, my brain simply wasn’t prepared for such bullet-strewn mayhem and I had to turn it off. A few nights later, my brain had recalibrated itself and I was ready for a second try. By the time the credits began to roll, I had become a card carrying member of the Cult of Woo. In the wake of such embarrassments as Broken Arrow and Windtalkers those memories have been slightly tarnished, though nothing the man can do will ever negate the genius of Woo’s best Honk Kong action flicks. For any viewer who thinks that all Chow Yun Fat can do is action, be sure to check out the same year’s All About Ah-Long for heartbreaking evidence to the contrary… just be sure to have some tissue handy for that final race.

Magic Cop: I still remember that fateful day when a high school friend from Hong Kong handed me a battered VHS tape with Cantonese writing scribbled along the spine and told me to watch and enjoy. I had feeding him a steady diet of cinematic oddities like Evil Dead and Videodrome, and now the time had come for him to return the favor. Simply put, Magic Cop is a highly entertaining horror fantasy that folds the visual inventiveness of early Sam Raimi into a supernaturally-charged action film about a ghost-busting cop who takes on a powerful witch. This was my first encounter with Lam Ching Ying, the distinctive star of such Hong Kong classics as Mr. Vampire and Encounter of the Spooky Kind, and before long I was standing in line at the local Chinese video store eager to see more. Sadly, Lam died of liver cancer at the age of 45, though his cinematic legacy will live on forever and I have him (and an old friend) to thank for helping to nurture my lifelong love of Asian cinema.

Meet the Feebles: Having recently had my mind blown and my exposed brains munched on by a zombie alien sporting a shiny spoon that I believe was swiped from grandma’s fine china collection (read: I watched Bad Taste), I was eager to see what kind of cinematic monstrosity this obscure New Zealand filmmaker named Peter Jackson dream up next. When I heard he was producing a near-pornographic parody of the Muppets, I was absolutely elated. Unfortunately, someone in power didn’t think I needed to see the film, so I was forced to resort to questionable tactics in order to obtain a copy. Meet the Feebles may not be the most accessible or consistently entertaining film Jackson ever directed (in fact, on the contrary, I’d venture to say it’s his worst), but for sheer jaw-dropping audacity this is the be-all-end-all of raunchy puppet flicks.

Mystery Train: I have Jim Jarmusch to thank for my obsession with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (93761), and aside from Perdita Durango this is the film that sports my favorite performance by the “I Put a Spell on You” singer. After watching Mystery Train, I spent most of my high school career coming up with excuses to say “Jiffy Squid?! Turn that damn thing off!” To this day I swear I remember seeing a music video for Happy Mondays’ “Step On” that recreated the scene with the Japanese tourists in their hotel room (the girl smearing on lipstick and making a mess of her boyfriend’s face), but a search of the internets yielded not a singe shred of evidence that such a video ever existed. Did I dream this, or what?

Santa Sangre: Living in a country where El Topo and The Holy Mountain weren’t commercially available until 2007, Santra Sangre was the easiest Alejandro Jodorowski film for me to track down and thus, the first I would see. And as much as I love the psychedelic masterpieces that established Jodorowski as the father of the “Midnight Movie” this hallucinatory trip into insanity still sticks in my brain like a blood-soaked scoop of celluloid peanut butter that just can’t be scraped away. Call it a horror film if you’re the type of moviegoer who needs to classify your entertainment rather than simply allowing it to define itself, but whatever label you slap on Santa Sangre one thing’s for certain – you won’t be shaking it’s vivid imagery from your scarred psyche anytime soon after seeing it.

Squeal of Death: As one of the seven ravenous devotees to the short-lived MTV series The Idiot Box, I was thrilled to see an ad in the back of Film Threat magazine from which I could purchase this notorious student film by former NYU students Alex Winter and Tom Stern. Nearly two decades later, I still own that treasured VHS tape and Squeal of Death (as well as it’s hilarious companion piece “Aisles of Doom”) still cracks me up. Dismiss it as juvenile, short attention span trash if you will, but go ahead and try to deny that this flick was at least a decade ahead of its time and that The Idiot Box didn’t lay the groundwork for virtually every hyper-spastic, pop-culture skewering series that MTV and Comedy Central has to offer these days. Go ahead. Try. Then go watch Saul of the Mole Men.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man: Watching Shin Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man for the very first time, it was plain to see that I was witnessing the birth of an incredible talent behind the camera. It’s truly a mind blowing tale of body horror, and virtually any attempt to describe such a visually kinetic film in words will fail to do it real justice. In the years that followed Tsukamoto would prove himself an incredibly versatile filmmaker capable of turning out commercially viable genre films (Hiruku the Goblin) and deeply challenging mystery dramas (Gemini, A Snake of June) with equal aplomb while simultaneously launching a career as an in-demand onscreen player (Travail, Ichi the Killer).

The Church: In 1987 actor-turned-director Michele Soavi effectively established himself as the future of Italian horror with the supremely entertaining slasher classic Stage Fright. With the release of his moody gothic masterpiece The Church just two year later it seemed that Soavi had developed a visual style almost on par with that of his mentor Dario Argento. Who could have ever guessed that a mere ten years later, in the wake of perhaps his most successful feature film - the heady existential zombie film Dellamorte Dellamorte – one of the horror genre’s most promising talents would virtually disappear from the international film scene altogether? While it was rumored that Soavi disappeared from the film industry to care for his ailing son, he would return to directing with a series of made for television films beginning in 1999 before returning to features with an adaptation of the popular novel Arrivederci amore, ciao in 2006.

Intruder: Yet another would-be 80s horror classic that fell tragic victim to the censor’s shears, director Scott Spiegel’s ultra-gory tale of supermarket slaughter would go virtually unseen in its potent original form until released on DVD by Full Moon in 2005. Not only was Intruder produced by Lawrence Bender (aka the only producer capable of successfully reigning in Quentin Tarantino) but it also features hilarious performances by both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead fame. It’s a hell of a fun flick, and definitely one worth tracking down if you’re an avid gorehound.

Dana Rowader
I was a preteen in 1989, and I have a hard time turning a critical eye on anything I once enjoyed watching countless times on cable, so Ghostbusters 2 and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure are right there on my list along with Dead Poets Society and Glory. I know even those last two are not loved by all, but I cried my eyes out during the moving climaxes of both of those films and remember them fondly. Dead Poets Society solidified my passion for period films, ignited a Robert Sean Leonard obsession, and likely laid the groundwork for an Ethan Hawke crush that didn’t come to full fruition until Reality Bites and Before Sunrise several years later; it’s also in the running for my favorite Robin Williams film, along with Awakenings from the following year. Ghostbusters 2 boasts a fun performance from character actor extraordinaire Peter MacNicol, whom I’d previously watched a many a time in Dragonslayer. And I still love Say Anything…, even if Lloyd Dobler’s antics seem a little stalkery in retrospect — John Cusack created the iconic loner romantic and left me with a soft spot for a man in a trench coat. Lastly, I’ve never seen a Daniel Day-Lewis performance that didn’t impress me, so even though I haven’t had the pleasure of watching My Left Foot, it has an honorary place on my list.

My Favorite Film of 1989:
Dead Poets Society

My other favorites, in no particular order:
Glory
Say Anything…
Heathers
Driving Miss Daisy
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Do the Right Thing
Ghostbusters 2
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Parenthood

Best film of 1989 that I shamefully still haven’t seen:
My Left Foot

Jeremy Wheeler
If anything makes me sweat, it’s the movies of 1989. Not only did that year spawn Tim Burton’s big screen Batman bonanza, but it also saw the unveiling of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2 and Tango & Cash – never mind the whole deep sea triumvirate of The Abyss, Deepstar Six and Leviathan. Whew boy, I need some gel deodorant already! Add onto all of that the true comedy classic stylings of The ‘Burbs, Christmas Vacation, UHF and yes, Weekend at Bernie’s. Seriously, if we could generate power from these suckers, our world would shine brighter than the sun. If all of this wasn’t enough, this was also the year that wild shit cinema busted its chains and unleashed such bananas titles as The Church, Tetsuo: the Iron Man, Men Behind the Sun – and of course, Peter Jackson’s Meet the Feebles – itself an eye rape on the Jim Henson legacy that dares to mix Bugs Bunny, AIDS and horrible puppet puke! And who can forget the straight-to-video gems that continue to astound and amaze to this day, thanks to the sweet sounds and sights attributed to Barbarian Queen 2: The Empress Strikes Back, Deathstalker 3: The Warriors from Hell, C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the C.H.U.D., Lou Ferrigno’s fabulously unhinged performance in Cage, Action USA, Prom Night III, Satan’s Storybook and last but not least, Things – a slice of brain blowing video ineptitude that has forever kept this reviewer from getting past the 15-minute mark. So how good was 1989, you ask? Better than Momma’s homemade apple pie, sez I.

Great Performances: Every single actor associated with The ‘Burbs, from Corey Feldman (”Pizza Dude!”) to Bruce Dern (”Here you are, sonny - a little something for the old sweet tooth.”), they’re all gem mint tens in my book.