Mike’s Top Ten of 1986
If 1985 was peak 80s, this is more… how best to explain it… if we hit the pinnacle last year, then this is where everything starts to splinter off and go into its own little niche. This is where all the weird little strands start to appear as the decade winds down. I feel like the next three years are where you start to see the “80s”-ness dilute out of movies and you start to see the growing 90s independent film style start to creep up
But, while we’re still in the 80s, I think the main thing I get out of this year are the great comedies. Other than that, it’s mainly childhood staples, genre staples and weird or interesting movies by big filmmakers. That’s what it feels like.
Mostly, though. It’s the comedies. #1 and #2 on this list are unequivocally two of my absolute favorite movies of all time. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Picture – 1986
1986 is a breath of fresh air in the hell hole that is the 80s. Platoon is one of the sole good decisions the Academy made in the 80s.
Oliver Stone won Best Director for the film (talked about here), which was a great decision. Best Actor was Paul Newman for The Color of Money (talked about here), which was twenty-five years overdue. Best Actress was Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God (talked about here), which was really the only decision in the category (no, not Sigourney Weaver). Good choice. Best Supporting Actor was Michael Caine in Hannah and Her Sisters (talked about here), and Dianne Wiest also won Best Supporting Actress for the film (talked about here). I don’t particularly like either decision. The Wiest one — okay, category was weak, so it’s okay. The Caine one — sure he deserved one, but Tom Berenger and Dennis Hopper were so damn good this year. So — don’t like it.
But, overall — good year. I like it a lot. Amazing what a good decision can do to a category (because this one is not good).
BEST PICTURE – 1986
And the nominees were…
Children of a Lesser God (Paramount)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Orion)
The Mission (Warner Bros.)
Platoon (Orion)
A Room With a View (Cinecom) (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Director – 1986
1986. One of the lone brights spots in the black hole that is the 1980s. God, I fucking hate this decade.
Platoon wins Best Picture and this category. Paul Newman (finally!) wins Best Actor for The Color of Money (talked about here). Marlee Matlin wins Best Actress for Children of a Lesser God (talked about here). Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest win Best Supporting Actor (talked about here) and Best Supporting Actress (talked about here), respectively, for Hannah and Her Sisters. I like all the decisions except the Supporting ones. But even those I’m somewhat okay with.
As for this category — really obvious. Best decision in the category. I understand a David Lynch vote, but all things considered, the simple result in itself is very acceptable. And that’s what counts, really.
BEST DIRECTOR – 1986
And the nominees were…
Woody Allen, Hannah and Her Sisters
James Ivory, A Room with a View
Roland Joffé, The Mission
David Lynch, Blue Velvet
Oliver Stone, Platoon (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actress – 1986
1986 is like a buoy to me. It’s what keeps me afloat in the vast sea of shit that is the Academy Awards in the 80s. Almost all the Best Picture choices from the decade were either bad (Ordinary People, Chariots of Fire, Out of Africa, Driving Miss Daisy), boring (Gandhi, The Last Emperor), or good, but a little on the weak side as Best Picture choices (Terms of Endearment, Rain Man). Only Amadeus and Platoon (which won Best Picture this year), are the lone strong choices of the 80s. And I’m glad, because they’re what keep me from disowning the decade completely.
Platoon also won Best Director for Oliver Stone, which — of course that was gonna happen. Talk about Blue Velvet all you want, but, you know why that didn’t win. There is no way you can’t understand the Academy going the way they did there. Paul Newman finally wins his 25-years overdue (though, for my money, 28 years) Best Actor Oscar for The Color of Money, which, as I said here, is a perfect decision and oddly fitting as well, given that he should have won it the first time he played that character. Best Actress was Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God (talked about here), which I love as a decision, since I really can’t buy into Sigourney Weaver winning for Aliens.
Best Supporting Actor was Michael Caine for Hannah and Her Sisters (talked about here), and that, along with this category, are really the only two weak links I find for 1986. And since they’re the least of the major categories, it’s really not that bad.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – 1986
And the nominees were…
Tess Harper, Crimes of the Heart
Piper Laurie, Children of a Lesser God
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, The Color of Money
Maggie Smith, A Room with a View
Diane Wiest, Hannah and Her Sisters (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actress – 1986
Love me some 1986. Actually, wait, I just said that without thinking about it? Do I? …Platoon, Best Picture, Best Director for Oliver Stone. Check. Best Actor for Paul Newman for The Color of Money (talked about here), this category. All likes a lot so far. Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress for Michael Caine (talked about here) and Dianne Wiest in Hannah and Her Sisters. Well — they can’t all be winners. But still, 4 out of 6, so, sure, I love me some 1986.
Oh, and hey, look at that — we took care of the recap there too. Don’t you love how I can change it up while pretending it’s all just random? (It was totally random.) Don’t you also love how I can save space by saying things briefly and then fucking it up by continuing to talk for absolutely no reason?
Anyway, let’s get to the category… (Big time sound effect!)
BEST ACTRESS – 1986
And the nominees were…
Jane Fonda, The Morning After
Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God
Sissy Spacek, Crimes of the Heart
Kathleen Turner, Peggy Sue Got Married
Sigourney Weaver, Aliens (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1986
I love this category. Why? Because it’s strong enough to not suck and weak enough to where what had to happen could happen and not seem like it upset anything. Because Paul Newman had to win this year. There was no other option. And, because the category is the way it is, not only is it a great decision, nothing was upset by it.
As for the rest of 1986, the Academy surprisingly made almost all great decisions. It remains one of the few bright spots of the black hole that is the 80s. (I fucking hate the 80s when it comes to Oscars. And movies too. I think it was a really shitty decade for movies.) Platoon wins Best Picture and Best Director for Oliver Stone, both of which were by far the best decisions they could have made in those categories (with all due respect to David Lynch). Then Best Actress was Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God, which I like a lot as a decision (mostly because, were they actually gonna vote for Sigourney Weaver for Aliens? Really?). Then Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress were Michael Caine (talked about here) and Dianne Wiest for Hannah and Her Sisters. I respect both actors, but I don’t particularly like either decision. But, really, the Supporting categories don’t make a year, so overall I consider this year a success.
Now, let me take a brief second to point out how badly the Academy needed to make this one up. Paul Newman was nominated for seven Oscars before he won here (and they gave him a career achievement Oscar the year before this, because they realized they’d fucked up), for these films: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Rachel, Rachel (though that one was for Best Picture), Absence of Malice and The Verdict. He should have won, probably three times out of those. Him not winning here would have been like Martin Scorsese not winning for The Departed. Throats would have been cut. (Or, torn out — Swayze style.)
BEST ACTOR – 1986
And the nominees were…
Dexter Gordon, Round Midnight
Bob Hoskins, Mona Lisa
William Hurt, Children of a Lesser God
Paul Newman, The Color of Money
James Woods, Salvador (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Supporting Actor – 1986
1986 is, well, the year of Platoon. I don’t really know how to feel about this year because, while I like Platoon, I like The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now more. And for some reason that taints my feeling of Platoon in a stand-alone Oscar year. I don’t really get it either.
Platoon wins Best Picture and Best Director for Oliver Stone. There wasn’t really a better choice to be made there, so I guess that makes it good. I mean, Children of a Lesser God is great, but — not Platoon. And Paul Newman finally wins his Best Actor for The Color of Money, playing the same character he should have won the Oscar for playing 25 years earlier in The Hustler. Marlee Matlin wins Best Actress for Children of a Lesser God, which is a great decision (because while Kathleen Turner and Sigourney Weaver were great, they were in Peggy Sue Got Married and Aliens. Did you really think they were gonna win Best Actress for those films?) And Best Supporting Actress was Dianne Wiest for Hannah and Her Sisters, because, well, there wasn’t really another choice (though naturally, I’d have gone another way).
So, I guess, in all, 1986 is a fine year. No real terrible decision to be made. Actually, I guess that would make it a good year. Wouldn’t it?
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – 1986
And the nominees were…
Tom Berenger, Platoon
Michael Caine, Hannah and Her Sisters
Willem Dafoe, Platoon
Denholm Elliott, A Room with a View
Dennis Hopper, Hoosiers (more…)
B+ Movie Blog 