A Mythical Monkey writes about the movies: 1986

Showing posts with label 1986. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Rob Reiner (1947-2025)

I've written about Rob Reiner before (most recently here). He directed a run of classic movies from 1984 to 1992 that wasn't just the best of his day but rivaled similar runs by all-time greats Buster Keaton, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder.

In case you've forgotten, I'll repeat the list: This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery and A Few Good Men.

In the course of that run, he made stars of River Phoenix, Meg Ryan and Kathy Bates (who won an Oscar as James Caan's biggest fan); turned the mockumentary up to eleven, establishing a beloved comedy genre in the process; gave us Jack Nicholson's best known catchphrase ("You can't handle the truth!"); and most importantly, taught women everywhere how to fake an orgasm (Oh, no, sorry — I've just been informed they've been doing that since the beginning of time).

Throw in The Sure Thing (1985), a very funny screwball rom-com that put John Cusack on the map, and you can say Reiner's movies helped shape everything that came after.

The son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, he was also a very good comedic actor in his own right. On the groundbreaking comedy All in the Family, his performance as Mike Stivic — a.k.a. the earnest, sometimes misguided but always funny "Meathead" — twice earned him a Primetime Emmy.

Maybe of more significance, Reiner, with his comic foil Archie Bunker (the great Carroll O'Connor), helped left-wing and right-wing America carry on a conversation at a particularly fraught moment in our history.

If only there were such a cultural meeting place these days! But alas, times change and we're lucky now if we can agree on the day of the week much less things that matter.

Finally, on a personal note, Rob Reiner taught me how to put on my shoes — one foot at a time, of course, not like the rest of you animals, with your sock and a sock and a shoe and a shoe.

Saw that as a kid fifty-plus years ago and I've been walking in Rob Reiner's footsteps, so to speak, ever since.

For that, and for all those movies I still watch and love, thank you, Mr. Reiner. You will be missed.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

1986 Alternate Oscars

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program ...

I had Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters down as the best picture of the year pretty much from the day I first saw it thirty-eight years ago. But now I'm not so sure. It's still a pretty good movie with great performances by Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest, and I think of one line — "I don't sell my art by the yard!" — every time I walk into an art gallery and cough up for another painting.

But, well, it just doesn't stick to my ribs the way it used to. Times change. Tastes change.

You're still free to vote for it, of course.

Me, I'm going with A Room with a View, a romantic-comedy about stuffy Brits who fall in love during a vacation in Florence, Italy. Katie-bar-the-door and I saw it during a vacation in, yes, Florence, Italy, at the Cinema Astro across the street from the best gelato joint in town. Fun times. Good movie.

But as always, the final choice is yours.

Best Picture of 1986

Best Actor of 1986

Best Actress of 1986

Best Director of 1986

Best Supporting Actor of 1986

Best Supporting Actress of 1986

Special Award
My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

Sunday, May 26, 2019

1986 Alternate Oscars

Best Picture of 1986

Best Actor of 1986

Best Actress of 1986

Best Director of 1986

Best Supporting Actor of 1986

Best Supporting Actress of 1986

Special Award
My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔.

I think you know how much I love Paul Newman. I've nominated him for seven alternate Oscars — a ton in my universe — and had him winning for The Hustler in 1961. But even at the time, I felt like the Academy gave him the Oscar for The Color of Money to make up for nearly three decades worth of snubs rather than because it was a stand-out performance. I mean, personally, I wouldn't put it in his top ten. So I'm skipping over him so I can recognize some other fine actors who gave more dynamic performances in 1986.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

The Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (1986)

I saw Ferris Bueller's Day Off in 1986 along with everybody else, and thought it was very funny. And then I didn't see it again for twenty-five years. I figured a comedy about a rebellious high school student wouldn't resonate much in my middle aged brain. Boy, was I wrong. It's actually a very mature film with lessons that apply no matter what your age.

And it's still very funny.

1986 was a big year for writer-director John Hughes who had hits with both Bueller and Pretty in Pink. The latter features a fine performance by Molly Ringwald just before gravity plucked her career off the end of a table, but is otherwise marred by the casting choice of Jon Cryer as the boy who pines for her. The screenplay originally had Ringwald rejecting rich pretty boy Andrew McCarthy in favor of the true blue Cryer, but as you might expect, test audiences barfed and Hughes rewrote the final scene.

Cryer went on to an award-winning career playing Charlie Sheen's hapless little brother on Two and a Half Men; Hughes recycled the original ending (with the genders flipped) in Some Kind of Wonderful.

PICTURE (Drama)
winner: Platoon (prod. Arnold Kopelson)

PICTURE (Comedy/Musical)
winner: Hannah And Her Sisters (prod. Robert Greenhut)

PICTURE (Foreign Language)
winner: Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources (Manon of the Spring) (prod. Pierre Grunstein and Alain Poiré)