In 1990,
The first McDonald’s opened in Moscow;
Nelson Mandela was released from prison after twenty seven years confinement;
Namibia, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia became independent nations;
East and West Germany reunified;
The Hubble Space Telescope launched;
The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of diseases;
Iraq invaded Kuwait;
Tim Berners-Lee started work on the World Wide Web;
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was released in Japan;
Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom;
Liam Hemsworth, Logic, Klay Thompson, Robert Griffin III, The Weeknd, Draymond Green, Hozier, Kristen Stewart, Emma Watson, Britt Robertson, Machine Gun Kelley, Dev Patel, Chris Colfer, Phillipa Soo, Iggy Azalea, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Margot Robbie, Patrick Peterson, Caroline Wozniacki, Rachel Brosnahan, Damien Lillard, Soulja Boy, Jack O’Connell, Bill Skarsgård, Demarcus Cousins, Jennifer Lawrence, Bo Burnham, Elizabeth Debicki, John Wall, Ricky Rubio, SZA, Sarah Hyland, Rita Ora, and Magnus Carlsen were born;
While Alan Hale Jr., Arthur Kennedy, Bronco Nagurski, Terry-Thomas, Barbara Stanwyck, Ava Gardner, Del Shannon, Michael Powell, Capucine, Ryan White, Ralph Abernathy, Paulette Goddard, Dexter Gordon, Walker Percy, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Rocky Graziano, Vic Tayback, Rex Harrison, Jack Gilford, Pearl Bailey, B.F. Skinner, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Irene Dunne, Tom Fogerty Leonard Bernstein, Joel McCrea, Xavier Cugat, Jacques Demy, Mary Martin, Martin Ritt, and Anne Revere died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 1990:
Despite his own love for her, Cyrano de Begerac, an unattractive man with a huge nose, helps a dimwitted friend, Christian, woo the beautiful Roxanne.
When Christian is mortally wounded in battle, Cyrano comforts him by telling him Roxanne really loved him, and faithfully keeps their secret from her until his own death.
Jose Ferrer won an Oscar for playing Cyrano in 1950, and Steve Martin memorably played the role in Roxanne (1987), but Depardieu transforms the character into a complex, Shakespearean character in the film which brought him to American audiences.
The movie is pedestrian until the final twenty minutes when Depardieu’s transcendent performance elevates what could have been weepy, self-indulgent claptrap into something poignant and sublime.
9) Ghost
Banker Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) lives a happy life with his girlfriend Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) until he uncovers a financial discrepancy and alerts his friend Carl (Tony Goldwyn) who has Sam killed to protect his money laundering operation. After his death, Sam’s ghost protects a grieving Molly while solving his own murder. This iconic love story is the highlight of Swayze’s and Moore’s respective careers and Whoopi Goldberg’s tour de force performance as reluctant psychic Oda Mae Brown rightfully earned her an Oscar.
The pottery scene has entered into the popular culture pantheon, ensuring The Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” will live on for generations, and I love the late Vincent Schiavelli’s performance as a wayward subway ghost who mentors Sam.
Oddly, several male stars of the film suffered early, horrible fates. Swayze and Schiavelli both died at 57 from cancer and Rick Aviles who played the villainous Willie Lopez (the hitman who killed Sam) died of complications of AIDS at 42.
This gripping, moving, and (thanks to Goldberg) funny tale shows director Jerry Zucker was capable of more than slapstick comedy.
8) Awakenings
Dr. Sayer (Robin Williams) experiments with L-Dopa on catatonic patients, causing them to suddenly awaken. The elated doctor develops a strong bond with the first awakened patient Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro), but the effects prove short lived and, one by one, each of the revitalized patients revert to their catatonia.
During his short revival, Leonard begins a romance with Paula (Penelope Ann Miller) and fights against draconian hospital restrictions. His spirited approach to the extra time he’s given inspires Dr. Sayer to reexamine his own life.
Based on the memoirs of Dr. Oliver Sacks, great central performances from Williams and De Niro anchor this Penny Marshall helmed which urges viewers to take advantage of the marvelous gift of life.
7) Misery
After an accident, romance novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) awakens in the home of his self proclaimed number one fan, Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). When Annie reads Paul’s latest book and discovers he’s killed Misery, the heroine of his most popular series, she forces him to write a sequel where he brings the character back from the dead.
The psychological battle between Paul and Annie is epic, and the infamous scene where Annie intentionally breaks Paul’s ankles with a sledgehammer has been much referenced in popular culture.
Richard Farnsworth is effective as a kind hearted country sheriff and his sudden murder by Annie jolts the movie into a terrifying direction. Frances Sternhagen’s distinctive New England voice is always delightful and Lauren Bacall is fun in a small role as Paul’s agent.
Director Rob Reiner is no stranger to Stephen King adaptations, having previously directed Stand by Me; the combination proved just as successful this time. Here Reiner turned to another previous collaborator, screenwriter William Goldman who earlier adapted his novel The Princess Bride (Reiner’s most enduring work). Their working relationship once again proved fruitful.
James Caan is serviceable, but this movie lives or dies with Kathy Bates career defining performance. Regardless of whatever else she does in her career, the first line of Bates’ obituary will mention her work here (a remarkable testament to the film’s impact).
Ken Burns’s long form documentary about the American Civil War established his reputation as a preeminent film documentarian.
His films manage to be both accessible and intellectual, a far too challenging tightrope for most aspiring filmmakers.
This important piece of historicism abounds in lessons about our country’s original sin and forms an instructive lens to our current political climate.
5) Back to the Future Part III
The finale of the Back to the Future trilogy unexpectedly morphs into a western and stakes a claim as one of the first steam punk films.
In the film’s opening, set in 1955, 1985 Doc is accidentally sent back to 1885 by a lightning strike. This Doc left the Delorean in an abandoned mine and sent instructions via Western Union to be delivered to 1985 Marty exactly seventy years later. 1985 Marty chases down 1955 Doc Brown who just helped a slightly earlier version of 1985 Marty go back to the future.
1955 Doc helps the second 1985 Marty to get back to his present, but when they discover 1885 Doc was murdered by Biff Tannen’s ancestor, they send 1985 Marty back to 1885 to warn 1985 Doc about his 1885 death.
It sounds terribly convoluted (all time travel films are), but once they get to the western, the movie is a delightful yarn with numerous satisfying moments: Marty and Doc take a picture in front of the still under construction clock tower; Marty uses Clint Eastwood as his alias; Doc rescues and falls in love with an ill fated schoolteacher (newcomer Mary Steenburgen); Marty and Doc rob a train.
It’s a wonderful capper to a seminal series. I loved the movie then and I love it just as much 30 years later.
When Avon salesman Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) discovers Edward, (Johnny Depp) the final creation of The Inventor (Vincent Price), living alone in an abandoned mansion, she pities him and takes him to live with her family.
Edward falls in love with Peg’s daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder), but their relationship is complicated by her jealous boyfriend, a sexually aggressive neighbor, and Edward’s lack of hands.
The Inventor died before he could finish Edward, leaving him with scissors instead of hands, and, as a result, he’s great at ice sculpting, cutting bushes, and styling hair, but pretty lousy at holding things.
With the possible exception of his work as Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, this, the first of Depp’s countless collaborations with Tim Burton, is the best thing he’s ever done. They’ve become so intertwined in the public consciousness, it’s easy to see Depp, and therefore Edward, as a proxy for Burton’s own feelings of isolation and loneliness.
One of the things which makes this film memorable is the obvious, genuine chemistry between Depp and Ryder. It should shock no one to learn they dated following the completion of the film and were briefly engaged.
Alan Arkin and Diane Wiest are fantastic as Edward’s adopted parents and may be the best, and most authentic representation, of parenthood in any Burton film.
Despite a fifty two year career, this is Vincent Price’s legacy. His earlier work will fade away, but his late performances (playing, essentially, an exaggerated version of himself) in this and his contribution to Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983) will blaze brightly for years to come.
This was the first of Tim Burton’s films to merge his unique vision with a universally relatable story. It’s much easier to identify with the socially awkward, self-conscious teenager in Edward Scissorhands than the overgrown man-child in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), or the mischievous ghost in Beetlejuice (1988), or the billionaire crime fighter in Batman (1989).
Actress Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep) reluctantly moves in with her mother, Doris Mann (Shirley MacLaine), a star of musical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s, because studio executives demand she stay with a responsible party when she returns to work following a stint in a drug rehabilitation center.
Meryl Streep is very funny as the conflicted Suzanne, but she’s not as good as her costar Shirley MacLaine.
Suffering from the same fate as many older actresses, MacLaine’s star has faded as she’s aged, but this film reminds us: when given quality material, she’s a more than capable actress. Doris is torn in a million pieces: she wants to be a good mother, but she’s jealous of her daughter’s success; she’s nostalgic for the days when she was a big star, but doesn’t want to admit those days have passed.
I’m a sucker for an energetic musical number and this film delivers, in a scene which more or less encapsulates the whole movie.
Mike Nichols was a powerhouse director of famed Broadway musicals, including the original productions of Annie and Spamalot, and an accomplished film director, including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Graduate (1967), The Birdcage (1996), and Closer (2004). Unusual among big name directors, he seemed content to let his work speak for itself, rarely going out of his way to seek the limelight.
In addition to Streep and MacLaine, this film features Dennis Quaid as a philandering producer, Gene Hackman as a kind director, Richard Dreyfuss as a doctor who takes an interest in Suzanne, and Annette Benning as a small time actress.
Streep and MacLaine are very good, but the movie is special because of its backstory. Carrie Fisher (of Princess Leia fame), wrote the novel on which the film was based and the screenplay for this film adaptation. It’s easy to see the relationship between Suzanne and Doris as a stand in for the relationship between Fisher and her famous mother, Debbie Reynolds.
This film skillfully combines a biting Hollywood satire, a touching movie about family jealousies, and a juicy tell-all memoir.
2) Close-Up
When Hossan Sabzian met another fan of filmmaker Mohsen Makmalbaf, he lied, claiming he was the famous director. This lie predictably spiraled out of control until Sabzian was exposed as a fraud and arrested.
When Abbas Kiarostami heard the story of Sabzian, he immediately started working on a film about the obsessive liar. He filmed his trial and worked with Sabzian and the family he defrauded to recreate the events from their recent past. He even arranged for Makmalbaf to meet his impostor.
When we read a novel, we’re incapable of forgetting the book in our hands, but because we passively watch films, the experience transcends its medium and we identify with the characters on the screen in a way we otherwise would not. Kiarostami’s early work often explored this tension between reality and the fictional constructs used to represent it, and this film forces awareness of the artificiality of the cinematic experience.
Because Sabzian is portraying himself, we leave the film feeling as if we know the actual man when we really only know a partial image of someone else’s construction of who he might be. This film reminds us while there is a real Sabzian, Makhamlbaf, and Kiarostami, we are unable to accurately experience them; the best we can do is approximate who they are.
1) Dreams
Nearing the end of his life, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reflects on his childhood and finds inspiration for several beautiful vignettes.
After a child stumbles upon a fox wedding during a sunshower, his furious mother demands he apologize.
Their surviving commander orders the ghosts of Japanese soldiers returning from the second World War come to terms with their demise, while he struggles with his own culpability.
Vincent Van Gogh (Martin Scorsese) travels though his paintings and expounds on the philosophical and aesthetic reasons behind them.
In two different segments Kurosawa touches on the anxiety of the nuclear age, particularly in Japan where the first atomic bomb was detonated.
The film closes with a beautiful rumination on the advantages / disadvantages of modernity.
Kurosawa unleashes his fertile mind in this whimsical, lyrical, magical fable: a fitting capper to the career of one of the titans of twentieth century cinema, who exposed the western world to many eastern ideas, including samurai and Japanese moral codes.