Top Ten of 1987

A difficult top ten to make, but here we finally are! In alphabetical order, here were my favorites of the 71 films I screened for the 1987 retrospective.

La Bamba

dir/scr: Luis Valdez

pr: Bill Borden, Taylor Hackford

cin: Adam Greenberg

A biopic of the short-lived teenage singer Ritchie Valens, La Bamba surprises with the equal weight and focus it puts on his whole family: Esai Morales as ne'er-do-well brother Bob, Rosanna De Soto as loving and shrewd momager Connie, and Elizabeth Peña as Bob's baby-momma Rosie. I love the way the film handles cultural identity - Ritchie doesn't speak Spanish and has never been south of the border, but he's still classified as a Mexican...even though his label has him change his name from Valenzuela to something more mass-palatable! Mind, that's just one part as experienced by Ritchie; it's through Bob's experiences that we see the vicious cycle that both keeps Mexican-Americans down and vilifies them for not "trying harder". A keenly-observed, intelligent film, politically and musically. And if you don't fall in crush with Lou Diamond Phillips here, I don't understand you, and I'm not sure I want to.

Broadcast News

dir/scr/pr: James L. Brooks 

cin: Michael Ballhaus

I've written quite a bit about what Broadcast News means to me personally, as well its strengths as a movie in general. So it should be no surprise that it winds up here on my Top Ten. It's great!

The remaining eight after the jump...

The 1987 Retro Hollmann Awards Nominations

After 71 movies over a month and a half, I am proud to present the 1987 Retro Hollmann Awards! Eighteen categories, in order of how I figured them out, beginning with:

Best Actress

Jennifer Grey as Baby Houseman

Dirty Dancing

Holly Hunter as Jane Craig

Broadcast News

Sarah Miles as Grace Rohan

Hope and Glory

Nobuko Miyamoto as Tampopo

Tampopo

Maggie Smith as Judith Hearne

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

The remaining 17 categories, after the jump......

The Writing Awards, 1987

The Writing Awards! It's late, we're doing eight films in two categories, there's much to get into, let's just do the Oscars clip...

And start with Best Adapted Screenplay after the jump....

Reviews of '87: Everything But...

The following films were all nominated for Academy Awards - and won nothing. HOWEVER! They did win other awards, like a BAFTA or a critics' award, and I have noted those wins in each entry.

Empire of the Sun

dir: Steven Spielberg

scr: Tom Stoppard, based on the novel by J.G. Ballard

Oscar Nominee: Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound

Award Winner: BAFTA Award for Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Sound; National Board of Review for Best Film, Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Outstanding Juvenile Performance (Christian Bale)

Experiences of an English boy in China during Japanese occupation. Stands alongside the great epics. Large-scale evacuation of Shanghai, playful run through the POW camp, dreamlike tour of the abandoned stadium, wrenching "I can save everyone!" moment among Spielberg's greatest achievements.

Eleven more, after the jump...