Last night: I’m on the other side of the country, but it feels as if this effing fire is coming for me.
A Beatles B-side track, “Ask Me Why” was recorded on 11.26.62. Drummer Ringo Starr had replaced Pete Best three months earlier. “Please Please Me“, the A-side hit, was recorded the same day.
35 years ago, these were the best of the best…no boxoffice considerations…no likey-likey popcorn faves…no “pretty goods but no Cuban cigar”…just the films that shine the strongest and brightest according to HE’s smarthouse standards of 2025.
I’m not saying these are the absolute pick of the litter, but they’re definitely the 1990 films have have stayed in my head.
But before assembling the list, I need to acknowledge upfront that I don’t even remember (a) Karel Reisz and Arthur Miller‘s Everybody Wins, (b) Curtis Hanson‘s Bad Influence, (c) John Boorman‘s Where The Heart Is, (d) Uli Edel‘s Last Exit to Brooklyn or (e) Lawrence Kasdan‘s I Love You to Death. I don’t recall a single scene or line or standout performance from any of these…nothing.
I haven’t listed my 25 picks in order of preference. I’ve just dropped them in by release date.
1. Tony Scott‘s Revenge.
2. George Armitage‘s Miami Blues.
3. John McNaughton‘s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
4. Mike Figgis‘s Internal Affairs.
5. Ron Underwood‘s Tremors.
6. Alan Rudolph‘s Love at Large.
7. Sidney Lumet‘s Q & A.
8. James Toback‘s The Big Bang.
9. Norman René and Craig Lucas‘s Longtime Companion.
10. Denys Arcand‘s Jesus of Montreal.
11. Warren Beatty‘s Dick Tracy.
12. Whit Stillman‘s Metropolitan.
13. Roger Spottiswode‘s Air America.
14. Allan Moyle‘s Pump Up The Volume.
15. Mike Nichols‘ Postcards From The Edge.
16. Martin Scorsese‘s Goodfellas.
17. Abel Ferrara‘s King of New York.
!8. Barry Levinson‘s Avalon.
19. Joel and Ethan Coen‘s Miller’s Crossing.
20. Barbet Schroeder‘s Reversal of Fortune.
21. Kevin Costner‘s Dances With Wolves.
22. Stephen Frears‘ The Grifters.
23. Bernardo Bertolucci‘s The Sheltering Sky.
24. Ivan Reitman‘s Kindergarten Cop.
25. Woody Allen‘s Alice.
What to do, say or think when a raging super-fire strikes like Godzilla, destroying hundreds of homes and displacing untold thousands and just spreading horror all over?
The thing that’s sticking in my mind right now is that Moonshadows Malibu has been destroyed. I visited Moonshadows five years ago and didn’t have many nice things to say, granted, but right now I feel very badly for everyone and anyone who ever worked there or had a few good times there…anyone who’s gotten drunk there (including Mel Gibson)…anyone carrying around any kind of good-vibe association with the place.
What’s happening right now is horrific.
More sanity from the SAG nominations! The selection of certain Golden Globe winners were, I feel, deranged, in no small part because they ignored Anora and they over-awarded The Brutalist…eff those Penske-selected international journalists…ignore these chumps.
The five nominees for the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award — SAG’s equivalent of a Best Picture trophy — are A Complete Unkown, Anora, Conclave, Emilia Perez (if SAG voters were to ignore Perez they’d be accused of transphobia so I understand) and Wicked. In short, SAG voters have gloriously blown off The Brutalist…yes!!!…oh, yes!!! Also blown off: Dune: Part Two, The Substance, Babygirl, A Real Pain, Sing Sing…sorry for Babygirl.
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role: The Brutalist‘s Adrien Brody (please, God…not again!), A Complete Unknown‘s Timothee Chalamet (HE’s chosen courduroy prince!), Queer‘s Daniel Craig (superb, emotionally vulnerable, rock-solid performance!), Sing Sing‘s Colman Domingo (not happpening, bruh…you’ve been nominated because SAG voters are cautiously playing their DEI cards, but mainly because nobody saw Sing Sing…nobody!), and Conclave‘s
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role: Anora‘s Mikey Madison gave a searing, vulnerable, guns-blazing, ball-of-fire hellion performance…vote her in! Mikey’s competition is The Substance‘s Demi Moore (she had her big moment at the Golden Globes last Sunday…that’ll suffice), Wicked‘s Cynthia Erivo (too green, too pixie-sized, too bald plus those eight-inch-long fingernaile), Emilia Perez‘s Karla Sofia Gascon (somebody tell Netflix marketers that identity campaigns are yesterday’s news), and The Last Showgirl‘s Pamela Anderson (nominated because she isn’t wearing any makeup these days).
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: A Real Pain‘s Kieran Culkin will probably win again, but HE’s two favorite sons are Anora‘s Yura Borisov and The Apprentice‘s Jeremy Strong. I also loved Edward Norton‘s Pete Seeger in A Complete Unknown. HE to Wicked‘s Jonathan Bailey: Not happenin’, man…sorry.
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: SAG voters need to punish Emilia Perez‘s Zoe Saldana for crying too much and going on too long during her Golden Globe acceptance speech last weekend. HE supports A Complegte Unknown‘s Monica Barbaro (i.e., Joan Baez). Forget Wicked‘s Ariana Grande (too tiny), The Piano Lesson‘s Danielle Deadwyler (sorehead) and The Last Showgirl‘s Jamie Lee Curtis (not a chance).
A semblance of sanity (and therefore an aesthetic challenge to last Sunday’s Golden Globe awards) was conveyed by today’s DGA nominations for the feature film directing award — Sean Baker for Anora (whoo-hoo!), James Mangold for A Complete Unknown (yeaaahhh!), Edward Berger for Conclave (yowsah!), Brady Corbet for The Brutalist (baaahhh!) and Jacques Audiard for the overpraised Emilia Perez.
So who got stiffed? Who got the shaft? The Substance‘s Coralie Fargeat, Wicked‘s Jon M. Chiu, A Real Pain‘s Jesse Eisenberg, The Apprentice‘s Ali Abbasi, Dune: Part Two‘s Denis Villeneuve, Babygirl‘s Halina Reijn.
The 77th Annual DGA Awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, February 8.