best film: I have David Cronenberg as the 31st best director of all-time and dead ringers is his best film. This ranking for cronenberg puts him above Spielberg, Rossellini, Wilder and Bresson. That should give this film some perspective. Cronenberg’s modern day jekyll and hyde comes complete with ego, drug use and twin synergy driving the Mantle twins (both played by Jeremy Irons) towards the body horror themes running throughout cronenberg’s oeuvre. It’s more polished and beautiful than videodrome and when you combine those two films with scanners and the fly you have perhaps the greatest filmmaker on the planet in 1988 and the best single film to be released since David Lynch’s blue velvet in October of 1986.
most underrated: Robert Zemeckis’ who framed roger rabbit is a wildly entertainingly technical marvel. It’s also a superbly crafted narrative as well. It works as a murder mystery and comedy and has a strong lead performance from Bob Hoskins. Somehow the film can’t land a spot on the TSPDT top 1000 and that’s a shame. Of course it’s not the first film to utilize live actors with animation (I’m not sure of others but I know gene Kelly was dancing with jerry in anchors aweigh in 1944) but not to this level. After coming on the scene taking nearly directly from Spielberg (his romancing the stone in 1984 borrow so heavily from raiders of the lost ark) his work here in 1988 and back to the future in 1985 put him on the map as one of the better directors of the era and certainly, along with Cameron and a few others, proof that the post-Spielberg and post-Lucas world of hollywood was not all in for naught.
most overrated I’ve only seen Cinema Paradiso once so it’s not shocking that I’m much lower than the consensus TSPDT #292. I found it to be irresistible for lovers of film and certainly sentimental- but not sure it has the artistic brilliance to warrant a ranking in the top 300.
gem I want to spotlight: Terrence Davies’ debut feature after three short films is a stunner. Distant voices, still lives is both authentic and beautiful. Davies has such a skill for décor. Nostalgia and hard-hitting realism come hand in hand in a film nearly wall to wall with characters singing pub songs. It’s poetic and poignant and a stunning first film from a new voice in British and world cinema.
trends and notables: 1988 has a Masterpiece (1987 doesn’t have one) but I only feel really strongly about 6 films that make up my top 10. I love dangerous liaisons, pelle, and big but if they make your top 10 it probably isn’t a dominant year. It’s a strong year for director’s firsts, particularly in the UK, with both Terrence Davies (distant voices, still lives) and Mike Leigh (high hopes) getting their first films into the archives. Tarkvosky’s lineage is picked up by Bela Tarr here in 1988 who made damnation- his first archiveable film. Tim Burton also made his maiden voyage into the archives with beetlejurice—certainly a great blend of expressionism and Hollywood filmmaking. For actors we’d have Tom Hanks’ arrival in Penny Marshall’s big. It’s a star-making role. Bruce Willis would probably become an even bigger star in 1988 with die hard– his first archivable film. It would be another 8 years before he’d be in breaking the waves but Stellan Skarsgård gets his first archhivable film in
philip kaufman’s the unbearable lightness of being. Wynona Ryder gets her start in beetlejuirce and uma Thurman has two films that break her into the archives (dangerous liaisons and the adventures of baron munchausen). They are both extremely young but would go on to become some of the bigger actresses in the early 90’s. It’ll go into it a little more below but it’s worth again mentioning the run Glen Close is on—she continues it in ’88 with dangerous liaisons. One of her co-stars, Michelle Pfieffer has a big 1988 with both liasons and demme’s married to the mob. He’s close but not quite worthy of a mention below- but willem dafoe is great in two solid films in 1988 both alan parker’s Mississippi burning and scorsese’s last temptation of Christ. They had their archiveable debuts earlier in the decade but 1988 is a more resounding announcement of their talent and staying power as auteurs for both Pedro Almodovar (women on the verge of a nervous breakdown) and Miyazaki with my neighbor totoro.
best performance male: It’s a very strong year here in this category. As magnetic as bruce willis is in die hard he’s my runner up to Jeremy Iron’s tour-de-force as the intricate mantle twins in dead ringers. Tom Hanks is a joy to watch in big and few performances can pull at your heart strings like max von sydow in pelle the conquerer so both are getting mentions here. I also think John Malkovich’s performance in dangerous liasons is worthy of high praise as is Tom Cruise in rain main. Hoffman won the oscar for rain main but cruise’s performance is more difficult and I think it’s the greater achievement.
best performance female: It’s a very strong year here as well. I have five strong performances worthy of a mention. This time I’m going for the impeachable Glen Close in dangerous liaisons as my female performance of the year. This is Close’s 3rd time as a best female performance mention since 1984. What a run and talk about back to back years playing all-time great villains. Carmen Maura is wonderful in women on the verge—she won the best actress at the euro film awards and is just the first of many almodovar muses to get mentioned or praised in this category. Susan Sarandon is mesmerizing in bull durham. Jodie Foster in the accused gives an unforgettable performance. Lastly, Melanie Griffith’s soft spoken Tess McGill is a brilliant character well brought to life by Griffith in Mike Nichols’ working girl.
top 10
- Dead Ringers
- Distant Voices, Still Lives
- Die Hard
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
- Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Big
- Dangerous Liaisons
- Pelle the Conqueror
- The Vanishing
Archives, Directors, and Grades
| A Cry in the Dark- Schepisi | R |
| A Fish Called Wanda | R |
| A Handful of Dust | HR |
| A Short Film About Killing- Kieslowski | |
| A Short Film Above Love- Kieslowski | |
| Accidental Tourist- Kasdan | R |
| Akira | R |
| Another Woman- Allen | R |
| Ariel- Kaurismäki | R |
| Beetlejuice- Burton | R |
| Big- Hanks | HR |
| Bird- Eastwood | R |
| Bull Durham | R |
| Cinema Paradiso | R |
| Colors | R |
| Damnation- Tarr | R |
| Dangerous Liaisons- Frears | HR |
| Dead Ringers- Cronenberg | MP |
| Die Hard- McTiernan | MS |
| Dirty Rotten Scoundrels | R |
| Distinct Voices, Still Lives- Davies | MS |
| Drowning By Numbers- Greenaway | |
| Eight Men Out- Sayles | R |
| Frantic- Polanski | |
| High Hopes- M. Leigh | R |
| Landscape in the Mist- Angelopoulos | R |
| Married To the Mob- Demme | R |
| Midnight Run | R |
| Mississippi Burning- A. Parker | R |
| My Neighbor Totoro- Miyazuki | HR |
| Pelle the Conqueror | HR |
| Rain Man- Levinson | R |
| Running on Empty- Lumet | R |
| Stormy Monday | R |
| The Accused | R |
| The Adventures of Baron Munchausen- Gilliam | R |
| The Last Temptation of Christ- Scorsese | R |
| The Story of Women- Charbol | R |
| The Unbearable Lightness of Being- Kaufman | |
| The Vanishing | HR |
| They Live- Carpenter | R |
| Tucker: A Man and His Dream- F. Coppola | R |
| Who Framed Roger Rabbit?- Zemekis | MS |
| Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown- Almodovar | |
| Working Girl- M. Nichols | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
Have you seen Grave of the Fireflies?
@Azman– yep– did this page for 1988 in 2017 and caught Grave of Fireflies in 2018- it is here http://thecinemaarchives.com/2018/08/14/grave-of-the-fireflies-2018-taktahata/
“It is almost unbearably tragic”. That’s why I find it so hard to rewatch war films like come and see, paths of glory etc. They are devastating films. Anyways great review for the best animated film (in my opinion).The film received universal critical acclaim. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered it to be one of the best and most powerful war films and, in 2000, included it on his list of great films.It was also ranked at #10 in Time Out’s “The 50 greatest World War II movies” list. Empire magazine ranked the film at #6 in its list of “The Top 10 Depressing Movies”. The film ranked #19 on Wizard’s Anime Magazine on their “Top 50 Anime released in North America”
USA today (famous critic website) ranked this as the number 1 best animated film ever made according to critics and audiences. You reviewed the film really well. What would you consider as the best animated movie ever made? Walle?
@ Azman– well Pinocchio is the highest on my top 500… Wall-E (brilliant first half of the film, not so much the second), and The Lion King are close. But Grave of the Fireflies is a fine choice and on my top 100 of the 1980’s, Fantastic Mr. Fox is there for the 2000’s top 100, Snow White for the 1930’s, Toy Story for the 1990’s…
Hey Drake, I have now decided to rank movies in a mix between your ranking system and Roger Ebert’s.
I have a ‘great movies’/ MP, MS, HR, R tier-like way of ranking movies but I do not have a top 500 like you, instead, I will only have a top 10 of all time and the best-of-the-decade lists and my tier-list ranking. I changed the way I rank movies because it is difficult to choose between 2 great movies that are virtually tied. Also I needed a new and more fun way of making lists.
I have a question though. Why are Die Hard and Who Framed Roger Rabbit both MS’s but Die Hard is above WFRR?
Also I’m thinking of watching one of these. Which would you recommend? I was thinking about WFRR since I haven’t seen an animated movie for a long time. What’s so good about it that you have it as a top five? What aspects of the movie do you like?
@Azman– Even within the grades there’s nuance. So I have many films that are masterpieces but some stronger than others and same with the other levels. A few years ago for even more options I started blending them like MP/MS or H/HR so you’ll see some of that and more as I update them.
As for Who Framed Roger Rabbit- I have some notes about on it in the underrated section. Great film- can’t go wrong with that or Die Hard.
You’re right. There will be problems/issues even with grade ranking. But it’s still somewhat easier. For example I’m not really sure which godfather is better so I ranked both of them as MPs. No hassle. I know that I prefer the 2 godfathers more than Pan’s Labyrinth but I love PL so I just ranked that as an MP too. I have 5 tiers and I rank accordingly. I have no doubt that your system is superior and more accurate than mine if you were a machine and you saw every movie(and rewatched) in order. However since your human, there will always be a factor of recency bias or a movie you haven’t rated quite as highly because you need to see it again.
Both systems are very good, maybe yours is better, but I just want a different way of ranking movies for a change.
Just saw who framed roger rabbit. Very entertaining but most of all unique. I’m tired of all the cliched live-action-animation movies we have today in Hollywood. (marvel etc).Roger Rabbit is one of the best comedies I have seen and also one of the best crime/mystery movies of all time. I would highly recommend this movie to most people. MP for me. (I have seen fewers movies than you so my MP ranking would probably be a MP/MS for you.)
So after watching Roger Rabbit (which I loved by the way), I decided to watch cinema paradiso. I’m not going to talk about artistic value – like I do. I want to comment about my experience and emotion watching this movie. I just want to say this. I’ve seen people murder brutally in war movies, I’ve seen very emotional- slow dramas, pure artistic/transcendent movies of genius (Tarkovskian/ Malickian cinema). I’ve seen the most romantic, blissful movies about longing. No movie has ever made me cry except for the final 25 or so minutes of Cinema Paradiso. The ending of tree of life comes close, I even almost cried in It’s a Wonderful Life but I was properly crying in cinema paradiso. The only other movie-going experience/emotion that has come close for me is the feeling of pure awe and amazement I get when watching 2001.
Most critics adore this movie because they can relate to the feelings of love and emotion they have when watching the movie. It is also decent artistically. That’s why it’s so highly regarded by critics.
Anyone who loves cinema and the emotion of love, happiness, joy and pure amazement the screen provides will appreciate Cinema Paradiso and especially the final scene which captures those emotions perfectly.
“the screen is a magic medium” – Kubrick
I think that “A Fish Called Wanda” deserves more love looool. But maybe it’s that I’m not looking at it objectively enough because it is more of a personal favourite- I get the same with 2000’s “Chcolat”. Idk
Why Is Dustin Hoffmans 6th best performance kramer vs kramer getting a mention in 1979 and his 3rd best performance rain man not getting a mention this year?
@Janith- he’s mentioned here. I see what you mean though- I’m not overly clear that I mean to mention him- I just kind of use him as a launch to praise Cruise. I’ll fix it when I update the page
Have you seen Time of the Gypsies(1988) by Emir Kusturica(the director of underground)?
@Chris – I have not been able to catch that one yet
Have you seen Arizona Dream(1993) starring Johnny Depp?
If I say Jeremy Irons should have won the academy award for best actor for Dead Ringers in 1988 instead of 1990(Ray Liotta should have won the academy award for best actor in 1990).Do you agree?
@Janith- yes- I’d agree
Why does the academy always get it wrong?Jeremy Irons and Ray Liotta weren’t even nominated in 1988 and 1990 respectively let alone winning.These guys(The Academy)are supposed to know what they are doing.
@Janith– I look at it the other way at this point- I’m pleasantly surprised when they get it right (which they do in a lot of cases). There is campaigning involved, some films get overlooked completely when they first come out (and actors’ work lost with them).
There is a film that actually can challenge Dead Ringers for the top spot.It’s name is Au Revoir Les Enfants.The highest rated film in 1988 on Metacritic
@Janith- actually that is a 1987 film