1989 is another one of those years that is an embarrassment of riches. The concept of a top five is ridiculous for a year like this that has banger after banger after banger. This year has so many movies that deeply love that aren’t in the top five but nothing in the top five can move. If I did a top 20 it would still be inadequate. So ultimately this is painful for what I am not writing about as much as it is joyful for what I am.

This is the last major year of foundational cinema for me. There are movies coming up in my high school years that became that but they are the second tier built upon the solid foundation of the previous 13 years.

This year is also the first year that I really started going to movies by myself. My parents and I still went a lot but there were some movies that they just didn’t want to see and I was old enough to get dropped off at the mall to see a movie or they would go see something else while I went to something else. I can’t imagine why they weren’t interested in seeing UHF with me but it was their loss.

Runners up in roughly release order: the Experts, Gleaming the Cube, Who’s Harry Crumb, Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Heathers, Major League, Say Anything, Fright Night Part 2, Road House, Dead Poets Society, Ghostbusters 2, Do the Right Thing, UHF, When Harry Met Sally, Parenthood, the Abyss, Uncle Buck, Gross Anatomy, Let it Ride, Best of the Best, Little Mermaid, Christmas Vacation, and the Wizard.

If you have not read the introduction to this exercise, I recommend you do so for context regarding what this all is. In short, be nice, these are my favorites based on how I encountered them in my life and what they mean for mean to me. This is not a list of objective best movies in their respective years and if a movie that you love or is considered great does not appear, it does not mean that I think it is shit or that I don’t love it. These are just my favorites for particular personal reasons. Feel free to let everyone know your favorite five for 1989 and why as well. It is also worth mentioning that there will be spoilers here for what are now 37-year-old movies. Let’s dig in!

1.Batman-Tim Burton

Like giving water to someone dying of thirst, Tim Burton’s Batman emerged from the shadows to serve comics fans and general audiences alike to comic book goodness the likes of which they had not seen since the original Superman in 1978. While it did not usher in the superhero movie boom that fans hoped for, it did offer a new take on Batman that set the stage for the future.

For a great many years, Batman was a funny, campy affair thanks to the Adam West series from the 60s. Comics followed suit to a degree as did animated shows. But in 1986, Frank Miller’s four issue mini-series ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ had brought Batman back to his dark and brooding roots, with an edgy story about an aging Batman coming back into service to clean up streets long neglected. This tone shift made fans hungry for a darker and more serious treatment for Batman and that is what they wanted with the 1989 outing. When Tim Burton cast Michael Keaton, a lot of hope for fans was dashed and it created a long tradition of fans second guessing the casting in Batman movies.

Keaton was mostly known as a comedic actor, despite dramatic turns in movies like Clean and Sober, but a lot of people at the time couldn’t see it and thought they were in for another campy farce. Once trailers started rolling out, the discourse shifted somewhat but there was still a great deal of trepidation.

When the movie finally released, it was a sensation with Burton delivering a dark and brooding Batman and a hilarious but lethal Joker via Jack Nicholson. It played fast and loose with established Batman lore by making the Joker the gangster who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents and whom Batman inadvertently dropped in chemicals, but it worked pretty well in the movie and was a concession that most fans were willing to make.

Batman became a sensation that summer. The marketing was insane and Batmania spread across the country. Bolstered by a phenomenal soundtrack by Prince, Batman was a dominant force at the box-office and led to three sequels and the attempt to keep comic strip fever going the following year with Dick Tracy, a moderate success. Batman was lightening in a bottle and stood in a class of its own. There are people who try to claim that Burton’s follow up Batman Returns is better, but it isn’t physically possible for me to disagree with those people more.

I went to see Batman for the first time at the drive in with my family. It was my mom and dad, my aunt and uncle, and my cousins Dan, Penny, Shane, and Kelly. It was the cheapest way for us all to see it as you paid by the car, not the number of people. We kids were in the bed of the pick up truck amongst a collection of lawn furniture and homemade snacks. I was reading the novelization of the movie as we waited in line for hours before the gates opened and it got dark enough to start.

I remember being kind of annoyed at the time. Everyone was pretty excited about it but I was very solidly in the ownership phase of fandom where I felt like it was my thing and no one else liked it as much as I did and hearing them talk about it annoyed me. Yes, I was 13. I am not proud of it.

What else I think was going on at the time was that I didn’t really know what to do with my own excitement while trying to be too cool to look excited about it. It was hours of sitting in the heat and with other excited people who refused to acknowledge my absolute authority on Batman while they were coming at me about Adam West and I was repping the goddamn Dark Knight. God, I must have been exhausting.

Whatever too cool for school bullshit that I felt going in fell away pretty immediately when the movie started. I fucking loved every bit of it and while I thought that the Joker got too much attention in a movie called Batman, it was something I never thought I would see so faithfully produced on screen (oh boy, I did not know what the future was going to hold).

When Batman came out on video, Best Video, my video store, got a 6ft tall standee of Micheal Keaton as Batman and they held a drawing for it. Anyone who purchased the movie on VHS when it came out (it was priced to own) got entered into the drawing. Much to my parents’ chagrin, I won the thing. It was fucking glorious. For the entirety of high school, I had Batman lurking in the corner of my bedroom scaring the fuck out of anyone coming into the bedroom without turning the light on whether they knew he was there or not.  The standee burned along with the rest of my childhood in a barn fire two days after my dad died  and it bums me out that I never pulled it out and put it up in my house now but such is life.

There have been a lot of Batman movies since the 1989 film and there are some that I like more, but none mean as much to me as this movie. It was the fulfillment of a desire I couldn’t articulate and it was my first taste of not being bullied for liking a superhero. It was the first time that I was able to really be the geek that I was openly and it was very nice while it lasted. I wish I could have seen the future to know what was eventually coming but as it was, I had to just enjoy it while it lasted before crawling back under the geek rock until the next comic book thing went mainstream.

There will be a lot more Batman to come in future entries as he is my second favorite super hero and he has gotten a lot of movies over the years but this will always hold a special place in my heart. Michael Keaton will always be my live action Batman, such that when he makes an appearance in one of the worst super hero movies in the last 10 years (the Flash), it still brings tears to my eyes. That all started right here and I will forever be grateful for it.

2.Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade-Steven Spielberg

The third installment of the Indiana Jones series and the first true sequel (Temple of Doom was a prequel to the original), The Last Crusade took what was great about the original and improved upon it in just about every way, all while effectively ignoring the things Temple of Doom fucked up. Putting Indy (Harrison Ford) on the trail of the Holy Grail (that pun should have been all over the marketing) and having him do it next to his father (Sean Connery) was the perfect adventure to follow up the Ark of the Covenant and allows Indy to work in his sweet spot of punching Nazis and destroying ancient statues and artifacts to save himself from certain death. And no massive pit of snakes in this one!

I went to see the Last Crusade with my parents and it was the first Indy movie that we saw in the theater. When Raiders came out and my mom saw a trailer she had wanted to go see it, mostly on the strength of having a thing for Harrison Ford, we did not make it out to the theater and saw in on video. When Temple of Doom came out, we savagely did not go to the theater for it and rented it, only to have the tape cut out right as Mola Ram was about to rip Indy’s heart out on the broken rope bridge at the end and we had to wait until Best Video got another copy to see how it ended. So this was the first time in the theater and the fist purely perfect time seeing an Indy movie.

My mom went into it with roughly the same Harrison Ford thirst that she maintained any time we saw one of his movies, but with the added bonus of a massive thing for Sean Connery. It was the best of both worlds for her. My dad always dug Ford too, which I think is funny now that whenever I see an older Ford on screen he reminds me of my dad so much that it is physically painful. It might be that he wore an Indy style jacket right up until he died. I thought it was the perfect blend of action, suspense, and humor. I continue to think it is pretty close to a perfect movie and remains the platonic ideal of what an adventure movie should be. I don’t hate any of the Indiana Jones movies but, for my money, this one is the best and it isn’t close.

3.Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure-Stephen Herek

The story of two high school metal heads on the verge of failing history if they don’t get an A on their final project who are given a time machine to make sure they pass as they will go on to usher in a future utopia, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is as wackadoo as it is amazing. After Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are given access to the time traveling phone booth by Rufus (George Carlin), they accidentally kidnap Napoleon (Tony Camilleri) and realize that they will be sure to pass if they collect the historical figures their report covers. They set about doing just that in a way that only heavy metal dipshits could and it is just wonderful.

There are so many iconic things in Bill and Ted that it is hard to even know where to start. The dialogue is insanely quotable and the situations and locations are equally iconic. The script is absolutely brilliant and the performances are insanely good, not just from Reeves and Winter but from the cast of historical figures, Bill and Ted’s parents, their teacher, fellow students, and Rufus. Everyone shines here.

The majority of the San Dimas scenes in Bill and Ted were filmed in Phoenix, AZ which was always a particular joy for me as I live in Tucson and have gone to the mall they filmed in, Metro Center, several times. When Metro Center was demolished a few years ago, my friend Jessie and I went to the waterpark that stood in for Waterloo before going to the theater at Metro Center for one last in theater showing of Bill and Ted. It was pretty awesome but I remain sad that Metro Center is gone. I drove past it last weekend and it is just a big pile of dirt next to Castles and Coasters. Bummer.

Bill and Ted was immediately an important movie to me. I saw it in the theater with my parents and I have seen it dozens of times since. I listened to the soundtrack over and over. In high school, a friend of mine and I were Bill and Ted (I was Bill) and at the Halloween party we went to handed out custom made passes to Waterloo and pudding cups in character. We still lost the costume contest to my writing partner Katie who was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz largely because she suck red sequins on her ruby slippers by hand. I recognize the effort but I still think I was robbed.

4.The ‘Burbs-Joe Dante

A tale of suburban paranoia, the ‘Burbs tells the story of Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks), a man taking some time off work for stress who becomes embroiled in the intrigue of his neighborhood when he and his neighbors Art (Rick Ducommun) and Mark (Bruce Dern) become convinced that their new neighbors the Klopeks have murdered another neighbor, Walter (Gale Gordon). While yet another neighbor, Ricky (Corey Feldman) looks on, they escalate surveillance on the Klopeks, culminating into full on breaking and entering in which they start digging in the backyard and basement to disastrous effect.

The ‘Burbs really captured a sense of unease that people felt about the suburbs at the time, with people transitioning from the perceived idyllic safety of the 50’s into a world now dominated by the satanic panic and the rising proliferation of serial killers. Refrains of ‘you used to just leave your doors unlocked and now…’ were heard all over as society grew more uneasy with their safety.

Filmed on the Universal backlot and utilizing houses from Leave it to Beaver, the Munsters, and Desperate Housewives, the ‘Burbs was panned by critics but was financially successful and well liked by audiences. Filmed during a writer’s strike, the actors were encouraged to improvise during filming which led to some of the movie’s best lines and moments. That Hanks and Ducommun reportedly did not get along well seems to have  contributed to the feeling of growing annoyance between the characters throughout the movie and makes their relationship feel very real.

I saw this on video when I was a kid and I went to Best Video in the morning first thing when they opened to get the movie. I took it back home and my mom and I watched it together that afternoon. We watched it again when Dad got home. I really dug it a lot but I didn’t really understand any of the growing social paranoia at the time. I just thought it was really funny. I watched several times before I took it back.

The ‘Burbs has quietly become one of my favorite movies over the years and one I can put on when I am feeling down and need to cheer up. I am not really sure why, given its subject matter, but I think it ties back to that afternoon. I remember the walk to Best Video to get it, balancing on a short wall between a storage place and Jack Furrier’s Western Tire Center. I remember how hot it was and how happy I was to get back into air conditioning when I got home. I remember how happy I was to watch it with my mom. That is what I remember more than anything when I think of the ‘Burbs and watching it now brings that all back to me. It is also funny as shit so that helps as well.

5.Back to the Future Part 2-Robert Zemeckis

The long promised sequel to the original Back to the Future, Back to the Future Part 2 was a real surprise as the marketing mostly presented it as a fun romp in the future without touching on the dystopian hellscape return to the 80s and eventual trip to the 50’s to fix it all. And it sure as fuck didn’t say anything about a third movie in the old west coming out like six months later.

Of the three Back to the Future movies, this one is my favorite hands down. This is my time travel sweet spot with cool future scenes, a fucked up past because of the dangers of changing things and the discussion of branching timelines, and then the eventual doubling of Marty in the 50s as he has to avoid not just his parents but himself in order to put things right. It is complicated and busy and it is exactly my shit when it comes to time travel stories.

Back to the Future Part 2 kind of hits different now too as the world we live in feels like at some point someone in the current administration brought a sports almanac from the future and fucked out our present. The parallels between the Biff Tannen (Tom Wilson) reality and our current administration are both creepy and dismaying. I hope someone manages to get out of the old west long enough to fix it.

I saw Back to the Future Part 2 in the theater with my parents and I ate it up. When the credits began with a trailer for Back to the Future Part 3 I lost my shit. It was such a surprise and I remained baffled that they were able to keep this under wraps because no one knew that it was filmed concurrently and that the next one would be out so soon. It is equally amazing that Robert Zemickis didn’t spoil everything in the trailer given his propensity for fucking his movies up doing just that nowadays (apparently, he fought with the studio about this and wanted to give up that this was part 2 of 3).

My parents liked the third movie the most which is pretty on brand for them given their love of westerns, but for my money, Part 2 is the best. I just wish that their joke about having eight Jaws movies would have been true. It sucks that we only have four Jaws movies and one of them is one of the worst things ever committed to film. Maybe just one more to make up for Jaws the Revenge? Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is.