The Cyclist (1989) ****

Brilliant film directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1989) ****

Valmont (1989) ****

Noce blanche (1989) ****

Jesus de Montreal (1989) ****

Do The Right Thing (1989) ****

Time Of The Gypsies (1989) ****

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover (1989) ****

The War Of The Roses (1989) ****

Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) ****

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. A young witch comes to a big city and uses her talents to make deliveries for people. A wonderful animated fable from Japan.

My 20th Century (1989) ****

Un Monde sans pitié (1989) ****

A wonderfully spontaneous and imaginative comedy about a carefree womanizer (Hippolyte Girardot) trying to form a meaningful relationship with his new girlfriend (Mireille Perrier).

The Little Mermaid (1989) ****

Delightful Disney animated fairy-tale about a headstrong mermaid, Ariel, defying her father, King Triton, and falling in love with a handsome prince, Eric. It's a very loose adaptation of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. The animation is superb, colors are lively and the musical score (by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman) is both imaginative and appealing. The film has several outstanding musical numbers, including "Under The Sea", a Busby Berkeley-inspired extravaganza featuring dancing crabs, singing octopies, choruses of shrimps and an amazing variety of colorful, exotic fishes. There is also an evil squid witch Ursula, who tricks Ariel into a scamy deal, and Louis, a wickedly funny French chef, whose desperate attempts to capture (and cook) Ariel's friend Sebastian the Crab, is the comic highlight of the film. Songs include: 

"Fathom's Below" 

"Daughters Of Triton" 

"Part Of Your World" *** 

"Under The Sea" *** 

"Poor Unfortunate Souls" * 

"Les Poissons" * 

"Kiss The Girl" ***

The Killer (1989) ****

Fast-paced, stylish, entertaining and inventive action film from Hong Kong's top director, John Woo. Chow Yun-Fat plays a professional hitman who accidentally blinds a cabaret singer (Sally Yip) and is pursued by a tough cop (Danny Lee). There is also a director's cut (longer by 35 minutes). Most of that footage deals with another hitman, played by Chu Kong.

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989) ****

Magnificently entertaining adventure film with the famous archeologist fighting the Nazis, meeting his father and looking for the Holy Grail. Exciting and screamingly funny.

Batman (1989) ****

Violent action/adventure/fantasy blockbuster about heroic Batman (Michael Keaton) fighting evil Joker (Jack Nicholson). Truly amazing set designs and superlative direction by Tim Burton.

Heathers (1989) ****

A disturbing, cynical, hilarious, one-of-a-kind nihilistic masterpiece of black humor. The film is set in a suburban Ohio high school virtually ruled by a quartet of beautiful young girls. One of them, sharp and intelligent Veronica (Winona Ryder) gets involved with a juvenile delinquent J.D. (Christian Slater) and soon finds herself involved in a messy intrigue related to three mysterious suicides. The script, written by Daniel Waters, is full of wonderfully obscene dialogues and sharp one-liners. The film has a dark, lynchian undertone of evil menace lurking beneath a calm surface. An off-beat, sardonic look at teenage caste system, peer pressure and teen angst. Superbly directed by Michael Lehmann.