"..the violent death of God" ? Just watched the Begotten trailer, it looks fascinating and ominous but don't know If I will ever dare to watch it tho.. Someone on letterboxd wrote; "this is why we have psychiatrists and counsellors"..:D

Some other good ones that haven't been mentioned yet:

Chameleon Street - this won the dramatic prize at Sundance, but no distributors touched it, so it sort of became lost until fairly recently. You could say that it's the Sorry to Bother You of its day.
Mystery Train - a funny companion piece to Stranger Than Paradise.
Sea of Love - Is Ellen Barkin extraordinarily sexy or what?
Speaking Parts - A strong, early Atom Egoyan movie about the dehumanizing effects of video.
The Big Picture - It's rough around the edges, but it's a very funny non-mockumentary effort by Christopher Guest featuring a hilarious turn by Martin Short as a fussy agent.

accurate assessment of the film

Agreed on Mystery Train, added it to my honorable mentions.
Sea of Love needs a re-watch, the other ones I haven't seen, yet.

https://i.gifer.com/DLhZ.gif

Brutal year for me. I've always felt, even then, that the latter part of the 80s was perhaps the most grim for American cinema. I was able to come up with a dozen films (given that I have not seen Cinema Paradiso, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Do The Right Thing).

12. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
11. Erik The Viking
10. Harlem Nights
9. Lethal Weapon 2
8. The Little Mermaid
7. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
6. When Harry Met Sally
5. Major League
4. Batman
3. Pumpkinhead
2. Field of Dreams
1. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover

Isn't Pumpkinhead '88?

She is, she absolutely wrecked me in that movie (and several others) but I didn't think the movie was very good.

Oh, is it? It came up on a list of movies from '89.

Edit: I see the issue. It was wide-released in January '89 after a limited release in October of '88. Wikipedia lists it on its list of films of 1989 and I saw it in the theater in '89 so I'm keeping it, frankly because there just weren't enough good movies in '89 for me to take it off the list.

Overall, a pretty weak year. Just an opinion.

Yeah, even searching French, British, and Australian films didn't help me much.

No worries, both from 1988

Cinema Paradiso is great by the way, highly recommended.

I needed that list and it was sure Back to the future for me.

I remember I had so much fun watching this. I think I could have more Flashback and more to write about it later.

Re: Favorite Movies of 1989?
 

Definitely Dead Poets Sociaty.I recently watched this movie again, it's incredible, though very sad.

Personally, I always felt the 80’s was a pretty weak decade for films. Not saying there aren’t decent films within it, but the decades that seem to “drone on” with me are the 80’s and the 2000’s+.

*edit; Born on the Fourth of July is out and Dead Calm is in.

Re: Favorite Movies of 1989?
 

Dead Calm is a great thriller. I would probably cut the last 10-15 minutes, which I understand where studio-mandated, but still...

Re: Favorite Movies of 1989?
 

1. The Unbelievable Truth
2. The Abyss
3. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
4. The Killer
5. Do the Right Thing

Re: Favorite Movies of 1989?
 

1. Crimes and Misdemeanors
2. The War of the Roses
3. Henry V
4. Sea of Love
5. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

6. Der siebente Kontinent [The Seventh Continent]
7. Music Box
8. Адио, Рио [Adio, Rio]
9. When Harry Met Sally…
10. Sex, Lies, and Videotape