Tootsie (1982) from Tuna and Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Tootsie is simply a wonderful comedy. Jessica Lange won best supporting actress Oscar, and the film was nominated for 9 others. It swept the Golden Globes comedy section, garnering Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and best picture. 

It is the story of a hardheaded and antagonistic actor (Dustin Hoffman) who lands a part as a female in a soap. He is actually a much better woman as Dorothy then he ever was a man. He also finds that being a woman is a lot more complex than he thought.

His first real shock is when he is shown into his dressing room and runs into Geena Davis in a skimpy bra and panties. He becomes fast friends with Jessica Lange, who is also in the soap cast, but Hoffman wants a real relationship with her. Shock two is when one of the soap actors, called "the tongue" by all the women, wants to stage kiss him. When he spends the holidays with Lange, her father falls in love with Dorothy. Obviously, "Dorothy" understands completely what the men around him are up to, and puts them in their place quickly and firmly. He/she becomes a hit, and his option is picked up for a full year, but, by then, he wants out. In a moment of weakness, he tries to kiss Lange, who assumes he/she is a lesbian. 

Gandhi won Best Picture that year. Both E.T. and Tootsie supporters felt that they got screwed. History has offered a different judgment, leaving Ghandi's reputation intact, but deciding that the best film of that year was a completely different movie that wasn't even nominated. Here is how it shakes out at IMDb (nominated films are highlighted in Teal):

I would agree with the decision to drop The Verdict and Missing from the nominees in favor of Sophie's Choice and Blade Runner. I think that would result in the right five nominees. Damned if I know how to compare them and pick a winner, because the five films have absolutely no common ground for comparison. 

• a brilliant and literary drama with incomparable acting (Sophie's Choice)
• perhaps the greatest S/F film ever made (Blade Runner)
• a great historical epic (Gandhi)
• perhaps the greatest non-animated kid's film ever made (E.T.)
• a great comedy with real depth and intelligence (Tootsie)

I just don't know how to say any one of them is "better" than the others. Tell ya what, though, that's five mighty good flicks right there.

Touching briefly on the subject of comedies, here's how IMDb members rate the top post-war comedies with at least 1000 votes. Tootsie is far from the leaderboard, although it is arguably better than some of these:

Tuna is right in that many performances were noteworthy in 1982. Hoffman did win some awards. Oscar's Best Actor nod went to Ben Kingsley, and Kingsley also was chosen by the New York Film Critics, the L.A. Film Critics, and the National Board of Review. Hoffman was the pick of the National Society of Film Critics. Both men won a Golden Globe, since that award chose two best actors, one for comedy and one for drama.

Neither one of them was the people's choice. It was clear from the telegrams and the letters to the editors across the country that people wanted the Oscar to go to Paul Newman for The Verdict. Also very impressive that year were Jack Lemmon in Missing (Best Actor at Cannes), and Peter O'Toole's uncanny, funny, and touching performance as a hard drinking, broken down movie star with a good heart in My Favorite Year. 

Both O'Toole and Hoffman were essentially playing themselves. O'Toole was so-o-o good, but all he had to do was to show up and be Peter O'Toole. The same was true of Hoffman as Michael Dorsey, but the real genius of Hoffman's performance, of course, was his time as Dorothy Michaels.

Hoffman and his friend, writer Murray Schisgal, had created the concept of Tootsie four years earlier. They were discussing the subject of what kind of woman Hoffman would make when Hoffman pulled out a script about an actor who pretends to be a woman in order to land a part, handed it to Schisgal, and asked him to fashion it into a tailor-made vehicle for Hoffman. When you see Hoffman as Michael, the precise and demanding actor who is better at acting than at being human, you are seeing Hoffman as people saw him and as he recognized himself. 

Much more than a cheap-laugh comedy, the film is a terrific entertainment package, and is one of the most incisive films ever to portray the nature of sexual behavior and stereotyping. It was both a critical and popular success.