The 1989 Movie That Went From Being Called the Best of the Year to Hated Today
In 1989, a film became a huge hit and was recognized as the best film of the year. Since then, the movie Driving Miss Daisy's legacy has been widely rewritten as it is now mostly remembered as overrated and outright hated by some viewers.
Who Named 'Driving Miss Daisy' the Best Movie of 1989?
Photo by Bettman via Getty Images
After Driving Miss Daisy was released on December 15, 1989, it became a success in every way. Produced for $7.5 million, it grossed more than $145 million at the worldwide box office. On top of making a lot of money, it also received critical praise and picked up many prestigious awards.
Most notably, Driving Miss Daisy received nine Oscar nominations and won four, including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress for Jessica Tandy, and Best Makeup. The Academy also gave it Hollywood's top accolade of the year, the Best Picture Oscar. The power brokers behind another major awards show reached a similar conclusion.
The film swept the three Golden Globes categories it was nominated for. Jessica Tandy won Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and Morgan Freeman won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Most importantly, Driving Miss Daisy was awarded Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.
Driving Miss Daisy Is Now Widely Panned and Hated by Some
Even though Driving Miss Daisy was lauded and wildly successful, it had some detractors right from the start. However, those early complaints came at the same time the film was being celebrated by others. Now that decades have passed since it was released, however, the movie is largely remembered for the backlash it has received.
In 2025, Collider ranked Driving Miss Daisy as the second-worst Best Picture Oscar winner of all time. The outlet described its portrayal of racism as overly "neat, tidy, and romanticized, more like a fairytale or Hallmark movie." A 2022 Pop Dose article made a similar point, arguing the story felt like something from 1949. It described the film as an "old-fashioned examination of a white Karen harassing a black man" that was "corny even in 1989."
One of the most common reasons film fans feel frustrated by Driving Miss Daisy is that it won the Best Picture Oscar over Do the Right Thing, which was not even nominated. Perhaps the sharpest critique of the film came from the director of Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee. In a 2015 interview with The Daily Beast, Lee pointed out how irrelevant Driving Miss Daisy is now.
"Nobody’s talking about m**********n’ Driving Miss Daisy. That film is not being taught in film schools all across the world like Do the Right Thing is. Nobody’s discussing Driving Miss M**********n’ Daisy."
Regular viewers have also added their own strong opinions to the discussion around Driving Miss Daisy. One example of that came on Letterboxd, where Gabe Rodríguez did not hold back in his review of the once-acclaimed film. "I hated this movie! Hated hated hated hated hated this movie! Hated it!"