Tag: 1980s
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Working Girls
‘Broken Mirrors,’ Marleen Gorris’ 1984 follow-up to her still-transcendent feminist drama ‘A Question of Silence,’ expands on its predecessor’s themes while dramatically improving on its writer-director’s aesthetic command.
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‘Rock & Rule’ Could Use a Lot More Rock
As star-studded as this 1983 cartoon for adults’ soundtrack is, it features far fewer musical sequences than you’d expect.
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Found Connections
Donna Deitch’s ‘Desert Hearts’ was a breakthrough for lesbian representation in cinema. It also achieves another rarified thing: Characters who feel like they exist outside a screenplay’s bounds.
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A Different Angle
On Isaac Julien’s slippery, thoughtful ‘Looking for Langston.’
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‘City on Fire’: More Than Just a ‘Reservoir Dogs’ Reference
Ringo Lam’s fifth movie of the 1980s winds up being far more serious than its Looney Tunes-inflected first couple of acts would lead you to believe.
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‘The Stuff’’s Evocative Stupidity
The 1985 film’s persistent illogic and ever-present suggestion that it’s going to fly off the rails make it come across as an up-is-down nightmare heightening real fears.
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Disobedience
John Sayles’ groundbreaking ‘Lianna’ was a landmark — albeit a criminally underseen one — for lesbian representation in cinema.
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‘Shoot the Moon’: An Underrated Reminder of Diane Keaton’s Generational Genius
Alan Parker’s 1982 divorce drama is among the genre’s most emotionally evocative works.
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‘Heartburn’ Sticks Too Close to the Surface
Meryl Streep is lovable as Nora Ephron’s stand-in in the 1986 adaptation of the latter’s same-named novel, but you can’t help but want it to mine its divorce plot more thoroughly.
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My Favorite First-Time Watches of 2025
The best movies I saw in 2025 that weren’t released in 2025.
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Do the Right Thing
Abbas Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy-commencing ‘Where is the Friend’s House?’ empathetically sees the world through a particularly well-meaning child’s eyes.
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Odds & Ends: Halloween Edition
Notes from the last month.
Peterson Reviews 