Welcome to IndieWire ’80s Week
An encyclopedic series on ’80s film bursting with meticulous lists, rare interviews, deep-cut essays, and more.
Featured
Exhaustive pieces on a decade of cinematic excess.
’80s week: From “Paris, Texas” to “A City of Sadness,” and from “Blue Velvet” to “The Green Ray,” these are the films that defined the 1980s.
’80s Week: While “Star Wars” put franchises front and center, Redford had different plans for American cinema.
’80s Week: “I wanted to tell stories about people who I wanted to watch on screen,” the “Smithereens” and “Desperately Seeking Susan” director tells IndieWire.
’80s Week: It was a decade of synths and sad jazz, of legends reaching the height of their powers, and of newcomers from other disciplines becoming cinematic virtuosos in their own right.
’80s Week: “Fear, paranoia, terrible situations” plague Griffin Dunne’s fraying Paul Hackett in Scorsese’s 1985 screwball nightmare. The film’s star and its producer Amy Robinson tell us why it remains so influential.
‘80s Week: Giacchino tells IndieWire how “Raiders” sparked his love of movies as an adolescent and how Williams’ rousing score taught him all the musical tricks of the craft.
’80s Week: After Hollywood’s years of experimenting with electronic music, a new invention changed the sound of cinema.
’80s Week: Walter Hill’s “rock & roll fable” was a box office bomb, but four decades on, it’s finally getting the recognition it’s always deserved.
’80s Week: It’s a decade that boasts iconic performances, indelible breakouts, and the best work of some talents who only ever churn out top-tier work.
’80s Week: Adrian Lyne’s genre classic is also a cautionary tale about modern feminism, the femme fatale trope, and how little things change.
‘80s Week: “I was going to have to rely on the thing that I felt most confident about, and which, in fact, is the cheapest: words,” remembers the “Henry Fool” director.
’80s Week: The film’s only living star, David Schachter, tells IndieWire how pornographer-turned-activist filmmaker Arthur J. Bressan Jr.’s microbudget 1985 indie was the first to tell the story of AIDS from a gay-specific perspective.
‘80s Week: Game-changing as “Akira” and “My Neighbor Totoro” may have been, these are the films that tell the real story of the decade that changed everything for anime.
’80s Week: “I thought that if it was cut right, then we could’ve had a story that really spoke to what was going on in the community,” the filmmaker told IndieWire of his second feature.
’80s Week: Garrett Brown, Stanley Kubrick, and the decade when Steadicam forever altered the language of camera movement.
’80s Week: Star Molly Ringwald has reflected on the legacy of her John Hughes classics, but how did an entire decade decide to make fun of consensual sex?
Do you love the cinema of the ’80s? So do dozens of your favorite directors, writers, producers, and stars, all of whom shared their lists with IndieWire.
’80s Week: How the greatest director of his generation came back from near-defeat with the help of cinematographer Michael Ballhaus.
’80s Week: Asked what “Stop Making Sense” looks like on IMAX ahead of A24’s upcoming re-release, Goetzman replied: “The big suit… is REALLY big.”
From “Pumpkinhead” and “Christine” to “Inferno” and “Bad Taste,” these are 10 of the most underrated horror movies made between 1980 and 1989 — when “Halloween,” “Friday the 13th,” and “Evil Dead” first reigned.
Schedule
Keep an eye on this space. As stories go live, find them here.
Monday, August 14
Tuesday, August 15
- The Best Film Scores of the ‘80s
- The History of the Synth
- An Interview with Griffin Dunne
- An Interview with Michael Giacchino
- ‘Streets of Fire’ Should Have Been the Biggest Rock Musical of the ’80s
Wednesday, August 16
Thursday, August 17
- The Best Anime of the ‘80s
- An Interview with Charles Burnett
- The Birth of the Steadicam
- Consent in ’80s Films
Friday, August 18
From the Archive: IndieWire ’90s Week
Check out our unfettered celebration on the decade that every millennial will always think of as “10 years ago.”
’90s Week: Chloë Sevigny reflects on defining the American film scene of the decade, what she loved about it, and why she wasn’t crushed to let it go.
’90s Week: Even though it was kind of a joke, these gritty digital video undertakings were essential challenges to commercial cinema.
’90s Week: The iconic actor and director on the leaps of faith that made him one of the most vital Hollywood filmmakers of the decade.
’90s Week: From Julia Roberts to Meg Ryan, the rom-com never would have worked without the stars that brought it to life.
’90s Week: The filmmaker tells IndieWire how he poured everything he had learned about cinema, politics, behavior and culture into one 201-minute Molotov cocktail of epic filmmaking.
’90s Week: From “Belly” to “Beau Travail,” “Clueless” to “Chungking Express,” these are the decade’s best soundtrack cues.
’90s Week: From “Paris Is Burning” to “Boys Don’t Cry,” the history of independent film is the history of queer film.
’90s Week: “Fire Island” filmmaker Andrew Ahn interviews the ’90s icon about his Teenage Apocalypse trilogy and the punk DIY aesthetic of indie filmmaking.
’90s Week: The actress was just 14 when she won an Indie Spirit for her iconic role, and she tells IndieWire how it changed her life forever.
’90s Week: Ron Clements and John Musker’s animated reimagining of the Greek myth needed to be a major hit, but its box office disappointment obscures its many enduring strengths.
’90s Week: The best music from a movie decade that was as exciting to listen to as it was to watch.
’90s Week: The 1997 sci-fi horror film flopped in theaters and with critics. On its 25th anniversary, the director tells us about the one thing that made audiences take a second look.