Four 1980s Classics Streaming Now
Including those lovable Goonies, the Talking Heads, and a double dose of Harrison Ford
Every so often we like to traffic in nostalgia here at Do You Like Apples, and this week we are headed back to the 1980s. There’s a bunch of classics and cult hits from the 80s streaming now, so we wrote about four of our faves: two action-adventure movies, a concert documentary, and a rom-com with an all-star cast.
Enjoy the nostalgia hit this week. We’ll be back with an Oscars preview next Friday!
Billy recommends…
Stop Making Sense (streaming on Amazon Prime)
As a disclaimer this is a live concert, but it absolutely needs mentioning. My roommate walked in on me watching John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch. An underwhelming part for me was the exciting part of the program for him. He screamed, “Oh shit! That’s David Byrne!” He had to bring up The Talking Heads before I remembered the name and after a few exchanges about this legendary man he told me about Stop Making Sense.
My eyes rolled and my expression surely said, “Can we watch something else?” Normally what he suggests is interesting at least, so I buckled up. This turned into one of the more irresistible things I have ever watched. Everything David Byrne did was so fun, eccentric, and frankly moving. Not moving in the emotional sense, but the literal. The guy never stopped moving, but in a way that I could relate to. All of it was so awkward, but not cringe-inducing, which is exactly my lane.
I brought up this experience to my dad and two uncles via text and they both immediately responded with admiration for the seemingly man-child that is David Byrne. Not many things can be so fun and infectious at the same time. Turn it on with friends around and all of you will be dancing by running in place, which is Mr. Byrne’s most popular move.
Working Girl (streaming on HBO)
This is the most 80s and New York shit I have ever seen in film. The sweeping opening credits have a song that lives in the background while enchanting shots of the New York landscape fill up the screen. Then it transitions into the biggest hair in movie history. Melanie Griffith plays Tess McGill, our main character, who is a beautiful, scrappy worker spending five years of night school to get her degree and every waking hour trying to “make it” in New York’s Wall Street. She begins to work for Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) who steals one of her ideas and after Parker has to take a break from work because of a broken leg, she tries to take it back by pretending she has her boss’ job.
Director Mike Nichols is one of cinema’s sneaky all time directors. His most iconic being The Graduate, but his career extends across many decades. Each decade is riddled with iconic imagery of that era. Working Girl being the most 80s in aesthetic and themes. The themes being sometimes outdated and the aesthetic hitting all the right notes. The themes are strange in that it is clearly trying to show some unhealthy… business practices… from the eyes of a woman, but some scenes could be amended. Particularly the first “hook up” and the love story throughout. Both lead to a romantic storyline that does not fit so well. The skills of Nichols shines through regardless by creating conflict at every turn, which sends the story forward at an exhilarating pace. Frankly, he probably didn’t have to do much with the cast involved. We have Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Cusack, and Alec Baldwin leading every scene. It is pretty easy to make a story entertaining with that cast.
Working Girl is endlessly rewatchable for so many different reasons. The classic dialogue brings wonderful quotes, “Sometimes, I dance around my apartment in my underwear... doesn't make me Madonna, never will.” A sexy aura throughout most of the movie. Plus the aspects that are shocking and out of place. Working Girl is a wonderful study for looking at past cinema and understanding the decisions that should not be there while also appreciating why a movie is a borderline classic. The classic comes from the energy you will feel while watching. Because of that go all the way back to the 80s and relive a time, like myself, that is romanticized because I did not live then.
Drew recommends…
Raiders of the Lost Ark (streaming on Netflix)
How to even begin writing about a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark? I try not to be too hyperbolic in this newsletter, but this may be the greatest action-adventure movie ever made. I’ve seen it so many times at this point, and, despite a deep familiarity with each and every second, this movie still thrills and delights me to no end. Raiders is 115 minutes of nonstop globe-trotting, treasure-hunting, and good old fashioned moviemaking.
It should come as no surprise that Raiders of the Lost Ark was conceived and executed by some of the greatest minds in blockbuster cinema history. The story goes that in 1977, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were both on vacation in Hawaii. Lucas was basking in the glow of Star Wars’ massive success and Spielberg had just delivered another hit with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Lucas told Spielberg about his idea for a James Bond-type story about an adventuring archaeologist. They brought in screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) to write the script, with Spielberg directing.
Fresh off another iconic Han Solo performance in The Empire Strikes Back, Harrison Ford was cast as the swashbuckling Indiana Jones, who tries to get to the long-lost Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis in 1936. Ford is magnificent in the role, with the movie relying on his trademark blend of humor, exasperation, and recklessness. As a kid who grew up idolizing Indiana Jones (I even watched the short-lived TV series The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones), this character was so iconic that he made loving archeology and hating snakes seem undeniably cool.
Of course, I’d be remiss to overlook Karen Allen’s performance as Marion. She brings a real verve and toughness to Indy’s love interest. You can sense the complicated and fraught backstory between the two just by the way Marion looks at him. Every time I watch Raiders I come away more impressed with what Allen is doing on screen.
While the character of Marion translates well to 2020, you wouldn’t necessarily expect the movie’s special effects and set pieces to do the same. However, I’m astonished by them every time, mostly because nothing made almost 40 years ago has any right to look that amazing all these years later. From the rolling boulder in the opening scene to the exhilarating chase sequence near the end, every stunt and action sequence is a hair-raising blast -- I don’t know how Spielberg did it.
Speaking of Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark kicked off a sensational decade for him. During the 1980s, he directed E.T., The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, and three Indiana Jones movies. Harrison Ford had a ridiculously successful decade himself, playing Indiana Jones three times, Han Solo twice, as well as starring in Blade Runner, Witness, and Working Girl. These guys couldn’t lose in the 80s.
Roger Ebert called Raiders of the Lost Ark “an out-of-body experience, a movie of glorious imagination and breakneck speed.” I can’t think of a better description of this classic adventure that will remain timeless and inimitable as long as we have the movies.
The Goonies (streaming on Amazon Prime)
The Goonies shamelessly plays on every kid’s fantasy of setting off on a treasure hunt. I grew up watching this movie on VHS, just wishing I would stumble upon a treasure map in my grandma’s basement that would lead to a grand adventure. It’s why I still look back with immense fondness on this movie, and -- come to think of it -- it’s probably why I love a current show like Stranger Things so much.
The hit Netflix show dials into the same feeling that 80s movies like The Goonies captured so well: the kids go off on an adventure and the parents mostly stay off screen. The children were the key actors, the heroes of the story. Spielberg understands this better than most. While he didn’t direct The Goonies, he did come up with the story, which isn’t surprising when you consider this is the same guy that has made kid-centered movies like E.T., Hook, and Jurassic Park.
While the premise remains daydream-inducing for any child, the actual plot mechanics of The Goonies don’t matter all that much. Mikey, Brand, Mouth, Data, and Chunk follow One-Eyed Willy’s treasure map while being pursued by the Fratelli crime family. That’s about all you need to know; the rest is just escapist fun.
Spielberg and co. did a terrific job casting this movie with likable and watchable kids. In their film debuts, Sean Astin (Rudy, Lord of the Rings) plays the main character Mikey, and Josh Brolin plays his brother Brand. In addition to these two recognizable names, we get charming performances from Corey Feldman (Mouth) and Jeff Cohen (the hysterical Chunk). Who knows if it was great casting or pure luck, but most of the reason The Goonies is so beloved today is because of these child actors.
Rewatching this movie as you get older means you don’t have the same urge to take off on a treasure hunt, and maybe that’s a shame. But hopefully you still get a little of that sense of wonder that you felt the first time you saw it. Josh Brolin said that when they filmed the movie the director wouldn’t let them see the massive pirate ship from the climactic scene until the day they were shooting it. As the cast lay their eyes on it during the movie, that’s the genuine reaction only an awestruck kid can give you.
Links to get you hyped
It’s a Wes Anderson summer! This week it was announced that the idiosyncratic director’s new title The French Dispatch will arrive on July 24th.
T-Swift fans, gather ‘round the ol’ Netflix box. There’s a new Taylor Swift documentary landing on Netflix today.
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