The Best Films of the ’80s: Todd Field, Bill Hader, Nia DaCosta, Wayne Wang, and More Share Their Picks
By David Ehrlich, Kate Erbland, Jim Hemphill
August 18, 2023
We ranked the 100 best movies of the ‘80s, and listed our favorite performances, scores, and anime of the decade. We interviewed Charles Burnett about his compromised masterpiece “My Brother’s Wedding,” Susan Seidelman about bringing a new kind of woman to the big screen, “Buddies” actor David Schachter about the first movie to tackle AIDS head-on, and went deep with Hal Hartley on the making of “The Unbelievable Truth.” Michael Giacchino waxing poetic on “Raiders of the Lost Ark?” Griffin Dunne reflecting on “After Hours?” The story of the Sundance Institute from the people who brought it to life? A true Day One exclusive.
We ran essays about the synth invasion of Hollywood scores, the uncomfortably comedic role that consent played in ’80s comedies, the birth of the steadicam, the ending of “Fatal Attraction,” and — of course — why “Streets of Fire” should’ve been the biggest rock musical of our lifetimes.
So now, as IndieWire’s ’80s Week begins to wind down, we thought we’d close things out by asking some of our favorite filmmakers to weigh in on the era that was and offer their picks for the best movies of the decade. The remit was simple: Send us a list of your 10 favorite films of the decade, ranked or unranked, annotated or not. The responses we got in return varied widely in both form and content, and we have, for the most part, presented them to you here exactly in the style in which we received them. Some people decided to play a bit fast and loose with the whole “top 10” of it all, and we honestly can’t blame them; our list had 100 movies on it, and it was a brutal process to even cut it down to that. Let it never be said again that the ’80s wasn’t a glorious time for cinema.
R.J. Cutler 10 Best/Most Influential Films 1980s (chronological)
“Dressed to Kill” (1980, Brian De Palma)
“The King of Comedy” (1982, Martin Scorsese)
“Fanny and Alexander” (1982, Ingmar Bergman)
“Stop Making Sense” (1984, Jonathan Demme)
“Brazil” (1985, Terry Gilliam)
“Wall Street” (1987, Oliver Stone)
“Withnail and I” (1987, Bruce Robinson)
“Thin Blue Line” (1988, Errol Morris)
“Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story” (1988, Todd Haynes)
“Sex, Lies, and Videotape” (1989, Steven Soderbergh)
Also: Road Warrior (1981, George Miller); Repo Man (1984, Alex Cox); The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989, Peter Greenaway); Blood Simple (1984, Joel and Ethan Coen); Sherman’s March (1985, Ross McElwee); Something Wild (1986, Jonathan Demme); The Fly (1986, David Cronenberg); Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989, Woody Allen)
