The FilmNerds Blog

We arrive at the first movie on this list that I’ve already seen, Bob Clark’s holiday classic A Christmas Story. For the purposes of this blog, I’ve decided to give a fair re-watch of all the films I’ve already seen on the list, in the hopes of gleaning something new from them in the context of all the other major releases of 1983. Upon my most recent viewing, which has to be at least the 10th time I’ve watched the all the way through, my feelings and overall opinion of the film hasn’t changed but viewing it in the context of the other films of its day that I’ve now seen, my appreciation for it has perhaps grown a little.

Unless you don’t have cable or live under a rock, you’ve probably seen A Christmas Story. It’s a collection of Depression-era stories surrounding one Christmas season in the life of young Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) narrated by an adult version of the main character. The narration is in fact voiced by the author of the stories upon which the film was based, writer and radio personality Jean Shephard. When it was released in November of 1983, the film opened to respectable numbers, finishing with a total of $19.2 million on a $4 million budget, a success by anyone’s measure.

But it wasn’t the theatrical run that made this film into the classic it has become today (I’d say without a doubt this is the most widely-known and popular of the films I’ve reviewed on this list thus far). In the late ’80s the film began to fill time on some of the smaller broadcast networks around the holidays (FOX, TBS and WGN) and after seeing the success it was having, Turner decided to start using the film as a part of its regular holiday programming on its various cable channels, including TNT and Turner Classic. By the late ’90s, the film was ubiquitous around Christmas time and these days you can regularly find 24-hour marathons of the film running every Christmas Eve.

So of all the Christmas movies out there, what about this film made it take American pop culture by storm and become one of the great modern classics of the genre? There aren’t many big names in the film in terms of stars. Billingsley had a moderately successful TV career after the film and the movie’s biggest name, Melinda Dillon, while a major name in the ’70s and ’80s has since faded from popularity.

In my opinion the film’s cultural appeal comes down to two contrasting elements: dark comedy and nostalgia. This is a strange combination and not one you’d expect to see in a Christmas movie. I think when you ask most people about this film they wouldn’t think of it as a dark comedy but a quick review of the film’s biggest laughs shows that there’s definitely an edgy quality to the comedy in the film. The Skut Farkus scenes, the frozen tongue incident and particularly the department store Santa scene are all prime examples of dark comedy, certainly much darker than what we see in the vast majority of Christmas films. They help highlight the embarrassing absurdity we often feel when thinking back on certain childhood memories, which is a unique angle to take when making a nostalgic film about childhood.

Director Bob Clark is certainly no stranger to exaggerated, edgy comedy. He directed the now infamous sex comedy Porky’s as well as its sequel released earlier in 1983. The more outrageous scenes in A Christmas Story showcase Clark’s particular comedic strengths as a director, none more so than my favorite scene in the film, Ralphie’s fantasy sequence involving soap poisoning. The acting in the scene is so perfectly cartoonish, exactly the right tone for the fantasy sequence of an indulgent, short-sighted child.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE “SOAP POISONING” SCENE

This scene happens to stand out as my favorite but if you ask anyone who’s seen the film about their favorite scene, you’ll probably get a variety of answers. This film has the amazing quality of having almost every scene qualify as a classic, memorable film moment. That’s due in large part to the episodic format, which worked similarly well in other nostalgic films like Radio Days and Meet Me In St. Louis. Our memories are broken up into little episodes and stories so it only makes sense that a movie about nostalgia and memories should be formatted the same way.

The film works on so many levels, from the story to the pitch-perfect delivery of the narration. But what elevates it to the classic it has become and will always be are the three excellent lead performances. Billingsley’s chubby face and awkward glasses embody what we all felt like as children, the weakness, the vulnerability, the innocence and the foolish ability to remain hopeful and happy throughout all that. Melinda Dillon has some terrific comedic moments as the loving and selfless mother and Darren McGavin as the father, or “the old man” as he’s called in the film, delivers a truly classic comedic performance embodying the absurd confidence of a father emboldened by his status as head of the household.

A Christmas Story‘s position so far down this list is the perfect example of a film outliving its box office performance to become a classic through video and television. It was a story that would be told many more times in the years following the dawn of home video but A Christmas Story remains one of the earliest examples of the rule that classics are rarely established instantly.

Next Up: An American remake of the French New Wave classic Breathless.

Note: Back to the Movies is a special feature on the FilmNerds blog in which Matt Scalici will be watching the Top 50 highest-grossing movies of 1983 in order from 50 to 1.

As we enter the next phase of our Back to the Movies journey, we encounter an example of one of the most unique film voices of the 1970s and ’80s, playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon. I have to admit, I had no prior experience with Simon’s work prior to seeing Max Dugan Returns, his surprisingly strong-performing 1983 “family comedy”, but I had a basic impression of Simon from what I’ve read and heard from others.

Simon’s name doesn’t hold quite the same sway in 2010 as it once did but in 1983, he was certainly a highly respected name. He had already earned a Tony for his legendary stage comedy The Odd Couple along with four Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay. Simon made his name writing comedies and light dramas that typically centered on average, blue collar folk dealing with the struggles and pleasures of everyday life.

And that’s exactly what we see in the opening minutes of Max Dugan Returns, a single mother named Nora (Marsha Mason) tries to support her son Michael (played by a very young Matthew Broderick) on a teacher’s salary. We see her rushing to get out of their messy, somewhat ramshackle house on the way to school and growing more and more exasperated as the day goes on, leading us to believe that seemingly nothing can go right for Nora.

Then in walks the premise: Jason Robards, in an extremely entertaining turn as the title character Max Dugan, shows up late one night with only a briefcase to his name. Max is Nora’s father, a man she hasn’t seen for years after he was imprisoned for some non-violent, mostly harmless financial shenanigans. After serving his time, Max has the last few years stealing money from a casino (it’s okay though because they casino owners screwed him over) and now wants to share that money with his long-lost daughter and grandson. Obviously, as a person of high moral fiber Nora refuses to take any of that dirty money. Ah but there’s a catch: Max reveals that he’s dying of a non-specific disease and won’t be able to die in peace unless Nora takes the money.

Despite Max’s impassioned pleas, Nora still refuses to make herself and her son an accomplice to a crime by accepting the money, though she does allow Max to live out his final days with his family.

Okay, there’s the setup – now the fun starts. Since Nora won’t accept any of the money, Max decides to take another strategy. Fabulous gifts start showing up at the house wrapped in red bows with the explanation that they’re prizes that Nora has won on “one of those game shows that you don’t have to enter to win.” Nora is obviously upset by this development but doesn’t want her son to know what’s really going on and so we’re treated to a number of delightful scenes of Broderick enjoying the latest in cool 1983 technology. The shelf full of AV equipment in particular is a real treat, as is the shoulder-mounted home video camera and the kitchen appliances. The “prizes” alone make this movie worth watching for the nostalgia factor.

While the story is a little easy to see coming, the film is not without its merits particularly when it comes to the performances. Robards is a remarkably charming actor and he’s really what makes the film work. Broderick in his first film performance does what Nicolas Cage did in Valley Girl, which is to immediately show the potential and qualities that would later make him a major star. Broderick was somewhat discovered by Simon for a role on stage and shortly thereafter cast in Max Dugan Returns and the mix of sincerity and youthful mischief with a good measure of braininess thrown in, the qualities that made Ferris Bueler such a beloved character, were all there in 1983 when Broderick made his screen debut.

Donald Sutherland also turns in a nice performance as Nora’s boyfriend who also happens to be a cop. His character is trying to carefully balance trying to be a good boyfriend while also following his gut instinct that something might be up with Nora and the mysterious older man living in her house and Sutherland does a really good job making the character a sympathetic sort of villain.

My impression coming away from my first Neil Simon experience is that there’s an awful lot of similarity in his writing style to one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, Woody Allen. While Allen set his stories in a world full of slightly less sympathetic characters (typically self-aware intellectuals) dealing with less family-friendly problems (dysfunctional sex lives), the comedic tone is very similar between the two writers.

The Woody Allen connection isn’t a coincidence. Allen worked alongside Simon and his brother Danny as a TV writer in the 1950s and has been quoted as saying that he learned everything he knows about comedy writing from the Simon brothers. In addition, Max Dugan Returns is one of three screenplays Simon wrote that was directed by Herbert Ross, a one-time collaborator with Allen when he directed the screen version of Allen’s breakthrough stage effort Play It Again, Sam.

While Simon’s work in Max Dugan Returns isn’t anywhere near as thought-provoking and edgy as Allen’s stuff, fans of Allen’s work would still enjoy the writing from a comedy standpoint, with lots of clever references and wordplay. While it’s a pretty conventional comedy, it’s not hard to understand why this film did as well as it did in 1983. It’s a comedy about a financial miracle landing on your doorstep during a tough time. It’s something I’m sure would probably resonate pretty well with today’s audiences about as well as it did in 1983.

CLICK HERE to view the original theatrical trailer.

Next Up: The cable holiday staple A Christmas Story.

It’s been a long ride already but we’ve made it through the first ten films on our countdown of the Top 50 films of the year 1983. Ten films in, I’m actually quite pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of the films. Looking down the list, the road ahead of me contains quite a few of what I believe will be stereotypically bad ’80s genre films but this first group of ten included several movies that I feel really hold up well almost 30 years later. All ten of these films are available on Netflix for those of you who would like to sample some of them for yourselves and in addition to including links to my full reviews I’ve written for the blog, I’ve also included trailers for each film and links to the 1983 reviews by Roger Ebert (when available) and the film critics of the New York Times. I’ve also handed out some awards and superlatives for the group of ten at the end of the list.

50. Educating Rita

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2009/10/26/no-50-educating-rita/

Ebert: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19831028/REVIEWS/310280301/1023

NYT: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9F00E3D71138F932A1575AC0A965948260

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49. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2009/11/03/no-49-monty-pythons-the-meaning-of-life/

Ebert: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19830401/REVIEWS/304010301/1023

NYT: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F03E4D7123BF932A05750C0A965948260

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48. Cheech & Chong Still Smokin’

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2009/11/18/no-49-cheech-and-chongs-still-smokin/

Ebert: N/A

NYT: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F01E7D9103BF934A35756C0A965948260

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47. Gorky Park

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2009/12/09/no-47-gorky-park/

Ebert: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19831216/REVIEWS/312160301/1023

NYT: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B04E1D91738F935A25751C1A965948260

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46. D.C. Cab

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2010/01/29/no-46-d-c-cab/

Ebert: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19831222/REVIEWS/312220301/1023

NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/16/arts/film-dc-cab-humor.html?scp=2&sq=D.C.%20Cab&st=cse
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45. Richard Pryor: Here and Now

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2010/04/21/no-45-richard-pryor-here-and-now/

Ebert: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19831028/REVIEWS/310280302/1023

NYT: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990DE3D6133BF93BA15753C1A965948260

44. Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2010/05/13/no-44-spacehunter-adventures-in-the-forbidden-zone/

Ebert: N/A

NYT: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A04E6D9103BF932A15756C0A965948260

43. Krull

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2010/05/21/no-44-krull/

Ebert: N/A

NYT: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F02E1DA143BF93AA15754C0A965948260

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42. All the Right Moves

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2010/06/02/no-42-all-the-right-moves/

Ebert: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19831025/REVIEWS/310250301/1023

NYT: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9504E0DC123BF932A15753C1A965948260

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41. Valley Girl

Review: http://filmnerds.com/blog/2010/06/07/no-41-valley-girl/

Ebert: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19830429/REVIEWS/304290302/1023

NYT: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C05E7D9103BF93AA15757C0A965948260

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Best of 50-41

Best Male Performance: Chris Penn in All the Right Moves
Honorable Mention: Nicholas Cage in Valley Girl

Best Female Performance: Julie Walters in Educating Rita
Honorable Mention: Lea Thompson in All the Right Moves

Best Score/Music: Krull (score by James Horner)
Honorable Mention: Valley Girl (New Wave soundtrack)

Must-See for 2010 Viewers: All the Right Moves
Honorable Mention: Gorky Park

Better late than never, right? Well, in this case… maybe not…

I can only speak from my perspective as a “Sex and the City” non-fan – never really watched the show, saw the first movie only out of the same obligation for which I see every other movie (because I MUST) – so take this with whatever grain of salt you need to, but “Sex and the City 2,” the big-screen sequel to 2008’s first film and the long-running HBO show, is an atrocity beyond anything I could have expected.

Frankly, I was no fan of the first film, either, but in hindsight, with this sequel, it looks harmless, almost quaint in a way, a relic of a simpler time when groups of women may have acted like garish stereotypes but at least had generally compelling or relatable motivations. Viewers will find nothing resembling that here, in which writer/director Michael Patrick King – reprising these duties after the first film – views the first 45 minutes or so as a perfunctory exercise to get his characters to Abu Dhabi, where… nothing much happens there, either.

The main conflict of the film, I suppose, revolves around protagonist everywoman Carrie Preston, nee Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), whose marriage to whatever Chris Noth’s character is named is going well enough, though she’s sinking into an unfortunate rut, I guess, and tires of the routine of married life, preferring, I don’t know, her life of extravagance and nights out on the town to take-out and nights sitting on the couch. When an ill-conceived anniversary gift from the husband angers her (in a singularly infuriating scene – am I right, men who saw this movie? Am I right?), Carrie starts looking for time apart from her husband, and questioning the validity of her marriage because she feels the need to do so.

Meanwhile, Charlotte (Kristin Davis)’s kids are driving her crazy and a sexy new nanny (Alice Eve, who, the film is right on this at least, is sexy) is causing her some ill-defined anxiety in a subplot that never feels developed. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is struggling with a sexist new boss, though since this subplot only gets like one scene, it’s hard to consider this anything other than lazy shorthand to get her in some emotional place where she’ll agree to flightily take a trip with her girlfriends. And Samantha (Kim Cattrall – so good earlier this year in Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” but so, so bad here) is dealing with the advent of menopause.

All of these plots take a really, really long time to develop, as the majority of the first act seems to take place at the most extravagant gay wedding ever – and then, in spite of the film’s runtime, it all feels rushed. There are no stakes here because the emotions never feel developed or grounded in anything approaching reality – and say what you will about the first film, but that certainly wasn’t one of its problems, as anxiety surrounding marriage and infidelity were the prominent issues there and that’s all certainly relatable.

I suppose the problem is that King sought to make an “escapist” picture, in which his heroines escape their busy lives, travel to an exotic place and work out their problems in a nine-minute epilogue upon returning – but the film just comes off as trifling and insensitive, not only on cultural and religious grounds (I feel like enough has been written on that subject but OH MY GOD, who thought the climax of the film was a good idea) but economically speaking, too. I cannot think of a more ill-timed tentpole release than this, when the main characters’ chief concern upon trying to hurriedly flee from Abu Dhabi is whether or not they’ll be stuck in coach on the way back. I’m not trying to make some political statement with this review – the film is, frankly, not worth such thought – but making a film about four flighty women of privilege whose problems seem very much like problems people of lesser economic circumstance would kill for seems like a terrible idea in this climate. Judging by the box office, the people are voting with their pocketbooks – and rejecting this absurd, classist nonsense as they should. No amount of corny puns or fabulous clothes are worth sitting through this. So please don’t.

½ (out of four)

Note: Back to the Movies is a special feature on the FilmNerds blog in which Matt Scalici will be watching the Top 50 highest-grossing movies of 1983 in order from 50 to 1.

As a piece of box office history, Valley Girl is an interesting item. Produced independently for around $350,000, Valley Girl was the first film ever picked up for distribution by the short-lived Atlantic label, which didn’t last through the ’80s but was responsible for two of the biggest independently-produced hits of the decade in Night of the Comet and Teen Wolf. Valley Girl’s box office total of 17.34 million made it one of the most profitable independent releases of the 1980s.

But more importantly, Valley Girl introduced several new elements (and a new star) into the pop culture lexicon. For one, it introduced the concept of the “valley girl” to the nation at large. The concept had already been articulated brilliantly by Frank Zappa in his 1982 song “Valley Girl” but it wasn’t until the film was released that the nation became aware of the stereotype, particularly the now infamous “Valspeak” slang.

Secondly, Valley Girl‘s soundtrack is considered a landmark moment for New Wave music. The genre was already hitting its peak of popularity in 1983 but Valley Girl‘s usage of the music sort of synthesizes a moment in time culturally on film.

But perhaps the film’s greatest revelation, and judging from the reviews of the time one that was not fully appreciated in 1983, was the introduction of a young and budding actor named Nicolas Cage. At the time, Cage’s only previous film role was a cameo in Fast Times at Ridgemont High under his birth name, Nicolas Coppola. The story goes that in order to avoid the appearance of nepotism, the young actor changed his last name to audition for a part in his uncle Francis Ford Coppola’s film Rumble Fish. Cage earned the part and quickly moved on to film the much less prestigious Valley Girl, which ended up getting released a few months before Rumble Fish.

This may sound like one of those stories about an actor who before becoming famous took a part in a bad movie that he would later regret. That couldn’t be further from the truth. For my money, Cage’s work in Valley Girl is nothing to be embarrassed about. Not only is Cage’s performance just as quirky, interesting and authentic as anything else he’s done throughout his 27-year career but the fact that he wrung such an entertaining performance out of such a weak screenplay might perhaps make this performance one of his most impressive.

Cage plays Randy, a Hollywood punk (which means he has a little die in his hair and wears leather) who decides to crash a party full of rich, shallow kids from, where else, Valley High. Meanwhile, said party is also being attended by Julie (played by Deborah Foreman), who just recently dumped her totally grodie boyfriend Tommy (Michael Bowen). Randy and Julie see each other across the room and the Romeo & Juliet parallels can carry you the rest of the way through the story.

Before I continue any further, I have to talk about the character of Tommy. Tommy represents the first example on our list of one of my absolute favorite things about movies from the ’80s: The Douchebag Boyfriend. In many ways, the Douchebag Boyfriend is one of the key elements of the high school film. When what’s at stake in the story is high school love, social acceptance and an untainted sense of self-confidence, the Douchebag Boyfriend represents the ultimate threat to all three of those things. He is the ultimate figure of evil in the world of high school romantic comedy. To that end, Michael Bowen does a fantastic job of creating a perfectly, hilariously douchey bad guy. Bowen would later make a career out of being a douchebag, with memorable roles in Jackie Brown (as the bad cop to Michael Keaton’s good cop), Kill Bill (as Buck, who came to…) and “Lost” (as Juliet’s angry boyfriend).

But as with any teen-theme romantic comedy, the film hinges on the relationship between our Romeo & Juliet. After establishing how incredibly dull and shallow Julie and her friends are in the opening scenes, the movie quickly takes a surprising and refreshing turn by injecting Julie into Hollywood, a world of punk culture, New Wave music, rough streets and essentially different-thinking people. Julie becomes enamored with living life outside of the boring, superficial life she’s been a part of for so long and the film’s most memorable sequence gives us a montage of the two young lovers on a series of dates set to the New Wave classic “Melt With You” by Modern English. It’s a surprisingly effective moment and the chemistry between the two leads is palpable during their scenes together, which unfortunately are too few and far between.

The vast majority of the film’s running time has our hero and heroine separated, talking to their friends and family members about whether or not their relationship can work because of their differences. It’s during these sequences that the film really starts to drag and lose momentum. Cage brings such vibrancy and enthusiasm to every scene he plays that it seems to invigorate every other actor sharing the screen with him. The movie simply comes to life when Cage is on screen and when he’s not, the energy quickly drains out of the film.

Despite the movie’s hot and cold nature, I have to say I came away pleasantly surprised at how between a strong effort from a young Nicolas Cage and some thoughtful direction by young director Martha Coolidge, this clearly weak screenplay actually is able to produce some effective screen moments. If every other high school comedy I encounter during my Back to the Movies journey is as good as Valley Girl, I’ll have no problem sitting through them all. Unfortunately for me, I doubt that will be the case.

Next Up: Max Dugan Returns starring Jason Robards and Matthew Broderick.

Note: Back to the Movies is a special feature on the FilmNerds blog in which Matt Scalici will be watching the Top 50 highest-grossing movies of 1983 in order from 50 to 1.

While it’s still pretty far down the list of the top-grossing movies of 1983, I would say that All the Right Moves is the first relatively iconic film on our list. It seems to have grown in stature over time since its initial release, probably because of the eventual superstardom of its star Tom Cruise.

By the time All the Right Moves hit theaters in October of 1983 (one week before I was born, by the way) Cruise was already one of the hottest young stars in Hollywood thanks to the massively successful hit Risky Business released just two months earlier. In fact, most theaters were probably still showing Risky Business at the time that All the Right Moves premiered. Nearly every review written at the time mentions Risky Business so it was clearly a major cultural phenomenon that probably affected the way a lot of viewers approached All the Right Moves and almost certainly affected the film’s gross.

Cruise plays Stefen Djordjevic, a high school football player from the town of Ampipe, Pennsylvania (the town is named after the fictional American Pipe Company which employs nearly the entire town). The town of Ampipe serves as the villain of the film, essentially. It’s a depressed, stagnant Rust Belt town that represents the opposite of the cinematic American dream, a place where no matter how hard you work, you have no chance of making a better life for yourself. Stefen’s only way out is a college football scholarship, a longshot for him considering his diminutive stature and limited physical talent. But against the odds, Stefen has started to receive a little bit of attention from smaller colleges, though his desire to go to the best engineering school possible leads him to spurn an offer from an unnamed state school at the beginning of the film (the school’s recruiter is played by a very young Terry O’Quinn aka John Locke from Lost).

When Ampipe High School’s season takes a turn for the worse, the road to a college scholarship gets a little bit tougher for Stefen. The film follows the always-reliable dramatic path of tragedy unfolding from a series of misunderstandings, misdirected emotion and unfortunate coincidences. The series of events that leads to Craig T. Nelson’s Coach Nickerson jeopardizing Stefen’s college career never comes off as forced, since each character is given enough screen time for the audience to truly understand all of their actions and the motivations behind them. It’s a classic example of well-written drama, a scenario in which the characters end up hurting each other and themselves despite having the best of intentions at the story’s outset.

Nelson and Cruise both do a great job of adding real sympathy and emotional depth to their roles but it’s two supporting performances that gave the film its most interesting dramatic moments. Chris Penn is absolutely heartbreaking as Stefen’s teammate and best friend Brian, the team’s most talented player who is forced to turn down a scholarship to USC after impregnating his girlfriend. A lot of fans and critics went after All the Right Moves for wrapping up its story too neatly and happily but Penn’s character arc to me balances this out and gives us a taste of the tragedy Stef would face if he never got out of Ampipe. There’s a moment where Penn’s character is trying to enjoy himself at a party with his classmates just before heading off to his honeymoon in Pittsburgh and the look on his face as he tries to convince everyone that he’s happy with his situation is absolutely devastating.

The other real gem in the film is a young Lea Thompson, another bright young talent nabbed that this film caught just before she took off. Thompson’s resume was virtually blank coming into All the Right Moves but in the two years following the film she would star in Red Dawn and Back to the Future, two of the most iconic films of the 1980s, and it’s not surprising to see why her career took off after this film. She exudes girlish charm and while she’s a beautiful girl, she’s comes off as identifiable rather than intimidating. To apply my 2010 perspective, she reminds me a lot of Rachel McAdams, a girl that is certainly attractive enough to be a romantic lead but gets most of her appeal from her friendly, girl-next-door personality rather than raw sex appeal. Thompson’s role as Stefen’s girlfriend mostly reiterates the same themes present throughout the rest of the film (she wants to be a musician but can’t afford college) but the biggest asset she brings to the film is the addition of yet another pressure on Stefen’s life, the pressure of maintaining a relationship. She’s a supportive girlfriend to be sure but she has needs too and Stefen’s lack of emotional maturity creates more problems for him to deal with throughout the film.

Director Michael Chapman hadn’t done much directing before this film, and didn’t much after either, but real film nerds know him as one of the great cinematographers of the late ’70s and early ’80s. His work on Taxi Driver and Raging Bull put him in the pantheon of great DPs and though he didn’t continue to work at that level going forward in his career, it should be noted that when he took on All the Right Moves, he was at the absolute top of his game and I think it shows. Chapman had the foresight to hire a then-unknown Jan de Bont to shoot All the Right Moves and it’s interesting to see de Bont working with such subtle material knowing that he would later go on to become one of the leading names in blow-stuff-up-real-good filmmaking. The bleak, depressed setting of the film is crucial to telling this story and that setting is brilliantly synthesized by de Bont’s blue and gray-toned photography.

Is the ending of All the Right Moves ham-fisted and too convenient? Absolutely it is. It’s a little odd to see a film like this so hesitant to end things in a more logical, if more depressing, way particularly when it takes its inspiration so obviously from one of the most dark, depressing dramas of the 1970s, The Deer Hunter. I suppose in the end the fact that our subject matter is football rather than the Vietnam War probably led the filmmakers to opt for a happier ending. Still despite the rather gutless resolution, the film stands up today as a really effective portrayal of a classic story of teenage angst. It works particularly well set against today’s backdrop of economic depression and seemingly bleak outlooks for the future.

All the Right Moves might be remembered today because of the big names who got their start in the film but it continues to endure as a watchable film because of truthfully it depicts its characters and their hopes, fears and desires.

Next Up: Valley Girl starring Nicholas Cage.