The 1980s is an era that has had a lasting impact on pop-culture. The movies, TV, music, fashion, and aesthetic of the decade are iconic – even if you weren’t alive during that time, there’s a good chance that something from the 80s has had an impact on your life! Between the resurgence of fashion trends and Tik Tok nostalgia, the 80s is one of many decades that has lived beyond its time through the internet. On The Light Leaks team, we each have a movie or TV show that we wanted to introduce from this time period. From action movies to rom-coms, here are the on-screen stories that scream “80s” to us.

Aliens (1986 Directed by James Cameron) R

by Brynna Arens, TLL Editorial Lead

My favorite films from the 80s tend to be action movies. I remember watching films like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Back to the Future with my dad and falling in love with the stylized aesthetics and “over-the-top” energy that 80s action movies are known for. Fast forward to college and my ‘Female Heroism in Hollywood’ course, where I was able to view the movies I loved as a child (and now!) and apply a critical feminist lens to them. This course taught me about the niche that actors like Linda Hamilton from the Terminator franchise and Sigourney Weaver from the Aliens franchise created for women in action movies of the 80s and 90s. Even though their depictions of heroism are far from perfect, their characters existed during a time where the “ideal” action star was super muscular and a cis male.

Aliens, the sequel to the 1979 film Alien, improves upon its predecessor by giving Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley so much more to do. She’s involved in the action from the beginning, and becomes a leader when the men on her team fail to adapt to the challenges they face. To enjoy Aliens, you don’t necessarily have to watch the previous film to understand what’s going on. We meet Ripley 57 years after the events of the first film, when she is rescued from a hypersleep escape pod by a space salvage crew. She recounts the horrors she and her previous team faced at the hands of the alien creatures in the hopes of preventing anyone from going back to the planet they were found on. After she discovers that Earth has sent colonists to the planet, Ripley joins a rescue team to give them a fighting chance against the creatures. In Aliens, not only does Ripley have to once again fight against a bloodthirsty intergallactic species, she also battles an incompetent and inexperienced lieutenant and a capitalistic goon hell-bent on bringing an alien back to Earth for experimentation, no matter the cost. Sigourney Weaver’s performance of Ripley truly elevates Aliens beyond the other testosterone-filled action movies of the era and makes the film well worth the watch during your next 80s binge.

The Golden Girls (1985 Created by Susan Harris) TV-PG

by Kim Hoyos, TLL Founder

When we were kids, my older brother introduced my 6-year-old self to the Golden Girls via cable reruns. The main characters Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan), Rose Nylund (Betty White), Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) are senior citizens who live together in Miami, FL and the sitcom follows their lives over the hill. At first I didn’t understand why he was so entertained by the antics of these older women, but as I watched I was sucked into their life filled with tropical pastels, AARP gags, and a friendship knit tighter than their sweater sets

What makes The Golden Girls very special to me is the friendship between southern belle Blanche, mid-western sweetheart Rose, and sarcastic delight Dorothy forms later in life. So often we see stories of young women and their friendships but these ladies meet after already facing marriage, kids, divorce, death, careers, and love. For The Golden Girls so much life has already been lived and it’s because of that, they are able to find comfort in each other. Sophia rounds out the group as Dorothy’s mother who is never without a story from the old country (Italy), a wisecrack for the ladies, or a lesson that they still need to learn. By focusing on women that don’t usually get the spotlight, this sitcom challenges the notions of who is funny and who can still have sex. I think watching it so young not only gifted me with jokes I was too young to understand, but also a sense of knowing that aging is a superpower.

Whether it’s a one night stand Blanche is pursuing, revenge on Dorthoy’s ex husband Stan, or Rose totally misunderstanding someone causing chaos - each episode is packed with scenarios that’ll leave you laughing or with your jaw on the ground. The Golden Girls share wisdom over cheesecake, and I only hope to be as funny and vibrant as these women are when I hit my golden years. Reclaiming the prime of their lives, this 80s sitcom will remind you that you always have time to find your groove and your girl crew along the way.

The Breakfast Club (1985 Directed by John Hughes) R

by Stacey Ramírez, Social Media and Editorial Editor

I believe the 80’s was the golden age of teen films and I will die on that hill. This decade was remembered for a lot of things but for me, what’s most notable is its contribution of teen films. One of the most well-known teen films of the 80s is my personal favorite John Hughes', The Breakfast Club (1985). Hughes filmography not only realistically captured teenage life at the time but also introduced us to some of the biggest actors and actresses in 80s cinema known as the Brat Pack. Most notably, actress Molly Ringwald who made an appearance in The Breakfast Club as well as two other of his movies.

I remember back when I was walking through my own high school and seeing the old yearbooks and 80s class photos and imagining what those people's lives were like. There were those differences I could see in photos like their hair and clothes, but I wondered about the things I couldn't see, like what music they listened to and how they listened to it, what their lives were like, their worries, and their weekends. If you’ve ever imagined what being a teen and going to high school in the 80’s would be like, The Breakfast Club gives a pretty great example of that. The first thing that comes to mind for me is how great it captured 80’s fashions like high waisted jeans, midi skirts, men with long hair and earrings. Then there's also the music, for a decade that embraced rock music, this soundtrack was no exception and included Simple Minds, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" as the film's theme.

The movie takes place in one day as five high schoolers from different cliques, John Bender, The Criminal (Judd Nelson), Claire Standish, The Prom Queen (Molly Ringwald), Brian Johnson, The Brain (Anthony Michael Hall), Allison Reynolds, The Basket Case (Ally Sheedy) and Andrew Clark, The Athlete (Emilio Estevez ) are forced to spend their Saturday in detention. In the beginning, the five characters try to ignore one another just as they would during school hours, but begin to realize they have more in common than they thought and about one another than their stereotypes. They begin to reveal bits about themselves that bring them together.

The Breakfast Club portrays teen life and its struggles in a way that feels timeless despite the film’s age. It captures the fear of growing up, mental health, body dysmorphia, and the social expectations young people face in school and life even today. We can all find a character or two that we relate to. So anyone like me who is nostalgic for that 80’s teen experience, I recommend watching The Breakfast Club.

Moonstruck (1987 Directed by Norman Jewison) PG

by Abygai Peña, TLL Writer & Editor

Moonstruck was one of the most memorable romantic comedies in the 80s. Picking a favorite or voice of the era proves a difficult challenge for me, but I’ll stick with what never gets old and always aims to please. One of my personal favorites – like a moon in the sky, like a big pizza pie – it’s Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck. This film gives you the scandal and romance factors all wrapped into one rom-com . Your leading romantic leads are the likes of Cher, who plays Loretta Castorini and Nicolas Cage, who plays Johnny Cammareri. no-fuss bookkeeper, Loretta settles for a comfortable proposal from Johnny who must leave right after his proposal to tend to his dying mother in Italy. Johnny asks Loretta for one favor: to find his brother Ronny and convince him to come to the wedding.

This is where the Greek (or Italian for that matter) tragedy begins. Loretta's character has such a no-nonsense approach to love and lives with such a matter-of-fact attitude it makes you as a viewer crave passion and intensity for her. The bleakness of her life as care-taker, a daughter, and widow gives her character a dimensionality of virginity–a sense of someone who remains controlled and self-contained to matters dealing with desire. When Loretta visits Johnny at his bakery we see in his surroundings the emblems of his soul. Johnny works in the basement of the bakery trapped in a windowless room moving loaves of bread from oven to table day in and day out. When we see him he’s sweaty and wearing a tight white tank top. Even the camera angles in this scene show a certain claustrophobia with tight framing only displaying to the audience Johnny with a raging fire brick oven behind him. Johnny and a raging fire remain one in the same. The tension is immediate and arguments about the falling out between the two brothers emerges quickly. During this vocal spar Nicolas Cage is well… Nicolas Cage.

He points the loss of this hand through a bread slicer to be the point of contention between him and his brother. He and his wooden hand which Loretta compares to a wolf who has chewed off his own foot. Loretta demands to speak to him in his apartment with attempts to appease the animal inside with a home-cooked meal. The tension between them is palpable. Things bubble over when Johnny picks up the table and throws it along with the remnants of dinner. In the heat of the moment, Johnny picks up Loretta from her chair and take her to his bedroom all the while she quickly jumps from her concern for her fiance and his brother Ronny to, “I don’t care, I don’t care anymore” Loretta shifts from a woman void of feeling to a women deep into the throws of passion. The remaining hour of the film follows Loretta and Johnny figuring out how to be together and it’s well worth the watch. The film examines desire in a way that reminds you to listen to your truest wants and honor them despite the impact on the rest of the world. The adage you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet resonates here.

Crossing Delancey (1988 Directed by Joan Micklin Silver, written by Susan Sandler) PG

By Mercedes Gonzales-Bazan, Research Lead

I first heard about this film around the time of the director Joan Micklin Silver's passing in 2020 and the tributes praising this film. As an avid rom-com fan, I knew I needed to watch, and what I discovered exceeded all my expectations. The 1988 play-adaptation Crossing Delancey often goes under the radar when we think of 80s films, which is why Micklin Silver's film is a hidden gem of NYC rom coms. Thirty-something Isabelle “Izzy” Grossman, played by Amy Irving, navigates romance, family, and everything in between in 1980s NYC.. Izzy is a bookstore employee who is in awe of the city’s uptown modern literary scene and the intellectual “elite” within her industry’s circle. Izzy's other world exists downtown in the Lower East Side, where she was raised in a traditionally Jewish household and spends her free time with her Bubbe (grandma) Ida Kantor, played by Reizl Bozyk. When her Bubbe Ida enlists a local marriage broker to assist Izzy in finding a more traditional husband, she’s matched with a sweet pickle vendor, Sam Posner, played by Peter Riegert. Her initial hesitancy toward the arrangement and her pretentious disgust in dating a working-class guy gradually sway toward affection as she learns more and more about the caring pickle man. This romantic comedy takes the viewers on a journey through not only a timestamp of NYC but also a specific era of Izzy’s life where she’s entangled within her own romantic decision-making.

Crossing Delancey utilizes so many themes, from Jewish cultural identity and class to feminism; they’re all brought together in a love story that feels nuanced and created with care. The film is just one of Micklin Silver’s on-screen portraits of Jewish culture in New York, but what makes this so special is how she captured Izzy’s version of 1980s New York in such a specific way— through focusing on her day-to-day life and making her ordinary into the extraordinary. As a viewer, I find so much comfort in seeing the details of her life, like in the park with her grandma and watching an eccentric performance in the middle of the Papaya King hot-dog joint. You learn about Izzy and see the intricacies of everyday life in 1980s New York— a city so daunting at times but here we’re allowed into a realm where Izzy is the main character in her own NYC story. Crossing Delancey holds a special power of transporting you to the Lower East Side of Manhattan. While we’re close to forty years out of this era of the LES neighborhood, it still holds its same essence and vibrance we see in the film.