Talk to me about 80s Urban Paranoia films (or C/D, I guess)

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Re-watching both After Hours and Adventures in Babysitting this weekend, I'm struck by this trend of movies in the decade about upper/middle-class suburbanites (or at least city dwellers who don't typically venture beyond their professional/social sphere) becoming stranded in the city and set upon by any number urban threats (often racialized, though just as frequently displays of anxieties about class or any non-normative sexuality). An extension of the "excremental city" (to use Robin Wood's term) cycle of films from the 70s, like Taxi Driver, Death Wish, etc. but what is interesting about the 80s cycle is how they were frequently comic in tone: add to After Hours (my fave Scorsese film, or at least tied with TD) and Adventures in Babysitting (I loved it as a kid; doesn't quite hold up), Into the Night, I suppose (though it's pretty bad), Vamp (a guilty pleasure that I'll defend up to a point), or even the original Vactaion for the scene where the family gets lost in (i think) Chicago. What else?

Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:01 (nine years ago)

How about Mike Leigh's "Naked" ?

Similar but different...

Mark G, Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:03 (nine years ago)

Does Fatal Attraction fit? I know it's more about other anxieties, but when Douglas moves his family to the suburbs, and Close's phone calls and threats start coming, they're like missives from another world that disrupt/threaten Douglas's domestic tranquility.

clemenza, Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:18 (nine years ago)

Haven't seen Naked.

Fatal Attraction probably belongs to another separate but related cycle of late 80s/early 90s thrillers where the external threat enters the domestic space. See also, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Unlawful Entry--Siskel and Ebert did a show on this very topic back in the day.

Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:26 (nine years ago)

Bonfire of the Vanities? Although that's more upper class suburbanites imagining a threat that isn't really there.

Eins zwei PoliSci (snoball), Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:27 (nine years ago)

Can't believe I forgot to mention that one, as I was just reading an essay about the novel when I started thinking about this topic. Also, I haven't seen it--wasn't it the De Palma film so bad that even Pauline Kael hated it?

Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:30 (nine years ago)

I think De Palma's Body Double has elements of this

Josefa, Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:37 (nine years ago)

The Out-of-Towners is sort of the forerunner of all of these I suppose

Josefa, Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:46 (nine years ago)

Obviously Something Wild has the classic characters you need for this, although the action moves cross-country

Josefa, Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:51 (nine years ago)

Something Wild = yet another embarrassing gap in my viewing history.

Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:54 (nine years ago)

Judgment Night (the soundtrack to which is beloved by a small but passionate subset of ILM posters)

the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Sunday, 6 December 2015 18:59 (nine years ago)

Oh, right--late ('93?) addition to the genre. Plus, it has this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOmdg3epcic

Fetty Wap Is Strong In Here (cryptosicko), Sunday, 6 December 2015 19:01 (nine years ago)

Risky Business!

Josefa, Sunday, 6 December 2015 19:03 (nine years ago)

The Freshman with Broderick & Brando

Josefa, Sunday, 6 December 2015 19:19 (nine years ago)


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