The BFI's Lost In America: The Other Side Of Reagan's 80's retrospective

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This is hitting the British Film Institute in May and unlike most of their retros I've never even heard of most of these movies. I made it a poll because I thought it'd be fun but any recommendations/discussion is welcome.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Lost In America (Brooks, 1985)	5
Something Wild (Demme, 1986)	3
River's Edge (Hunter, 1986)	2
Running On Empty (Lumet, 1988)	1
Choose Me (Rudolph, 1984)	1
Streetwise (Bell, 1984)	0
Smooth Talk (Chopra, 1985)	0
Mike's Murder (Bridges, 1984)	0
Parting Glances (Sherwood, 1985)	0
Suburbia (Spheeris, 1983)	0
Crossing Delancey (Silver, 1988)	0
Out Of The Blue (Hopper, 1980)	0

― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 10:12 (seven years ago)

Out Of The Blue is set in Canada, isn't it?

― (Henry) Green container bin with face (Tom D.), Wednesday, 18 April 2018 10:20 (seven years ago)

Out of the Blue, Lost in America, Something Wild = essential viewing if you've never seen them.

Suburbia, Choose Me, Smooth Talk, River's Edge, Running on Empty - all worth seeing too.

Have never seen Mike's Murder, but it was a notorious disaster at the time - maybe the BFI is trying to rescue its reputation.

Notable absences = Cutter's Way, To Live and Die in LA.

Voted Something Wild cos it's the ultimate 'Yuppie Terror' movie.

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 10:20 (seven years ago)

Lost in America, though I still need to see a few of these.

Mike's Murder was beloved by Kael and no one else. I've never come across it anywhere, but I'm intrigued.

― Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 18 April 2018 12:41 (seven years ago)

Choose Me has a weird, artificial vibe to it but is interesting viewing.

Haven't seen all of these but would assume Lost in America and Something Wild are as good as any here, both funny/cringey.

Out Of The Blue is set in Canada, isn't it?

Not only that but it predates Reagan's regime!

― Josefa, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 14:37 (seven years ago)

I should see more of these in order to judge fairly but Running on Empty is one of my all-time faves so that.

― Across the You Never Her (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 April 2018 14:51 (seven years ago)

Wish River Phoenix had done more 'kids at the mercy of parents who make fucked-up decisions' movies (see also: Mosquito Coast).

― Across the You Never Her (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 18 April 2018 14:52 (seven years ago)

Out of the Blue, Lost in America, Something Wild = essential viewing if you've never seen them.

The trailers for all three has 60/70s pop in the soundtrack.

Thanks Ward for that really useful breakdown - like Daniel I had no idea where to start with this. Might catch a couple even though I want to see a couple of films that I haven't from the '68 season. xps

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 18 April 2018 14:57 (seven years ago)

Streetwise is a great doc about street kids in Seattle, not sure if it's ever been out on DVD.

― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 18 April 2018 15:17 (seven years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Monday, 30 April 2018 00:01 (seven years ago)

Title track. I've never seen Out of the Blue or Suburbia; may have seen Mike's Murder, not sure (I get it confused with Everybody Wins).

― clemenza, Monday, 30 April 2018 00:06 (seven years ago)

Kind of surprised, given the Neil Young connection, that you haven't seen OoTB. Anchor Bay had a nice DVD out awhile back.

― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 30 April 2018 00:17 (seven years ago)

Mike's Murder was beloved by Kael and no one else. I've never come across it anywhere, but I'm intrigued.

― Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko)

It's not bad at all. I bought a cheap DVD a couple years ago. I thought enough of it to review it at the time.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 April 2018 00:36 (seven years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Tuesday, 1 May 2018 00:01 (seven years ago)

i like Suburbia. super early punk rock movie.

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

― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 1 May 2018 00:13 (seven years ago)

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