How I learned to stop worrying and admit I love '80s movies

Most modern film geeks are pretty slavish to the 1970s and to a lesser extent the 1990s when it comes to determining the greatest era for Hollywood films. Of course, some purist will say the 1930s or even the silent era.

Personally, I have always had a strong affinity for '70s era films. I have frequently called it my favorite period for movies. I like their brooding cynicism, their risks, their creativity. It's still on the whole my most cherished decade of cinema. And yet, after completing a self-imposed art project to create alternative posters for my all-time favorite films, I was surprised to see that more than half came from the 1980s.

Now, I should caution 'favorite' does not mean 'greatest.' These are movies that I could watch any time and love with the same intensity, films I can quote liberally and just bring me a lot of personal joy. They are not all Oscar-worthy, in fact quite a few were pretty much despised by critics, at least when they were initially released.

I was born in the '80s and have always been a pretty huge fan of the period's pop culture (if not its politics). But for whatever reason that decade's films have always gotten a bad wrap. It's somehow ok now to love '80s fashion and music without irony, but the films all seem to be piled into a Top Gun purgatory. What I mean is that the Reagan era has become more defined for birthing the behemoth blockbuster than for contributing a credible dose of quality films.

There is no disputing that contention. From E.T. to Batman, the '80s produced the modern event picture, for better or worse. And while the '90s had its fair share of that too, enough iconoclastic indie filmmakers made their mark (Tarantino especially) that its remembered as an edgier more eclectic time for the movies.

And yet the '80s produced Spike Lee, the Coen Brothers and Jim Jarmusch. The '80s was the decade when comedy icons Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy and Rodney Dangerfield did their best work. And it was a period when a lot of celebrated filmmakers like Scorsese and Spielberg took some real chances outside of their comfort zones.

The years 1980 and 1984 in particular produced a number of my favorites movies, these are years where there was clearly some holdover from the '70s aesthetic mixed with a flakier but also more fun sensibility which was a little bit less jaded but also sleeker and perhaps more clever.

Alex Cox's film Repo Man is a perfect example. It's both an uproarious satire of '80s consumerism and malaise but it tosses in a highly entertaining albeit absurd sci-fi subplot to boot. The soundtrack of early hardcore punk is a classic and its dialogue is full of existential excellence. It's not as sophisticated a film as something like Shampoo or The Conversation, but it has a junk food deliciousness to it.

It's not as easy a decade to pin down from a movie perspective and there was undeniably a lot of junk that muddies the conversation. The '80s birthed slasher movies, a lot of awful sex comedies (thanks to the success of Porkies) and a lot of action movies that are stunningly laughable.

But the '80s are growing on me. I was too young to see or appreciate most of the films when they were initially released. And yet, when I view them now I do get a nostalgic feelings and I find that they're movies I can just relax and have a good time with.

So long live the 1980s. And long live me, too.