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Heathers (1988)
The most scathingly satirical look at high school culture I have ever seen, and very entertaining!
After the heartwarming cheese of the John Hughes era of 80's High School movies, 'Heathers' was a breath of fresh air with its ultra cynicism and complete disregard for authority, with every adult being portrayed as hilariously out of touch and basicly stupid.
I remember first watching 'Heathers' due to having a big crush on Winona Ryder after having seen her in 'Edward Scissorhands' and didn't have a clue of what to expect. I recall laughing a lot, while being pretty shocked by the film's dark tone, and also extremely impressed with the smartness of the script, maybe that is nothing special considering I was around 12 at the time.
However having re-watched it recently I remain impressed, and even now i can't really think of many films that come close to depicting High School life with the levels of absolute ruthless cynicism this film does. A film such as 'Mean Girls' which is clearly inspired by 'Heathers', is still good film, but carries no where near the punch of 'Heathers'.
'Heathers' also features an awesome late 80's aesthetic with color being used quite prominently, and finally there are some great performances from Winona Ryder, as the films protagonist and moral compass along with Christian Slater playing a cool and charismatic psychopath, in what i suspect was a his breakout role, as well as some great supporting perfomances from the actresses playing the emminently unlikeable Heathers.
In short; as far as high school films go, this is probably among the best there is so long as you can stomach some extremely black comedy.
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Solid 10/10 for me. Very underrated.
As far as other films of this genre go, this stands head and shoulders above all in terms of visual and audible stimuli, authenticity or gravitas, and general 'epicness'.
In an era of lightweight CGI filled action movies, 'Conan The Barbarian's combination of relatively a simple story with rich thematic undertones, a mix of bad and great actors, sparse yet interesting dialogue, and an incredible score, make this a film that has stood the test of time admirably.
The direction by John Milius is really very skillful, with most major scene's seemingly being directed and edited to some of the finest epic orchestral/choral music to be committed to celluloid. Basil Poledouris should go down as one of the all time great composers.
Really, this is the kind of film that simply doesn't get made these days, and that's just another factor to to it's awesomeness.