Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1985 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
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We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1985 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1984 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
This time around, it’s May 31, 1985, and we’re off to see Brazil and Fletch.
Brazil
Terry Gilliam is a madman or a genius, or quite possibly both.
Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a cog in his government’s oppressive bureaucracy. There is not a single element of your life that doesn’t require paperwork. But there are some people who simply aren’t going to take it any more, and they’re beginning to fight back. Amongst all of this, Sam is having vivid dreams that involve a woman that he becomes obsesses with despite having never met her in the real world.
I remember watching this film when I was 14 and having it completely go over my head. Now, in my 50s, I get this film a little too well. There is nothing in the world that Gilliam doesn’t try to skewer, and it works every single time. Be it technology, surveillance, capitalism, or any other aspect of our modern world, he hits them all and nails them all.
Both visually and story wise, it’s an impressive film, and as an adult I’m fairly glad 14-year-old me didn’t get it, because it meant he wasn’t jaded yet.
A true classic and one worthy of anyone’s time.
Fletch
There is no question this movie is entertaining, but the level of love for this film still mystifies me.
Los Angeles Times reporter Irwin M. “Fletch” Fletcher, who has a column under the name of “Jane Doe” for unexplained reasons, is trying to dig up information on the drug trade centered around the beach. He gets picked up Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) with the proposal that Fletch kill him due to his bone cancer. This sets Fletch down a rabbit hole of a mystery that eventually leads him to breaking more than one story wide open.
There is a lot of high points to Fletch, but Chevy Chase changing disguises needlessly becomes a real distraction as the film continues. It becomes more of a showcase of him doing characters than anything resembling a necessary story element.
Don’t get me wrong, the film is indeed funny, but I would highly recommend going in with your expectations in check and not believing all of the hype.
1985 Movie Reviews will return on June 7, 2025, with The Dark Power, The Goonies, and Perfect.
