Twenty-Five Years Since — The Class of 1988

When I reflexively opted for 1988 as the focus of this Round Number Anniversary Edition retrospective, it was under the likely mistaken notion that things such as movies, books and songs are considered classics once they endure twenty-five years.  Or is it twenty?  Thirty?  I’m not sure about the consensus, but twenty-five years seemed about right to me.  Though it had not immediately occurred to me while I browsed the titles released in 1988, that year marks the pivotal point in my life when I first began writing movie reviews for my college newspaper.

The job of a movie critic entails a juicy perk: the privilege of getting to see free sneak previews of films, often days—sometimes weeks, occasionally months—before general release. This afforded me an endless opportunity to devour as much cinema—all the popcorn, all the crap and all the FILM—as I could digest.

I saw a lot of movies. Everything I was invited to.

Reviewing the 1988 roster of major studio and independent releases, I remembered many titles as amusing or guilty pleasures which doubtlessly appeared on my VHS shelf at one time or another. I was further struck by how many others I had seen but completely forgotten about—once viewed, never rented or seen again. But there were, as expected and hoped for, several strong genre-defining films that truly stand the test of time and remain relevant twenty-five years later.


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