Everyone knows about Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, and Ghostbusters. But what of all the other great movies released during that decade? Here are eight movies that I consider mandatory viewing. (Besides, I never liked Top Gun anyway.)

Foxes (1980): I defied my mom's orders forbidding R movies and snuck multiple viewings of this on HBO in the early 80s. She let me have cable in my room; I'm only human. Jodie Foster was the coolest of the cool and the Donna Summer soundtrack is almost as haunting as the performance of Cherie Currie (The Runaways) as Annie.

The Last American Virgin (1982): Even as a kid I was steadfast in my distaste for teen sex comedies like Porky's, yet this was the exception. Gary wasn't some horny kid; he was sensitive and sweet and I wanted a boyfriend just like him. It was years before I could hear James Ingram's "Just Once" without tearing up.

Night Shift (1982): One of my most quoted movies ever, from Henry Winkler's deadpan dorkiness to Michael Keaton's insane cluelessness. Night Shift also features the stunning Shelley Long and the Rod Stewart version of "That's What Friends Are For." This remains one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, and I've seen it a lot.

Rock & Rule (1983): This was a staple of TBS's Night Flight in the early 80s and until the DVD release a few years back, all I had was my decrepit VHS tape which became unwatchable in the 90s due to multiple viewings. Reading the DVD liner notes has given me a tremendous amount of respect for the DIY efforts that went into making this movie look as fabulous (and timeless) as it does. The soundtrack, featuring Cheap Trick, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop, ain't so shabby, either.

Desperate Teenage Lovedolls (1984) and Lovedolls Superstar (1986): Here filmmaker David Markey proves that you don't need a lot of money to make a hilarious send-up of rock and roll rags-to-riches movies—just a crazy sense of humor, willing friends, and a killer soundtrack with all your favourite So Cal post-punk bands.

Repo Man (1984): Repo Man is a wickedly funny take on Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly, transported into Orange County's hardcore scene and the seedy world of car repossession. With space aliens. Emilio Estevez, and Harry Dean Stanton are fantastic, but Tracey Walter as Miller steals the show.

Tuff Turf (1985): When I say I've seen this movie over a hundred times, I mean it. My sister and I would watch this every day after school for the entirety of my sophomore year of high school and we can still quote entire scenes verbatim. I was obsessed with James Spader as Morgan Hiller and if I could have made him real, I would have (lucky for Spader I didn't have that kind of technology).

Better Off Dead (1985): I like my 80s comedies like I like my coffee: dark and absurd. This is easily my favorite John Cusack movie (I was never a big fan of Say Anything) and I still crack up about the damn aardvark suit. Better Off Dead is quoted almost as much as Tuff Turf and Night Shift. One of my favorite parts is the montage of Lane and Monique fixing the car with that amazing Howard Jones track, "I'd Like To Get to Know You Well."

"We'll journey to Mars, and visit the stars, finding our Breakfast on Pluto."

So many things in my life have come along at the precise moment at which I needed them most. Neil Jordan's unforgettable film, Breakfast on Pluto, based on the Patrick McCabe novel, is one of those things.

In the fall of 2005, Hurricane Katrina's destruction of Mississippi and the subsequent levee failures in Louisiana were weighing heavily on my mind, as they had devastated not only my hometown of New Orleans, but also my family who lived in the area. It sickened me to see the wreckage on TV and to know that nothing I could do would help. I had recently moved to Canada and although I was grateful that I was no longer living in New Orleans (because I would have lost all of my possessions), I felt powerless. I couldn't go back to the U.S. because I couldn't leave my new home in Canada, my husband, my dog, my recently acquired permanent residency.

I had been reading about Breakfast on Pluto, starring Cillian Murphy, an impossibly beautiful, ethereal, and talented Irish actor whom I'd seen in Batman Begins that summer. As I found out more about the film, I became intrigued: a transvestite in 1970s Ireland who may or may not be involved with the IRA? I read the novel twice and was amazed at its visceral impact.

When the film was finally released, I went to see it right away. And after its 135-minute running time had ended, I knew I would never be the same. I saw the movie as many times as I could and each time I felt besotted, inspired, ecstatic. Music played a huge role in Kitten's life and in mine, so the soundtrack to the film quickly became the soundtrack to my happiness. Kitten was an outsider, even in her own skin, and I related to that feeling of being ostracized and misunderstood. I realized that being an outsider could actually be a good thing: it meant I could see things about the world that no one else could, and that those points of view should be cherished, not banished.

Breakfast on Pluto, and particularly Murphy as Patrick "St. Kitten" Braden, had shown me that material things are not the most important things in the world. I now recognize that the most important possessions one can have are the ability to transport out of an unhappy world by focusing on the good things; the capacity for experiencing joy; and the gift of escaping from grief through hope for the future.

Cillian Murphy as Patrick "Kitten" Braden

Photo © 2005 Pathe Productions Limited

I was a teenage music video junkie.

It started with Video Jukebox and MTV. Then, I discovered Night Flight and Night Trax. If I was really desperate for a fix, I'd even watch Friday Night Videos.

Soon only MTV remained. The videos however, did not, replaced by shows like Remote Control and The Real World. This was rather vexing to an addict such as myself. VH1 and MTV2 were introduced in the 80s and 90s, but they weren't quite the same (and neither were the videos). Eventually, they also succumbed to music programming instead of broadcasting just videos. I was thrilled when VH1 Classic arrived less than a decade ago, but it has already changed its format to show fewer videos (and it is currently only available with pricier cable packages in the United States).

Then I discovered YouTube. Looking at postcard-sized videos didn't seem so bad, not when there were so many from which to choose!

The obsessive behavior began almost immediately: spending hours on the computer looking for that one Bauhaus video I used to love so much. Then I branched out, trying to unearth more obscure selections by bands like The Tubes or Tarney Spencer. I would look in earnest for videos that I merely vaguely remembered only to find that no one had uploaded them yet. And there's the rub.

Although it can be rewarding to revel in the knowledge that the object of your obsession is enjoyed by only a select few, it often denotes a lonely existence. And such is the case with Bang Bang, a band I adored at age 13, but one which I have never heard anyone else even mention since the time they actually had a video in heavy rotation on Night Tracks in the mid-80s.

Imagine my utter delight (and rampant squealing) when I finally found a YouTube video of theirs. In fact, I discovered an entire blog post about the band's (only) album and a brief discussion of each song.

The Ripple Effect's assessment of Bang Bang's Life Part II album is fair and accurate, yet surprisingly generous, considering that the band's sound and look are enormously dated after 25 years.

I watched the video for "This Is Love" and it made my entire day. I even commented on the blog post that I still had my "This Is Love" single as well as the Life Part II album. Then I went to listen to it only to discover that it had somehow vanished!

This is a tragedy of gargantuan proportions to an 80s music nerd! Oh sure, I kept my copy of Classix Nouveaux's abysmal self-titled release as a joke, but Bang Bang. . . they were actually good. . .weren't they?

Frantically, I looked for a download link online and discovered yet another blog post about the band, one that was considerably less kind, but which did provide an MP3 to one of album's songs, "World Club." This taste only made my frustration and desire more profound, especially when a download link in the comments proved to be an expired one.

Has my evaluation of Bang Bang been colored by my nostalgic jonesing? Or have they truly stood the test of time (at least sonically)? If I find Life Part II, rest assured dear readers, I will let you know.