26 Best Movies & Shows Released in 1987 (Page 2)

Staff & contributors

Find the best movies and show to watch from the year 1987. These handpicked recommendations are highly-rated by viewers and critics.

There are a few instances that prove the merit of one’s friendship, and one of those instances is a roadtrip. Withnail and I is considered one of the greatest British comedies of all time, but there’s a certain melancholy to it, as two unemployed actors have gone on holiday due to an offer from one of their uncles, though this offer doesn’t come without strings, which the titular “I”, Marwood, whose name is never mentioned, has only found out on the trip. As the holiday goes wrong, with the two making the worst of every new situation, the two share somewhat of a dysfunctional, slightly homoerotic relationship, as Withnail deals with everything in the most drunken, unserious manner, and Marwood anxiously realizes how much he’s outgrown their friendship. The film’s humor may be a tad too dry for those outside the country, but cult favorite Withnail and I still resonates with its endlessly quotable lines, memorable scenes, and its bitter understanding of how life can diverge.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Anthony Wise, Daragh O'Malley, Eddie Tagoe, Irene Sutcliffe, Llewellyn Rees, Michael Elphick, Michael Wardle, Noel Johnson, Paul McGann, Ralph Brown, Richard E. Grant, Richard Griffiths, Robert Oates, Una Brandon-Jones

Director: Bruce Robinson

Rating: R

Matewan’s premise makes it prime for drama and theatrics, much like the many historical epics released in the 1980s. But Matewan isn’t quite like those movies. Instead of soap and sentiment, it’s stone-faced and straightforward, dialogue-heavy even, though that’s not to call Matewan boring. There’s a quiet poetry to its cinematography that makes Kenehan and the miners’ struggle for rights all the more poignant and meaningful. As one critic put it, it’s like a charcoal sketch come to life, at once gritty and beautiful. Matewan also remains relevant to this day because of its advocacy. Workers are still largely exploited and unprotected, their interests placed behind profits. Watching Matewan reminds you just how long the fight for safe working conditions and fair pay has been, and how important it is to keep going.

Genre: Drama, History

Actor: Bob Gunton, Chris Cooper, David Strathairn, Davide Ferrario, Frank Hoyt Taylor, Gary McCleery, Gordon Clapp, Jace Alexander, James Earl Jones, Joe Grifasi, John Sayles, Josh Mostel, Ken Jenkins, Kevin Tighe, Maggie Renzi, Mary McDonnell, Michael Mantell, Nancy Mette, Tom Wright, Will Oldham

Director: John Sayles

Rating: PG-13

In this stunning coming-of-age drama, Hou Hsiao-hsien takes us to the neon-lit streets of Taiwan and the dull beige house of the Lin family. The film is centered around the eldest daughter, Lin Hsiao-yang (portrayed by the Taiwanese pop star Lin Yang), who takes care of her whole family after her mother dies and her father gains employment in another city. Her sister is too young to work, and her older brother is a petty criminal. It’s easy to empathize with her struggles—many of them are issues children shouldn’t face. But she deals with them with a silent sort of strength, with Lin Yang’s stoic face hiding some simmering resentment. Similarly, the film’s slow pace and serene framing hide the underlying violence that affects the Lin family. Juxtaposing Taiwan’s urban and suburban life, Western and Eastern aesthetics, and the film's Egyptian mythos with the struggle of Taiwan’s youth, Hou presents a contemplative view of 1980s Taiwan.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Fu-Sheng Tsui, Grace Chen Shu-Fang, Hsin Shu-Fen, Jack Kao, Li Tian-Lu, Lin Ju, Tsui Fu-Sheng, Vega Tsai, Wu Nien-Jen, Yang Fan, Yu An-Shun, 吴念真

Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien

Rating: Not Rated

In this romantic drama, James Ivory adapts E.M. Forster's novel Maurice. Set in the early 20th century, Maurice Hall befriends Clive Durham while studying at Cambridge. Clive is rich, handsome, endlessly charming—and in love with Maurice. The two’s relationship blossoms quietly as they steal intimate moments in lush pastures and empty hallways. Fans of Call Me By Your Name will recognize some of the most tender and tense scenes, wherein Clive and Maurice lie together in the grass, surrounded only by weeds and flowers, as if they were the only two lovers left in the world. 

But their love story is stunted and complicated by notions of class and etiquette in an oppressive, conservative England. This is a coming-of-age story in which Maurice must ask himself not only who he is, but also who he wants to become, and how to live an earnest, honest life in the light.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Alan Foss, Alan Whybrow, Arthur Whybrow, Barry Foster, Ben Kingsley, Billie Whitelaw, Breffni McKenna, Catherine Rabett, Christopher Hunter, Denholm Elliott, Harriet Thorpe, Helena Bonham Carter, Helena Michell, Hugh Grant, James Wilby, Jean-Marc Barr, John Elmes, Judy Parfitt, Julian Wadham, Kitty Aldridge, Maria Britneva, Mark Payton, Mark Tandy, Matthew Sim, Michael Jenn, Miles Richardson, Olwen Griffiths, Orlando Wells, Patrick Godfrey, Peter Eyre, Philip Fox, Phillada Sewell, Phoebe Nicholls, Richard Warner, Rupert Graves, Serena Gordon, Simon Callow

Director: James Ivory

Rating: R

In adapting hardboiled detective novel Falling Angels, writer-director Alan Parker mixes the story’s original noir with the New Orlean supernatural in 1987’s Angel Heart. The gamble mostly pays off. Mickey Rourke brilliantly brings hapless Harry Angel to a terrifying reveal, stoked by the mystery presented by an inscrutable Robert de Niro, while Lisa Bonet makes a striking debut as fresh-faced Epiphany Proudfoot. But what makes Angel Heart work is mixing the post-war disillusionment towards humanity with entities that people can’t ever hope to control, leading the film with the noir-like investigation into a terrifying descent into hell. It’s no wonder Angel Heart eventually garnered cult classic status, even becoming influential to the likes of Christopher Nolan.

Genre: Horror, Mystery

Actor: Charlotte Rampling, Dann Florek, Eliott Keener, Elizabeth Whitcraft, Judith Drake, Kathleen Wilhoite, Lisa Bonet, Mickey Rourke, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Robert De Niro, Stocker Fontelieu

Director: Alan Parker

Rating: R

Some Kind of Wonderful is the less iconic, gender-swapped cousin of Pretty in Pink (both are written by John Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch), but what it lacks in renown, it makes up for in nuance. It goes a bit deeper in its exploration of gender roles and class disparity, really digging into the important differences between its female leads and the privilege of its wealthier characters, and it’s just as funny and charming too. Sure, a big part of the delight of watching it stems from nostalgia, but a larger chunk comes from the actors’ easy chemistry and the script’s witty lines. The movie is not revolutionary—it’s just a romcom at the end of the day—but it is smart and subverts expectations when you least expect it.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Actor: Candace Cameron Bure, Chynna Phillips, Craig Sheffer, Elias Koteas, Eric Stoltz, Ike Eisenmann, John Ashton, Kenneth Kimmins, Laura Leigh Hughes, Lea Thompson, Lee Garlington, Maddie Corman, Mary Stuart Masterson, Molly Hagan, Patricia Gaul, Penelope Sudrow

Director: Howard Deutch

Rating: PG-13

When depicting a novel, book adaptations on film, especially earlier on in the medium, tend to be quite lengthy. The film version of Pelle the Conqueror does have this quality, and the storylines that aren’t directly connected to Pelle and Lasse do feel randomly stitched in. But, when this epic film focuses on Pelle and Lasse– their struggles immigrating to another country, dealing with harassment from the Danish majority, and the rare moments of joy once they finally figure things out– it shines. The legendary Max von Sydow and Pelle Hvenegaard (who was one of the many boys named after the title character) share a tender father-son dynamic that easily stirs one’s heart, and it’s all beautifully captured within Denmark’s lovely countryside. Pelle the Conqueror may only adapt the first of four volumes of the iconic Danish novel, but it does compassionately capture the struggles of the country’s impoverished immigrants.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Astrid Villaume, Axel Strøbye, Bjorn Granath, Buster Larsen, Erik Paaske, John Wittig, Karen Wegener, Kristina Törnqvist, Lars Simonsen, Lena-Pia Bernhardsson, Max von Sydow, Nis Bank-Mikkelsen, Pelle Hvenegaard, Sofie Gråbøl, Thure Lindhardt, Troels Asmussen, Troels II Munk, Troels Munk

Director: Bille August

It’s easy enough to pitch Moonstruck with the promise of Cher and a young Nicolas Cage getting hot and heavy in 80s New York, but it’s so much more than its two outsized leads. Loretta (Cher) is on track to marry Johnny (Danny Aiello) when he tasks her with inviting his brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) to their wedding. Before long Loretta and Ronny are having a whirlwind affair that threatens to derail everything. 

Despite the somewhat risque premise, Moonstruck is a lighthearted, sentimental, romance fit for the holidays. A big cast playing the warm-hearted family rounds things out, and some of the best moments are digressions that explore the romantic entanglements outside of the central couple.  At times Moonstruck feels a bit too big, too over-the-top, too cheesy, but it’s a New York slice cheesy, it’s a ‘That’s Amore’ cheesy, it’s a cheesy that tucks you in at night after a  helping of manicotti and a big bottle of wine.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Al Therrien, Amy Aquino, Anita Gillette, Ann McDonough, Antonia Minella, Betty Orsatti, Catherine Scorsese, Cathy Ladman, Charles Scorsese, Cher, Curt Hayward, Cynthia Dale, Danny Aiello, David Hummel, David S. Howard, Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Frank Gio, Gina DeAngeles, Helen Hanft, Helen Proimos, Joe Grifasi, John Christopher Jones, John Mahoney, Julie Bovasso, Leonardo Cimino, Lisa Howard, Lou Pitoscia, Louis Di Bianco, Louis Guss, Matt Myers, Mimi Cecchini, Mimi Lizio, Nada Despotovich, Nicholas Pasco, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, Paul Benedict, Paula Trueman, Peter Austin Noto, Robert Weil, Robin Bartlett, Sonny Bono, Stephany Hitchcock, Tim Koetting, Tommy Hollis, Tony Azito, Vincent Gardenia

Director: Norman Jewison

, 1987

While marked as a comedy, Zegen isn’t the kind of film that would make you laugh freely– it is, after all, a film that mocks the real-life sex trafficking of impoverished Japanese women during both world wars. This makes it a challenging film to watch, especially to viewers outside the country. But to Shohei Imamura’s credit, the butt of the joke isn’t on the women being sold, but rather, on the titular pimp Iheiji Muraoka, the delusions and lies he told himself and others, and the twisted nationalism he uses to exploit his ladies. Zegen is based on Muraoka’s supposedly true autobiography, but Imamura uses the text to mirror the follies (and consequences) of imperialism.

Genre: Comedy, History

Actor: Hiroyuki Konishi, Ken Ogata, Ko Chun-Hsiung, Mitsuko Baisho, Norihei Miki, Sanshô Shinsui, Shino Ikenami, Taiji Tonoyama, Tetta Sugimoto

Director: Shōhei Imamura

When forming a nation, governments would like to view the entire populace as one people– for example, the Norwegians live in Norway. But plenty of these nations have smaller populations of different ethnicities, some that have been on the land far longer than the nation itself. Pathfinder is the first ever feature film depicting the Sámi people, depicting one of their tales. The film plays out like a familiar folk adventure, where a boy comes of age through clever thinking, but it also mirrors their struggle to keep their culture from Norwegianization, to protect their people from extinction. Pathfinder may not have the best special effects, but there’s a beauty in the way writer-director Nils Gaup depicts his home county of Finnmark, and the way he depicts his people’s past.

Genre: Adventure

Actor: Helgi Skúlason, Ingvald Guttorm, John Sigurd Kristensen, Knut Walle, Mikkel Gaup, Nils Utsi, Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Svein Scharffenberg, Sverre Porsanger

Director: Nils Gaup

This quirky 1988 adventure drama is newly available on Amazon Prime. It’s the classic that never was, the story of a rundown gas station motel in the Southern US where a lonely West German lady called Jasmin Munchgstettner ends up by accident.

The owner of the operation, a short-tempered woman by the name of Brenda, doesn’t really take to Jasmin. However, the longer the West German guest stays at the motel, the more a friendship forms between the two.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Alan S. Craig, Apesanahkwat, CCH Pounder, Christine Kaufmann, Darron Flagg, G. Smokey Campbell, Gary Lee Davis, George Aguilar, Hans Stadlbauer, Jack Palance, Marianne Sägebrecht, Mark Daneri, Monica Calhoun, Ray Young, Ronald Lee Jarvis

Director: Percy Adlon

Rating: PG