'80s Sub-Versions

An abridged version of this post originally appeared on Chicagoist (06/26/13)

The ‘80s retrospective at the Gene Siskel Film Center is winding down — Dirty Dancing and Footloose are next week, followed by a couple of screenings of Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff at the beginning of July —but cultists would have to agree that the highlight of the series came this week with back to back 35mm showings of John Carpenter’s They Live and Alex Cox’s seminal punk film, Repo Man.

The ‘80s is often written off as the decade where films of substance that questioned authority were crushed by...