Election

It’s said that we get the democracy we deserve. If you watch “Election” (1999), you get the movie you deserve. If you just want to chuckle at the haplessness of how one student government go-getter (Reese Witherspoon) triggers a series of life-changing events, go ahead and enjoy this well-crafted dark comedy. But if you want to dig deeper, heaven help you, because this film’s an invitation down a rabbit hole of issues. Ethics, morals, sexism, human frailty, competing American values of doing whatever it takes to win versus winning “the right way” (whatever that means), there’s gracious plenty to ponder.

Valley Girl

I went into “Valley Girl” (1983) thinking it was going to be a broader comedy about, well, San Fernando Valley girls (actually, “Clueless” comes closer to that space 12 years later). This is more of a by-the-book teen romance featuring class conflict between Hollywood punk hunk Nicolas Cage and suburban sweetheart Deborah Foreman (who, at 21, looked too old to be playing a high school junior). That doesn’t make it a bad movie, but the better part is its visual love letter to the neon, music and fashion of early 1980s Los Angeles. Looking back, it’s a pretty-in-pink time capsule.