Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1985 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.

We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.

Yes, we’re insane, but 1985 was that great of a year for film.

The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1985 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.

This time around, it’s Dec. 20, 1985, and we’re off to see A Chorus Line, The Color Purple, Enemy Mine, and Out of Africa.

A Chrous Line

For a film about dancers, it’s amazing how lifeless it feels.

Set during the auditions for the chorus line of a new musical, the story follows the lives and dreams of the assembled men and women that cover multiple age brackets and backgrounds.

At the time, A Chorus Line was the most successful Broadway show ever. The film was meant to do for movie musicals what it had done for the stage, and while it did turn a minor profit, the film just completely falls flat.

No one in this film is believable in their roles. There is no hunger, no fire in their eyes. It’s just cold and dead. This film feels exactly what it is, a bunch of actors reciting lines, and not once did I feel pulled into their stories.

A massive let down on just about every level.

The Color Purple

Going from the rote performances of A Chorus Line to the transcendent turns of The Color Purple was downright near whiplash.

The film follows Celie (Desreta Jackson as young Celie, Whoopi Goldberg as adult Celie) across multiple decades of her life that see her go from a sexually abused child to a woman who eventually finds her own way in the South of the early 20th Century.

Let me just get this out of the way from the jump: Every single actor in this film delivers an unbelievable performance. Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey in particular shine here, but no one was slacking to be sure.

That being said, I do not feel Steven Spielberg was the right choice to direct here. His instincts are always to lean toward the sentimental moments, and this is a harsh story to its core. It is constantly interrupted by swelling music, hopeful shots, and more of his worst instincts.

Spielberg is a master director without question, but that doesn’t mean his style can be plugged into every style of story, and it doesn’t feel like it worked here.

It’s still a worthwhile film, but you have to wonder how much greater it could have been with someone else directing it.

Enemy Mine

Some times a film just proves how valuable a good editor is.

Set in 2092, Humans are at war with the reptilian Dracs. Willis E. Davidge (Dennis Quad) crash lands on a planet with a Drac named Jeriba “Jerry” Shigan (Louis Gossett Jr.) after a dogfight, and the two have to rely on one another for survival.

I’ve enjoyed this movie since I first watched as a video rental back in the 80s. Gossett is so hidden in the makeup it’s unfathomable to think you know the actor in the costume. And Quaid turns in a really strong performance as well leaving you with a truly enjoyable sci-fi romp.

But… the editing. Late in the film when Davidge is rescued, he is accused by higher ranking officers of being in league with the Drac, and this is capped off by everyone hearing him speak the Drac language. The implication is clear they think he is a traitor.

In the very next scene he is clean shaven, healed, and walking in his uniform on his way to steal a starfighter to fulfill a promise he made to Jerry.

So, either a scene was cut of him clearing his name, or maybe we should have never had the scene implying he was a traitor? It was a jarring jump in logic, and shows just how important editing can be to a film.

Out of Africa

I have never been more bored while watching something so pretty.

Danish aristocrat Karen Dinesen (Meryl Streep) moves to Africa to marry her friend, Baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and set up a farm. While there, she meets Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford) and becomes enamored with him, eventually leaving her husband for him.

The film is semi-autobiographical, just proving that not every biography, no matter how exotic, needs to be turned into a film. Between Streeps horrific attempt an accent, and far too many details about everyone’s life, the only thing I enjoyed was the scenery, and even that was a stretch at times.

Quite glad to never have to revisit this film.

1985 Movie Reviews will return on Dec. 27, 2025, with Murphy’s Romance, Revolution, and The Trip to Bountiful.

Phil Wickham has released 14 Christian worship albums, has been Platinum certified and nominated for American Music Awards, Dove Awards, Billboard Music Awards and Grammys — but all of his vocal training and performances couldn’t prepare him to step into the shoes of one of his Biblical heroes with the upcoming animated musical film “David.”

Directed by Phil Cunningham and Brent Dawes, “David” marks the second animated film this year for Angel Studios. April’s “The King of Kings” made $60 million and is the second-highest-grossing film from the studio following “Sound of Freedom,” which made $184 million. The film hits theaters on Friday. If the release date sounds familiar, it could be because the third installment in the multibillion-dollar “Avatar” franchise, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” is released on the same day. Presale numbers for “David” are at $15 million on 3,100 screens, but with “Avatar” tracking to open between $135 million and $165 million, and “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” also tracking between $13 million and $20 million, it would seem to be a true David vs. Goliaths for ticket sales.

That in itself could be daunting, but for Wickham, the biggest obstacles came long before release dates were decided. Despite playing in arenas with thousands of fans, he had a “secret dream” of voicing a character in an animated film. A character “that carried courage and faith and had some grand adventure.” But because he’d never chased that dream, he realistically put a limit on that particular goal. Even when the opportunity arose, he was hesitant when going into a casting meeting.

“I’m unoffendable. [I said to producers], if I suck, then just tell me because I don’t want to waste anybody’s time. And also, I don’t want to be bad in a movie as much as you don’t want to make a bad movie,” says Wickham.

The contemporary Christian artist, who recently finished sold-out concerts at Downey Calvary Chapel and the Wiltern, had never tried his hand at voice acting. Not only did he get the role, but he also had to help bring to (animated) life one of the most well-known stories in the Bible. The tale of David — the boy who was anointed to become the king and along the way felled the giant Philistine warrior Goliath with a rock and a slingshot — has become synonymous as the most famous of underdog representations and tests of faith in the Bible. The character and story is also one of Wickham’s favorites.

“When this came across my desk, so to speak, I was just like, man, I could tell you that story, but I didn’t know if I had it in me. I didn’t know if I was a good actor. I didn’t know if I could voice a character, but I knew I wanted a shot,” said Wickham.

A curious revelation for Wickham was discovering that the singing that he’d been doing most of his life would not work on-screen, at least not for this project. He was asked to tone down things, to sometimes “talk through” lyrics and to generally make the music more dramatic for the screen.

“I thought, OK, I got this. This is why they hired me, because I’m a singer. But that ended up being the hardest part because they didn’t want me to sound like me,” Wickham said.

“Singing became a background to just being the character, which honestly, in some ways, was the hardest thing. Maybe even for my ego as as an artist.”

It was definitely a process that required lots of fine-tuning and looking at David as not just the king and hero that Wickham had grown up reading about at home and in Southern California churches. Sitting in the pews in Downey, the singer reflected on why he got into music and why Christian entertainment is on the rise.

“I found out really quick that I loved being a part of moments where people were encountering the same hope and faith that I encountered in my room alone,” Wickham said of songwriting and performing. He grew up with Christianity all around him, but has seen a spike in popularity for music and movies dealing with faith-based fandom.

“For this movie ‘David’ to come out at this time … I think that the world is looking for stuff to hope in. I think people are just searching and finding out more and more the truth that if we look around us at the world of man, we’re not going to find real solutions. So that maybe if we look up, we will.”

Only a few years ago, Keith Lee was a professional MMA fighter, doing food delivery and making social media videos to ease his social anxiety.

On Thursday night, however, Lee found himself under the glare of bright lights and walking the red carpet outside the historic Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard about to be recognized as TikTok’s “Creator of the Year.”

He and hundreds of other creators had gathered for TikTok’s first American awards show. And they had good reason to celebrate.

Only a few minutes before the start of the inaugural show, they got word about a deal that would allow TikTok to keep operating in the U.S. through a joint venture controlled by a group of U.S. investors that includes tech giant Oracle Corp. TikTok confirmed the deal in an email to employees and said it is expected to close next month.

“[TikTok] is the best way to reach people and I know so many people who rely on it to support their families,” said Lee, who has 17.3 million followers of his casual restaurant reviews. “For me, it’s my career now so I can’t imagine it not being around.”

Creators — many of whom are based in Southern California — rely on the app as a key source of income, while businesses and brands turn to the platform and its influencers to promote their products.

Many had worried that the app might disappear after the Supreme Court upheld a ban on the platform because of national security concerns raised by President Trump in 2020.

Trump subsequently allowed TikTok, which has offices in Culver City, to keep operating in the U.S. and in September signed an executive order outlining the new joint venture.

Comedy creator Adam W., who attended the awards show, called the news “game changing.”

With 22.6 million followers on TikTok, Adam W. has amassed a massive audience for his videos that parody pop culture trends.

In one, he’s a contestant on “The Bachelor,” surrounded by a line of lookalike blond models; in another, he’s drinking matcha lattes with Will Smith.

“That’s so good to hear,” said Adam W. of the new ownership. “So many people are able to make careers off of TikTok. There’s so many people out there who go to TikTok to get away from their reality and it means a lot to them, so I think it’s really valuable for us to have.”

TikTok said the awards show is intended to celebrate the influencers who’ve helped transform the app into a global force that has shaped the way younger Americans shop and consume entertainment.

“You represent a truly global community of over 1 billion people on TikTok,” Kim Farrell, the app’s global head of creators, said at the event. “This year, you showed the world just how much impact creators have.”

Despite the historic moment, the awards show was not without technical glitches. Screens that were intended to display clips of contestants and visuals during speeches were dark the entire night.

The two-hour show, in which creators received awards in several categories, featured a range of skits parodying TikTok cultural moments, from Jools Lebron telling the crowd to “be demure,” to Rei Ami of K-Pop Demon Hunters shooting a Labubu cannon into the crowd.

“TikTok definitely changed my life,” Lee said in an interview. “I always planned my life around food, so I’m blessed to just turn the camera on and do the same thing.”

The new ownership of TikTok should allow the app to rebound after it lost market share amid uncertainty over its future, said Max Willens, an analyst at EMarketer.

“This past year, because a lot of advertisers weren’t really sure whether TikTok was going to stay or go, it did kind of slow the momentum that we had seen on that platform,” Willens said. “We think that moving forward that is going to wind up just being a blip.”