All Hail The Masterful Awkwardness of The King of Comedy

The King of Comedy is another great example of a movie made in a specific era of history that still resonates as relevant today. This 1983 Martin Scorsese directorial effort hinges on the idea of a comic being obsessed with garnering fame through the aid of a late-night talk show host he's obsessed with, and admittedly, it's hard to imagine modern-day people looking for their big break being this exclusively fixated on a broadcast television late-night host as their ticket to glory. But that obsessive drive to be famous at all costs, a creepy sense of entitlement to stardom, all of that is still relevant to today. Though the pursuit of fame may manifest in different ways in 2019, The King of Comedy is about a guy whose primary motivation is disturbingly timeless.

Born in Flames Proves To Be All Too Relevant In 2019

CW: Discussions of sexual assault 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter talking with a number of individuals about the 30th anniversary of Do the Right Thing, editor Barry Alexander Brown noted how, in the summer of 2014, he and Spike Lee had cut together a short film that cut between footage of Eric Garner being killed by police officers and footage from Do The Right Thing showing Radio Raheem also being killed by cops. Watching how reality had echoed a movie released 25 years prior, Brown noted "It's like this shit is still happening". Born in Flames, a 1983 directorial effort from Lizzie Borden, is similarly a film from the 1980s that only feels all the more relevant in the modern-day world as a tale of women of color trying to make sure their voices are heard in a society that will do anything to crush them.