Described as a “Rock & Roll Fable” by its director Walter Hill, 1984’s Streets of Fire is an essential inclusion in our Unsung 80’s Soundtracks series. Michael Paré stars as Tom Cody, a tough-as-nails mercenary finds himself pulled back into a life he left behind when his former girlfriend, rock star Ellen Aim (Diane Lane), is kidnapped by motorcycle gang leader Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe). Enlisted by Ellen’s manager Billy Fish (Rick Moranis), Tom joins forces with his former partner McCoy (Weapons Oscar-winner Amy Madigan), and sets out into the neon-lit, rain-soaked streets of the city to rescue her.

Blending rock & roll, comic-book melodrama, and 1950s street-gang mythology, Streets of Fire features original songs mixed in with 80’s staples such as Dan Hartman’s “I Can Dream About You,” as well as performances by the Blasters, Ry Cooder, and others, ultimately earning its cult status as something of a rock concert wrapped around a plot.

Our Heist Hallucinations series is pulling off its final score of the year with Steve McQueen’s 2018 thriller Widows!

When a botched heist leaves four women widowed and drowning in debt, Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis) discovers that her late husband left behind a plan for one final job. With nothing left to lose, she recruits Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) to finish the job…and settle a few scores of their own.

Based on the British television series and co-written by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), McQueen’s film is a sleek, bruising reinvention of the heist movie, using the mechanics of a robbery to explore ghe women left behind by a criminal world built for men. And the cast is stacked: Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Daniel Kaluuya, Brian Tyree Henry, and Robert Duvall.