Film

Tomboy

Other titles called Tomboy: the 2011 film.

A 1985 romantic comedy about a scrappy female race-car driver who meets her idol and falls for him, only to face him across a high-stakes sponsorship race. It's breezy, earnest, and caught between its love story and its sports movie ambitions. Perfect if you want lightweight eighties charm without irony or cynicism.

TMDb rating2.5

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Splash1984

Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah have effortless chemistry in this magical-realism rom-com that doesn't condescend to either the romance or the fantasy. It's funny, touching, and built to last.

But The mermaid premise strains credibility even by eighties standards, and once you've seen it, the plot holds few surprises.

Splash poster

Romancing the Stone1984

Adventure and romance in perfect balance. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner spark off each other while dodging actual danger, and the film knows exactly how hard to lean on the comedy.

But The jungle action sequences feel oddly tacked on to some viewers, and the tone can whip between tones jarring.

Romancing the Stone poster

Fletch1985

Chevy Chase at peak likability: fast-talking, charming, endlessly inventive within a lightweight mystery. It's built around pure personality and committed silliness that somehow holds together.

But The plot is genuinely paper-thin, and the mystery resolves almost by accident. If you need structure, this will feel shapeless.

Fletch poster

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Something you would not have found on your own.

Grease 21982

Both are earnest sports-adjacent love stories where the woman pushes the man to prove himself, and both live in that sweet spot where sincerity and cheese become indistinguishable.

Michelle Pfeiffer as a motorcycle-obsessed girl who falls for the sweet new kid who learns to be cool to win her. It's bonkers, committed, and treats its female lead with genuine agency over her own romantic choice.

But It's much weirder than the original and knowingly cheap-looking. If you need the budget to match the ambition, you'll squirm.

Grease 2 poster
More like this (8)

Breakfast at Tiffany's1961

The template for the romantic misfit: Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard charm their way through a love story where the real conflict is internal. Gorgeously made and genuinely moving beneath the wit.

But It has aged in ways that sting—the racial caricature is ugly, and the gender politics read as dated even by fifties standards.

Breakfast at Tiffany's poster

Coming Home1978

Jon Voight and Jane Fonda do serious work in a love triangle set against Vietnam's aftermath. It's a romance that actually earns its emotional weight through character and consequence.

But It's heavy and deliberately paced. If you're looking for escapism or levity, this is the opposite.

Coming Home poster

Hooper1978

Burt Reynolds plays a stunt driver mentoring a younger hotshot, with Sally Field as the spark between them. It's genuinely funny about its world and treats its characters with affection.

But The plot meanders, and Reynolds' charm can feel thin if you're not already on his wavelength.

Hooper poster

Fast Times at Ridgemont High1982

A mosaic of teenage life that actually treats its characters as real people. It's funny and raunchy and heartfelt in equal measure, with Sean Penn stealing every scene he's in.

But It's episodic and tone-shifts constantly, which some find authentic and others find scattered. The sexual content is frank for 1982.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High poster

St. Elmo's Fire1985

Seven beautiful people in Washington DC navigate love, ambition, and friendship with unironic sincerity. It's melodramatic and soap-operatic, but that's precisely what makes it work.

But It's aggressively eighties, and the emotional stakes can feel paper-thin if you're watching for plot rather than feeling.

St. Elmo's Fire poster

Footloose1984

Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer fall for each other while dancing rebellion against a town that banned music. It's earnest, energetic, and unapologetic about its own joy.

But The plot is thin, and there's a layer of sanctimoniousness under the fun. If you're cynical about the eighties, this will test that.

Footloose poster

Christine1983

Both are love stories where the obstacle to the couple isn't mistrust or circumstance but a separate thing they both want more: in Tomboy it's the sponsorship, in Christine it's a sentient machine. Both use romantic comedy language to frame an impossible triangle.

John Carpenter remakes a possession horror story as a teen romance: a boy falls for a girl, except the girl is a 1958 Plymouth Fury with a mind of her own. It's genuinely terrifying and genuinely romantic in turns.

But It's structured like a date movie that occasionally stops to show a car murdering people. The tonal whiplash is the point, but not everyone wants that.

Christine poster

Querelle1982

Both films use romantic comedy as a container to explore what it means for two people to want the same thing more than they want each other. Tomboy is cheerful about it; Querelle is haunted by it.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's final film is a stylized, artificial, dreamlike love story between a sailor and a man in a bordello-run-by-philosophy. It's the anti-Hollywood romance: theatrical, painterly, deeply strange.

But It's deliberately artificial and queasy, shot like a stage production, and the plot is secondary to mood and sexuality. If you want conventional narrative, this will feel like watching someone else's fever dream.

Querelle poster

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