Modern Girls (1986)

Modern Girls I chose for its cover and because its Netflix synopsis includes the phrase "It's a night full of wacky '80s action."

The story is by Anita Rosenberg (b. in Cincinnati Ohio), whose only other IMDb credit is a film she wrote and directed called Assault of the Killer Bimbos. Director Jerry Kramer also directed the Styx movie Kilroy Was Here, a segment of Moonwalker with Michael Jackson, and tv movies like Gallagher: We Need a Hero. The soundtrack features Depeche Mode, Chris Isaak, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Floy Joy, The Call, Kommunity FK, Club Nouveau, France Joli, and Toni Basil.

Modern Girls is set in Los Angeles, in clubs and bars and the streets around and between clubs and bars, in downtown, Echo Park, on Melrose Ave and Hollywood Blvd. It's very much a creature of its time, a capsule of the Los Angeles party scene in the mid-80s.

I liked it from the first shot:

And the title sequence:

The story begins when Clifford (Clayton Rohner) arrives at an apartment to pick up his dream date Kelly (Virginia Madsen!), but only her two roommates CeCe (Cynthia Gibb) and Margo (Daphne Zuniga) are home. Cece and Margo convince Clifford to bring them with him to find Kelly at a downtown LA warehouse party, and the movie begins.

CeCe: You know, Cliffie, the hottest nights are the ones where you don't know who you are coming home with, here we are, we don't even know who we are going out with!

What happens isn't terribly interesting, but sometimes it's funny, sometimes surprising; though the greatness is in where the what happens and what the what looks like. The heart of Modern Girls is built from neon, practical lights, hair styles, fashion, romance, and all-night fun.

LA mid-80s cool. Clifford is an outsider to this lifestyle, and through the movie he undergoes a superficial transformation:

Actor Clayton Rohner plays dual roles - the square Clifford and the rockstar Bruno X.

As to say, fashion and hipness don't make you cool, fashion and hipness are manifestations of a pre-existing coolness within a person.

MODERN GIRLS HAS A SCENE INVOLVING LIMBO FUCKING DANCING.