It's not much discussed today, but the 1980s was a lesser golden age for American romantic comedies. There's a strong case to be made that Norman Jewison's Moonstruck (1987)—featuring an effortlessly charming star turn from Cher, an early glimpse at Nicolas Cage's idiosyncratic wiles, and pitch-perfect backup from Danny Aiello, Olympia Dukakis, Vincent Gardenia, and John Mahoney—is among the defining films of the period.

Moonstruck and its contemporaries—James L. Brooks' Broadcast News (1987) and Terms of Endearment (1983), Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner's When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sydney Pollack's Tootsie (1988), for a start—make up a unique pocket of romantic cinema driven by refined elegance and maturity. The classic screwball pictures of Old Hollywood had the former in spades but very little of the latter, and as the industry approached the new millennium, fewer films made much use of either.