Marcel Winatschek

Earth Girls Are Easy

There’s something about a musical that commits completely to its own absurdity, no apologies, that makes you respect it even when it shouldn’t work. Earth Girls Are Easy is this Technicolor fever dream from 1988, all neon and glitter and sex jokes, a ’50s pastiche that doesn’t bother pretending it’s anything other than what it is. Jeff Goldblum in a full captain’s outfit, aliens landing in the San Fernando Valley, a musical number in a nail salon—it’s silly and knowingly so, and that confidence makes it work. You watch it and realize nobody was trying to make something smart or edgy. They just wanted to make something fun that felt a little dangerous, a little raunchy, a little queer in ways you couldn’t quite name back then. It’s the kind of movie that probably felt like permission to some people.