High school drama is a staple of the teen film genre going back as far as you can imagine. It can even be traced all the way back to the likes of James Dean and Rebel Without a Cause. In many ways this is because it’s a universal experience, everyone goes through teenage angst and the tumultuous period between childhood and adulthood. The 1980s is an oft mined time period for this, and All Is Fine In ‘89 certainly makes the most of that to create something very special.
All Is Fine In ‘89 follows the students of Romano High School as they navigate the highs and lows of a day to remember – the final field party before winter. Relationships for students, teachers, families and the intersection of those bonds all come into focus. However, as revealed in a flash forward to start the film , a tragedy is ready to unfold and numerous lives will change as the party unfolds.
Coming of age movies often feel as though they are reliant on nostalgia and comedy, and one of the things that All Is Fine In ‘89 does incredibly well is to take the fairly mundane and shine a light on the challenges those characters have, sympathetically and with care. Every character feels well realised and three dimensional, even the bullies are troubled and complex and not painted as simplistic antagonists. It’s no mean feat, and the film is far better for it. The underlying build to an eventual tragedy also helps tie things together and leaves the audience guessing throughout as to which one of many potential candidates could come to a grisly end, or whether it would be a single casualty or many. There’s a constant feeling of underlying dread as events unfold that creates a really compelling and gripping story.
The setting also feels really authentic. Rather than the overblown, nostalgia-fuelled picture of the 1980s that has become so prevalent in a post-Stranger Things world, it’s understated and every aspect of the aesthetic and the tone feel more grounded and gritty than it might have felt in a glossier production. This feel is also aided by the specific time setting of the Berlin Wall falling, which provides a snapshot to contextualise the events that occur and the feelings and motivations of the characters involved. That snapshot concept also means that not every story is tied up in a neat bow, instead it is more of a window into a tragic day and the aftermath of that tragedy. At times it’s devastating, heart-warming at others, but never veering beyond the believable.
All Is Fine In ‘89 is an engrossing love letter to the late 1980s, handled with care and and feeling of legitimacy. There are no cartoonish characters here, only relatable and complex characters depicted going through the many struggles of adolescence. Owing more to John Hughes than the glut of gross-out comedies that characterised later offerings, All Is Fine In ‘89 is an incredible, affecting and genuinely emotional piece of work.
All Is Fine In ‘89 releases digitally in 2026
