E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at Brattle Theatre

Set in a utopic 1980s suburbia, Spielberg’s E.T. follows a boy who encounters a friendly stranded alien being. As the boy (and eventually his family and friends) struggle to protect it from the rest of the world, the alien searches for a way to return home. Impossible-to-resist sentimentality coupled with an almost ruthlessly commercial promotional campaign made E.T. one of the biggest blockbusters of the early ‘80s.