Girls Just Want To Have Fun, the Movie
Janey (Sarah Jessica Parker) is the new student at an all girl Catholic school in Chicago. Her father (Ed Lauter) is a retired Vietnam veteran, a hobbyist who paints little soldiers and runs his family like they're on an Army base. Janey, a gymnast, loves dancing. With Lynne (Helen Hunt), her only new friend at the school, she auditions to be one of the regular dancers on a popular local TV program, Dance TV, or DTV as it's often referred to.
Lynne fails to qualify, but Janey, along with a handsome cool boy with a bland name, Jeff (Lee Montgomery), is selected as one of the finalists. They have a few weeks to practice before the live taping during which judges will decide on the one and only couple to join the show.
Is this how Soul Train worked?
Whatever the case, this simple story makes for a pretty good teen comedy redolent of the time it was made, 1985. The colorful clothes, accentuation of accessories like thick pink socks over black spandex, and Lynne's strange hair adornments (blue plastic stegosauruses in one scene) remind anyone who lived through those times that MTV videos, in spite of their unreality, created a world of their own, influencing films like Flashdance which in turn influenced this movie, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, a title taken from a popular song and music video by Cyndi Lauper, although Lauper's original version isn't used. The cover version used in the film, though adequate, lacks Lauper's unique and funny, somewhat whiny, singing voice.
Shannen Doherty, just thirteen, shorter than her later height, plays Jeff's sister Maggie.
The film's writing by Amy Spies is witty, the direction by Alan Metter (who made the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back To School) encourages the viewer to keep watching. Humorous moments throughout the film elevate it above a typical teen comedy. A debutante's crashed party resembles a Marx Brothers set piece, cake flying, a droning boring band taken over by punk rockers, nothing realistic about it but true to the enthusiasm of youth.
The film reminded me of Dirty Dancing (1987), but it lacks, happily, that famous hit film's pathos.
Helen Hunt as the extroverted Lynne is delightful. She's twenty-two or twenty-three playing a high school student, but she passes for eighteen when wearing the Catholic school uniform.
A well made, innocuous movie, a cinematic gumdrop leaving you feeling good, if you're not a dedicated grump.
Vic Neptune
Janey (Sarah Jessica Parker) is the new student at an all girl Catholic school in Chicago. Her father (Ed Lauter) is a retired Vietnam veteran, a hobbyist who paints little soldiers and runs his family like they're on an Army base. Janey, a gymnast, loves dancing. With Lynne (Helen Hunt), her only new friend at the school, she auditions to be one of the regular dancers on a popular local TV program, Dance TV, or DTV as it's often referred to.
Lynne fails to qualify, but Janey, along with a handsome cool boy with a bland name, Jeff (Lee Montgomery), is selected as one of the finalists. They have a few weeks to practice before the live taping during which judges will decide on the one and only couple to join the show.
Is this how Soul Train worked?
Whatever the case, this simple story makes for a pretty good teen comedy redolent of the time it was made, 1985. The colorful clothes, accentuation of accessories like thick pink socks over black spandex, and Lynne's strange hair adornments (blue plastic stegosauruses in one scene) remind anyone who lived through those times that MTV videos, in spite of their unreality, created a world of their own, influencing films like Flashdance which in turn influenced this movie, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, a title taken from a popular song and music video by Cyndi Lauper, although Lauper's original version isn't used. The cover version used in the film, though adequate, lacks Lauper's unique and funny, somewhat whiny, singing voice.
Shannen Doherty, just thirteen, shorter than her later height, plays Jeff's sister Maggie.
The film's writing by Amy Spies is witty, the direction by Alan Metter (who made the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back To School) encourages the viewer to keep watching. Humorous moments throughout the film elevate it above a typical teen comedy. A debutante's crashed party resembles a Marx Brothers set piece, cake flying, a droning boring band taken over by punk rockers, nothing realistic about it but true to the enthusiasm of youth.
The film reminded me of Dirty Dancing (1987), but it lacks, happily, that famous hit film's pathos.
Helen Hunt as the extroverted Lynne is delightful. She's twenty-two or twenty-three playing a high school student, but she passes for eighteen when wearing the Catholic school uniform.
A well made, innocuous movie, a cinematic gumdrop leaving you feeling good, if you're not a dedicated grump.
Vic Neptune
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