Monday, December 10, 2012

Movies Today: "Flashdance", "First Position"

Two wildly different movies, two very different reactions.

Flashdance

Why did I even watch this? I knew it'd be terrible. And boy, was it. It was all 80s synthesizers, neon glow, big hair, scary women, ugly dudes, and really aggressive dancing. It did make me wonder where that Super Powerful 80s woman went; the one who'd wear shoulder pads and stilletos and want to kick your ass at any given opportunity. I suppose that, as with so many trends in the 80s, it was taken way too far and just became way too crazy to sustain itself. I think that's probably a good thing. So it just wasn't a very good movie, but it's definitely fun to finally watch the movie that inspired so many horrible trends that are actually resurfacing nowadays. The cut-up sweatshirt! Legwarmers! Super-high-leg bathing suits! Mohawks! Awful stand-up comedians! Terrible movie.

First Position

I'm so happy Netflix recommended this. It's a documentary tracking the attempts of six young ballet dancers to compete and succeed at an International Ballet Competition in New York. There's three boys and three girls, ranging from 9 to 18 and from all kinds of backgrounds, and it's a fascinating movie. It's kind of amazing what those kids go through, and I liked that you could tell, very easily, that the kids love dancing. And there's nary a stage mom in sight! It's all about the kids, and it's heartbreaking, beautiful and inspiring all at the same time. There's some beautiful moments with the kids families and of course all the dancing we see is breathtaking. I'll even admit that the ending made me cry a little. Highly recommended.

1 comment:

Andrew Ryan said...

The scene where the cook does a stand-up routine came across like the writer had never actually seen live comedy in his life. I thought the point of the scene was going to be that the cook's schtick was just to offer bad racist jokes, and somebody Polish in the audience was going to give him a smack. But no, by the end of his bit he's actually won the crowd over!