Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Girls Just Want to Have Fun
April 12, 1985
New World
Musical, Romance, Comedy
DVD
C+

At 17, I was a shade too old for this movie, which apparently didn't do well at the box office without my help.  (I got it for like a $1 a couple years ago.)  GJWHF probably is of more interest now than at the time, and that's not saying much.  It has only thematic connection with the Cyndi Lauper song, which is covered by someone more obscure.  (Lauper allegedly appears as Woman in Diner though.)  The main plot elements of a teenage girl getting on a dance show, with the help of her loyal best friend, while falling in love with a cute boy she dances with, would be done much better in Hairspray three years later.  (And Hairspray would manage a lot more of course.)  Lee Montgomery isn't a particularly likable or compelling love interest, although he does have more charisma than Gil Petersen in The Cool Ones.  The film doesn't have the charming absurdity of a '60s teen movie, although there are certainly plot-holes and unexplained character motivation, notably in the debutante ball crashed by punkers, New-Wavers, female body-builders, and others with no better way to spend a Saturday night.

This movie is better than Thank God It's Friday, for what it's worth.  It's more focused and we actually see more of the dancing.  My marginal recommendation though is for the early glimpses of 21-year-old Helen Hunt, 20-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker, 18-year-old Jonathan Silverman, and 14-year-old Shannen Doherty.  Hunt, often with fake creatures on her head, steals every scene she's in, although the other "girls" are watchable enough.  Silverman's character is obnoxious but he tries hard in his first big-screen role.  (The gals were already TV vets by '85.)

As for the rest of the cast, real life d.j./v.j. Richard Blade plays the host of Dance TV.  Twenty-year-old Robert Downey, Jr., whom if I recall correctly was dating Parker at the time, apparently was uncredited as a Punk Party Crasher.  Extra Helen Kelly, who's Woman at the Park here, had previously appeared in Spinal Tap and Johnny Dangerously and would go on to Hamburger: The Motion Picture.  Of the nameless dancers, Karen and Sharon Owens would dance in Earth Girls Are Easy, while Tita Omeze would be Tanya in that movie.

"Dude, don't touch my hair!"