R, 95 min.
Director: Adrian Lyne
Writers: Tom Hedley, Joe
Eszterhas Jr.
Starring: Jennifer Beals,
Michael Nouri, Lilia Skala, Sunny Johnson, Kyle T. Heffner, Lee Ving, Rob
Karabatsos
I’ve been doing this thing
lately where I just can’t resist catching up on iconic movies available on
Netflix instead of keeping up with more recent releases to home video. Notice I
used the term “iconic” rather than “classic”. The latter term implies a degree
of quality that I’m not necessarily seeking out in my retrospective viewing.
So, I’m not necessarily consuming great cinema, but I am catching up on movies
that made some sort of impact in my youth that I never had the chance to see for
myself.
“Flashdance” is not a good
movie. It was a big deal when it was originally released, however. It was
controversial because of the adult nature of its female ironworker heroine’s
moonlighting profession. I suppose the fact that she was a steelworker was also
controversial in that Hollywood “look at how we played with gender stereotypes”
way. Whatever it was, I remember my parents talking about this movie, and they
were not its target audience.
I suppose it’s not really a
surprise coming from filmmakers like Adrian Lyne and Joe Eszterhas, filmmakers
responsible for such films as “Showgirls”, “Indecent Proposal”, and “Basic
Instinct”, that the movie is just a small step above erotica. Instead of
hanging an excuse for sex scenes on a paper thin plot, those sex scenes have
been supplanted by dance sequences which are nothing more than excuses to ogle
Jennifer Beals’ body in dance attire and sweat. This movie is pretty much the
foreplay to Lyne’s next film “Nine ½ Weeks”. Anyway, if you’re looking for some
soft-core porn with Hollywood production values, “Flashdance” does its job; but
if your looking for some cinematic depth that might warrant the attention the
film got at the time of its release, it’s pretty thin.
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