Unlike
the high school hellcats twenty years before them, tossing globes out of
classroom windows and firing on police officers (see High School Confidential), Foxes
(1980), is a portrait of teenage torpor at the dawn of the Eighties. These jaded teens,
led by Jodie Foster, would rather pop a ‘lude and put on a Boston LP.
Examining
the loosely woven friendship between four high school girls in the San Fernando
Valley, each with typical problems of her age – and therefore seemingly
insurmountable – Foxes looks at how
each personality type copes with life, sex and parents, all of whom are
divorced and too busy trying to find themselves rather than guide their
children through the rockiest period of their lives.
Released
between two movies that became classics of the L.A.High School genre, Rock ‘n RollHigh School
(1979) and Fast Times at Ridgemont High
(1982), Foxes was more of a teen
drama that dared to bum out its audience with issues of teen pregnancy, drug
addiction and death. With murky cinematography, uneven performances and no
happy ending, it was promptly forgotten after its release and sank like a
stone, not even helped by its Giorgio Moroder music and title track sung by
Donna Summer (“On the Radio†plays over the opening credits.) It didn’t help
that the exploding punk scene that immediately followed gained ground quickly
and influenced the look of scores of more high school movies to come, quickly
dating Foxes’ sun-hazed ambience of
the late ‘70s. It was thus forgotten and became a relic of its time, classed more
with Skatetown U.S.A. than other frank, exploratory teenage dramas of the
same year, like Little Darlings (1980) with Kristy McNichol and
Tatum O’Neal, which is more of a true companion piece.
Jodie
Foster never mentions it in interviews, nor is it ever mentioned in career
surveys of her films. (Likewise her co-star, Scott Baio.)
But
when MGM re-issued the film on home video/dvd a few years ago, a younger
generation (born from the late ‘70s to the early ‘80s) discovered it and embraced
it, creating a revival of interest in the film that far exceeded its reception
upon its release. True to the “twenty-year loop†law, hipsters with an
insatiable appetite for the look and sounds of the early ‘80s began referencing
Foxes in a number of ways, from
fashion design to music, graphic design and photography. (Cherie Currie of The
Runaways, who plays ill-fated Annie, came in for special homage. She has a
peroxided, doomed rocker-chick look that was revived by the style icon actress
Chloë Sevigny.) It also started showing up in “best-of†lists by film
columnists and in critical essays in alternative weeklies and film journals
around the world.
Far
from being a great movie, Foxes is an
enjoyable period piece that is notable for its time for not being in hysterics
about being a teenager. It’s still a “message movie†in the same way that High School Confidential was about the
dangers of neglectful parents, except the message here is that the kids will
probably survive in spite of them.
Apart
from the principal cast of four or five young stars (Foster and Baio being the
marquee names), Sally Kellerman is excellent as the archetypal divorcee mother
of the ‘70s, complete with Toni perm and low-cut blouse. In one key scene, she
breaks down in front of her daughter (Foster), railing at how she and her
friends “make me hate my hips.â€
Look
for cameos by Randy Quaid, Lois Smith, Robert Romanus (Fast Times) and a pre-pubescent Laura Dern in coke-bottle
eyeglasses.
We've always been enamored of Michele Carey, even though her career as a supporting actress never launched her to stardom. Michele appeared in such TV classics as The Wild, Wild West and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. as well as a number of big screen features including the immortal How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, The Sweet Ride and co-starring with John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in Howard Hawks' El Dorado. The good folks at Starlet Showcase provide some other great photos of sexy Michele. Click here to view.Â
(Artwork copyright Pete Emslie. All rights reserved)
Cinema Retro reader Pete Emslie, who happens to be a top talent cartoonist, reminds us that today is Lee Marvin's birthday- and his provided this terrific depiction of Marvin in his Oscar-winning role in Cat Ballou. (Visit Pete's site at The Cartoon Cave for more great artwork.) Marvin, who would have been 85 today, died at age 63 in 1987. Cinema Retro will be presenting an exciting feature relating to Marvin in issue #15. Writer Steve Mori, who provided us with his "lost" Steve McQueen interview for issue #1, has just come through with a fascinating feature that is sure to thrill classic movie lovers. In 1974, Steve was a journalist on the set of The Klansman which paired Marvin and Richard Burton as well as Luciana Paluzzi, Cameron Mitchell and a promising newcomer named O.J. Simpson. While on the set, Steve witnessed the destruction of Burton's second marriage to Elizabeth Taylor, was coerced into interviewing shy and insecure Simpson (and lived to tell the tale!) and managed to get one of the most in-depth interviews with Lee Marvin ever conducted. Marvin was notoriously cranky with the press, but Steve managed to get on his good side and the result was a truly insightful interview in which Marvin discussed his memories of his most memorable films. The interview was never published, but will appear in Cinema Retro #15. Consider this just another shameless attempt to seduce you into subscribing.Â