Last night's feature was The Legend of Billie Jean, which Jamie's been pressing me to watch for a while now. Jamie had seen it long ago, first time for me.
Main thoughts: complete foolishness, and truly evocative of summer.
What is there in life to comfort us as reliably as 80's cinema can? What other flavor of film is so familiar, so consistent, and has so many titles with boxes that stare at you at the video store, trip after trip, for years, that you never rent but that one day you finally do, and what you see ends up being so completely what you get?
Biggest revelation: Keith Gordon is in this movie and he actually comes off as kind of hardcore! He has this bookish vibe, which he also had in Back to School and Dressed to Kill, but in this thing he also actually seems confident, smooth, and even dangerous. Whoa!
His is also the only character in the film who recovers quickly from getting kneed in the crotch by Billie Jean (he wears a Halloween mask while receiving the infliction). Knee-to-ball emasculation by attractive ladies is a theme running through all of 80's cinema, and it is also employed without reservation here. I believe Peter Coyote and Christian Slater make it through the film without getting kneed in the crotch, but I could be wrong about that.
Back to Keith Gordon- our next stop was imdb, where my eyebrows went up again- he was the writer and director of A Midnight Clear, a very solid flick from the early 90's that I haven't thought about for a long time. And he directed Mother Night- heard of it, never saw it. That is now on the queue. We love discoveries!
K. Gordon is my crush of the week, Pat Benatar, soundtrack to romance.
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