MODERN GIRLS (1986)

MODERN GIRLS (1986)

Tagline: Never stand in line. Never pay for your own drinks. Never stand next to a dweeb.

(Comedy, Drama, Which Way Is Sharky’s?) [PG-13]

Cool people have feelings too.

In this one a woman named Kelly is supposed to go on a blind date with a guy named Clifford. Only when Clifford arrives at her place just her two roommates are there. Kelly actually left to go try and hook up with her ex-boyfriend at a nightclub. The roommates Margo and CeCe talk Clifford into driving them around and they end up finding Kelly. Clifford decides to stick with the trio in spite of the ruined date and decides to pursue a guy that CeCe is suddenly into named Bruno X. 

First off, this movie reminds me a lot of NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST. Mostly in the sense that both movies mostly focus on one night on the town and people going from one place to another and running into various calamities. In one movie they are looking for a secret concert venue and in this one, they are looking for a band member that CeCe is obsessed with. The one difference is everyone in this movie I am pretty sure is well into their 20s. 

Like a lot of cult films, this movie bombed at the box office, but via a heavy rotation on HBO, it ended up garnering a cult following that keeps the film's memory afloat. One thing that I think also helped is that this thing actually has several pretty beloved talents involved in it. Daphne Zuniga (SPACEBALLS), is probably the most well-known. This is not her best movie by a long shot and Margo, but she isn’t terrible and really, to be honest, no one is. For the most part, Clayton Rohner (APRIL FOOL’S DAY) is actually pretty solid for most of this. He takes on the dual role of both Bruno and Clifford. Cynthia Gibb (SHORT CIRCUIT 2) is very good as CeCe. Then finally to round out the main cast we get Virginia Madsen (ZOMBIE HIGH) who is kind of an under-the-radar American icon. Look up the movies she’s been in and tell me I’m wrong. Heck, she’s done voice work for both Scooby-Doo! and Voltron, she was in 10 episodes of the Swamp Thing TV show and even showed up in RED RIDING HOOD. As a side note, we also get a brief Stuart Charno (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2). He is mostly known for playing the fun nerdy guy and was in several well-known horror flicks. 

So back when I was in high school my idiot friends and I had a lot of nights where there just wasn’t any real direction. We were literally just hanging out going to someone’s house, or the arcade or just hanging around the mall after hours. Lots of nonsense. A LOT of those nights went haywire. Someone got in a fight, someone met a girl, someone lost a girl, someone got yelled at by their parents, someone spent the entire night complaining about their sister, someone was dating the sister, etc. I specifically remember saying that when we look back at the good old days, we would be talking about those nights. Sure enough years later I caught up with one of those people and we talked about those nights. This movie is a bit of a time capsule because it literally takes place about 3 or 4 years before the time I am talking about. 

What works in this thing is the soundtrack. If you like 80’s synth-pop this movie is for you. It is loaded with crazy amounts of iconic sounds and sights. 80s fashion isn’t really in your face in a lot of 80s movies, but this thing is almost an 80s fashion show. So you get the idea, this one is just 80s, 80’s, 80’s all the time and that is enough for a lot of people to like it, but under the layers of chaos, this movie actually has a slight bit of heart and just kind of takes you back to the day when you were a lot more of an idiot than you thought you were. That includes me and I look at those days fondly. If you don’t care about the 80s this film isn’t going to be something you can get into. 

This is what ST. ELMO’S FIRE could have been. I give this one a 4 out of 7. The storyline is shaky as hell, but it’s like stepping into a really chaotic time machine and that’s always going to be pretty fun for me. 

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