1980: "Fame"

                                   Fame is an 1980 musical/teenage coming-of-age movie that follows four years in the lives of a class of students attending the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. The movie was directed by Alan Parker, a man with diverse range whose previous film was the gritty Midnight Express and the film following after Fame would be his surreal adaptation of Pink Floyd's The Wall.

                                  Fame is a movie that nearly teeters on greatness. As someone who is not a fan of musicals (well, this is a semi-musical) in general, this happens to be one of the more refreshing examples of the genre I've seen. It's actually more ambitious than most people give it credit for. The movie is constructed almost like a symphony with movements (Auditions, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Graduation) and an assortment of characters that function as notes and variations on a motif. Even the musical numbers are subtle in tracking the emotional maturity of the students (from an inane song about hot lunches in their freshman year to a quieter, gentler ballad in their senior year).
                                 What made this movie refreshing is the mosaic structure and democratic focus, with each character getting equal screen time without one character hogging the movie (well, Garci does later on but we'll get to that).
                                 Another thing I liked about the movie is the realistic take on success and the way young people handle these rather arbitrary ideas. The kids themselves are not depicted as insanely talented. You could almost argue that the young actors themselves are not great actors (they were mostly unknown actors and they're mostly unheard of today) but they evoke a certain doe-eyed rawness; a naturalistic impression of untrained performers who are not quite prepared for life itself. Some critics found the movie melodramatic, but I disagree. I thought the movie gave a very realistic view of how young people process their emotions and anxieties. I also didn't think the movie gave us any cheap melodramatic scenarios. Instead, in its mosaic-like story-telling, we gets snippets of dramatic situations, suggesting little human problems in a larger world.
                                 Though if we're to get into negatives, the movie kind of stumbles on its way to the finish line. If I had to say the one aspect of this movie that didn't quite click with me, it was the character of Ralph Garci, who functions somewhat as a main character. He's the one character that comes across as too stock (the maverick with a sensitive side). Even when he's pouring his heart out about his poor sister, it's not as emotionally affecting as it should be (it felt too much like "acting"). And when it focuses primarily on Garci for the last third, the movies loses that bouncy mosaic rhythm it had in the first two acts.

                               Fame, from the outset, almost seems like a corny early-80's teen musical/drama (with its biggest legacy being Irene Cara's Academy Award-winning hit single), but it was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting its unique structure, its naturalistic situations, or its rawness (it's an R-rated movie with profanity and breasts). The closest thing we've had to this kind of unique spin was La La Land. Here's to hoping we see more cerebral musicals like this.