FILLMORE DISCOS 61 - '80s RARITIES 2

Private School, 1983 (****)
as you'd expect from a teen sex comedy, there's lashings of nubile flesh on display, often partially wrapped up in arousingly slinky 80s lingerie, plus the irresistible treat of having Betsy Russell and Sylvia Kristel in the same movie, but the direction is crisp, the characters come across as real human beings, and it's its rare sincerity and honesty that makes Private School such a cut above other generic trash

Angel, 1984 (*****)
outstanding cult classic about Molly, a bright 15 year old schoolgirl by day, Hollywood Boulevard hooker by night, plus her colourful band of faithful friends including a Jewish dyke, a huge tranny, and a glass-eyed cop, amongst others, as they try to nail a necrophiliac serial killer who's on the loose around the Strip; Donna Wilkes is sensational as young Molly and it's almost impossible to believe she was 25 when making this; I also can't imagine a film nowadays portraying subject matter like this with such affection and without condemnation, now we're stuck with hateful born-again moralists such as Moodysson and Haneke

Heavenly Bodies, 1984 (****)
the beautiful Cynthia Dale is fantastic as the female lead in this awesome low budget Canadian dance movie about three girls who set up an aerobics studio in a converted factory, the hi-nrg soundtrack is one of the best of the decade

Tomboy, 1985 (****)
80s camp heaven - you've got everything here, music, hairstyles, sexy clothes, bare breasts, and the iconic beauty of Betsy Russell (yes, she of Saw fame) in a fantastically nuanced role as the young girl working as a car mechanic

Bloody Pom Poms, 1988 (**)
a pretty incompetent generic slasher you badly want to like but ulitmately merely serves to remind one how effective and brilliantly made the canonical non-apocryphal first eight Friday The 13th movies were, even with the limited budgets at their disposal

Vicious Lips, 1988 (**)
intergalactic cyberdyke band Vicious Lips, along with their new singer, race across the galaxy to perform a gig; despite desperately low production values (and yet probably only a little worse than the shoddy fx in Star Wars), it's worth watching for the highly enjoyable musical moments and some occasionally successful flashes of campy humour

FILLMORE DISCOS 60 - '80s RARITIES
FILLMORE DISCOS 59
FILLMORE DISCOS 58 - JOE ESZTERHAS SPECIAL