Grossmont's Musical Mondays: Footloose (1984)
Forget about the singing and dancing: here’s a film that once again begs the question, “Has John Lithgow ever given a bad performance?” Loosely based on a true story, Kevin Bacon stars as Ren McCormack, a teenage troublemaker who, along with mother Ethel (Frances Lee McCain), migrates from Chicago to Nowheresville, UT. No sooner do the two plunk down stakes than the lad finds himself caught in the crosshairs of the strict town overseer, Rev. Shaw Moore (Lithgow). After his son was killed on the way home from a night of partying, the minister took it upon himself to enact a strict ban on all forms of dancing. It’s up to toe-tapping Ren to spend the rest of the running time proving him wrong. Choreographer-turned-director Herb Ross (The Turning Point, Pennies From Heaven) was an old hand at this sort of thing. And while there may not be anything particularly new about a rebellious teen drama or musical, when mixed together it produced the alchemy needed to turn this story into box office gold. Lori Singer and Chris Penn earn high marks as the respective romantic lead and good natured bumpkin. — Scott Marks