Flashdance (1983)

An 18 year old girl (Jennifer Beals) works as a welder by day and at night works as an exotic dancer in a working class bar. But she has dreams of being a legitimate professional dancer even though she has no formal training. Directed by Adrian Lyne (FATAL ATTRACTION), this was one of the first movies to utilize the styles of MTV music videos for the big screen. At the time, it was fresh and invigorating and its influence was felt through out the rest of the 80s decade. It benefits greatly from the stylish cinematography of Donald Peterman (MEN IN BLACK), a catchy song soundtrack (the title song won an Oscar) and an appealing central performance by Beals (not quite yet an actress at this stage of her career). Ironically, for a film about a dancer, Beals can't dance so she has a dance double (Marine Jahan) doing her dancing. It's essentially a Cinderella story and one can't help but root for the likable Beals but the script is pretty bad. Written by Thomas Hedley Jr. and Joe Eszterhas, it's a string of cliches and I suspect the worst scenes in the film (like the lobster dinner) were written by Eszterhas, the man who gave us the hideous SHOWGIRLS. Definitely a case of style over (lack of) substance. With Michael Nouri, Lilia Skala, Cynthia Rhodes, Belinda Bauer, Kyle T. Heffner and Micole Mercurio.