#and as a Drag Race fan it's always a treat to see some Jamal Sims action. I recognized his voice in the opening credits lol

[songbirdstew]

Okay, I had never seen "Footloose" until now (idk I was 3 when it came out).

The original is a pretty silly movie about a very serious thing.

The remake is terrible. They somehow forgot to focus on the preacher and his many crises of faith and principle? which is the entire fucking point of the original? I mean, they made A LOT of missteps [heh] (like, I actually entirely forgot about Chuck between the last time we saw him and when he showed up at the end), but deleting the book burning entirely is a big one. Did they decide that was too outlandish in modern times? Oh, the innocent Obama years.

Miles Teller is delightful but not enough to carry the whole terrible movie by himself.

I feel like there's a weird thing about 80s movies in particular -- and remember I had never seen the original before, so it isn't just nostalgia talking here -- where even a kind of silly, kind of stupid movie, is still filled with a very real humanity and a quiet pathos. It isn't just the acting. The script was better. The editing was better. Say less, show more. Watching John Lithgow repeatedly, silently, see himself through others' eyes and realize there is a line even he doesn't want to cross and that he is dangerously close to it. THAT'S what the movie is about. HE'S the hero.

The hero isn't the new kid. The movie isn't about dancing.

But I LIVE for any montage set to "Let's Hear It For the Boy" bc I fucking love that song, and have ever since the days of DTV. More Barbie Karaoke please