modern girls [1986]

think of this as an anti-review, or a non-review, for this is not a good movie or even a fiendishly really bad good movie. this movie sucks. my primary complaint is that the flick is simply boring. not much happens even tho i know that the director was going for the kind of teen comedy that was popular in the mid-80s [think john cusack flicks such as the sure thing and better off dead or the tom hanks vehicle bachelor party]. instead this movie is flat and the characters, essayed by the usally good actors virginia madsen and daphne zuniga, are uninteresting. the plot concerns three hip, even modern, girls' night on the town and the crazy shit they get into.

which ain't much. club-going, food fights, drug-taking and drinks that glow like neon. ah yes, i remember the '80s. zuniga especially is coiffed and dressed like she stepped out of a nagel print. not that that is a bad thing. i liked nagels back then but nowadays looks rather, um, goofy and kitsch. but that was the '80s, i guess. and that is what makes this flick fascinating to me. it is a document of a bygone era. every frame is ripe in day-glo pink, blue and rounded out in goth pancake make-up and black lipstick. in other words, i love looking at the movie despite itself.

which is another thing i find curious about the era, the word modern that was so much in use is now dead on the tongue. what is modern today? post-modern? post-post-modern? the end of modern? who knows. i recall when alternative rock stations, like l.a.'s kroq and san franscisco's the quake, and even for a brief but glorious 6 or so months here in sac kpop, called themselves modern rock. but that was when there was alt-radio. i don't know what's on the dial now. i stopped listening to commercial radio years ago.

there you have it. if you want a vivid document of a lost time then have at it. if you're looking for a good movie then seek one elsewhere. and yes, zuniga and madsen are as lovely as you might remember them. they are lovely still.