Joshua Dysart’s review published on Letterboxd:
What is up with two films coming out in 1976 that sexualized thirteen year-old Jodie Foster? And how is her performance so amazing in both of them? She’s the only actor in this flick that transcends the limitations of her age and life experience (the other kids are all great though, don’t get me wrong).
To commemorate director Alan Parker’s passing last Friday I chose to watch his first feature film. This was a big one for my wife when she was a little kid. I only vaguely remember it being on HBO in the late seventies, but have no lasting memory of the movie itself. And...
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON?!
I guess I get that it’s all about kids at play... but, like, all I can think about are the class, race, and gender divisions that Prohibition Era America was sliced into and how Parker is casting children to fulfill them here.
So now you’re tarting up underaged girls to become showgirls, gold diggers and vamps. You’re casting Chinese kids to work in laundromats and black kids as underlings, shoeshine boys, and song & dance men in service to white bosses.
But wait, it’s even stranger. You do all of this, you dress ‘em up and you put them in these confined social roles, you claim it’s their time to shine, to act, to dance, to PLAY on impressive sets and with amazing props, and then you don’t even let them have their own voice when they sing!
I can’t believe I have to listen to Paul Williams’ mid-thirties, white guy nasal drawl coming out of a thirteen year-old black kid’s mouth.
Singing is literally the most child-like thing anyone does in this movie - okay, they throw pies too - and it’s the only thing done by adults? What the fuck Alan Parker and Paul Williams?!
(Admittedly, the Down and Out Song is pretty bad ass and has shades of The Wall to it. That’s a great sequence.)
I see that Alan Parker attributes a lot of the creative choices in this to his own children. That he decided to run with their suggestions to him. I admire that.
I see that he wanted his first film to be so transgressive and weird and yet commercially viable and accessible to kids, that he took a huge leap and did something laughably crazy. I see that. I admire that.
I see that every one of these kids probably had an amazing time making this movie. Who wouldn’t? You drive cool bike-cars, you have pie fights, you dress like an adult, you put the mac on the dames, the show in the showgirls, and the vamp in the molls. It must've been a blast.
And even though much of the entertainment for me came solely from the exercise itself instead of from the actual story, I pretty much had a blast watching it too.
PS: What are even the rules of this universe? If you get pied then you seem to be out of the movie. You never show up again. It’s a kind of death. But then everyone gets pied and it’s a happy ending? I’m so confused.
PPS: This came out of a discussion in the comments, but it could be argued that there's something problematically adult about even thinking this movie is weird. Everyone who remembers watching it as a kid seems 100% all in. Perhaps you must approach it completely with a child's mind to fully engage with it.
