Teens of the early 20th Century will pop their eyes out in seeing that the "Okay boomer!" image of that later generation or early X's had pretty cool lives, particularly in black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods and especially in the Bronx where hip hop was born. Frankly, this is the 80's equivalent of Mickey and Judy "Let's put on a show!" movie musicals from the late 30's and early 40's, the jitterbugging teen musicals from Universal and later on the Alan Freed rock musicals of the mid to late 1950's into the 60's.
The story is cliche, more episodic and slice of urban life, filled with charming young dancers giving their best effort to act and Rae Dawn Chong is sparkling and likeable. The New York City visuals celebrate an era that will never be repeated, and as others indicate, it's a time capsule of an era, maybe not more innocent, but filled with more hope and possibilities than today. The excitement of graffiti artists discovering an untouched brand new clean train is as exciting to them as finding an available theater was for Mickey and Judy. Seeing this made me want to travel back, and that's a good feeling. However, it's not all spinning and rapping. The later quarter of the film has a tragic twist where the value of life has an impact on everyone. It was like a bigger budgeted episode of "Fame" and equally as big hearted.
The story is cliche, more episodic and slice of urban life, filled with charming young dancers giving their best effort to act and Rae Dawn Chong is sparkling and likeable. The New York City visuals celebrate an era that will never be repeated, and as others indicate, it's a time capsule of an era, maybe not more innocent, but filled with more hope and possibilities than today. The excitement of graffiti artists discovering an untouched brand new clean train is as exciting to them as finding an available theater was for Mickey and Judy. Seeing this made me want to travel back, and that's a good feeling. However, it's not all spinning and rapping. The later quarter of the film has a tragic twist where the value of life has an impact on everyone. It was like a bigger budgeted episode of "Fame" and equally as big hearted.