The movie is more like an after-school special, or a movie for a Tuesday-night church social, than the type of thing you expect to see in a cinema. The movie-maker wants to illustrate the idea that, for some people, there's no place like home, and for others, you've got to take your chances and leave town. The boys grow up together, don't know anyone outside of the town, and never get tired of sitting talking about themselves, and watching the sun set. The guys are all hunks, but their relations with women are quite chaste. Even the retarded guy (named Squirrel) would be cute if he stopped acting retarded. The idea that these guys would just hang out and talk, and not be totally bored (like the audience is) is totally unbelievable. At least these guys would be out shooting small animals, or hitting pool balls. The one adventure that they have in this move is aborted because they forgot to fill up. Now these are supposedly smart guys, and, until the very day that they graduate from high school, they have no idea what they want to do, other than to go to L.A. They don't even know what kind of jobs are available in L.A. They don't know nothing: one guy's father family owns an oil company, but the kid doesn't know that the company is broke. The guy who runs the general store sells beer, even though it's in a dry county--but the kids don't know. So the whole movie is verbal masturbation, and these handsome, extremely dumb boys learning the secrets of a town with a population of 81! How can there be any secrets at all? There's no enjoyment to be had from this movie. It took me three days to watch: I just kept falling asleep again and again.
Review of Dancer, Texas Pop. 81
