Fame

Another of my favorite Fort Collins theaters is the Cinema Saver 6. It's a second-run Kerasotes cineplex about a mile and half from my parents' house, and thus an easy drive. The matinees are only two bucks, and the evening shows are only a dollar more. Can't beat that!

The downside is that as a second-house it changes its listings very slowly, much slower than, say, the West Boylston Cinema in Massachusetts or the Regal in Hookset, New Hampshire, which I had frequented last winter. The Cinema Saver 6 seems to hook into money-making movies and keeps them there forever. For example, when I got back to town a couple months ago, even though I was behind in my moviegoing, I had seen all the ones showing at the Cinema Saver 6. I wondered when I'd get a chance to go back there.

Thankfully I didn't have to wait long, as Fame, which I hadn't yet got around to seeing, hopped over from the first-run multiplexes into the Cinema Saver last week. Perfect! As it happened, they kept Fame around for only a week, so once I saw from the advance listings that it was leaving, it went straight to the top of my list last Wednesday evening.

When I walked in the door of CS6, I almost burst out laughing because I was confronted with a situation that seemed to happen every time I went to the place last year. Specifically there was a young couple, in high school or college, standing side-by-side, about six feet away from the ticket counter, staring up at the marquee listings, trying to figure out what they were going to see. It's as people go out on dates without any idea of what they are going to see there. So they stand there, wishy-washy, not quite in line, but not quite allowing enough room to make it clear that they aren't line. The girl is usually looking at the guy as if to say, "please make a decision," while the guy mumbles, "uh, uh, uh" and keeps demanding a synopsis of each movie from the person behind the counter.

From previous experience, I've learned that this can literally go on for ten minutes of mumbling and feet shifting, and that the thing to do is to make eye contact with the ticket seller, who is usually quite relieve to wave me right up to the counter so I can buy a ticket.

This is exactly what took place, but before I skirted the wishy-washy couple, I heard the young man ask about Fame. What's that? "It's a remake of a movie from the Eighties," said the young woman behind the counter. She was no more than seventeen years old. "I've heard it isn't that good."

Well, that's sure a ringing endorsement. I paid my three bucks and took my seat inside the large auditorium (no stadium seats, very conentional), with about seven other people, all of them high school or college age.

As I waited for the movie to start, I realized that I was going to spend a lot of emotional energy trying to figure why the hell they remade this movie. It was one of those titles that when you heard that a remake coming out, you probably said "Huh? Why?" But it has indeed been twenty-nine years! If the original Fame had been a remake of a movie from 1951, would anyone have cared? Of course not. But such musings only serve to illustrate that 2009 is culturally closer to 1980, than 1980 is to 1951, no matter the exact number of years.

As I sat thorugh the trailers it occurred to me, in somewhat cyncial fashion, that this entire remake was a cheap attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the High School Musical series from Disney. Hey, we can make some mone off this trend if we resurrect the old movie that the kids don't even know about!

It also occurred to me, as the opening credits rolled, that it had been so long since I saw the original that I would have little ability to compare the two movies, beyond vague recollections. This was probably a good thing, I realized, because it would force me to evaluate the movie on its own terms.

But something started to happen, about ten minutes into the film---against all my cynicism and suspicion, I started to like it.

One thing to mention is that I'm actually a very impatient and fidgetty movie goer. You'd think, with all the movies I go to, that I would enjoy going to movies, but in a lot of cases, I feel like I"m just waiting for the movie to be over. It's rare when a movie actually makes me forget the clock entirely, and where I sink into the world of the story in a way that relaxes me and takes me outside myself, the way movies used to be when I was a kid. It's very rare, in fact.

For whatever reason, perhaps because my expectations had been so low, this is what happened during Fame. I began to relax and really enjoy watching this movie. I began to savor the experience of being there and seeing it in the theater.

It was both the same movie as 1980, yet a completely different movie. Of course it deserved an update! What the hell was I thinking? Perhaps a different title woudl have been better---Fame Revisted? Somehow this movie just hadn't connected with audiences, but it was surely connecting with me.

I loved the stories of the kids, and the way it was told, using stylistic updates that were in harmony with the original. The freshman kids were both the same as the ones from 1980 (the year I started high school, as it happens), yet with the characteristics of the millennials as well. It was exactly the way it should have been.

The music is updated of course, with hip hop numbers appropriate for 2009. Yet, just when you think it's all new, you get the classical pianist young girl sitting on stage and singing "Out Here on My Own" in a beautiful tunnel through time to the original by Irene Cara.

These are simple stories about the ambitions of talented kids. If you're not in the mood for that, then don't go see this movie. Keep that in mind. But I sure thought it was fun.

It was definitely well cast too, especially for the adult teachers---Bebe Neuwirth, Kelsey Grammer, and Megan Mullally seem as if they were made to be high school techers instead of actors. But the best part was getting introduced to some wonderful new talent, especially 19-year-old Kay Panabaker as Jennie. This is a young woman you will see many times in the future as she matures (which seems to do during the course of the movie itself---awesome). I would also be shocked not to see Kherington Payne several times in the future, although she may have to wade through a bunch of campy horror movies as the bitchy blonde.

Such are the dues that have to be paid, if you want your name to be remembered.