Yeah, I had a similar thoughts after not seeing it in about 30 years. I remember HBO basically played this every other day during the summer of 1981. I just watched this the other night on TCM.
Yeah, there's way too many storylines covered over too long time period of time(4 years). And then a lot of the storylines are never fleshed out and never really resolved.
You basically have:
Ralph-sisters, Ralph-Doris, Ralph-Monty, Ralph-Comedy club
Bruno-Father, Bruno-Coco, Bruno-Shorofsky
Coco-Leroy, Coco-Hillary, Coco-Lisa, Coco-Bruno, Coco-Porno guy
Leroy-Mrs. Sherwood, Leroy-Hillary, Leroy-Coco, Leroy-Homlessness, illiteracy etc.
Monty-Doris, Monty-Ralph, Monty-homosexuality
Doris-Mother, Doris-Monty, Doris-Ralph
Hillary-Leroy, Hillary-father/step mother
Lisa-Ms. Berg
Yeah, like you said the actors were way too old to portray high school freshman. And then we don't really see any change over four years. They also basically look the same from beginning of the movie to the end. The auditions look more like a college than high school freshman. And then you don't see time go by as everything looks like NYC in 1979-80. They would have been better to focus on the senior year and 4-5 storylines. It doesn't help that the auditions take up about 15 minutes of the movie either. And then "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" takes up another 5-10 minutes.
Then everything is pretty crappy at the end and not resolved and then they just go to a big song ending.
Some random thoughts:
*The story between Leroy and the Sherwood is never really fleshed out or resolved. It's basically two people yelling at each other off and on for 15 minutes. Leroy is basically illiterate and then she just yells at him to "READ". It's like WTF?? Then he smashes a whole hallway of glass cabinets and there's no repercussions??
*Is Leroy homeless? Does Leroy have parents? They never clear that up.
*How does Leroy learn to read? How does he stay in the school? It seems like you could make a whole movie just about Leroy's story.
*Ralph basically goes from being a success at stand-up to being a drunk pill popper failure in about 2 minutes.
*Who does Ralph live with other than the sisters? Is there an adult living in that apartment?
*Lisa basically disappears from the film after the sophomore year when she gets kicked out of dance department. What was the point of that character other than having the dance teacher yell at her for 10-15 minutes.
*What's Coco's story? Does she have parents and why does she have to lie about where she lives?? What happened after the incident with the porno guy?
*The Bruno-Coco story is never developed.
*Coco is in the dance department but she spends most of the movie singing and playing piano.
*Hillary basically disappears after the abortion. Was Leroy the father? There's never any exploration of their relationship or the consequences.
*The actress who plays Doris was 27 trying to play a 14 year old which came off as bit ridiculous.
*5-10 minutes of this movie is actually watching another movie (Rocky Horror).
*What happened to Monty's mother? Was she always "on the road". Wasn't she some successful actress? Why Does Monty just live in some small crappy apartment with no furniture for 4 years?
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nufsaid16 (685)
2 years ago
To be fair, Irene Cara, who played Coco, and became the best-known star out of the film due to being nominated for singing at least 2 or the three songs on the film's soundtrack, was only 20 when Fame started being filmed. Gene Anthony Ray, the dynamic young dancer-turned-actor who played Leroy, was actually only 16 when he made his debut in Fame---he would be one of only four actors in the film who wound up playing in the series. Clearly the scene where Leroy smashes up things was done for artistic intent. In fact, the movie itself wasn't your typical Hollywood rags-to-riches film at all, which is what makes it different and unique---it does show how trying to make it as an entertainer isn't always easy, and what's interesting about it is that it dosen't show any of its characters actually becoming famous---it focuses on more of the struggles the characters were making in order to make it in their chosen profession.
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