theriverjordan’s review published on Letterboxd:
Ladies, if you don’t leave “Flashdance” feeling just a little bit sapphic, I’m not quite sure what to do for you.
“Flashdance” is a hot girls movie. For hot girls. Starring hot girls. If the film was just a hit parade of its hot girls doing hot things, I’d probably still give it four and a half stars.
But since we all know that hot girl-ing takes personality and intellect, “Flashdance” has plenty of that too.
The Adrian Lyne-directed flick is often called the first ‘MTV movie.’ With the plentiful dance sequences playing nonstop on the channel leading up to its release, viewers were drawn into theatres to experience the pounding 80s soundtrack in full stereo. And, I am fully jealous of the immaculate vibes that no doubt existed when they were able to exit the theatre while the title song played an encore over the credits.
“Flashdance” didn’t just define the style and sound of its era. It also defined the attitude. Appropriate enough for a film borne to success through MTV, it comes with a message of pop culture populism for every household with a TV set: anyone can dance. And beyond dance just being a form of expression, it’s also a type of empowerment.
Jennifer Beals, in the real life story of a welder with artistic ambitions, uses dance as both identity and weapon against the expectations of the world. She works in a strip club as a side gig, but pleasures her own sensibilities more than that of the men in attendance. So too do the other women of “Flashdance;” ice skaters and performers whose physicality exists for themselves and themselves alone.
If the 80s fashion requisite for feminism was a masculine, shoulder padded power suit, then Beals and “Flashdance” asserted that a leotard and legwarmers functioned just as well. As long as they come padded with the power of self-confidence and empowerment.
Sweaty Dudes Cinema: Sweating to the 80s is something I can get into if it’s anything like this film