Foxes

Watched January 20, 2013

1980
Starring: Jodie Foster, Cherie Currie, Marilyn Kagan, Kandice Stroh, Scott Baio, and Randy Quaid.

I really love teen and coming of age movies so I had seen this at some point but didn't recall anything memorable about it. When the siren song of $1 VHS calls, you pick up a copy. 

 The focus of the film is four teenage girls who supposedly have a lot of crazy things to deal with. Jeanie (Jodie Foster) has to deal with her divorced mother (Sally Kellerman) dating all sorts of losers. Annie (Cherie Currie) is the total mess of the group, her dad's an intense cop and she really likes to drink and take all sorts of drugs. Madge (Marilyn Kagan) is a slightly chubby virgin, but she just wants to meet a nice guy.  Deirdre (Kandice Stroh) likes to date a lot of guys, I guess.

This movie is so slow. It seems like the smog in LA in the late 1970's permeated into the interior of homes. The whole look of the film is constantly hazy and harvest gold colored.

Annie is constantly running away from her parents because they want to send her to an institution, she does seem to have a pretty serious alcohol/pill problem. Jeanie is the mother hen trying to keep everyone together. Most of the movie shows the girls trying to have fun then Annie totally messing it up then running away. The girls then have to find Annie, most likely in the arms of some older asshole.

I guess it's supposed to be shocking that these girls have sex, drink and go to parties but it really doesn't seem like that big of deal to me. Madge's mom is super cool and let's her throw a party at their family's home, she even buys a keg for the party. Madge comes in and says that all her friends drink hard liquor so getting a keg was stupid. She then tells her mom she's virgin and runs crying to her room, canceling the party for no apparent reason.  Later on Madge meets older man Randy Quaid who she loses her virginity to.

Randy Quaid goes out of town and let's Madge stay at his swinging bachelor pad. The girls throw a fancy dinner party, because that's the type of party most 16 year olds love to throw. Their younger friend Scott Baio is there, he's always trying to make it with Annie, it's pretty cute. Their party is crashed by a ton of people including a very young Laura Dern looking adorable in huge glasses.  It gets out of control and a bunch of dudes seriously trash the place. The girls make no attempt to clean up and Randy Quaid comes home to Madge sitting in the rubble. They get in a fight and she tells him they'll all get jobs to pay for the mess.

Meanwhile, after the party, all the girls were at the police station and Annie's dad came to get her. Her family sent her to an institution after all. She manages to escape, but ends up totally pilled up in some dude's car. Jeanie and the girls go get her at a drive-in. Jeanie and Scott Baio take her out to the woods to walk off her drugs. The cops find them and Annie runs off. She hitchhikes on the freeway and a drunk swinging couple pick her up. Then the driver smashes into a parked semi-truck. Good riddance Annie! She was ruining all her friend's lives. It then cuts from her death to Madge and Randy Quaid getting married! 

This movie is a mess, the only reason that it's still on the radar is that it's filled with star power.  The girls never really seem to be having fun and for the most part they get to do whatever they want.  I feel like maybe it was a lot longer and they had to cut a short version and had to cut out most of the plot. I was glad when Annie died, because you never see her being a good or fun friend.

Not worth watching, it's so painfully slow with all these random scenes that don't move the story along. The fashion and haircuts are pretty fun though.