This movie is so damned good it’s almost as good as it’s novelization. Susan Dworkin is a terrific writer and I enjoyed the novelization so much I read two other novels by her. But that’s not what you’re here for. You want to hear about this 80’s gem that is underrated.
First the cast. The cast is phenomenal. John Turturro plays the emcee of a club called ‘The Magic Club’ and it’s either his first or second credited film role. (Accorded to wiki he had a credited role in two movies in 1984 and I don’t know which came out first) Laura Metcalf, Sheldon’s Mom, plays a sister in law to Rosanna Arquette’s character Roberta, and she dates none other than the legendary comedian Stephen Wright, playing a wry dentist. Giancarlo Esposito, you might know him from The Boys, Breaking Bad or almost everything in the last decade, plays a street vendor with maybe 30 seconds of screen time.
The bad guy is punk rock legend Richard Hell. If you’ve seen Pump up the Volume and heard the song “Love Comes in Spurts”, well that’s him. On the soundtrack as Richard Hell and The Voidoids” Which is how I came across that song. It’s still on my mp3 player for working out at the gym.6
So now spoiler warnings for a movie that premiered over 30 years ago…
