I bought a cut-price copy of the vinyl soundtrack to Foxes (1980) because the music was produced by Giorgio Moroder, featuring his synthesizer score as well as plenty of post-disco tunes and FM-radio-ready rock songs he worked on (the Donna Summer tune ‘On The Radio’ was a big hit from the movie and the instrumental version might be my favourite thing). Despite the salicious tag-line on one of themovie’s posters (‘Daring To Do It’), it’s actually a surprisingly serious teen drama about a quartet of girlfriends finishing their final year of school, cutting classes, fighting with their parents, flirting with boys, and partying at night. Jodie Foster is the head-strong leader of the pack, Marilyn Kagan is the bespectacled wallflower keen to lose her virginity, Kandice Stroh is the confident glamour queen who picks up hunks at the check-out line, and Cherie Currie (yes, lead singer of The Runaways) is the loose cannon, running away from her abusive motorcycle cop father, worrying her friends by getting loaded and wasted all the time with dirtbags on the Sunset Strip. The first film directed by Adrian Lyne (who would go on to make Flashdance and 9 1/2 Weeks), there’s such an evocative look to the film, no doubt borne from Lyne’s previous experience working in advertising, with shots inside rooms looking intentionally hazy and smoke-filled, almost like a cross between 1970s magazine ads and baroque interior paintings. That, and the lovely shots of L.A. at sunset and the concert scene (the girls head to a gig by a band called Angel, apparently a glam rock act signed by KISS who sound exactly like them; no doubt pushed by Polygram who produced the movie). A young Scott Biao also appears as a big-hearted runt skateboarder, Sally Kellerman is Jodie Foster’s divorced-and-dating mother, Robert Romanus from Fast Times At Ridgemont High turns up almost playing the exact same character, and there’s even a small part from a young Laura Dern as well. Even though the film is fundamentally a downer, I quite liked it, particularly for its performances, soundtrack and general atmosphere.
VHS Tracking 