April Fools! I needed an infamous 'bad movie we love' for today's edition of Hit Me With Your Best Shot a crowd source visual party, where anyone with a love for movies can watch the pre-assigned film and chime in on the one moment that makes it or defines it or reflects it. In other words, whatever "best" means to you.
The Village People musical Can't Stop the Music (1980) starring Valerie Perrine (of Lenny & Superman fame), Olympian Bruce Jenner (long before the Kardashian days) and Steve Guttenberg early on in his career, came through. And how. You can barely believe this movie while you're watching it but you can't exactly look away either. (Credit where it's due, the lightbulb for this week's selection came to mia via an e-mail from Awards Watch, about their new series pairing Razzie winners with Oscar winners.)
This musical, the very first Razzie Worst Picture winner is awful, sure, but it's also adorable in its own glittery misguided 'let's put on a show' kind of way. The Razzies, which are also crowd sourced, have a long history of homophobia (they're no fans of camp or gay icons of any kind) so it's no surprise that it all started here with this super gay film that's weirdly caught between "Liberation" and the closet and the cusp of the decades it straddling. But more on that in these fine fun articles.
Can't Stop the Music's Best Shots
click on the photos for the corresponding article
Its massively ineffective attempt to split the difference between the look and mood of the 1970s versus the 1980s...
-Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
The movie it might have been in another time. NOT THAT IT WOULD HAVE EXISTED IN ANOTHER TIME....
-Nathaniel R, The Film Experience
The kind of joyous, “ZOMG out of ★★★★” masterpiece that I would place in the same company as Battlefield Earth and Showgirls...
-Robert Hamer, Awards Circuit
Presented as a dream sequence with lyrics that veer quite close to an imagined rape sequence...
-Manuel Betancourt
a wacko comedic origin story with occasional music-video interludes...
- Jake D, Minnesota Gneiss
Half trying to phone it in, half trying to get out...
-Lam Chop Chop
This is the '80s, darling. You're going to see a lot of things you've never seen before...
- (Home) Film Schooled
The Rosetta Stone to understanding the pleasures of Can't Stop the Music...
-Coco Hits NY
I chose the reaction shot because I imagine he’s thinking what I’m thinking...
-Drink Your Juice, Shelby pt 1 and pt 2
It’s such a ludicrously mounted production that it thrills me to no end that it was a hit in Australia and nowhere else...
-Glenn Dunks
I adore this shot for SO many reasons... let me list them for you"
-Nathaniel R, The Film Experience
Following the film's gonzo logic, this sequence does nothing to advance the plot...
- Jason Henson, The Entertainment Junkie
Guys! Wait! This can’t be The Gayest because LOOK AT THIS PRETTY STRAIGHT LADY!
- Anne Marie & Margaret, We Recycle Movies
You can hang out with all the boys...
-Shane Slater, Film Actually
a product of its time...
-abstew - The Film's The Thing
literally shooting out rainbows...
-Sorta That Guy
These 15 articles are so fun, people. Please do enjoy them in all their jaw-dropped glory.
Previously on "Hit Me"
Eternal Sunshine & L.A. Confidential
Next time on "Hit Me": Bette Davis in the Best Picture noir nominee THE LETTER (1940). Choose and post your 'Best Shot' by 9 PM Tuesday April 15th to be included in the visual roundup.