Popcorn Reviews With Cybèle: The Rocky Horror Picture Show -and- Fame

By Cybèle Elaine Werts  
CybeleW@aol.com

There is a bottle of blackberry brandy in my cupboard which I nip once a year or so. More than a photo, a song, or a movie rerun on MTV, the smell of this dark sweet burn takes me back 18 years to the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I am 16, and at the center of the universe.

This is the video you should NOT rent.

This cult film was made for a crowd of titillated teenagers, slightly boozed out and hot with the knowledge of a little sex and being with the kind of people that you didn’t tell your parents about. This film was made for late nights out, and greasy eggs-over-easy at 3 AM Denny’s. Rocky Horror makes no sense when viewed over microwaved popcorn. No sense when watched in a suburban living room decorated in home shopping channel. It is the delirious crowd whispering and yelling through the late night darkness of a movie theater that makes it more than the silly satire it was born. So please, don’t rent this movie. Drive to Boston and stay up late. See Rocky Horror live.

The other day I got my Rocky Horror fix nearly live in a segment from the artsy teen flick Fame. Somewhere in the haze of my sophomore year of college, my first love and I sank into a pillowy couch in a quiet third floor room, and committed Fame to memory. You’d think a film like this couldn’t still resonate for a 36 year-old corporate girl, but you’d be wrong. The music and dance numbers are inventive and well choreographed. The editing is sudden and surprising, making the moment over before you’re ready, or maybe before you’re not. While not one of the actors has gone on to anything memorable, their performances resounded in my head all weekend.

What’s it about? A group of artistically gifted high school students attend the school for performing arts in New York City. All the usual angst - insecurity, love, fear, sex, triumph. But this is no teenybopper flick, it’s more of a precursor to My So Called Life; it hurts to watch sometimes. There is an unfinished quality to the tiny dramas of their lives, much like my own. And if the characters are stereotypical, so are most teenagers. Still, they sing from the spirit, as I do when not distracted by the to-do list of my life.

Both Rocky Horror and Fame are films about being present and making your life count. The difference is that the former is about the experience of "watching" the film, and the latter is about the film itself. Either way, they are both keepers.

Suggested Gustatorial Accompaniment: A shot of blackberry brandy if you’re over 21, a shot of popcorn if you’re not.

Copyright 2000