By Robert Scucci
| Published
Life is hard, but dancing your way to the top is even harder in 1985’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt, and Lee Montgomery. Securing a recurring spot on Dance TV is everybody’s reason to be here, and they might just pull it off if they get out of their own way and chase their dreams one sidestep, cartwheel, and leotard at a time. Barely making back its production budget upon release, Girls Just Want to Have Fun eventually secured cult-classic status through cable reruns and home video sales thanks to its die-hard fans.
That’s right, Girls Just Want to Have Fun has a very specific fanbase that keeps it alive: girls who just want to have fun.
You’re Gonna Need A Montage
Girls Just Want to Have Fun centers on Sarah Jessica Parker’s Janey Glenn, an aspiring dancer obsessed with Dance TV, a neon-flashing variety show that’s the talk of the town. Living the Catholic school life under the supervision of her ex-military, painfully strict father Robert (Ed Lauter), Janey is the new girl in class, struggling to fit in. Don’t worry though, she quickly befriends Lynn (Helen Hunt), and you’re never going to believe this: she also loves Dance TV.
Guess who else loves Dance TV in Girls Just Want to Have Fun? That’s right, our romantic interest and male lead, Jeff Malene (Lee Montgomery). It’s a match made in heaven, but there are problems.
The Problems
First, there’s no way Robert will let his military brat daughter have any fun outside of her studies, gymnastics, and traditional dance classes. Dancing is fine if there’s law and order involved, but Dance TV is lawless territory in his mind. Why would he let his daughter pursue her passion if it doesn’t already fit into his narrow worldview? Surely he’ll love sitting alone in a nursing home someday when Janey does what she’s going to do anyway, despite his disapproval.
Jeff’s situation isn’t much better. His father, Mr. Malene (Biff Yeager), is a factory worker who wants his son to follow in his footsteps as a blue-collar guy who cracks open a beer the second he gets home after doing factory stuff all day. Things get worse thanks to Natalie Sands, the most awful human being you’ll meet in Girls Just Want to Have Fun.
Her father, J.P. Sands (Morgan Woodward), conveniently owns the factory where Mr. Malene works. Since Natalie refuses to win second place in the Dance TV contest that everybody in this movie treats like the Super Bowl, she has her father extort Jeff to throw the competition, causing romantic tension between him and Janey in Girls Just Want to Have Fun. That’s right, J.P. (why are they always named J.P.?) is willing to ruin Mr. Malene’s livelihood just so his ungrateful daughter can have a chance to do a few cartwheels on television.
It’s Not The Plot That’s Iconic, It’s The Delivery
Girls Just Want to Have Fun features comic relief Drew (Jonathan Silverman) playing an aggressive chest-fondling game called Tune in Tokyo with an unsuspecting girl at a dance, Helen Hunt using the words “horny” and “babysitting” in the same sentence, Mr. Malene wondering why his daughter Maggie (Shannen Doherty) breaks four bedroom doorknobs a month with sexually suggestive curiosity, nuns breakdancing on pommel horses, and an uncredited Robert Downey Jr. flipping a table at a party. Natalie introduces herself through an attempt at vehicular manslaughter, and nobody bats an eyelash because it’s funny or something.
Teenagers are blackmailed and manipulated throughout Girls Just Want to Have Fun, but it doesn’t stop them from going for the gold. Securing a spot on Dance TV isn’t just a competition, it’s a birthright. The collective musical fire in everyone’s loins drives the premise one awkward teenage moment and cliché power dynamic at a time. It’s fine, though, because at the end of the day, girls just want to have fun.
As of this writing, you can stream Girls Just Want to Have Fun on Tubi. Tune in for the passion, and leave after jotting down every single way this movie violates your sensibilities.
