Movie Details
| Title: | Thank God It's Friday | |
| Director: | Robert Klane | |
| Year: | 1978 | |
| Genre: | Healing Power of Dance | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 02.28.26 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 02.28.26 | Internet | This disco romp follows disparate people who come to the night club in search of fun, romance, or success and find all of that and more, plus The Commodores. This is often touted as the "other" disco movie. It obviously came in the wake of Saturday Night Fever's massive success but the book I read claimed this was the better movie because it was actually about disco. Donna Summer has a role in it and performs an original song that would go on to win an Academy Award, Imdb trivia says this is the only film appearance of The Commodores as the band that plays during the dance contest, the soundtrack is comprised by most if not all Motown and Casablanca recording artists (and it's wall to wall music), and it's said to better showcase what the allure of going out dancing in the late 70s was all about. I'd agree with most of that, except being "about" disco doesn't automatically make it a good movie. This is a fun enough experience but there's no pathos or depth to any characters, and no real tension in the story. At their hearts, this is a comedy and Fever's a drama, but I think on multiple levels Fever's the better film. That said, this was better than I thought it'd be! It very much follows the same format as a couple other generational dance movies Groove and... that other one that was on Netflix. Damn it... how do I even look this up. It's letters... OA? OH? XOXO! As a triple feature, I think you'd clearly see this movie, Groove, and XOXO as the evolution of American dance culture. Plus there are early appearances by Jeff Goldblum (same year as the Body Snatchers remake) as the Don Juan club owner trying to seduce a married woman on a bet with the house DJ, and Debra Winger as the clumsy uptight woman looking for a normal guy not wearing polyester. There's a dude called Leatherman (who wears leather (normal leather, not bondage)) and a spacey dental assistant with all the 70s pills people born when I was born heard about but never saw because red bennies and yellow jackets and luudes were not a thing by the time I was old enough to understand what the hell they were, there's a guy who's whole story arc is getting caught in a stairwell. It's goofy light-hearted fun but I found it to be pleasant rather than lame. And this note was going to be a little more poetic because I started watching this on Friday night, but I fell asleep and had to finish it Saturday. Tight 89 minutes though, nothing to complain about there, and it put me in a mood to re-watch what I remember being a better disco movie, albeit one on wheels. |
