Movie review: Fame

by Alex Bentley

Since everything old is new again, especially in Hollywood, it was only a matter of time before they got around to remaking Fame, the 1980 film turned TV show turned musical. The basic story of following a group of students through their four years at the fictional New York High School of Performing Arts (or P.A., as they call it) is a more natural fit for television, which naturally allows actors to grow/age, but both the original and new film version give it their best shot.

The lone holdover from the first film and TV series is Debbie Allen, although she's technically playing a new character, principal Angela Simms (she played dance teacher Lydia Grant previously). She's joined on the faculty by dance teacher Lynn Kraft (Bebe Neuwirth), singing teacher Fran Rowan (Megan Mullally), music teacher Joel Cranston (Kelsey Grammer), and acting teacher Alvin Dowd (Charles S. Dutton). If you're noticing a theme here, it's because all of those actors are known much more for their television performances than their film ones (not necessarily a bad thing, but still).

They're joined by a group of students that are mostly unrecognizable: piano player/aspiring singer Denise (Naturi Naughton, who played Lil' Kim in Notorious); shy actress Jenny (Kay Panabaker, another TV veteran); actress Joy (Anna Maria Perez de Tagle of Hannah Montana); supremely confident dancer Alice (Kherington Payne from season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance); singer Marco (relative newcomer Asher Book); straight-from-the-farm dancer Kevin (Paul McGill, whose only previous film credit was doing dramatic reconstructions of Phillipe Petit's life in Man on Wire); filmmaker Neil (Paul Iacono); and Victor (Walter Perez) and Malik (Collins Pennie), whose original talents are quickly overwhelmed by their desire to produce music.

That's 14 main characters whose stories have to be squeezed into a two-hour film – something had to give, and unfortunately it was the drama. Attempts at playing up the tense home lives of Denise and Malik fall flat since, one, nobody else gets similar treatment, and two, their status as the lone African-American students (at least the ones they focus on) makes the idea of them having unsupportive parents more like a negative stereotype than anything else. Naturally, romance blooms during the four years, with Jenny and Marco and Alice and Victor pairing off. Neither relationship gathers much steam, with Jenny and Marco particularly puzzling since, well, Jenny doesn't seem to be Marco's type.

Some students rise to the level of becoming professionals, while others fail miserably in their pursuits. A pseudo father-son bond seems to happen between Malik and Mr. Dowd, but because it's only touched on occasionally, it never truly develops into anything. In fact, all of the teachers are given short shrift, something that's natural given the plot, but also strange when director Kevin Tancharoen and writer Allison Burnett try to integrate them again after long absences.

The only thing that truly works is when the students show off their skills, and even that is hit and miss. When the students perform as individuals or in small groups, their talents are evident and impressive. However, Tancharoen attempts a couple of large group scenes to boost the energy, sequences that don't work because they come off as inorganic and forced. One early try is particularly egregious as it's essentially a musical sequence in a movie that's not a standard musical. Just because a film has a lot of music and dancing doesn't mean you can just shoehorn in a song and dance routine that doesn't fit with the rest of the story.

That said, most of the actors/performers do a fine job and they're certainly never boring to watch. The hair and makeup crew does an effective job in making each student seem like they've aged, although some work better than others (the real age of the cast ranges anywhere from 19 to 27). None of adult actors make much of an impression save for Dutton, but, again, the film isn't set up for them to do so. The music is what keeps the film going, and for that reason, Naughton and Book stand out the most since they are given the bulk of the numbers.

The plot of Fame is still an interesting idea, but it just doesn't work well dramatically in movie form. It probably would've been best to try bring it back as a TV series, either scripted or following real performing arts students (yes, there was a short-lived Fame reality series that was a hybrid of American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, but that's not exactly the same). Two hours is not nearly long enough to invest in the lives of 14 different people.