Ça plane, les filles!

Four teenage girls in a suburb of Los Angeles get into all kinds of trouble: parties, drugs, cops, mixed-up parents, older boyfriends. Jodie Foster, the group's level-headed mother hen, tries keeping everyone together "like a family" (like the family unit she's never had), and the heartbreaking thing about the movie is that she can't. Slowly, everyone grows up and goes away. THAT precise plot point, though underscored throughout, is unfortunately tampered with. Did we really need a long sequence with Scott Baio outracing a car full of thugs on his skateboard? Or an even longer sequence--also with Baio--where Foster has a strange soliloquy about pain as an illusion. Some of the dialogue in fact is downright loopy, and I didn't much care for an edit in the third act which segues clumsily from a death to a wedding. But these are nitpicks in what is basically a very sensitive story about the loss of a tight bond. And Jodie's face at the ending speaks volumes. If viewers do get choked up, the movie has earned this. The film doesn't pander for tears or ask for sympathy--it shows us an example of friendship and hopes we understand. *** from ****

Story about four teenage girls growing up in California. Jeanie (Jodie Foster) is the most level-headed of the bunch--but wants to move out of her house where she lives with her divorced mother (Sally Kellerman). Annie (Cherie Currie) is addicted to drugs, alcohol and bad boys and is beaten up by her father. Madge (Marilyn Kagan) has overprotective parents. Deirde (Kandice Stroh) thinks she's more mature than the rest of them.

This is nothing new from what we've seen plenty of times before--but this one has one big difference--it's accurate. I graduated from high school in 1980 (when I first saw the film) and I was surprised at how realistic it was. They got the dialogue, clothes and attitudes down completely right. Even the main song of the movie ("On the Radio" by Donna Summer) was a big hit before this came out. This film hit me harder than any other teen film of the time because I could understand and relate to the characters. I knew girls in high school who were just like this! The film is (of course) dated but it captures a time we will never see again.

The acting is good on all counts with Foster giving the best performance. The relationship between her and Kellerman (who was excellent) was realistic and well-done. Even Scott Baio (who has a small role as a friend of the girls) more or less realistically played a teen boy.

A very good movie--essential viewing if you came of age in 1980. The film has a deserved R rating (plenty of drug use and swearing) but should be seen by all teens. I give it a 8.

Despite the presence of the always top flight Jodie Foster, Adrian Lyne's soaper about the desperate lives of four teenage girls living in sunny but suffocating Southern California is hampered by movie of the week cliches and a meandering storyline that never really goes anywhere. Divorces, absentee parents, easy access to alcohol and drugs, and a strong dose of hopelessness and ennui drive the foxes of the title to varying levels of destruction. Unless you were at a particularly impressionable age when you first saw the film, Foxes is likely to feel too deliberate and drawn out. It is fun, however, to take a peek at the performances of Scott Baio, Sally Kellerman, Randy Quaid, Lois Smith, and Cherie Currie (my favorite, though, is Marilyn Kagan as sexually maturing Madge) as well as the histrionics of glammy rockers Angel. Added bonus: Donna Summer sings the theme "On the Radio."

Boy-crazy Deirdre, virgin Madge, Annie Mallick (Cherie Currie), and Jeanie (Jodie Foster) are best friends in the San Fernando Valley. Jeanie has problems with her single mom Mary (Sally Kellerman). Annie keeps running away from her troubled parents and her policeman father wants to institutionalize her. Brad (Scott Baio) is a guy friend. Madge starts dating older Jay Thompson (Randy Quaid).

In very broad strokes, this is Little Women thrown into the L. A. scene. The female friendships are unbreakable. It's very teenage angst, chaotic, and young girls searching for love. It has quite a few interesting young faces. I do wish for it to pick a story and stick with it. It meanders around. In a way, it's a teenage world. With such a scatter-shot plot, it sometimes does hit on something interesting. I also wonder if it needs a female voice with the writing. The girls do give it a good sense of reality. Cherie Currie and Jodie Foster have magnetic presences. It's an interesting early movie about 80's teen culture.

This is one of my all-time favorite films. Jodie Foster in 1980 once again showed in this film and the movie " Carny" in the year 1980 (when both films were released ) that she had a whole lot more of her " teen who has a huge heart and older than years approach to the world" persona especially in this film Foxes. She takes care of all of her friends including her own mother. She's the most stable of all the characters and she plays it off brilliantly. Cherie Currie, lead singer of the 70's jailbait all-girl band The Runaways stars in one of her few and most memorable roles as the charachter Annie a real drug abusive teen drinking machine who has an abusisve cop father and a mom who doesn't do anything about it. The other 2 girls are kinda forgettable as their basically in the film as either humorous charachters and to at least show that 1 of the 4 girls has to deal with losing her virginity to actor Randy Quaid in one of his first roles.Great concert scene with the late 70's early 80's band Angel and of course having Scott Baio in the film helped promote the film with his and Ms Foster being huge teen stars of this era. The ending doesn't come as a suprise even though it makes you feel bad that Jodie Foster's character couldn't help the teen girl more but if you've never seen this rent it or BUY IT!!! as this is a underlooked classic.***** out 5