Dance party

This coming-of-age movie is sort of a male version of "Dirty Dancing" with a young man from a wealthy suburb falling for a tough city girl. The best thing about it is the soundtrack, which is packed with undeservedly overlooked R & B from the '60s--great songs like the Marvelows' "I Do," Tina Britt's "The Real Thing," the Majors' "A Wonderful Dream" and the Marvelettes' "When You're Young And In Love." It's a refreshing change from the typical '60s movie with songs you've already heard a million times. The dancing is terrific, Donovan Leitch and Jennifer Runyon are appealing as the young lovers, and Joe Pantoliano is outstanding as DJ Perry Parker.

I caught this one while channel searching. At first I simply took a look and then moved on but I found myself coming back and by about the third trip back I was hooked. Yeah it's a little campy and it is a dance movie but I found myself wanting to watch and even dance a little. It is a heartfelt coming of age movie for a young man growing up in the 50 - 60's. Teen love, angst, peer pressure, and the desire to find out who we really are; this movie has it all. I even tried to find it 2nd-hand to buy. I recomend it to anyone who remembers what teen life is all about.

If you lived through the Jerry Blavat Era in Philadelphia [c.1964-1969], this movie is a mirror of life. The locale's, mostly Cheltenham, Philadelphia and Wildwood touch a nerve of conciousness to all who lived through that turbulent time period.

It is too bad that there is no sound track album, because it is exemplary. I can still feel the music pounding through my brain when I watch this film, as I did when I danced to it in real life.

I highly recommend the film for a reminder of simpler times-and the closing "Like a Rolling Stone" is just the capstone on the end of an era.

I guess when you are a kid of around six or seven, you start to notice the teenagers around you and what they're doing. And for the rest of your life you associate "cool" with the clothes, cars, music, and hair styles of the teenagers you see when you are a little kid. This movie really speaks to me, because I still get goose pimples when I see the fashions, cars, girls, hair, and everything else of the years 1965-67. And the wonderful music! Was there ever a better sound than the Philly sound of those years? I love all those doo-wop tunes--the O'Jays, Gene Chandler, "The Duke of Earl", Curtis Mayfield, Vee-Jay records, "The Real Thing", and on and on...

This film is excellent in so many ways, I can't list them all. First of all, the writer and director, Mark Rosenthal, got the look right. Philly in 1965 was a nice suburban city, with a core of hoods and blacks who brought spirit and life to the City of Brotherly Love. The acting is terrific from the young cast, and the extras put their heart and soul into the dancing and clothing of those years. Joe Pantoliano "becomes" Jerry Blavat and gives a wonderful and energetic performance. And I loved the ending, because the 60's only became the 60's when the kids discovered Dylan, San Francisco, and drugs. It was a step in the wrong direction, but this film serves as a time capsule. Maybe some future generation will rediscover that dancing, love and soul music make youth the best time of life.

A previous commenter made mention of this film being akin to "Dirty Dancing". I think it is closer to "Hairspray", the plot lines are similar (getting on a dance show, how the crowd you are with can affect you) and the soundtracks to both are indeed quite wonderful. Apparently, Ricki Lake is in both pictures, to boot!

While "Hairspray" deserves praise for many things, including, as one critic put it, being so very much entwined in the 1962 Baltimore era it is almost like science fiction, I rather like to root for "In" Crowd, as it has quite a few nice small touches; Del's little brother runs up to him in the middle of the night for fear of monsters and Del lets him crawl into bed with him, Vicky's father's rather inappropriate affection gives us a sad, short insight into her bad home life, the montage of old music shows at the beginning of the film, the silent, paralyzing rage that Parker goes into when he sees Dick Clark (Clark left Philadelphia to go national and Parker never got his national break) to name a few.

It is certainly contrived in spots (some of the dance showcases are pleasant enough, but almost unnecessary), clichéd in some (Vicky's boyfriend is seen near the end of the film during a spooooooky thunderstorm), but it is well...earnest in its intent. The dialog is very good and the performances are at worst, very good, almost to a person. The ending is not a perfectly happy one, nor is it a dour one. It fits well with the movie. Rent it or see it. While not a classic, it is certainly better than it should be.