american graffiti

I tweeted the other week that my initial reaction to watching American Graffiti was anger. It is a right damn shame that I hadn't seen it sooner. IT IS SO GOOD, YOU GUYS. If I'm preaching to the already converted here, I don't care, I'MMA PREACH AWAY.

Get ready for some no-enthusiasm-held-back "reviewing":

THE MUSIC. I don't know what else to say except that it is an example of a perfect movie soundtrack. I actually fell in love with the film before I'd even seen it because someone recommended the soundtrack and it. Is. Perfect. It is perfect. See examples below and then I dare you to not go buy/ download the whole damn thing. THE CARS. This movie is a visual explosion of hot rod goodness. I can't imagine what it must have been like to drive around the streets and be surrounded by so much style. I'm guessing it would have been amazing. THE HAIR. Give people these days more hairspray and pomade, I say! Let's all wreck our hair for the sake of volume, bounce and slickness! THE CLOTHES. THE SLANG. "I said, 'go kiss a duck, marblehead!'" "If brains were dynamite, you couldn't blow your nose." Oh, kids those days.

And you know what I especially liked? It didn't try to glamourise these kids and their lives. Amongst their fine style you can see their pimples, the way their hair's knotting from so much hairspray, the creases in their clothes, and the awkwardness! So much pure adolescent awkwardness. Like how Freaks and Geeks got early 80s high school spot on (supposedly - I wasn't there), American Graffiti gets early 60s small town teenagers what I imagine to be spot fucking on.

So. Who's going to join me in giving up modern technology for a wee while so we can instead spend the nights cruising the streets in our fab rides?

Lisa xx