a review of 停不了的音乐

FLOPUARY #21: A real mixed bag of surprisingly unironic good stuff surrounded on all sides by exceedingly generic characters and situations. The deep silliness of their group concept notwithstanding, the guys in The Village People come across as genuinely talented performers with an affection for the musical clichés they get to inhabit here. The film's big mistake is straightwashing the story of their creation into that of Steve Guttenberg's main character, presented to us as a "musical genius" whom we mostly see dancing around Elaine Benes-style while the Village People do their thing. So much of the movie revolves around him and his entourage of '70s New York City types, that whenever the Village People actually appear it feels like a relief from the tedium. That said, Valerie Perrine as Guttenberg's manager/girlfriend seems to have fully understood the assignment, and is totally game for everything asked of her here. She's genuinely fun in a way that nobody else in the cast (save for the Village People) seems to be able to tap into.