Movie review - "The Allnighter" (1987) *1/2

An attempt to embrace the spirit of the beach party films from a girl point of view and a female director. Women audiences may enjoy it more. I found it frustrating because I could see what it wanted to do but felt it couldn't get there.

There's nothing wrong with the basic idea - five housemates, three of them women, have a last night before they graduate from college. It's bright and colourful and Joan Cusack is one of the girls and she's good.  There's a decent love triangle set up with Susanna Hoffs pining after John Terleskey who doesn't notice she's alive until rock guitarist Michael Ontkean turns up.

Susanna Hoffs isn't a great actor but she does have charisma and is pretty. She should've been better protected, though - she needed to be surrounded by strong actors, like Elvis and Pat Boone were in their films. She also needed things that played to her strengths - costume changes and lots of songs. She doesn't sing! Why have Susanna Hoffs in a fluffy movie where she doesn't sing? She wears a swimsuit and the director gets her to dance around in her underwear in front of the mirror (her mum wrote and directed it), but she clearly can't dance.

Cusack can act really well but Deedee Pfeiffer who plays the third of her friends isn't very good. John Terleskey has cocky charm as the object of Hobbs affection and James Anthony Shanta is okay.

Hoffs' character should've been given more status. She throws herself at Ontkean who turns her down; Ontkean should've been keen for her - he forgets she's there when another woman turns up. Terleskey doesn't treat her very well - he swings from jealousy to mistreatment, sleeps with another girl that night, and only sleeps with Hoffs at the end because he finds her hot, which may be true to life but isn't very emotionally satisfying.

The film seems to constantly strive for an atmosphere of fun and camaraderie that isn't quite there - people do dancers and sit around and chat. Scenes are awkwardly blocked and staged like Hoffs showing Ontkean a dance she did to his song - I get what they were going for, but it didn't feel real. Also when Hoffs was locked out of a room (why did Ontkean forget she was there?) and her friends were arrested for being hookers - none of it felt real. And its not Hoffs who saves the day its Terleskey which isn't very satisfying.

Also I got confused with the characterisations. I think Hoffs was meant to be quiet and smart - but said a number of dumb things. The two male friends were very similar surfer dudes - I think one was dumber than the other; it didn't help that both were blonde. Cusak kind of films everything even intimate scenes which doesn't feel real - I know people did a lot of that later on with reality TV but here, for me at least it didn't ring true. Pfeiffer is set up early on as a party girl who sleeps around but she's also got a fiance, is that right? Or did I get her mixed up with this other blonde who is randomly there?

There's nothing wrong with contradictions in characters if they're going to be explored, but the film doesn't. The film is a bit of a mess. I think because of the colours and because it's about young women coming of age, if you saw it at the right time in your life you might lake it.