XANADU 1980
24%
Directed by Robert Greenwald
Written by Richard Christian Danus and Marc Reid Rubel
Starring Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck
Synopsis
Sonny dreams of leaving the rat race to achieve fame as an artist. One day, he receives a kiss from a mysterious stranger on roller skates who is actually a muse and meets a clarinet-playing dreamer who becomes his new business partner. (Yes, it takes enormous effort to not think this is a fake summary.)
Why We Love It
Imagine a world where pieces of a shredded watercolor painting floating on the breeze are so powerful that they cause a sidewalk mural of alluring women to come to life and start dancing. Such is Xanadu. The story takes so many odd leaps—nay, pirouettes—one must drape themself in a flouncy pastel dress of suspended disbelief and enjoy the (roller skate) ride.
Instead of making a standard “boy meets girl” story, the filmmakers created a “boy falls in love with strange girl on roller skates, finds out she’s Zeus’s daughter, skates defiantly around Venice Boulevard, and opens a roller-skating rink/nightclub” fever dream. By throwing cinematic supernovas Olivia Newton-John and the legendary Gene Kelly into a plot as wild as this, the filmmakers didn’t give us coherent, nuanced storytelling but rather a wildly unique journey—a completely bonkers blast.
Xanadu doffs its cap to musicals of yesteryear but douses them in glitter and animated neon accents to make it delightfully 1980s. Kelly gets his moment to do some old-fashioned soft shoe, but then the movie transitions him into roller skates and gives him a shopping montage focused mostly on peach zoot suits. With a hit soundtrack and a hero that launches himself headfirst into that magical mural on a hunch it will lead him to Olympus, Xanadu gives us an opportunity to let the madness of youth and dreams roll through our hearts.