Starring: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Jonathan Adams, Peter Hinwood, Meat Loaf, Charles Gray
Director: Jim Sharman
Genre: Comedy, Musical
Rating: A+
If you somehow don't already know The Rocky Horror Picture Show my recommendation is to go and check it out now. An update of the classic Frankenstein story, this one is one of the few to really take the idea and go in a completely different direction. Here we have newly engaged, rather vanilla couple Brad (Bostwick) and Janet (Sarandon) are on their way to see Dr. Everett Scott (Adams) when their car breaks down, so they go to the nearest house looking for a phone (this is well before the advent of cell phones). There they find the eccentric and mad Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Curry), a transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania, and his attendees, namely Riff Raff (O'Brien), Magenta (Quinn), and Columbia (Campbell). Dr. Frank is a scientist who has made a man, Rocky Horror (Hinwood), although there is talk of another man, Eddie (Loaf). Overseeing and narrating the whole thing is the Criminologist (Grey).
The thing I like most about this movie is the fact that every time you watch it you notice some other little thing about it. While a total B-flick at best - or, really a parody of B-flicks - it's also horribly intricate and has all these little details to it. There's something new to notice every time you watch it. It's about more than just transvestites, aliens, cross-dressing, and songs - that's all very much in the foreground, but there is more going on.
Actually, that's a lie. That's not my favourite part about this film, although it's up there. My favourite part is the music. The movie in general is fun, if not really weird and at times a bit confusing, and that's largely because of the music. The soundtrack is just fun and there isn't a single song in it that doesn't serve a great purpose. The best part here is the fact that the eclecticness of some of the music really embraces the eclecticness of the overall film. It's really all over the place, but in Rocky Horror it somehow works. The fact that this is meant to be a parody just makes things better. It covers both the B-flicks and in a way life in general. Looking at it - a movie about a singing transvestite who creates a man while basically holding two strangers hostage before things all go to shit - you wouldn't expect it to say anything really profound, but the more you watch it the more you start to see this kind of commentary. There's a reason it's the longest-running release film in history. It's something you want to see in theatres on the big screen, and not just because of the audience participation.
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