Starstruck

*She’s so unusual, Australian style* You can file this movie under the category of young women trying to make in the music business, whether fictional or real-life. It debuted in the spring of 1982, almost 1½ years before Cyndi Lauper soared to fame. I bring her up because the fictional protagonist here, redhead Jackie Mullens (Jo Kennedy), is similar to Ms. Lauper, although I prefer Jo in all-around attractiveness. This was her first movie, and she toured America to promote it, along with the song on the soundtrack “Body and Soul,” but she found the experience exhausting. Jo didn’t like talking about herself nonstop and so didn’t do another film until three years later, opting for smaller and more independent artistic projects. Future movies like “Coyote Ugly” and “Brave New Girl” come to mind, although this is funner and has more pizzazz, akin to, say, “Grease.” The director, Gillian Armstrong, went on to helm films like “Little Women” (1994),” “Charlotte Gray” and “Death Defying Acts.” The usherette in the lobby at the very end sure looks like Helena Bonham Carter when she was 15yo (during shooting), even though I guess it's not her. It runs 1h 36m and was shot in the summer of 1981 around Sydney on the southeast coast of Australia. GRADE: B