ALL THE RIGHT MOVES. Directed by Michael Chapman; written by Michael Kane; produced by Stephen Deutsch for 20th Century Fox. Starring Tom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson and Lea Thompson. Rated R (nudity and language).
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Mr. Teenage America of 1983 has to be Tom Cruise. In Risky Business he played out the fantasy side of being young today. In All the Right Moves he tries his hand at reality. For the most part, both he and the movie are successful (although the end product isn't nearly as entertaining as Business).
The setting is a grim and grimy steel mill town. Stef (Cruise) plays high school football, well enough to expect the sport to see him through college, where he wants to study engineering.
This plan runs into difficulties, created both by his own naive arrogance and by the stubbornness of coach Nickerson (Nelson) who is equally determined to escape Ampipe, PA.
Stef's girlfriend Lisa (Thompson) is smart enough to know that trying to keep him close to home would be a mistake, even though she hates to lose him.
All this sounds like pretty standard fare, and it is. All the Right Moves has nothing terribly surprising or original about it. But the characters are appealing and three-dimensional and the story moves along well.
The best part of the movie leads up to and depicts Ampipe High's big game of the season. Their opponent is Walnut Heights, a school in a nearby town that is two or three steps above Ampipe on the socioeconomic ladder.
They're also undefeated and highly ranked in the polls. The practices and pep rally beforehand and the tight, well-edited game sequence itself capture the excitement of these moments well. The class conflict and the "Rocky-"like rooting for the underdog just add to the fun.
Stef is the center of the action and he is a realistic teenager; both over-confident and vulnerable, optimistic and cynical by turns. Cruise was perhaps more convincing as the rich kid in Risky Business than as a poor kid here (his preppy good looks seem somewhat out of place in a factory town). But he is mostly believable and has a few really good scenes. My favorite is one in which his dad consoles him as he would a much younger child.
Lisa and Stef's relationship grows before our eyes into a mature, caring partnership. Lisa's being confident and strong on her own helps a lot here; she is a delightful heroine.
Nelson (who was so good in Poltergeist) conveys just the right amount of desperation for a man at a different crisis point in life—trying to make his big career move. We understand the similarities between Stef and Nickerson much better than they do. This adds a real poignancy to their relationship.
One fairly glaring problem with this movie is its R rating, which may keep a lot of kids from seeing it. I'm thinking about 15- to 16-year-olds who could appreciate Stef and Lisa's troubles and triumphs from an immediate, rather than nostalgic perspective.
The makers of this movie obviously have a lot of affection for, and understanding of, their your subjects. It's too bad they didn't think a bit more about the audience. A few minor, inconsequential changes could have gotten All the Right Moves a PG.
October 12, 1983