Shag: The Movie Movie Review

Shag is a pleasant summer comedy about four teenage girls enjoying a fling in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, circa 1963, a plot only its English producers would consider “a rarity.” Phoebe Cates, a star of high school films since 1982, finally graduates in this one. She's clearly had some theatrical training: her performance as a future bride attracted to a one-night stand named “Buzz” is her most restrained to date. Daryl Hannah's sister Page, then 25, plays the plain daughter of a Senator who has a crush on Cates’ strict boyfriend, Tyrone Power Jr., 30. Bridget Fonda, another 26-year-old teenager, gives her role of a preacher's wild daughter a poignant blend of self-mocking humor and desperation. Perhaps the only real teenager in the bunch is high school junior Annabeth Gish, who is charming as always. Carol Burnett's lookalike daughter Carrie Hamilton is also around to provide competition for Fonda in their star-struck pursuit of a teen idol who thinks Elvis Presley is pathetic. Beautiful British actress Shirley Anne Field, who once played a delinquent in 1960's Beat Girl, plays Page's Southern belle mama. Speaking of which, do all Southern beauty pageants require Scarlett's vomit scene at Tara plus American flag dance routines as part of their talent competitions? The film is your basic re-tread of the old “Beach Party” movies where the only black faces you'll see on the beach belong to “The Voltage Brothers” singing “Sixty Minute Man,” where the emphasis on innocence evokes 1963 media caca rather than reality, and where a group of talented newcomers somehow manage to give the nonstop cliches a fresh twist. Shag is directed by Zelda (Secret Places) Barron.

1989 (PG) 96m/C Phoebe Cates, Annabeth Gish, Bridget Fonda, Page Hannah, Scott Coffey, Robert Rusler, Tyrone Power Jr., Jeff Yagher, Carrie Hamilton, Shirley Anne Field, Leilani Sarelle Ferrer; D: Zelda Barron; W: Robin Swicord, Lanier Laney, Terry Sweeney; C: Peter Macdonald. VHS, LV