Coach resides somewhere in between the sexploitation comedies of the seventies that usually revolved around hot young nurses or cheerleaders and more poignant tales of May-December romance like Harold & Maude (1971) and coming-of-age like Breaking Away (1979). All-American Cathy Lee Crosby manages to retain all her sugary wholesomeness even while bearing some skin and hooking up with a teenage student (Michael Biehn, in one of his first roles). If you haven’t guessed already, he’s the star of the high school basketball team and she’s the team's new coach, who is out to prove that women can do everything as badly as men, which she primarily achieves by constantly threatening discrimination lawsuits against anyone who gives her lip. The film is kind of fun as a relic of the 70s; celebrating a situation that could not possibly be treated so cavalierly in today’s hyper-sensitive world. Notable as possibly the only movie about an inspirational coach where the climactic big game is won by cheating; specifically, the hypnotizing of a student into thinking he’s a black pro ball player.
No comments:
Post a Comment