Rhapsodies

My Theme for this week was seventies kitsch, the kind of slice of life comedies that did not intend to be period pieces going in but in the end turn into documentaries for the period. (In hindsight I could also pretend that the theme was movies where their theme songs are better know than the films today)

The first on my list Car Wash claimed to star Richard Pryor and George Carlin but in reality their appearance turned out to be just a cameo and a running gag.

The real stars of the show are the crew of the local carwash, a wonderfully diverse group of misfits and we watch them going through what we presume is a typical day warts and all.

Lots of things go on throughout the day, including George Carlin as a cabdriver trying to track down a prostitute who’d stiffed him on a fare, two pranksters trying to one up each other, the boss’s son wanting to be one of the people and failing terribly at it and an ex con trying to improve his life and retain his dignity. It’s very funny bittersweet kind of way.

Thank God its Friday tries to do the same thing only with the opening night of a hip new disco club run by a young Jeff Goldblum. Like the car wash the place attracts all types to a frustrated couple, two high school students trying to sneak in to enter the club’s dance contest, and my personal favorite Jackie a dental hygienist by day a pill popping manic pixie dream girl by night.

This is all framed around the aforementioned dance contest which is comically delayed throughout the night and then delayed more as their roadie who has all of the instruments is lost and keeps getting pulled over… so in the mean time we just have to sit back and listen to Donna Summers sing “Last Dance”.