Cinema: Revel Without a Cause

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When Footloose cuts loose, it can beguile. The "production numbers" (especially a snazzy Deniece Williams song, Let's Hear It for the Boy) borrow smartly from the MTV style: fender-level camera, bright-as-Day-Glo lighting, crisply syncopated editing, fashion-photo compositions. Lori Singer fits into these compositions smoothly: her cheerleader face is ironized by dramatic blue eyes and a succulent mouth open to any proposition. Kevin Bacon may never be the cynosure of all female libidos, as he is characterized here, but he is a smart and appealing young actor. Too smart, perhaps, like the rest of the film. Footloose loses itself in intelligent ambition when it might more wisely have obeyed a simple musical imperative: Let's dance! —By Richard Corliss