Synopsis
A chronicle of the lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high school for students gifted in the performing arts.
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Cast
- Irene CaraCoco
- Barry MillerRalph
- Maureen TeefyDoris Finsecker
- Paul McCraneMontgomery
- Lee CurreriBruno
- Gene Anthony RayLeroy
- Antonia FranceschiHilary
- Laura DeanLisa
- Boyd GainesMichael
- Albert HagueShorofsky
Recommendations
- 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Fame is a genuine treasure, moving and entertaining, a movie that understands being a teen-ager as well as Breaking Away did, but studies its characters in a completely different milieu. - 80
Variety
Alan Parker has come up with an exposure for some of the most talented youngsters seen on screen in years. There isn't a bad performance in the lot. The great strength of the film is in the school scenes -- when it wanders away from the scholastic side as it does with increasing frequency as the overlong feature moves along, it loses dramatic intensity and slows the pace. - 70
The New York Times
Apart from its virtues or defects as a general feature film, Fame - in its attitude toward the performing arts - strikes a new note. It is a streetwise film with streetwise characters. In its deflating moral for every protagonist, it sees these arts as meshed into a smog of urban existence. Its novelty is its anti-Romantic, ironic view toward these callings. [27 July 1980, p.8] - 63
Chicago Tribune
A high school version of A Chorus Line, following a half-dozen talented students at New York High School for the performing arts as they try to become show-biz stars. When the kids perform, the movie sings, but their fictionalized personal stories are melodramatic drivel. [11 July 1980, p.8] - 60
Empire
The song and dance scenes are hard to beat in terms of sheer energy and atmosphere, but the dramatic storylines leave several loose ends. - 60
TV Guide Magazine
This is a wonderfully simple idea that succeeds very well indeed: take a bunch of kids from New York's High School of Performing Arts and let them strut their stuff. Fame shows us how much life there still is in moribund genres like the musical. - 60
Time
The film is full of attractive young performers. And there is a low-keyed conflict between them and a faculty that is trying to discipline their exuberance without stifling their spirits. If the film had concentrated on that instead of on hokey melodrama, it might have been far more engaging and truer to life. - 50
Chicago Reader
The film is cut at such a frenzied pitch that it's often possible to believe (mistakenly) that something significant is going on.
