Foxes (1980)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Jeanie	Jodie Foster
Brad	Scott Baio	½
Jay	Randy Quaid
Mary	Sally Kellerman	½
Annie Mallick	Cherie Currie	½
Madge Axman	Marilyn Kagan	½
Deirdre Tompkins	Kandice Stroh	½
Mrs. Axman	Lois Smith
Debbie	Laura Dern
Scott	Robert Romanus
Bryan	Adam Faith

Review

In what is arguably Adrian Lyne's least erotic film (which doesn't say a lot), Jodie Foster tries to keep her gang of teenage friends afloat in suburban Los Angeles at the end of the 1970s. The four girls have their own disparate struggles, but their common denominator is an unsatisfactory home-life and, of course, their mutual friendship. Along the way, they encounter various people; kids their own age, unfulfilled parents and other odd characters, all of whom give us a glimpse and maybe even understanding of their world more than they tell a story. Lyne's best accomplishment here is how he follows these girls around and appears to have given the actresses lots of freedom to express themselves. He obviously wanted to catch some sort of atmospheric authenticity, which he does. Foxes feels like a film from the inside (even if I'm not so sure that it actually is), and Jodie Foster's dedicated, forceful performance demonstrates a great talent in bloom. Unfortunately, there is a clear disconnect between this atmospheric merit and the level of Lyne's work when he has to let the plot guide the way. There are a few less satisfactory threads and elements, such as the inclusion of the Randy Quaid character (bear in mind that Quaid and Marilyn Kagan are actually the same age), as well as most of the ending. Look for a very young Laura Dern in a scene-stealing cameo.