Jay Raskin This movie had the misfortune of opening the same month, February, 1988, as John Waters "Hairspray." I suspect critics who compared it to "Hairspray" were probably unkind. If it had opened a month or two earlier, it may have been more successful.The movie seems derivative of a lot of other 1970's and 1980's teenager movies: "Risky Business," "Footloose," "Grease," and even "American Graffiti." It doesn't come off well in a comparison with any of them. The little known Arthur Penn classic, "Four Friends" also is much better.Yet, the movie does have a number of charming and sweet moments and often manages to find its own style. The references to Natalie Wood, for example are a nice touch. One forgets that Natalie Wood was a great influence on teenagers of the early 60's with movies like "Splendor in the Grass," "Gypsy" and "This Property is Condemned." I don't think many teenage girls related to the blatant casual sexuality of Marilyn Monroe or the deeply repressed sexuality of Doris Day, but Natalie Wood slowly explored and embraced her sexuality in a way that teenagers could relate to.Donovan Leitch, Jennifer Runyon and Joe Pantoliano are all enthusiastic and fine in the leads. Also watch Scott Plank's nice performance as Dugan. Plank died tragically at 42 in a car accident after a successful career mostly on television.Anyways, the lead actors are good, the music is good, and the dancing is good. The biggest problem is perhaps the script that doesn't create much tension or deep involvement.It is unfortunate for this film that so many great films have been made about Rock and Roll of the early 60's. This film suffers by comparison only because it is not great, but as I noted before, individual moments make it worth watching.

jomp525 I honestly cannot remember where or when I first saw this movie, but it has always been one of my absolute favorites! I love the music, I love the story and I was madly in love with Popeye! I wanted to be one of those kids on the dance show! This movie made me laugh, cry and dance! I highly recommend it! I was so excited when I found the tape on the "previously viewed" sale rack at a video store so that I could watch it whenever I wanted! :)

steves-5 If you lived through the Jerry Blavat Era in Philadelphia [c.1964-1969], this movie is a mirror of life. The locale's, mostly Cheltenham, Philadelphia and Wildwood touch a nerve of conciousness to all who lived through that turbulent time period.It is too bad that there is no sound track album, because it is exemplary. I can still feel the music pounding through my brain when I watch this film, as I did when I danced to it in real life.I highly recommend the film for a reminder of simpler times-and the closing "Like a Rolling Stone" is just the capstone on the end of an era.

Micheaux A previous commenter made mention of this film being akin to "Dirty Dancing". I think it is closer to "Hairspray", the plot lines are similar (getting on a dance show, how the crowd you are with can affect you) and the soundtracks to both are indeed quite wonderful. Apparently, Ricki Lake is in both pictures, to boot!While "Hairspray" deserves praise for many things, including, as one critic put it, being so very much entwined in the 1962 Baltimore era it is almost like science fiction, I rather like to root for "In" Crowd, as it has quite a few nice small touches; Del's little brother runs up to him in the middle of the night for fear of monsters and Del lets him crawl into bed with him, Vicky's father's rather inappropriate affection gives us a sad, short insight into her bad home life, the montage of old music shows at the beginning of the film, the silent, paralyzing rage that Parker goes into when he sees Dick Clark (Clark left Philadelphia to go national and Parker never got his national break) to name a few.It is certainly contrived in spots (some of the dance showcases are pleasant enough, but almost unnecessary), clichéd in some (Vicky's boyfriend is seen near the end of the film during a spooooooky thunderstorm), but it is well...earnest in its intent. The dialog is very good and the performances are at worst, very good, almost to a person. The ending is not a perfectly happy one, nor is it a dour one. It fits well with the movie. Rent it or see it. While not a classic, it is certainly better than it should be.