This is not the consensus. While most critics will rightly tip their hat to Charlie Chaplin roller dancing blindfolded in Modern Times<\/em><\/a>, the short-lived micro-genre of roller disco movies were met with disdain. Roller Boogie<\/em> (1979), Skatetown, U.S.A.<\/em> (1979), and Xanadu<\/em> (1980) all attempted, with varying but generally limited success, to cash in on the roller disco craze. At the fad\u2019s height, there were 5,000 roller rinks in the US<\/a>, but by the time any of these movies came out, disco<\/em> was already dying, let alone its roller variant. They never stood a chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Roller Boogie <\/em>deserves more than that swift dismissal. In a just world, Roller Boogie<\/em> would be such a cult classic that you could hardly move without tripping over a revival screening where you feel out of place if you don\u2019t go in full costume. Instead, it\u2019s sitting at zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>, without enough reviews to gain the shabby dignity of getting onto Wikipedia\u2019s list of films with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Linda Blair plays Terry Barkley, a teenage girl living in a mansion in Beverly Hills with half a dozen Rolls Royces in the garage. Her parents show no interest in her \u2013 when she flippantly says she\u2019s going to the beach to commit suicide, her mother intones, \u201cThat\u2019s nice, dear\u201d \u2013 except for when they get to brag to their friends about her being a world-class flautist, winning a Julliard scholarship. \u201cSo what, I\u2019m a musical genius,\u201d Terry sneers, \u201cWhat a drag!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s only one thing she really wants to do: win a roller boogie contest down at Venice Beach. She gets the best skater on the boardwalk to be her teacher: Bobby James (champion roller skater Jim Bray, in his one and only acting role \u2013 so far!), an aspiring Olympian. (It is unclear if Roller Boogie<\/em> takes place in a universe so caught up in roller fever that roller skating is now an Olympic sport, or if Bobby has got his wires more than a little crossed. My guess is both.) Along the way, some evil businessmen-slash-mobsters threaten to burn the roller rink down \u2013 with the kids inside, no less \u2013 if the guy who runs it doesn\u2019t sign on the dotted line. Terry, Bobby, and their friends set out to save it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a very funny, very silly movie, but one that\u2019s more in control of itself than it gets credit for. It is not what Susan Sontag would call \u201cna\u00efve camp\u201d \u2013 \u201cdead serious\u2026 not kidding\u2026 not trying to be charming\u201d \u2013 but nor is it playing at being campy, like, say, a John Waters movie. It is a love letter to na\u00efve camp. It is ironic and sincere, and never stops being one to be the other. People got their heads around this just fine when Baz Luhrmann made Strictly Ballroom<\/em> a decade and change later, but it was taken as a given that Roller Boogie<\/em> couldn\u2019t possibly be the way it is on purpose: “the dopiest movie of the year<\/a>” (Janet Maslin in the New York Times<\/em>) and “a travesty<\/a>” (Greg Beebe in the Santa Cruz Sentinel<\/em>, taking a quick break from calling Blair fat). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like director Mark L. Lester\u2019s later masterpiece, the Arnie action comedy Commando<\/em> (1985), Roller Boogie<\/em> functions both as a stellar example of a form and its parody. In Roller Boogie<\/em>\u2019s case, it\u2019s a certain type of teen movie. Roger Ebert compared it<\/a> to both the AIP Beach Party films and MGM Mickey Rooney\/Judy Garland movies, and you can see the same basic formula in the teen movies that come after Roller Boogie<\/em>: Dirty Dancing<\/em> is another the working-class boy teaches rich girl to dance story, Sixteen Candles<\/em> another girl blithely ignored by her parents. Lester revels in Roller Boogie<\/em>\u2019s clich\u00e9s in a way that is at once knowing and earnest, mocking and celebratory. Of course<\/em> Terry\u2019s mom wants her to be with some creep from a rich family. Of course<\/em> the cops would never listen to the kids about the evil businessmen, and of course<\/em> the only good cop is the one who roller skates. Of course<\/em> if you open the rink for one more night, just to let them have their roller boogie contest, everything will work out just fine. It executes clich\u00e9s in a way that sends a thrill up my spine, and like a small child, I clap my hands demanding in delight, \u201cDo it again! Again!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And it\u2019s on roller skates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Roller Boogie” is not streaming legally, because the world is a cruel and unjust place.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/roller-boogie2-1024x575.png\")
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