What's the state of the American dream, c. 1980? English director Alan {Midnight Express) Parker offers one entertaining answer in this ambitious, exuberant film. He follows eight fictionalized students at Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts from enrollment auditions to graduation day. A stereotypical sample—four boys, four girls, two blacks, one Puerto Rican, one gay—the kids are performers first and students second. They think nothing of tumbling out into the streets and staging an impromptu dance atop passing cars. As in Milos Foreman's Hair, the plot adeptly tightropes the line between realism and fantasy. Michael Gore (Lesley's brother) has composed a lively score, highlighted by a funky, frenzied number called Hot Lunch Jam. The standouts of the talented, mostly unknown cast are Irene Cara, who looks and sings like the next Donna Summer, and Gene Ray, a dazzling dancer. Comedienne Anne Meara contributes a thoughtful performance as an empathetic English teacher. Although there are hints of pretentiousness and an obvious debt to A Chorus Line, this movie is a sparkling, magical celebration of music and life. (R)
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