Can’t Stop The Music

You can’t stop the music! Nobody can stop the music! A musical folly of the highest order, Can’t Stop the Music is a loving tribute to the Village People, made by the Village People, who surfed the disco wave of the late 70’s with hit songs like YMCA and Go West and created a contagious dance craze that’s still going to this day, whether you like it or not.

Of course, being gay, and it’s no secret that the Village People were super-off-the-charts gay, was considered to be something of an commercial issue in 1980, so the Village People somehow get side-lined in their own movie to allow centre-stage to a solid heterosexual pairing of Police Academy’s Steve Guttenberg and Superman’s Valerie Perrine. He’s a song-writer, she’s a model, they share a NYC flat and their friends the Village People are their ticket to stardom.That’s a movie, right? A magic night for all?

Kind of, but maybe you need more incentive to sign up. Well, there’s a special appearance by our ‘special friends’ the Ritchie Family, so that must count for something. Nancy Walker, Rhoda’s mother from the popular sitcom of the same name, is a truly bizarre choice to direct, and producer Allan Carr’s promise that co-star Bruce Jenner and his Daisy Duke cut-offs would make him the ‘Robert Redford of the 1980’s’ does seem somewhat wide-of-the-mark seen from today’s perspective.

With surprisingly vivacious but non-sexual bursts of male and female nudity, lashings of strange scenes including random but undeniably enthusiastic milk promotion plus Leatherman from the Village People singing Danny Boy, Can’t Stop The Music is an all-time oddity for the ages, destined to play on a permanent loop in the background of all the best parties until the music finally stops. Say what you like about this kind of music, but you just can’t stop it.