"Vision Quest" (1985)

Growing up and trying to get some.
Why not?

I was on the wrestling team in high school. And, like most people I thought it was a pretty queer sport, until I got involved. Yeah, it’s pretty queer, but it’s also massively difficult. Specifically, the conditioning. Which is why this movie is a must see for anyone even trying to get back into shape. It’s at least inspiring on that level.

The movie stars Matthew Modine, as Louden, a 18 year old wrestling phenom. He’s a big gawky jock. And, quite honestly, doesn’t look like a real high school kid, since it is the 1980’s. It also doesn’t help that he is an old soul as well. In this, he’s desperate to wrestle the “white whale” Chute. A Teutonic kid from a few cities over. This kid puts timber over her shoulders and climbs the steps at a football stadium. He’s serious. And mean. Yet, this isn’t the real story. Enter Carla (Linda Fiorentino) a porn sexy streetwise kitten. She sweats sex. Her voice, her body, her prancing around in guy’s shirt. Not many women can give you a boner just by looking at her. Carla is an artist heading out to San Francisco when she stumbles on Louden and his father. Pop is listed in the credits as Louden’s Father, which seems odd since he’s played wonderfully by Ronny Cox. She stays with these two, until her car can be repaired.

I’m not spoiling anything when I say spark flies. The issue is that Carla is streetwise. Her eyes absorb Louden. He’s smitten with her. Daydreaming about what teens do daydream about. Specifically her cooze. Meanwhile, he has to drop weight in order to wrestle Chute to the effects of his physical misery. Louden also has a friend Kuch, played by Michael Shoeffling, who we last saw inexplicably attracted to cross-eyed open mouth overbite ginger Molly Ringwald in “Sixteen Candles.” Here he is Louden’s closest goofy friend. In the 80’s, every serious high school kid had an oddball sidekick. Kevin Bacon had Michael Penn in “Footloose” Kuch is the one who believes his battle with Chute is a vision quest. Kuch is a buffoon, but a mystically studied one. Shoeffling is great in this role, and strange he wasn’t nominated. He’s the poor man’s Matt Dillon, so I get why he would disappear into obscurity a few years later.

This movie is very reminiscent of Tom Cruise in “All The Right Moves.” A talented high school kid wants to earn a sports scholarship to leave their miserable hometown to make something of themselves. It’s a teenage rated R movie. When they made movies the way teens acted (NOT PG-13). I guess I wouldn’t be shocking too many folks if I said Cruise was suppose to be in this movie. But yeah, a solid flick. Also, the soundtrack will bring back a lot of memories for those in their 40’s now. Madonna has a great cameo as a bar singer. I forgot that she was once competing with Boy George as to who had the poof-ier wardrobe (I think he won).