A lively, momentous demonstration of craft.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 20, 2024

Cliched dramatic stories aside, the movie has a gritty charm and overall likeability that makes it worth revisiting for an understanding of how both the genre and society’s perceptions have evolved...

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 31, 2024

This is an unbalanced mess at a lot of points and that stops you from fully enjoying its occasional moments of greatness.

| Original Score: C- | Feb 7, 2023

Not only is the singing and dancing in this movie excellent, it is also done in a spontaneous and natural way, giving it a realistic quality much more exciting and inspiring than the staged musical sequences in most movie musicals.

| Aug 19, 2022

With a lot of energy and talent going for it, you can't help wanting to like Fame. Yet the sad truth is that the film falls short of its potential in almost every way.

| Nov 3, 2021

Alan Parker's great virtue is to know how to tell a unique and effective story, without boasting. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 14, 2019

Numerous performance scenes are expertly woven into Christopher Gore's screenplay following the audition-to-graduation fortunes of a handful of students, and the result is a joyful celebration of youth, hope and talent.

| Jul 17, 2019

Fame isn't only the best musical of the summer, it's one of the best films of any genre -- a fresh and funky, sassy and brassy, gutty and gritty, slick and smart piece of work.

| Apr 28, 2018

Director Alan Parker has reinvented effectively the old musical movie genre of let's put on a show in a way that speaks directly to younger viewers

| Original Score: B | Apr 21, 2011

Raw look at teen life more shocking than you might recall.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 19, 2010

What recommends Fame to whatever degree that it doesn't totally suck is that Parker's still content at this point in his career to not resolve every single storyline

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 28, 2010

The song and dance scenes are hard to beat in terms of sheer energy and atmosphere, but the dramatic storylines leave several loose ends.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 8, 2010

Every once in a while what appears to be the entire student body pours out into the street to do song-and-dance numbers, some of which are cheerful enough, but all of which break faith with the film's realistic premise.

| Sep 8, 2010

The film is cut at such a frenzied pitch that it's often possible to believe (mistakenly) that something significant is going on.

| Sep 8, 2010

Nearly thirty years after its debut, Alan Parker's Fame remains, in its way, even fresher than its glossy 2009 remake

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 26, 2009

Alan Parker has come up with an exposure for some of the most talented youngsters seen on screen in years. There isn't a bad performance in the lot.

| Jun 9, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 6, 2008

It's a crack at the American Dream which carries all the exhilaration and depth of a 133-minute commercial break.

| Jan 26, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 29, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 28, 2005