The 80slicious Screen Media movie "First Period," which comes out on DVD on April 21 2015, amusingly combines wonderful elements of that era. The boys in dresses leads are more Buffy and Hildegarde from the Tom Hanks '80scom "Bosom Buddies" than Patty and Lauren of the Sarah Jessica Parker sitcom "Square Pegs" from the same era but face the same high school challenges of the latter. They are homely awkward teen girls who desperately desire popularity.
The '80s vibe continues with casting Elvira herself Cassandra Peterson as the highly dysfunctional mother of Cassie.
The IMDb page for "Period" adds that, although not mentioned, the film is set in 1989.
The following clip, courtesy of YouTube, of the trailer for "Period," does a good job conveying the aforementioned vibes and provides a taste of the soundtrack of "Period" cast member Judy Tenuta.
The film opens with Heather and the other Heather (ala a melange of the girls of the classic '80s film "Heathers" and the two Darryls of the late '80s sitcom "Newhart") meerting and rejecting new girl in town Cassie only to have the latter bump into the desperate-for-friends Maggie.
Cassie is the Lauren of the duo in that she is more outgoing of the two and develops the scheme for popularity. In this case, it involves shining at an upcoming school talent show. Of course, Heather Prime engages in equal plotting to keep our heroines in their lowly place.
One "Heathers" twist is that the BMOC is Brett, who has a very thinly disguised crush on fellow (but more dim-witted) stud Dirk. The primary humor that hunky Dirk contributes consists of taking off his shirt any time and anywhere that someone demands that he does so.
These story lines set the stage for a series of vignettes leading up to the climax during the talent show, which somewhat surprisingly does not involve the Heathers dropping a bucket of pig's blood on our girls.
The hi-jinks include a hilarious prison rape theme rap battle between Maggie and a male student, an amusing double date in which Brett is more interested in Dirk than Maggie, and assorted drag-style high school drama.
Other humor relates to multiple meanings of the titular term. These obviously extend beyond referring to the initial class of the day.
The aforementioned climax has a strong element of the oft-mentioned John Waters vibe of the film. Suffice it to say that it revels in the off-beat and offers boy-on-boy action.
The DVD extras include a cast interview, the deleted song "Pool Party," and deleted scenes.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Period" is welcome to email me; you can also connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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