The best bit of musical nostalgia for the hot-rod generation

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2014)

With more hummable songs than "West Side Story," and a lot more humor, "Grease" is probably the most fun musical tribute to '50s teen culture. It studiously avoids falling into the buzz-killing sinkholes of melodrama and social commentary. When a main character has a pregnancy scare, she responds not with self-pity but with defiant independence. That arc leaves her a little deeper, a little wiser than before, but no less lighthearted. The principle romantic pair, played by John Travolta (good actor, lousy singer) and Olivia Newton-John (the inverse) are often kept apart by the artificial social barriers of high school, and they each do the silliest things to try to change for each other, but at no point does anyone act as if any valuable lessons have been learned. In another movie about pseudo-rebellious greasers, like "Rebel Without a Cause," the car race scene in the final third would have resulted in a shocking death that changes everything; not here, because "Grease" is smart enough to know what kind of movie it is. It's just fun-loving, winking nostalgia. The final number has all of the characters, even the ones who never got along, declare that they will be together forever. The audience knows that they won't, because life doesn't work like that, and the movie knows that we know, so spelling it out would be pointless. In addition to the pop songs and fun plot, "Grease" is kept fresh by well-drawn, instantly-iconic supporting characters like Rizzo and Frenchy.