Grab your spatula and sing along!
July 23, 2010 5:46 PM   Subscribe

The other night my roommate was watching Practical Magic and the cast started dancing around the kitchen, lip-syncing to "Lime In the Coconut." I started thinking about what a Thing that became in the films of the 1980s and 1990s. Another one that springs to mind is Julia Roberts' 1998 flick "Stepmom," where she and the kids dance in PJs and lip-sync "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." What other films had that dreaded excuse for a female bonding moment in them? Let's compile the ultimate list.
posted by ktoad to Media & Arts (32 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Slightly tongue-in-cheek since the female bonding is at the cost of another female, but the songSandra Dee from Grease.
posted by banannafish at 5:52 PM on July 23, 2010


Mermaids... If you want to be happy
posted by nimsey lou at 6:01 PM on July 23, 2010


my best friend's wedding
posted by nadawi at 6:03 PM on July 23, 2010


the actual question is "what songs have sing alongs, mostly from the 80s and 90s, like practical magic and stepmom". if you don't like, read stuff that interests you.
posted by nadawi at 6:04 PM on July 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


Beetlejuice
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:06 PM on July 23, 2010


You might find better answers to this question on a site like TV Tropes, where people eager to compile lists of this nature gather en masse. I don't think there is already a page for this one (or at least I couldn't find one), but you could start one.
posted by bcwinters at 6:07 PM on July 23, 2010


Tom Cruise, in Risky Business.
posted by crunchland at 6:14 PM on July 23, 2010


The First Wives' Club
posted by sallybrown at 6:21 PM on July 23, 2010


The First Wives' Club - You Don't Own Me
posted by elvissa at 6:22 PM on July 23, 2010


Oh, and Muriel's Wedding
posted by sallybrown at 6:23 PM on July 23, 2010


The Big Chill. Deeply annoying scene it is, too.
posted by argybarg at 6:35 PM on July 23, 2010


It's male bonding, not female bonding, but Harold and Kumar do it to Hold On
posted by brainmouse at 6:36 PM on July 23, 2010


"Tempted," in Reality Bites.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:43 PM on July 23, 2010


Tommy Boy
posted by overeducated_alligator at 6:50 PM on July 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Does Magnolia count?
posted by overeducated_alligator at 6:53 PM on July 23, 2010


Cool Papa Bell: "Beetlejuice"

Something like this right?
posted by Splunge at 7:03 PM on July 23, 2010


The weird animated hamburger that sings along with Van Halen in Better Off Dead.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:05 PM on July 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Splunge - that certainly fits the brief better - but i happen to prefer this example from beetlejuice. :)
posted by nadawi at 7:05 PM on July 23, 2010


13 Going on 30 -- Love is a Battlefield
posted by parkerjackson at 7:05 PM on July 23, 2010


Link
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:06 PM on July 23, 2010


Big Lipped Alligator Moment, or BLAM, on tvtropes, probably has you covered, although it is less specific than what you're looking for.
posted by Mizu at 7:13 PM on July 23, 2010


Tortilla Soup

I think they did it in Hope Floats also but I can't find it online.
posted by cazoo at 7:20 PM on July 23, 2010




There is a scene in "Waiting to Exhale" in which the four main characters are dancing around a living room and singing. It's a crappy movie and the singing scene doesn't work because even though the other three actresses had good voices and Whitney Houston was obviously trying to rein it in, she still completely overpowered them and her phenomenal voice was just way too much for the office manager she was supposed to be. But then you didn't ask for *good* examples of this sort of thing.;-)
posted by orange swan at 8:32 PM on July 23, 2010


Dreaded female bonding? Tear my eyes out cringing miming to Van Morrison by Glenn Close and M.S. Masterson in Immediate Family. Bonus death points for miming saxophone playing.
posted by ovvl at 8:42 PM on July 23, 2010


How about a coed sing-along? Tiny Dancer from Almost Famous.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:53 PM on July 23, 2010


For female bonding: Mystic Pizza, when Lili Taylor, Julia Roberts and Annabeth Gish sing along to "Respect."
posted by SisterHavana at 8:57 PM on July 23, 2010


It's been a long time, but wasn't there some sort of coed kitchen sing along in The Big Chill?
posted by crunchland at 8:58 PM on July 23, 2010


Another coed number: Erasure's A Little Respect in D.E.B.S. (lipsync starts about 40 seconds in).
posted by sigmagalator at 9:16 PM on July 23, 2010


I don't think this is an example of BLAM, exactly, because usually scenes like this do further the plot in some way. They're mostly used to convey some emotional connection or bonding moment between characters, often characters who had previously been in conflict (or who share in a central conflict). It's also a bit of a palate cleanser between acts or phases in the narrative arc.
posted by Sara C. at 9:17 PM on July 23, 2010


Ducky lipsyncing Try a Little Tenderness in Pretty in Pink sorta qualifies, although it's only one character.
posted by incessant at 9:55 PM on July 23, 2010


ktoad, it was Susan Sarandon doing the lipsync in Stepmom.
posted by ceri richard at 8:05 AM on July 24, 2010


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