MOVIES TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND
‘THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS’
The movie starts when a city boy, Pietro, goes on holiday to the mountains with his parents. The village they stay at is dying out, only one child remains, another boy of similar age, Bruno, who has to work in the farm already. The story continues after one goes on to study but without knowing which life to choose, and the other is pushed into construction work by his father. Years later, they meet again after the father of Pietro died, and turns out to have left him a collapsed shelter in the high mountains near their old holiday retreat and a hidden past.
‘FLASHDANCE’
Alexandra ‘Alex’ Owens (Jennifer Beals) is an eighteen-year-old welder at a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who lives with her dog, Grunt, in a converted warehouse. She aspires to become a professional dancer, but has no formal dance training and works as a nightly cabaret performer at Mawby’s, a neighbourhood bar and grill. Lacking family, Alex bonds with her co-workers at Mawby’s, some of whom also aspire to greater artistic achievements. Jeanie (Sunny Johnson), a waitress, is training to be a figure skater, while her boyfriend, short-order cook Richie (Kyle T. Heffner), hopes to become a stand-up comic. One night, Alex catches the eye of customer Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri), the owner of the steel mill where she works. After learning that Alex is one of his employees, Nick pursues her on the job, though Alex turns down his advances. Alex is also approached by Johnny C. (Lee Ving), who wants ‘CHEVALIAR’
In 1984, Oregon-based Nike, Inc. is on the verge of shuttering their basketball shoe division due to low sales. In response to this, Marketing VP Rob Strasser, along with co-founder and CEO Phil Knight, task Nike’s basketball talent scout Sonny Vaccaro to come up with a new spokesperson for Nike basketball shoes.
While considering the basketball players chosen in the 1984 NBA draft, Nike’s executives think third pick Michael Jordan is off limits, being both a fan of Adidas and too expensive for the basketball division›s meager budget. But once he watches Jordan’s highlights in conjuction with an Arthur Ashe commercial for his Head rackets, Vaccaro becomes convinced that Nike should pursue who he considers a generational talent, with both brand and athlete building off each other.