Review of The Pom Pom Girls

...1976 saw two particularly notable depictions of high school life on the big screen. The one released later in the year, CARRIE, was a nightmare; the earlier release, THE POM POM GIRLS, was the dreamy ideal (at least to most high schoolers of the period). Interestingly, the dream has aged somewhat better than the nightmare, even if CARRIE is much more frequently run on cable nowadays. In a departure from the Crown International Pictures drive-in norm of the period, the young ladies aren't subjected to any hideously sexist hijinks (can't say that for THE VAN or VAN NUYS BLVD.), there seems to be genuine respect and friendship between the boys and girls, and what happens in this movie (except for the fire truck prank) actually seem plausible. There's even an airy quality to the soundtrack music, lifted from the previous year's debut album by Cotton Lloyd & Christian (including Michael Lloyd, whose record productions for The Osmonds these high schoolers obviously grew up on), that's surprisingly refreshing. Even James Gammon, playing a head football coach over a decade before MAJOR LEAGUE, seems rooted in the period. If you were part of the American Class of '76, this is your picture...