Shag

5/27/2018

Youths having fun at Myrtle Beach in 1963 RELEASED IN 1989 and directed by Zelda Barron, "Shag” is a teen drama about four girls freshly graduated from high school taking a vacation weekend at Myrtle Beach in 1963. There’s the senator’s daughter, Luanne (Page Hannah); the engaged or encaged Carson (Phoebe Cates); the wannabe Hollywood starlet Malaina (Bridget Fonda); and the thinks-she’s-still-fat-but-she’s-not Pudge (Annabeth Gish). The movie plays like a melding of “American Graffiti” (1973), “Dirty Dancing” (1987) and “Mystic Pizza” (1988). It’s far superior to the overrated “American Graffiti” and lacks the idiot subplot of “Dirty Dancing” (see my reviews of both for details). The script thrusts the four girls into the weekend festivities at Myrtle Beach as quickly as possib