Dancer, Texas - Pop. 81 [HD]

Sweet and low-key; welcome to the real Texas
Dancer, Texas covers two days in the life of four members of the graduating class of Dancer, Texas's high school class. (There's five members in total). Dancer is one of those small, forgotten town in West Texas -- the type of town that's watched its fortunes fall along with the oil industry and where everyone, at some point, plans to leave but most never do. The four friends have all sworn to leave after graduation and during this day, they discover the beauty of their past and the hope of their uncertain futures. Its an amazingly low-key film, the type that sneaks up on you and, in its low-key way, is amazingly compelling. You truly get to know Dancer and its 81 inhabitants and understand how they can both love their town and dream of leaving at the same time. With a beautifully written, authentic script, this is one of the most warmly humorous, insightful films about growing up and pursuing your dreams that I've ever had the pleasure to see. The four main characters are...

touches your heart, family safe
Four boys who are friends since childhood ponder their lifelong promise to leave the remote, tiny town for Los Angeles when they graduate from high school. One is orphaned and living with his grandfather, another is the child of a life-long alcoholic, another the son of a rich oil man and finally one that is the son of a rancher who intends to pass the business off to his son.

Different boys who become men, all with different families, commitments and hopes that they must deal with. Going from a town of 81 people to a town of 13 million seems exciting and overwhelming at the same time and the four must face the fact that some may stay behind because they want to and some might leave because they have to. It's nothing what any of them had foreseen and it puts their friendship to the test.

The characters are real and if you've ever had friends that came from a small town, these guys will remind you of their most endearing qualities. The film doesn't put a stereotypical...

A great little movie
Those of us who did not grown up in or around a small town certainly know people who did. I, for example, have a cousin from Wartburg, Tennessee. I'm not sure exactly sure where it is, and I certainly can't figure out who gave it that name or why.

Even before television turned the world into a fake global village, the majority of small town adolescents seem to have dreamed of moving to a big city. This yearning is the subject of the story in "Dancer, Texas Pop. 81". Its makers have an interesting point of view on a matter which movies have covered numerous times in the past.

The film opens on the morning of Graduation Day at the local school. Four boys, who are members of the graduating senior class of five, are sitting in lawn chairs in the middle of the two-land road that goes past the town. At first, this seems to be both silly and dangerous. Then we learn that these lads are best friends who, years earlier, made a sacred vow to move to Los Angeles together the Monday after...

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