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The Flamingo Kid

The Flamingo Kid

Comedy · Drama · Romance · 1984

Brooklyn teenager Jeffrey Willis, thoroughly unhappy with his modest homestead, embraces the other-world aspects of his summer job at the posh Flamingo Club. He spurns his father in favor of the patronage of smooth-talking Phil Brody and is seduced by the ample bikini charms of club member Carla Samson. But thanks to a couple of late-summer hard lessons, the teen eventually realizes that family should always come first.

Movie details

The Flamingo Kid

“A legend in his own neighborhood.”

1984 Comedy · Drama · Romance 1h 40m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.2 / 10

6.3K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

86 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

67 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.0 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Brooklyn teenager Jeffrey Willis, thoroughly unhappy with his modest homestead, embraces the other-world aspects of his summer job at the posh Flamingo Club. He spurns his father in favor of the patronage of smooth-talking Phil Brody and is seduced by the ample bikini charms of club member Carla Samson. But thanks to a couple of late-summer hard lessons, the teen eventually realizes that family should always come first.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Flamingo Kid?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Garry Marshall

Written by

Garry Marshall · Neal Marshall

Matt Dillon

Matt Dillon

Jeffrey Willis

Héctor Elizondo

Héctor Elizondo

Arthur Willis

Molly McCarthy

Molly McCarthy

Ruth Willis

Martha Gehman

Martha Gehman

Nikki Willis

Richard Crenna

Richard Crenna

Phil Brody

Jessica Walter

Jessica Walter

Phyllis Brody

Carole Davis

Carole Davis

Joyce Brody

Court is in session

Put The Flamingo Kid on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.