In Chocolat, an oppressive mayor moulds a small town in the guise of his oppressive god. Then a bacchanalian comes and upsets his order, influencing the young to disobey their mothers and the old to rediscover their youth. Eventually, the mayor comes around to her point of view, repents, and even eats chocolate!

Now: substitute Kevin Bacon for Juliette Binoche, John Lithgow for Alfred Molina, and a small town in the midwest for a small town in France, and what do you have? Why, Footloose, of course! Surely, two films makes a genre. I’ll call it “iconoclast fantasy,” unless you can think of something better.

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