Description

With Dan Nagan (@aDapperDanMan)!

HEAVENLY BODIES is a 1984 drama film directed by Lawrence Dane and written by Dane and Ron Base. Cynthia Dale plays Samantha, the lead instructor of a dance fitness studio called Heavenly Bodies whose career takes off just as her relationship with football player Steve (Richard Rebiere) starts to take root. She gets her own TV show and her club keeps growing, but Sam’s struggle to balance her career ambition with her personal life deepens when a rival fitness club moves to take over their space.

HEAVENLY BODIES bombed with critics and at the box office. The soundtrack did spawn a few modest hits, and it was apparently a ubiquitous rerun on Canadian television and, anecdotally, a home video success, which is where it languished for about 40 years until it was restored in 2024 and rereleased by Fun City Editions.

Today’s discussion touches on Dan’s fandom for HEAVENLY BODIES, whether or not the broken plot and editing really matter, and this movie’s ‘quantum superposition’ on the spectrum of “cash grab-versus-passion project”!

Find Dan…

• On Twitter at @aDapperDanMan
• On Bluesky at @adapperdanman.bsky.social
• On Letterboxd at @aDapperDanMan
• On his podcast about movies, Everything We Learned
• On Trylove episodes about RONIN (1981), FACE/OFF (1997), MANDY (2018), EDGE OF TOMORROW (2013), GOODFELLAS (1994), BARBARIAN (2022), DEMOLITION MAN (1993)
• On Stoop Kidz! A Hey Arnold! Podcast

References:

• Heavenly Bodies Blu-ray from Fun City Editions
• “Putting the ‘Motion’ in ‘Motion Picture’: Key GIFs from Lawrence Dane’s Heavenly Bodies” by Chris Polley for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• “I Should Have Known Better: The Wildly Improbable Story of Heavenly Bodies” by Ron Base
• Trylove Episode 155: Building a Boutique Film Label with Jonathan Hertzberg of Fun City Editions
• Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices!
• Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets
• Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog

#OtherProgramming #DCP

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch!

Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "Breaking Out Of Prison" by Sparks from the HEAVENLY BODIES soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 344: HEAVENLY BODIES (1984)

5:16 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (under exclusive license from AG Enterprises, Ltd.)

9:06 - Why this movie blows Dan’s mind

17:41 - Conflict, earnestness, cynicism

37:47 - Why’d we cover this instead of CASABLANCA (1942)?

41:19 - Cynthia Dale, sports movies, and the leadup to the competition

48:02 - The final competition and Samantha’s anime moment

59:33 - Exploitation and sexuality

1:08:48 - Where Jack Pearson fits into Samantha’s journey

1:16:48 - The Junk Drawer

1:22:16 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1984

1:26:47 - Dan’s Detour: Try-bo (exercise/aerobics craze movies quiz)