Grief is confounding in that, over time, it can hypnotize and make us do some rash and terrible things. We can lash out at the ones we love most, drown ourselves in vices like food and alcohol, or even choose to watch that terrible, terrible, Oliver Stone 9/11 movie. In the case of “Footloose”, a movie more about mourning and grief than it probably intended to be, the drunk-driving death of several teenagers has caused a small town to outlaw unsupervised “Lewd” dancing.

Things kick off some time after this, when Bahstonian Ren MahCormahhhck, moves to the biahble-belt south to live with his...