[1] Modine plays a Spokane high school wrestler who falls in love with an older woman, an aspiring artist from Trenton, New Jersey, on her way to San Francisco.

The film includes the first major motion picture appearance by Madonna, who plays a singer at a local bar, where she performs the songs "Crazy for You" and "Gambler".

In some countries, the title of the film was changed to "Crazy for You" to capitalize on Madonna's emerging fame and the popularity of her song of that name.

Worse, his drastic weight loss culminates in an unhealthy situation, where he gets frequent nosebleeds which, Louden assumes, is due to a lack of iron in his diet (and results in him having to forfeit a match he was winning).

Carla decides to move out and continue on to San Francisco, but not before seeing Louden's big match, in which he makes a comeback from losing and pins Shute in the final seconds with an O-Goshi (over-under hip toss).

[3][4] Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 stars out of a possible 4, saying while the core storyline was a formulaic sports drama "it is nevertheless a movie with some nice surprises, mostly because it takes the time to create some interesting characters", with standout performances from Modine, Cox, and Fiorentino.

Singapore Monitor called the album a "very timely collection by some of the bigger up-and-coming names in today's pop and rock scene".

[11] Similarly, Rick Shefchik, in his review for Knight Ridder, named the release as "the best soundtrack album in the racks these days".

[18] Writing for Cashbox in 1985, Peter Berk explained the film "offered a valuable lesson to the industry", showing "how much a hit song can do to promote an otherwise soon-to-be forgotten movie".

He continued, writing that, although Journey's "Only The Young" drew attention to the album, Madonna's "Crazy for You" made the soundtrack "so magnetic to record buyers".

[19] In July 1985, Jan DeKnock from Chicago Tribune noted what he called a "movie mania", when various singles from motion pictures reached the first spot in the U.S.