Directed by:
Allison AndersScreenplay:
Allison AndersCinematography:
Dean LentComposer:
J. MascisCast:
Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk, James Brolin, Donovan Leitch Jr., Chris Mulkey, Robert Knepper, Jacob Vargas, Julie Condra, Laurie O'Brien, Julia Vera (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
American independent director Allison Anders made her name with this keenly observed tale of a single mother and her two daughters stuck in the truck-stop town of Laramie, New Mexico, barely a fly speck on the never-ending desert horizon. Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk star as sisters Trudi and Shade, who couldn't be more different. Trudi rebels against her mother and her soul-numbing life through sex and develops a reputation among the boys for being easy. Shade is the "good girl" who escapes through the overripe Mexican melodramas in the town's largely vacant theater. Brooke Adams, a loving mother hardened by rejection and a demanding job as a truck-stop waitress, tries to hide her loneliness and disappointment and set Trudi on a better path, but as with so many relationships in this film, conflict brings out the worst in them. Anders, a single mother herself, drew on her own experiences to enrich her adaptation of Richard Peck's novel "Don't Look and It Won't Hurt", and she brings a haggard understanding to the strained relations between mother and daughter and the bleak desolation to the lives of three women trapped by circumstance, economics, and landscape, but she also reaches deep into the characters to expose their yearnings and steel their resolve. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Brooke Adams
USA
Best movies:
The First Great Train Robbery (1978)
Days of Heaven (1978)
The Dead Zone (1983)
Ione Skye
UK
Best movies:
Zodiac (2007)
Mindwalk (1990)
Four Rooms (1995)
Fairuza Balk
USA
Best movies:
American History X (1998)
Almost Famous (2000)
Murder in the Heartland (1993) (TV movie)
James Brolin
USA
Best movies:
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Traffic (2000)
Von Ryan's Express (1965)
Donovan Leitch Jr.
UK
Best movies:
Glory (1989)
The Blob (1988)
Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Chris Mulkey
USA
Best movies:
Rain Man (1988)
Whiplash (2014)
First Blood (1982)
Robert Knepper
USA
Best movies:
My Way (2012)
Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
Prison Break: The Final Break (2009) (TV movie)
Jacob Vargas
Mexico
Julie Condra
USA
Best movies:
Nixon (1995)
Wrong Is Right (1982)
Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Laurie O'Brien
USA
Best movies:
Infidelity (1987) (TV movie)
Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Too Young to Die? (1990) (TV movie)
Julia Vera
USA
Best movies:
The X Files: Dreamland (1998) (video compilation)
Blow (2001)
Speed (1994)
Carlos Rivas
USA
Best movies:
The King and I (1956)
The Deerslayer (1957)
True Grit (1969)
David Lansbury
USA
Best movies:
Scent of a Woman (1992)
Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988)
The Hurricane (1999)
Carmelita González
Mexico
Best movies:
Tycoon (1947)
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
Gas Food Lodging (1992)
J. Mascis
USA
Best movies:
Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Grace of My Heart (1996)
The Double (2013)
Vivis Colombetti
Best movies:
Rent (2005)
Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Patch Adams (1998)
Leigh Hamilton
New Zealand
Best movies:
Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Forced Vengeance (1982)
Adam Biesk
Best movies:
Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Frame Up (1991)
Flight of the Intruder (1991)
Marabina Jaimes
Best movies:
Columbo (1971) (series)
All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996)
Spies in Disguise (2019)