by Nancy Savoca, 1991.
Starring: Lili Taylor, River Phoenix.
Rating: 8/10, 8/10.
Birdlace (Phoenix) is a 19-year-old Marine about to ship out for duty in Vietnam in 1963 (the film begins a few days before Kennedy’s assassination). He and the other Marines, on their last day at home, stage a "dogfight," a contest where they all pool their money together and then try to find the ugliest woman they can. They take their ugly women to a bar and then whoever is judged to have the ugliest woman wins the money. Birdlace tries and fails to pick up several women, and eventually settles on Rose (Taylor), who isn’t especially ugly but is the best he can do. She, it turns out, is into Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and protest and things, all of which Birdlace has never heard of and, really, has no interest in. So they go to the contest (where Birdlace wins second prize, but only because Rose throws up), even though he seems to be having second thoughts and tries to convince her not to go. During the course of the evening, Rose finds out what’s going on, confronts Birdlace, and leaves to cry in her room. Birdlace, though, feels bad and follows her. They have a long, beautiful night together and, bascially, fall in love.
This film is beautiful, funny, and (dare I say) touching. The casting was perfect (though up until her introduction I was wondering how they were going to make Taylor seem ugly—they did it, though, as I said, she wasn’t all that ugly and, of course, she gets less and less ugly as the film progresses). The direction was amazing, the art direction incredible, etc. etc. I honestly don’t know what else to say about it. It had extraordinary depth, I read in a review of it, and that seems to about sum it up.
Memorable scenes include: the dinner in the fancy restaurant, the scene with all the wind-up music boxes, the best kissing scene I’ve ever seen, and the end.