Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Nora, a single mother raising two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, waits tables at a truck-stop diner in a small New Mexico town. The beautiful and rebellious Trudi drops out of school and gets a job alongside Nora, while the younger Shade whittles away her time at Spanish movie matinees. Their lives are turned upside down when Trudi becomes pregnant and the girls' absent father returns.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Similar titles
Reviews
Powerful
An Exercise In Nonsense
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Nora (Brooke Adams) is a single mom trying to raise two daughters in a small New Mexico town. Shade (Fairuza Balk) is a nice girl obsessed with a latina cinema heroine Elvia Rivero. Trudi (Ione Skye) is rebellious and sexually promiscuous.Director Allison Anders has made a small movie about mother-daughter and sister-sister relationships. This is mostly about their love lives. The three female leads have created good compelling characters. There is one missing element from the movie. There isn't a one central idea to drive the plot. It's basically watching their love lives slowly unfold. The movie doesn't really have a direction. However, the three leads do a good job. The meandering love stories have memorable moments and are compelling.
Keen adaptation of Richard Peck's novel "Don't Look and It Won't Hurt", starring Brooke Adams in a terrific performance as the single mother of two headstrong young daughters who hopes for a better existence outside their backwater town in New Mexico, but not knowing just how to go about finding it. Arty, intriguing showcase for some very fine actresses (Adams, Ione Skye and the inscrutable Fairuza Balk), as well as James Brolin in a small but telling role as the girls' dreamy-quiet, estranged father. Director Allison Anders, who also adapted the screenplay, does hit an awkward snag or two in exploring these characters' emotions, but her feel for Nowhere U.S.A. is rich with complexity. Moody and unusual, it's a film worth seeing. *** from ****
Will three feisty women, a single mother and her two daughters, find love and fulfillment in small-town Laramie? Allison Anders' debut film 'Gas, Food, Lodging' aims at a low-key, indie feel but the characters struggle to acquire more than a single dimension: Brooke Shields makes a reasonable stab at Mum, but the teenage characters are little more than outlines. The result is a film that is no better than it ought to be, never going anywhere unexpected. The soundtrack has a nice feel but is used to unsubtle effect; the film touches on America's racial divide, but quite shallowly; the teenage fashion on display has period interest for those who remember it at first hand. Otherwise, it's all a bit dull and obvious.
This movie is one of Brooke Adams' best films. Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk showed their talent and deserve much acclaim.A home hitting,tear jerker.I definately could relate to this movie in a sense that home is where the heart is, no matter where your pillow may be.