Institute History
Description
Every generation must confront the search for meaning and substance. Whether it's Holden Caulfield, the sixties counterculture, or Reagan-era yuppies as depicted by Bret Easton Ellis. it's enormously difficult to find one's place in the world. Roger Hedden's screenplay describes a group of young and mostly aimless twenty somethings who find themselves in a small town in Arizona. Beth (Bridget Fonda) is living with Nick (Tim Roth). Both are in dead-end, nothing jobs, surviving, but without passion. Their neighbor Carol, Nick's ex-girlfriend (Phoebe Cates), remains close to both of them.
Seemingly for no reason, Nick and Beth decide to move north to Idaho, but in the midst of final preparations, Nick takes off on his own, leaving Beth really alone for the first time in her life. Enter Sid (Eric Stoltz), a dope-smoking painter redoing the apartment before the new tenants move in. Unlike Nick he's not restless, but passive and cut off. He's perfectly content to lead a small-town life and anxious to have Beth join him. What ensues are the dilemmas we all face with relationships and thus our futures. like particles in the physical uni· verse as defined by Newton, we bounce off other bodies, sometimes connecting and other times moving on.
Michael Steinberg, who codirected The Waterdance with Neal Jimenez, makes his solo directorial debut. He has elicited admirable performances from the actors. The relationships are continually vital and interesting, particularly the one between Stoltz and Fonda. The cinematography and editing contribute a seamless rhythm to the film. Steinberg and Hedden have produced an effective melodrama which entertains as it touches the deep-seated alienation in all our souls.
Friday Jan 22 9:30 am
Prospector Square Theatre
Saturday Jan 23 4:30 pm
Sundance Screening Room
Sunday Jan 24 4:15 pm
Holiday Village Cinema II
Wednesday Jan 27 3:00 pm
Prospector Square Theatre
Friday Jan 29 1:30 pm
Holiday Village Cinema III
$6.00