Twelve or thirteen years earlier, in the Easy Rider aftermath, this sort of movie was coming out every time you looked up: the modest, humanistic, Middle American "location" movie. With the subsequent retreat to Hollywood studios (and special-effects labs), this sort of movie might seem a bit more special. Even so, it's the sort that has to be very, very good to draw much attention to itself. And this one is not very, very good. A subplot about wife abuse is pretty involving, but the central relationship between a small-town drag-racer and a diner waitress with aspirations of becoming a Dorothea Lange or Walker Evans is never very persuasive. Kathleen Quinlan's unique brand of vibrancy is nice to see in any role, however, and is well suited to the requirements of the beret-wearing, plastic-tipped-cigar-smoking heroine. Why has this actress not gotten farther? With David Keith, Frances Sternhagen, Dianne Wiest, and Cliff De Young; directed by Robert Mandel. (1982) — Duncan Shepherd
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