Themes: Musician's Life, Members of the Press, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Kim Dickens, Gabriel Mann, Don Cheadle, Eric Stoltz, Elizabeth Peña
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 117 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Writer and director Allison Anders, who used the world of rock & roll as the backdrop for her films Border Radio, Grace of My Heart, and Sugar Mountain, returns to the music scene for this tale of a woman struggling to come to terms with an emotionally devastating past. Sherry McGrale (Kim Dickens) is a punk-influenced singer and songwriter whose angry, deeply personal music has begun to win her a national following, though the demons that fuel her art are playing havoc with her life, as she drowns her sorrows in drugs and alcohol and fills a growing police blotter with arrests for disorderly conduct. Sherry is winning significant airplay for a song about the brutal rape of a young woman, and rock journalist Owen (Gabriel Mann) convinces his editor Pete (Rosanna Arquette) to assign him a major story on Sherry when he tells her he knows the truth about Sherry's own rape as an adolescent, which inspired the song. Owen is forced to run interference with Chuck (Don Cheadle), Sherry's manager and former boyfriend who is fiercely protective of his fragile client, but Owen is still able to meet with the singer. However, Owen finds that Sherry either can't or won't remember most of the details of the brutal and degrading assault, and she doesn't want to discuss the heavy toll it's taken upon her. Influential experimental rock group Sonic Youth contributed several original compositions for the film's score; Sherry's singing voice was provided by Kristen Vigard, who performed on the soundtrack of Grace of My Heart. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Rosanna Arquette - Pete; Alison Folland - Lulu; Patsy Kensit - Denise; CCH Pounder - Judge; Bill Cordell - AA Secretary; Jessica Howell - Jamie; J. Mascis - Erik; Jeff McDonald - Martin; Steve McDonald - Fred; Rob Sullivan - Bystander; Jade Gordon - Samantha; Joshua Leonard - Todd
Credit
Kerry Barden - Casting, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Jamin O'Brien - First Assistant Director, Allison Anders - Director, Chris Figler - Editor, Peter Wetherell - Executive Producer, Gary Barkin - Executive Producer, Marla Grossman - Executive Producer, Joseph Rice - Executive Producer, Sonic Youth - Composer (Music Score), Howard Paar - Musical Direction/Supervision, Terry Stacey - Cinematographer, Daniel Hassid - Producer, Robin Alper - Producer, Doug Mankoff - Producer, Vera Mills - Set Designer, Allison Anders - Screenwriter, Kurt Voss - Screenwriter
Owen (Gabriel Mann), a young reporter for a Los Angeles-based music magazine, goes back to the Florida town he grew up in to interview Sherry (Kim Dickens), a local rock singer. Sherry and her band are becoming increasingly popular, largely because of a song she wrote about being sexually assaulted as a girl that has become a hit on college radio. Owen's reasons for returning to his hometown are more than professional, however: he and Sherry were friends in childhood.
