Gas Food Lodging

source: Gas Food Lodging

Trailer—Gas Food Lodging

Gas Food Lodging

I watched this with several guy friends and they all hated it after 10 minutes. I liked this film a lot, even if it didn't have a plot. Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk are really good in this film. Give this one a shot, you might be surprised. One thing that was disconcerting was the way Allison Anders made this film. It almost seems like the incidents of the film go day after day, and you really can't tell that time has passed at all. But otherwise it's pretty good. 3/5 stars.

I love this film. When I was growing up I could really relate to a lot of the central themes around self confidence, rejection and feeling lost in the world. I think the 3 female characters perform their roles really well. I love Fairuza Balk in any film she is in but I really like her character in this.

This is one of those movies that is often passed over by people who would love it if they watched it. Why? The cover art and tag line make this movie appear to be a low budget skin flick - which it is not. This film is touching and beautiful and quirky. The acting by Balk is spot on and her character is very well developed. But what really makes this movie so wonderful is the story line. In the summary of this movie you will hear something like.....Truckstop waitress struggles to raise her two daughters...while this is true, the story is so much more than that. I suggest anyone who loves quirky movies (like Lawndogs or Box Full of Moonlight) watch this one - just ignore the cover art and rent it already!

As much a punk movie as "Repo Man" or "Slacker," this movie features people living better with moderate means than anything out of "Pagan Kennedy's Living." Music by J Mascis, witty repartee, it's a wonder more people didn't turn out in droves. (If folks'd my age caught this -- with both "Heathers" *and* "Pump Up the Volume" -- the '90s'd turned out different! As it is, we're catching up.) Much better than "Seinfeld." Or "South Park." Who are we kidding? The characters are etched in your mind forever after this one. Allison Anders really scored a homer, and I think her career would have been different if more people had shown up and hailed this one to begin with. As it is, it's not too late. A worthy follow-up to "Paris, Texas," etc., and other purveyors of what Paddy Chayevsky once called an attempt to perpetuate "dignity in our culture." I really love this movie!

Seth Willenson died recently, so I decided to watch one of the movies that he produced. Allison Anders's hard-hitting "Gas Food Lodging" focuses on a struggling waitress and her daughters in a trailer park in small-town New Mexico. A number of the scenes make you feel as if you're walking on eggshells. I suspect that the movie accurately depicts the lives of many working-class people in the US. I seriously wish that we had more movies like this and fewer movies where Tom Cruise narrowly escapes all danger. Anyway, it's one that I recommend. Brooke Adams, Fairuza Balk, Ione Skye, Donovan Leitch Jr. (how about that, both of Donovan's children from his first relationship!) and James Brolin all put on fine performances.

Watching this in 2020, I really enjoyed this movie. Fairuza Balk was great as usual. Reading the other reviews, this definitely does portray what it's like to be a woman - whether a younger girl or older teen or single mother raising two daughters. I loved how the end message was really everyone gets lonely and love comes in all forms.

GAS FOOD LODGING (1992) *** 1/2 Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk, Donovan Leitch, Robert Knepper, James Brolin, David Lansbury, Jacob Vargas. Delightful and at times melancholy story of a single mother raising her troubled daughters as a truck stop waitress. Balk is winning as the introverted younger sibling who has a penchant for Spanish melodramas and '70s nostalgia. Directed nicely by Allison Anders, her debut.