This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I know IMDb requires 10 lines, but I wish I could simply put "exquisite". Thank you yet again TCM for expanding my film horizons. October, 2015, TCM has a weekly segment on women directors. I had never seen any of Allison Anders films; but from the interviews I looked them up. This was the first one I picked to watch. Story, cinematography, music - this movie has the whole package. Each of the actors played their roles to perfection, especially Fairuza Balk, who gave us a brilliantly nuanced performance. I was entranced throughout. Thank you Allison Anders for this beautiful gift of a film. It will absolutely be one I will be purchasing for my collection and I cannot wait to see the rest of your body of work. Exquisite.

I really didn't know why I wanted to see this film. Maybe because of the highly convincing trailer of this and I am not one to be convinced by trailers easily. This does make it the first coming of age film that I have really enjoyed. On my previous track record of this genre most of them (if not all of them) didn't seem to come across as real characters.Which is where this movie succeeds. All the characters in this movie feel real, they act like real people in real situations that I can actually see a family going through.Now the plot is that Nora and her two daughters Trudie and Shade live in an uneventful town. Shade believes in getting a guy for her mother because of old Mexican romantic movies and Trudie is rebellious and stays out for long hours because of dates she has with guys, and she doesn't mind if she has sex with them because her first time was a gang rape. Nora just wants to keep the family afloat with as little problems as possible. Over the course of this movie Trudie gets pregnant with a man she believes to be the one (but isn't), Shade meets their father, she also falls in love and learns a few things about herself.Because I usually analyze the stories in reviews, it seems that I have only worked out now that coming of age films are about characters and the series of separate events that create their arcs, not about story. And with this movie it delivers. The character of Shade especially is one that I like and possibly one of my favourite teen-aged characters in film.So would I recommend this movie? If you can handle a little bit of a slow pace (I am not kidding this is the only thing I see wrong with this movie) and enjoy coming of age films then yes, This is definitely worth it. If I can find more coming of age films of which a leading character sounds interesting then I will most certainly be watching more.

Guys and gals alike will like this one, just be patient. There is a real story here, clearly understandable and enjoyable by everyone, just give it a chance.Anyone who as a teen has wrestled with grown-up problems can understand clearly what is being told by this movie.Guys, shouldn't be too quick to dismiss this as "a chick flick" because you will be missing an inside to women that can be very informative.And the acting is well done, too. Kudos even to stiff-board Brolin for adding believability to his dumb runaway father character. Brooke Adams is believable as the low income mom trying to cope with her daughters' problems. Ione Skye puts a whole different view on the "easy girl" we remember for high school. And Fairuza Bulk puts a nice believable twist on her role as narrator learning about real love.

I have seen this movie three times, and each time I see it, I appreciate it more. This is a story about a mother and her two daughters, and the personal struggles each go through as they try to be a family. While the movie is slow-paced, I highly enjoyed the cinematography. The ages of the three main characters gives a special insight into the difficulties facing women at different stages in their lives.