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.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Lucky U Ranch is a treasure of a coming-of-age movie. Though it's set a decade after World War II, the story is timeless. Junior is a bullied kid who feels that life isn't worth living. He lives in a trashy trailer court in Tucson where his single mother works long hours to support them. He's overweight, he's the butt of jokes in school, and he can't hit a baseball to save his life. And then Melissa arrives in a shiny Airstream trailer and she and her bickering parents park right next door. This is the start of a relationship that is so much more than a first love. These two young people save each other, in a way that's so magical that it takes your breath away. The ending left me in happy tears.The acting in this movie is so good that I lost myself in the experience, and I fell in love with the young leads and the stellar supporting cast. The director captured the sparse beauty of the high American desert and framed each shot with such skill that I got goosebumps several times. This is a lovely film. I highly recommend this movie.