Gas Food Lodging, based on the novel by Richard Peck, written and directed by Allison Anders - Nine out of 10

Gas Food Lodging, based on the novel by Richard Peck, written and directed by Allison Anders

Nine out of 10

This is a note on the film based on the novel by Richard Peck, perhaps a redundant repetition, but given some previous comments, it is here nonetheless…

Gas Food Lodging is a wonderful motion picture has been included for very good reasons on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/8 -

The film tells the compelling story of Nora aka wondrous Brooke Adams, a waitress in a small restaurant in New Mexico, in a rather forgotten small town, mother of rebellious, somewhat dissatisfied, a little wild Trudi aka equally remarkable Ione Skye and more gentle, subdued, peaceful and kind Shade aka just as spectacular Fairuza Balk…

Nora is a single mother, for the father of the girls, John Evans aka James Brolin, is now living with another woman and Nora feels he is too much of a coward to come visiting, though he would eventually get in contact, even help when one evening, the situation is tense and some young men might have placed one of his daughter into some sort of danger and furthermore, when Shade would ask for a lot of money – that is what she says, though the fifty dollars she demands seems so ridiculously small, even if in the equivalent in the eighties might have been over $ 100 in the currency of this day – he would oblige although his new female partner would probably not like this support at all, given shortages they may also have…

In the opening scenes, we see Trudi and Shade waiting in the restaurant where their mother works a and a bus boy comes to their table and reverses some water, perhaps it was some ice and the reaction of Trudi is exaggerated, over the top, rude to the boy in that she shouts and asks him to hurry, clean and more, provoking a vehement reaction from the one we would learn is named Javier and in spite of appearances and hostility – America has an idiot for president who kept talking about ‘rapists’ and it was one of the main reasons so many other fools have elevated him and will opt for the same calamity yet again – he is an American, with probable Mexican roots…his mother cannot speak, but she is a talented dancer – they would have something like a tableau when Shade would visit, later in the story…

Indeed, Shade is much more tolerant than her sister, kinder, with better social skills at least for a period, near the beginning, and she is apologetic when she meets with Javier again, after he will have walked out of his job at the restaurant in fury and rage at the way he has been treated, becoming later a projectionist in the local cinema, exchanging some obtuse jokes and comments with the girl who wants to appease, ask for forgiveness, but when the boy is more than abrasive, she walks out of the cinema in anger…they would become friends later on, when they see that they are both good, kind, nice people…

Trudi has a quite adversarial, perhaps traumatic experience when she goes out with a young man, she is infatuated with him, they have coitus and apparently he is quite elated with her vivacity and moves – she would throw the comments in his face later – she returns very late in the night at home, where at 2 a.m. her mother is waiting in a very furious state and they have a clash, Nora trying to make it clear that in her house, her rules apply and there are only a few ways out of this, her misbehaving daughter either comes at home when she is supposed to, or she has to take a job and become independent…otherwise, if the mother has to support and pay for her Food, Gas and Lodging, the daughter has to respect her rules…

Alas, the young man was just interested in some passing fun, a one night stand and though he talked with exuberance about the night they had spent and the future, when they meet again, he has another woman under his arm, the two are obviously very close and this provokes a very vivacious response from Trudi, who is somewhat lucky to find another man soon, one who appears to be a geologist – the same as the undersigned, who has specialized in geophysics – and is much more respectful, polite, attentive and closer to what a man must be when talking, going out with a woman…

An abortion might soon be needed and the money to pay for it, as a result of recklessness, naïveté pushed to the extreme and the callousness, indifference, Trump-like, malign, monstrous behavior of the man who was just as involved in the act and then when the consequences are to be faced, it is just the young woman who has to face the bleak, painful, depressing situation, in an age when vicious men used to be so powerful…they still are…look at the White House

Meanwhile, Nora might have a chance to meet someone decent, though the price for the services he offers sounds exorbitant, for the man works in the television business…installing satellite dishes and the price tag is over one thousand, if I remember correctly and the single mother makes it clear that there is no way she can afford something like that…nevertheless, the two people connect and they may have a chance together, even if that would not include paying for decades for an eventual satellite connection…

The main issue might be what to do about being stuck somewhere in rural America – where Trump has so many supporters, because they tend to be much less educated, or not at all, racist, homophobe, sexist …just look at the man who ‘grabs women by the pussy’ the epitome of the old, vicious, scoundrel, corrupt man…stealing from charity, accumulating some fortune – far from what he claims anyway – by cheating, not paying for services rendered, bankrupting, crooking naïve individuals interested to graduate from his ‘fake’ University, buy his failed vodka, climb his tanked airline…the symbol of failure, not success…