It's 1966 in a New Jersey high school. Sheik (Vincent Spano) is a confident new student. He struts over to Jill (Rosanna Arquette) to ask her out. She rejects him initially and immediately has second thoughts.
At first, I'm a little surprised that John Sayles is doing a high school drama. It doesn't seem like his sort of material, but it's early in his career. Everybody has to make their bones. He definitely doing his own stuff with the genre and it goes beyond high school. Sheik is not the regular teen lead. He's an adult except emotionally. He walks into the class like he's one of the teachers. There is a real dark tension in the relationship from the very beginning. There are a couple of famous names lower down on the cast list although I couldn't spot Robert Downey Jr. This starts out a little interesting and the last section gets real interesting.
At first, I'm a little surprised that John Sayles is doing a high school drama. It doesn't seem like his sort of material, but it's early in his career. Everybody has to make their bones. He definitely doing his own stuff with the genre and it goes beyond high school. Sheik is not the regular teen lead. He's an adult except emotionally. He walks into the class like he's one of the teachers. There is a real dark tension in the relationship from the very beginning. There are a couple of famous names lower down on the cast list although I couldn't spot Robert Downey Jr. This starts out a little interesting and the last section gets real interesting.