Great Music, Great Storyline, Great movie

Rating: 9/10 (14 September 2000)

The plot: This movie, starring beautiful, naive Piper Perabo as struggling songwriter in NYC, is a wonderful insight into the music and entertainment industry in NYC.
Violet has always dreamt about making it in New York. Finally she kisses her rural North Amboy, NJ (and her dad, John Goodman) goodbye and leaves to find fame and fortune as a songwriter in New York. The usual cliches follow: unanswered demo tapes, the burglary in her flat, the daily struggle for survival.
Things turn better when she is tried as a new Coyote: a barmaid in the underground bar Coyote Ugly (because "Cheers has already been taken"). First she is everything a young girl from the countryside is supposed to be: naive, clumsy, bashful - a contrast to the in-your-face attitude of the other barmaids.
After a long and weary fight behind, in front of and on the bar, she is accepted as a Coyote, even putting her boyfriend and some open mic night chances aside. This phase of giving up her dreams for the easy money is really saddening.
Finally her dad, boyfriend and girlfriend intervene out of different reasons and get her on her first open mic night, where she is once again confronted with her stagefright, but is overcoming it (for sure we need a happy ending here).
The conclusion: an open-hearted, sometimes amusing, sometimes melancholic display of a young woman, her dreams and fears. Peppered by some hot bar scenes (well there has to be something for the guys) and some real hot music (can't wait to lay hands on the soundtrack) this is a wonderful movie. (Don't ask me whether LeAnn Rimes is doing a cameo for the former or latter reason).
And - doesn't Piper Perabo sometimes look like Alanis Morrisette (or for the older generation: like a young, up-and-coming Carole King) ??