Finally, the Dobie has managed to bring back Dogfight, Nancy Savoca's second feature, which like True Love, her first, is a captivating original, an intensely human film, succeeding because of characters rather than story. In 1963, a group of marines, ready to ship out and eventually end up in Vietnam, stage a dogfight in San Francisco, the idea being for each marine to try and find the ugliest girl he can, the winner walking away with a cash prize. River Phoenix finds the homely waitress Lili Taylor and takes her to the party. She figures out what is going on, there is a confrontation, she leaves but he woos her back and spends the night with her. It's not just the contrast between the two, but that as a consequence of this night, they come to anchor each other's life, more unintentionally than not and we know this more than we're shown it.
Dogfight is as much about what is implied as what's there.
Ironically, the overblown For the Boys was playing next door where I first saw this. Midler's anti-war vehicle failed, despite some extraordinary performances. What it understands is that to be really anti-war, rather than glitzy moralizing, a film should just be full of life, its characters so richly nuanced and detailed that they resonate with energy. The power here is in the performances, these people are so many people hidden inside, not just the people they are but those they are to become. The last shot is a swooning moment of tenderness, telling in the embrace of two people not just the tragedy of war but the histories of desire and the grace-imparting power of the human touch.