Gas, Food Lodging
Tags: melodrama

Plot synopsis:
Nora, (Brooke Adams) a waitress with two teenage daughters, struggles to raise them in a trailer park as a single parent after her husband abandons the family. After repeatedly skipping school to go on dates, Trudi (Ione Skye) quits school and gets a job as a waitress alongside her mother. Meanwhile, young Shade (Fairuza Balk) spends most of her time watching the movies of Mexican film star Elvia Rivero (Nina Belanger) and dreams of finding a new boyfriend for her mother.
After being dumped by the boy she was seeing, Trudi meets Dank (Robert Knepper), a British petrologist, at the restaurant where she's working. They eventually sleep together, and she tells him that her promiscuity is caused by the fact that she lost her virginity in a gang rape perpetuated by local boys she knew. Returning home the following night, her mother informs her that she has one month to find a new home.
Shade tries to seduce Darius, a boy she has a crush on, by dressing up in a wig and costume at the suggestion of her sister. After her seduction attempt fails, she runs into Javier (Jacob Vargas), the local projectionist, who teases her over her outfit before giving her a ride home on his bike. Afterwards she sets her mother up with Raymond, a man she found outside the bar, who works as a gravedigger, on a date that goes horribly wrong.
Trudi discovers she is pregnant with Dank's child, but when he fails to turn up, she decides to go to Dallas and give up her child rather than have an abortion. While Trudi is away, Nora begins an affair with Hamlet Humphrey (David Lansbury), a man who installs satellite dishes, and the girls' biological father, John (James Brolin), reappears.
Shade falls in love with Javier and tries to reconnect with her father. Initially disturbed by Hamlet Humphrey, she warms to him after he reveals that he is familiar with the movies of Elvia Rivero and compares Nora to her.
Shade goes up to Dallas with her mother to be there for the birth of Trudi's baby. After giving birth to a daughter, Trudi tells Shade that she'll be staying in the city. On their way home Shade spots a sign advertising day-glo rocks like the one Dank gave her sister. She goes to confront Dank but instead learns that he was killed in an accident while looking for rocks. Walking home, Shade realizes that Dank always loved Trudi and vows to eventually tell her the truth of what happened.

Review: Allison Anders motivation in making this film may be obscure, but I'm glad she made it.
This, her debut feature, runs like a meandering stream through rivulets of teenage angst and single-mother frustration in small town New Mexico.
Maybe its' the Mexico bit that made this movie seem more foreign than traditional action-based, marketing-oriented, formulaic American movies.I'd heard the term "trailer trash" via Jerry Springer and guests, but this female family of free (alright, forget the alliteration - three) are far from "trash", just down on their luck.
The mother, Brooke Adams is a waitress on a low income trying to bring up her girls; the older one, Ione Skye, discovers through a fraternisation with a gallant, geologically quizzical Englishman (for once, not Hugh Grant), that relationships beat one night stands.Ione's brother, Donovan Leitch, also appears in this film, but it is Fairuza Balk as the younger teenager, who is outstanding.
She wants the best for her mother, which she has difficulty in securing, but her film-buff instincts and a predilection for Spanish movies, enable her to find fulfilment for herself.The movie concludes in a somewhat enigmatic manner without all loose endings tied up.
Our end, like this film's, leave us wanting more..
Brooke Adams and Fairuza Balk.....
I admit I am biased- I have always loved Ms. Adams since "The Dead Zone"...Stephen King at his earliest, and best.This film is quirky and interesting.
Beautiful photography, and a dysfunctional family trying to survive- two young girls living with their disillusioned mother.This film addresses a niche which is not mainstream, but real...disappointed Americans living and working , trying their best, yet opposed by the realities.
One of the best indie films out there!.
I have seen this movie countless times.
Such a great, well-written story brilliantly executed by Anders.
Keen adaptation of Richard Peck's novel "Don't Look and It Won't Hurt", starring Brooke Adams in a terrific performance as the single mother of two headstrong young daughters who hopes for a better existence outside their backwater town in New Mexico, but not knowing just how to go about finding it.
Arty, intriguing showcase for some very fine actresses (Adams, Ione Skye and the inscrutable Fairuza Balk), as well as James Brolin in a small but telling role as the girls' dreamy-quiet, estranged father.
Director Allison Anders, who also adapted the screenplay, does hit an awkward snag or two in exploring these characters' emotions, but her feel for Nowhere U.S.A. is rich with complexity.
Very authentic story with regard to the lack of anything to do in the small desert towns of NM and the constant desire to get the heck out of there either by running away or using your imagination.
Shade is a fantastic character and you will easily fall in love with her.
Wish I heard about it sooner, my husband just remembered it one day when he was telling me how excited everyone was that a movie was being made in Deming.
I absolutely loved this movie.
There's no other way to put it.Great acting from Fairuza and Ione and no matter what anyone says Ione Skye is a fabulous, talented actress.
For a change this film actually had an intelligent screenplay and top quality acting and directing.
Again, I highly recommend the movie especially to women.
It is very inspiring to watch, with superb acting, quiet character building and developing.
The film grabs you and pulls you into a small New Mexico town setting.
I found Fairuza Balk's acting performance particularly compelling.
Such a good movie, such a great Fairuza..
The critics had voted "Gas, food, lodging" as the best movie in 1992 or 1993, I can't remember.
Wonderful movie, a touching Fairuza Balk that appeared to be a future star and ended making small parts or characters too much below her.
It is not only another indie film but a great movie..
A wonderful movie, especially if you want to understand women.
This is a story about a mother and her two daughters, and the personal struggles each go through as they try to be a family.
While the movie is slow-paced, I highly enjoyed the cinematography.
The ages of the three main characters gives a special insight into the difficulties facing women at different stages in their lives..
GAS FOOD LODGING (1992) *** 1/2 Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk, Donovan Leitch, Robert Knepper, James Brolin, David Lansbury, Jacob Vargas.
Delightful and at times melancholy story of a single mother raising her troubled daughters as a truck stop waitress.
Directed nicely by Allison Anders, her debut..
This is one of those movies that is often passed over by people who would love it if they watched it.
The cover art and tag line make this movie appear to be a low budget skin flick - which it is not.
This film is touching and beautiful and quirky.
The acting by Balk is spot on and her character is very well developed.
But what really makes this movie so wonderful is the story line.
In the summary of this movie you will hear something like.....Truckstop waitress struggles to raise her two daughters...while this is true, the story is so much more than that.
I suggest anyone who loves quirky movies (like Lawndogs or Box Full of Moonlight) watch this one - just ignore the cover art and rent it already!.
I wish there were more films like this.
Anders, the director, is a very wise person, especially in how she sees human relationships and treats them in this film.
People call this an intelligent film and I'm not saying it's not, but that comment says a bundle about a lot of the other films that have been out there lately, where characters just don't seem human and act more like plot robots, void of any recognizable human feelings or dimensions.
This movie is intelligent because it's very intuitive in its understanding of how most real people relate to one another.
She and the ex play it cool and ironically pretend they don't know each other and by the end of it, the lover comes to understand the mom's maternal love for her daughter and why she can't continue with him as her lover, which is all spelled out without anyone saying anything directly.
Nora (Brooke Adams) is a single mom trying to raise two daughters in a small New Mexico town.
Shade (Fairuza Balk) is a nice girl obsessed with a latina cinema heroine Elvia Rivero.
Trudi (Ione Skye) is rebellious and sexually promiscuous.Director Allison Anders has made a small movie about mother-daughter and sister-sister relationships.
The three female leads have created good compelling characters.
There is one missing element from the movie.
It's basically watching their love lives slowly unfold.
The movie doesn't really have a direction.
The meandering love stories have memorable moments and are compelling..
I liked this film a lot, even if it didn't have a plot.
Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk are really good in this film.
Give this one a shot, you might be surprised.One thing that was disconcerting was the way Allison Anders made this film.
It almost seems like the incidents of the film go day after day, and you really can't tell that time has passed at all.
Allison Anders' unabashedly southern drama Gas Food Lodging concerns Nora (Brooke Adams), a struggling waitress with two teenage daughters, who wants nothing more than the best life for both of them as they live paycheck-to-paycheck in a congested trailer park home.
She is single after her husband abandoned them following the birth of their two daughters, and she is left to raise the rebellious teen Trudi (Ione Skye), who would rather skip school to work alongside her mother and chase boys and the more introverted tween Shade (Fairuza Balk), who wants nothing more than her mother to find true love.Nora's life becomes more complicated when Trudi's disinterest in school is fueled when she meets Dank (Robert Knepper), a British petrologist, who knows the direct way to her impressionable mind.
Trudi's insistence on skipping school, and even work, for Dank leads Nora to give Trudi one month to find a new home.In the meantime, Shade makes an attempt to seduce Darius (Donovan Leitch), a boy from school she has a crush on, by dressing up with a wig and a dress.
However, Shade's main goal of setting her mother up with a halfway decent man comes to fruition when she finds Raymond (Chris Mulkey), a local gravedigger who proves to be more than she bargained for.I can continue on with the plot of Gas Food Lodging, right down to the moment when the end credits roll, but that's not what this review is for.
Gas Food Lodging plays like a more compelling and well-acted soap-opera, predicated on believable locational problems for its characters and real human drama rather than a constant array of dramatic circumstances positioned to provoke "oohs" and "ahhs" from the audience.Beneath its sun-soaked exterior and its desolate landscape is a film concerning the deep, human desire to be wanted.
Anders picks a more vibrant and colorful film about alienation than I've seen in quite some time.
It's a film where the characters don't have to actively march around like they are miserable, self-loathing misfits, but rather, those who feel like making the best of a bad situation whilst trying to find someone they can tolerate who also loves and respects them.
Nora, while never openly admitting it, is trying to find love and acceptance to fill the void of her husband, who kicked it relatively early after the birth of Shade.
She slums and wastes away at a waitress job, making ends meet but compromising her talent and happiness for a paltry paycheck each and every week.Shade, on the other hand, finds solace in old Mexican films.
The only one not looking to find a relationship for herself, Shade represents selflessness and a Jane Austen, Emma-esque character of trying to play matchmaker for her mother in order to kickstart some kind of long lost happiness.
Shade seems to be the kind of person who will strive to make everyone else around her happy, only to tragically look around one day and recognize that she is incomplete in life.Then there's Trudi, the character the film wants us to focus on the most.
Trudi is also the kind of person that has a fear and an inability to cope with being alone with her thoughts, which is why she'll search and try to befriend somebody, regardless of how bad or toxic they may be to her wellbeing, in a romantic way with hopes that she can achieve some kind of connection.Gas Food Lodging is an appropriate title for this film because it deals with the immediate things in conventional American life; we need gas to commute, food to survive, and lodging to thrive and life comfortably.
It's up to you.Starring: Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk, Donovan Leitch, Chris Mulkey, Jacob Vargas, and James Brolin.
Directed by: Allison Anders..
Exquisite film.
I had never seen any of Allison Anders films; but from the interviews I looked them up.
Story, cinematography, music - this movie has the whole package.
Each of the actors played their roles to perfection, especially Fairuza Balk, who gave us a brilliantly nuanced performance.
Thank you Allison Anders for this beautiful gift of a film.
Will three feisty women, a single mother and her two daughters, find love and fulfillment in small-town Laramie?
Allison Anders' debut film 'Gas, Food, Lodging' aims at a low-key, indie feel but the characters struggle to acquire more than a single dimension: Brooke Shields makes a reasonable stab at Mum, but the teenage characters are little more than outlines.
The soundtrack has a nice feel but is used to unsubtle effect; the film touches on America's racial divide, but quite shallowly; the teenage fashion on display has period interest for those who remember it at first hand.
This movie is one of Brooke Adams' best films.
Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk showed their talent and deserve much acclaim.A home hitting,tear jerker.I definately could relate to this movie in a sense that home is where the heart is, no matter where your pillow may be..
Gas, Food, Bad Acting.
It's really too bad this movie is marred by poor performances from Ione Skye and Brooke Adams.
In the movie, they are feuding daughter and mother, respectively, and constantly look as though they want to crack up laughing.
Ione Skye did nothing in this movie to convince me that she has the slightest idea how to act.
However, Fairuza Balk did an admirable job of carrying this movie as the younger, wiser daughter who's trying to keep what's left of this tormented family together..
Good performances from the women , but the rest of the cast was greatly underused.Most of the cast- aside of the 3 major women had little or nothing to do or offer.However, I did rent it 3 times over a period of 2 years for some reason and therefor, I find it to be watchable and entertaining - but yes, it's made by and for women for the majority - which is OK...It is a slow moving drama and if you can handle that, you might be able to make it to the end.As nice as nude women are - and I think Ione Skye looked excellent without clothes, I don't feel that there had to be nudity, because the little bit that there was, didn't offer anything to the story..
If you like Fairuza Balk ...
then this is an excellent movie.
FB (in an early role) portrays a young teen in a small southwestern town, discovering herself and falling in love for the first time, and meeting her father who has been absent from her life for as long as she can remember.
Ione Skye also shines as the troublesome (and troubled) older sister with the bad reputation, and FB's ongoing attempts to set up her mother (Brooke Adams) with a nice guy are touching and heartfelt.
I really didn't know why I wanted to see this film.
This does make it the first coming of age film that I have really enjoyed.
On my previous track record of this genre most of them (if not all of them) didn't seem to come across as real characters.Which is where this movie succeeds.
All the characters in this movie feel real, they act like real people in real situations that I can actually see a family going through.Now the plot is that Nora and her two daughters Trudie and Shade live in an uneventful town.
Shade believes in getting a guy for her mother because of old Mexican romantic movies and Trudie is rebellious and stays out for long hours because of dates she has with guys, and she doesn't mind if she has sex with them because her first time was a gang rape.
Nora just wants to keep the family afloat with as little problems as possible.
Over the course of this movie Trudie gets pregnant with a man she believes to be the one (but isn't), Shade meets their father, she also falls in love and learns a few things about herself.Because I usually analyze the stories in reviews, it seems that I have only worked out now that coming of age films are about characters and the series of separate events that create their arcs, not about story.
The character of Shade especially is one that I like and possibly one of my favourite teen-aged characters in film.So would I recommend this movie?
If you can handle a little bit of a slow pace (I am not kidding this is the only thing I see wrong with this movie) and enjoy coming of age films then yes, This is definitely worth it.
If I can find more coming of age films of which a leading character sounds interesting then I will most certainly be watching more..
There is a real story here, clearly understandable and enjoyable by everyone, just give it a chance.Anyone who as a teen has wrestled with grown-up problems can understand clearly what is being told by this movie.Guys, shouldn't be too quick to dismiss this as "a chick flick" because you will be missing an inside to women that can be very informative.And the acting is well done, too.
Brooke Adams is believable as the low income mom trying to cope with her daughters' problems.
Ione Skye puts a whole different view on the "easy girl" we remember for high school.
And Fairuza Bulk puts a nice believable twist on her role as narrator learning about real love..
Why I think every teenage girl in America needs to see this film.
This movie is a must see for any teenage girl.
It has more heart and soul then a lot of movies that I have seen in a long time.
Trudi is a bad girl but when it comes down to it, she will do what is right for her.
Shade is one who you can't understand at first but once you get to know her you can relate.
This movie is worth a 10 because it can show that sometimes no matter what you have to do what is right for you and not the rest of the world.It also shows that if you get caught crying sometimes that it is not always a sign of weakness, sometimes it is a sign that you have just had enough!
Any girl from the age of 13+ should get their best friends and mothers for a girls movie.
Warning: Need to reveal some crucial plot elements, but if you have seen this movie already, please read on.Are there 2 versions of this movie?I swear we saw a version where the little girl and her Latino boyfriend broke up, and I think the satellite guy ran off on her mother too.