The Heidi Chronicles [VHS]
Jamie Lee Curtis stars in this adaptation of Wendy Wasserstein'shit playThe Heidi Chronicles. A lecture about ignored female painters by  art historian Heidi Holland (Curtis) frames the decade-by-decade story of  her life, starting with a high school dance in the mid-'60s and working its  way through political rallies, feminist consciousness raising, gay rights,  AIDS, the excess of the 1980s--it's a bit likeForrest Gump, but  with a smart, self-deprecating woman instead of a dumb cheerful guy.  Wasserstein traces a well-intentioned (if glib) arc of female experience  through this time period, articulating the costs of independence as well  as the glories. The important personal realizations come fast and thick,  but Curtis, Tom Hulce, Kim Cattrall (in a wealth of era-appropriate wigs),  and Peter Friedman do their best to keepThe Heidi Chroniclesfrom  being a baby-boomer pop-up book.--Bret Fetzer