Sidekick 2009 Hack Internet

San Francisco, 1963. The young Birdlace Eddie (River Phoenix) is preparing for his last night before leaving for Vietnam. The group of marines which it is attached hosts a party where there will be a fun competition called "Dogfight" which is to reward him who brought the girl considered to be the ugliest. That's how Eddie is brought to meet Rose (Lili Taylor), a shy and lonely girl, aspiring to become a folk singer, whose physique is actually too easy to profile for the evening. This film made in 1991 by Nancy Savoca appears first as a simple romance made it particularly easy to follow thanks to the rare charm of all the characters involved. The late River Phoenix brilliantly portrays a young boy of 18 years of strong character, but a little stubborn and stuck in his little world very masculine. His meeting with Rose, a young girl and a little naive idealist, kept locked in dreams with his idols (Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, etc.), confronts him with a different vision of things that will not let it numb. Lili Taylor is also perfect in her role, she is clearly not a face corresponding to the standard notions of beauty, but that does not mean lack of identifying a certain charm that even manages to seduce us when it starts carry a tune, with his sweet voice accompanied by just a shy guitar or piano. It follows therefore with great pleasure the little adventure this couple a night, filmed very simply but with a sincere implementation by Nancy Savoca, who was visibly not shot much since. The inevitable passages of the script, like when Rose will realize why she was initially approached by Eddie and the excuses and explanations that follow, miraculously manage to avoid heavy that one could legitimately fear and everything works surprisingly well. While time seems to expand and duty that night never end, the film gives the impression of going at full speed. While we strive to further our star couple walking and sharing in a San Fancisco to look still very fifties, the emphasis is on their lack of experience common and their innocence. We also follow through brief scenes often amusing nonsense, the band mates Eddie has temporarily abandoned. Three characters are also beautifully depicted, which never fail to make us win a few smiles and even a real laugh during a scene tattoo especially tasty.

But thanks to its last part, contained in its final quarter hour, that Dogfight is an entirely different scale. That night when everything seemed frozen in time finally ended, and dawn, Eddie Rose had to leave, then we see him take his legs around his neck not to miss the departure of troops to Vietnam. I believed then that this was the last shot of the film, saying it could very well leave us there, letting us imagine more. But it is not the case, and Dogfight chooses to go further. The film is very light so far, suddenly gets heavier and takes a lot of sense. The time of the film is suddenly chopped accelerated. The Vietnam War, which is crossed in a flash during a brief scene as is efficient and brutal, seems like a nightmare to forget quickly. Our hero wakes up and discovers also transformed the city of San Francisco and transformed the very different reception reserved for him. One guesses that his three friends did not survive the war and that they fell like flies, very sad fate for those who were nicknamed the "bees" (bees) because of their surnames are all starting with the letter B and so everyone who had a tattoo on his arm. Eddie only has to get Rose to find a small source of solace and perhaps try to reconnect with an era in which it is finally abolished the last relic. In the latter part, succeeds Nancy Savoca's most difficult and makes his work much more modest than the little romance that pretends to be a long time. We know that nothing will be as before, not only for our main character. The end credits scrolled on the notes of Sunflower River Blues John Fahey, a melody that comforts us in a funny feeling of sweet nostalgia footprint left by this beautiful film that I urge you to rediscover.


Nancy Savoca Dogfight with River Phoenix and Lili Taylor (1991)