Baby It's You

Baby It's You is an anomaly in the career of iconoclastic filmmaker John Sayles, being both a period youth drama and the only film for which he didn't have final cut. To his credit, it remains a strikingly original piece of work, even within the confines of a familiar genre. The story is set in Trenton, NJ, in the 1960s. Instead of a starry-eyed high school romance, the central relationship is all wrong right from the start. Jill (Rosanna Arquette), a high achiever, deflects the entreaties of the self-proclaimed “Sheik” (Vincent Spano), a perpetual truant, before finally giving in to a combination of interest and attraction. Her friends are curious, her parents are worried, and her teachers are appalled, but Jill has a mind—and heart—of her own. The gulf between her middle-class Jewish background and his working-class Italian one could be bridged if the Sheik had any intellectual aspirations, but he unfortunately does not. While Jill plans to attend college to study theater, the Sheik (who worships Frank Sinatra) hopes to become a lounge singer. The Sheik doesn't have a car, so he borrows a friend's customized Ratmobile for dates—a vehicle that will eventually become a getaway car. Sayles follows the course of the couple's on-and-off-again relationship through high school and beyond, with Tracy Pollan and Matthew Modine costarring as fellow collegians. It's no surprise that things don't last, but Sayles skillfully demonstrates how two mismatched people could still have such a profound effect on each other. This edition nicely restores the Bruce Springsteen songs missing from some other versions. Highly recommended. (K. Fennessy)