Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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. This is mostly about their love lives. The three female leads have created good compelling characters. There is one missing element from the movie. There isn't a one central idea to drive the plot. It's basically watching their love lives slowly unfold. The movie doesn't really have a direction. However, the three leads do a good job. The meandering love stories have memorable moments and are compelling.

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. It just might make all of the fighting stop!Even if only for a moment!

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 result is a film that is no better than it ought to be, never going anywhere unexpected. 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. Otherwise, it's all a bit dull and obvious.

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.