Coming off the high marks earned for her miraculous low-budget debut Border Radio, Allison Anders’ follow-up is a story about love in a small southwestern town. Like her previous feature, it has some smart casting including people from the punk rock scene and an inspired soundtrack. Shooting in color this time, Anders captures the warmth of the day and the cool of the night in the southwest perfectly. And as a story about love it works on many levels.

Shade is a young girl living with her single, working mom and older sister in a small town. She attends screenings of films starring Mexican star Elvia Rivero at the local Spanish cinema and ponders how to help her mom find a new man to complete the family unit. Her sister Trudi is the girl in school with loose morals and we see her spurned by a former flame in an early scene. Their mom gets hit on by men but seems guarded and more focused on work and daughters. Shade has a couple of encounters with a Mexican boy where he is shown racism by her sister and school friend. As the film progresses each female deals with relationships and the rewards or fallout of them.

Part of what makes the film work is the characters and how some are not what they appear to be. Chris Mulkey plays a real charmer with a reputation who may or may not be for real. Shade’s sister and friend look down on Javier and are racist but is he really what they say or is just a nice boy who wears khakis? Is Shade’s biological dad a well-meaning screw-up with a good heart or a complete loser who doesn’t care? And what about the satellite TV guy? Is he a douchebag or is he kind of hip and smart? Anders handles her characters with much love and the actors give everything to the people they play. Brooke Adams, Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk all give outstanding performances with James Brolin showing the younger male actors how it is done as the deadbeat dad who appears out of nowhere. Brolin is the kind of actor who can say a lot with a simple turn of the head or a little smile.

For fans of this very special film this release will be a joy. The film looks and sounds gorgeous with real desert warmth radiating from the screen during the daylight scenes. The music by J. Mascis of Dinosaur, Jr. hums like a desert afternoon and he and Jeff McDonald of Redd Kross appear in the film. The extras include a commentary with Anders and also a great Q&A.