Hello baby

This is definitely one of my favorite romantic films. It's well acted, well written and well directed. Arquette and Spano's chemistry is wonderful. With the people I've talked to who have seen this film, there seems to be something personal that they can relate to the story. It's definitely not a happy movie, but I think that's what makes it really stick with you. It's starts out somewhat like a period romance you might have seen before. About midway through it takes a turn and may seem to lose momentum. This is what sets it apart from other romances. It has this unpredictability to it that some people might find unsatisfying. I have seen it several times and each viewing is fascinating. It is very rare that such a bittersweet marvel of a film comes along and even rarer that it gets the attention it deserves. One of John Sayles' finest.

Quite a few careers got started in this 1982 Paramount release. Rosanna Arquette and Vincent Spano made their starring debuts, John Sayles landed his first major directing job and the film also features small parts by future stars Robert Downey Jr., Tracy Pollan and Matthew Modine. Set in 1965, a fine period soundtrack helps to propel this story of two mismatched teenagers (Arquette, Spano) whose love affair stems a lot of controversy within their community. The film is OK but time has not served it entirely well as sometimes it seems dated and it still suffers from being as obscure as it was when it was originally released.

"Baby It's You" isn't exactly a "great film," but it sure is an accurate and believable story about young love. Arquette is the Jewish high school girl who is going places in life. She plays it safe, but she's bored with it all. Until she meets Sheik, the Italian guy from the wrong side of the tracks. He's a dreamer and his future is uncertain, but... man is he a sharp dresser and cooler than any of the lame boys in high school. This guy even makes the male teachers feel inadequate with his expensive suits and suave good looks. Sheik is played by Vincent Spano, an extremely underrated and unappreciated actor who usually appeared in movies that were unworthy of his qualities. Whenever Spano is on screen the movie really shines. The story follows Rosanna's character beyond high school and into college, and as is usually the case, she begins to outgrow her man... or so she thinks. Because the mature guys she meets are a bunch of complete bores, and they all pale in comparison to Sheik, who gives up everything to return to Jersey from Florida, in a last ditch attempt to win back the love of his life. That's basically it, but the performances and the realistic story are enough to maintain interest. Taking place in the early 60s, director John Sayles captures the period in beautiful detail, and the soundtrack is excellent, featuring some early Bruce Springsteen songs, which fit the mood perfectly. Even though the songs are patently 70s and not from the Era in which the movie takes place, they still sound right. I think "Baby It's You" is somewhat of a cult film today, and deservedly so. Fans of either Rosanna Arquette or Vincent Spano will thoroughly enjoy it, as will those who can appreciate an honest look at young love...

Unlike other viewers, I didn't really connect with this on any major level. And I don't think their longing for each other was anything more than adolescent infatuation (hey, we've all been there!), made all the more desperate by separation anxiety. A couple of 18-year-olds struggling to find themselves in the world. OK as a romantic comedy drama, but no great shakes.

Performances were all solid. Interesting to see Matthew Modine pop up briefly as the college boyfriend. And it looked great -- nice and moody -- seemed like something out of the 1960s.

One thing bothered me: The use of Bruce Springsteen songs from the 1970s in a movie that was to have taken place in 1967 (not 1965, as another reviewer said -- the signs at Rosanna Arquette's prom clearly said, "Class of 1967"). Anyway, those Springsteen songs from the soundtrack wouldn't have been out yet. But I guess it was done to add a "Jersey feel" to the movie.

This is an early picture by the inimitable John Sayles -- a portrait of Trenton some time in the mid-1960s through the eyes of the Rosanna Arquette, a middle-class aspiring actress who wants to go to Sarah Lawrence and Vincent Spano, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. It looks like it was sold to the suits at Paramount on his writing ability and the rising tide of John-Landis-style teen comedies. Looking back from a third of a century later, I can see the complexity of story-telling, in the banal "bad-boy-good-girl" love story in a world that was about to vanish, as an act of satire... rendered a bit toothless, alas by its separation from the moment and the cluelessness of the characters. It makes them more real. Sayles' targets are too numerous here for accuracy.