VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

bmcphail-2 This movie has been consistently misunderstood. Most like and enjoy Winona Ryder's performance and it does work moderately well as a Breakfast Club/teen angst sort of movie, but the movie actually has three poles between which the action moves:Dinky's exploration of her own emerging personality and sexuality The town-representing conventionality and conformity, on one hand, and various adults and peers who are more-or-less sympathetic and ready to help...if Dinky will let themRoxy, the larger-than-life image that means something different to everybody.The editing of the movie has come in for criticism over the years but the various cuts are there to show that everyone, including Dinky, has a *different reason* to be in an uproar over Roxy's impending arrival. Some commenters were angry that Roxy never arrived, but by that point in the movie she had served her purpose. Her nonarrival served as a moment of self- revelation for everyone who had been reacting to her in their individual ways, baring their motives at least to themselves.It may seem a reach, but in plot structure this movie actually reminds me just a tiny bit of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" In that book, the grandmother dies, they load her coffin into the wagon and begin a trek to town to bury her. A saga of mishap and delays ensues. As the grandmother gets riper and riper, the wagon moving in a miasma of stench, everyone who meets them is unable to understand why each and every family member is adamant about burying her according to her last wishes. In various chapters Faulkner makes the readers aware that each of these family members would have been easily turned aside and sensibly buried her as soon as possible but for their different individual, private reasons to go to town.Baz

moonspinner55 Adorable Winona Ryder may have become the '90s equivalent of Molly Ringwald had it not been for a succession of poor movie choices that failed to expand on her range (or her appealing post-beatnik persona). As Dinky Bosetti, small town outcast who would like to believe that hometown celebrity Roxy Carmichael is really her long-lost biological mother, Ryder's allure here is reduced to that of a messy, misfit tomboy dressed in black. The script alternately pities and martyrs her, while the sitcom shenanigans happening on the sidelines are never very funny (particularly a lesbian-issue sub-plot which is half-baked and left unresolved). Adopted Dinky loves animals and is picked on at school, though that isn't much to build a character on, and Ryder ends up making faces and acting in a vacuum. The pacing is self-consciously erratic, the editing is sloppy and too much of the dialogue is knowingly facetious. There are a few funny moments and excellent soundtrack choices, although all the picture really needed was a sharper screenplay and a more focused direction. *1/2 from ****

le_lee_2000 I Love this movie. I could watch it every single day for the rest of my life. It's one of those girlie movies when you can identify with every problem and person in the movie. Melissa Etheridge uses her Grammy award winning talent with this amazing song in the movie. I still sing parts of those songs at least once a week. I absolutely love this move love love love love this movie and i think you will too. I watched this movie years and years and years ago and I still talk about it way more that I should but anytime I mention the name people look at me and say that I totally made it up. People know me as the t.v. Queen because I literally have watched every mini series, every made for t.v. movie and don't let me talk about all the movies I used to watch on USA Up All Night when Gilbert Godffrey was the host. But if you are a avid movie watcher like myself this is a movie for the record books. Did I mention how Great this movie really is. I love this movie.

labyrinth640 The movie is focused on the whole town of Clyde, Ohio, yet it's basically centered around Dinky. Dinky is a misfit, both at home (she's adopted) and school. Although most kids would not enjoy this and would want to keep their heads down, Dinky has her head up and is not afraid to admit that she's different. The town is going bonkers over the arrival of Roxy Charmichael, a person who went from a somebody in Clyde, to a somebody all across the world. You also get to see the life of Roxy's former love interest before she left Ohio, a man named Denton. Denton and Dinky form an interesting bond, she's obsessed with Roxy, he know literally everything about her. She becomes convinced that Roxy is her mom, due to what Denton tells her one day. All in all this movie is an original classic that let's the viewrs look into the life of nearly the whole town. Watch for Carla Gugino's cameo appearence at the very begining of the movie as young Roxy. The movie is basically saying, everybody wants to be somebody else, whether it's a famous person, or the kid next door, everybody wants to be somebody. This is a fine movie, so if you have nothing else to watch on t.v. and this is on, give it a shot.