Gypsy 83

my rating:

Gypsy 83 is the sort of film that John Hughes might have made if he hadn't been more interested in making teen angst films for the masses, such as The Breakfast Club. Instead of pop rock like Simple Minds, its soundtrack relies heavily on the likes of the Cure and Bauhaus. And of course Stevie Nicks.

It's a story about Gypsy, a zaftig underachieving woman in her mid-twenties who has dreams of following in the footsteps of the mother who abandoned her to become a rock star in the big city, and her high-school senior buddy Clive, an adorable virginal goth boy who relishes in his effeminacy but doesn't want to be defined by his sexuality. Both outcasts from middle-American society (which is what drew them together as friends), they decide to drive together from Sandusky Ohio to New York City, for Gypsy to participate in a club's "Night of a Thousand Stevies" event and possibly find her mother.

It's a classic example of the "road movie" genre. Along the way they encouter a series of interesting characters: a handsome runaway Amish guy, an aging chanteuse, and a motorhome full of frat boys... all of whom turn out to be something more than they first appear... and then turn out to be not quite what they second appeared, either. And over the course of the trip, both characters learn a bit about themselves, and end up being something other than what they started out to be as well.

The movie is not without its flaws. Although it's set in "the present" (give or take a few years since filming; a few New York scenes show the World Trade Center towers), the musical references are... 1983. Which worked OK for me, because it helped put me in the right frame of mind to relate to Clive (I was his age back then), but it was still a little disorienting. And there were a few scenes where it seemed the scriptwriter was still trying to figure out how to stage this part of the story... especially the final scene). But considering that this is Todd Stephens' second produced screenplay and his directorial debut (the other being a film named after a Stevie Nicks tune, about a gay teenager, and set back in 1984... notice a pattern here? {smile}), it's really quite solid.