Allison Anders

In 1963, Edna Buxton (Illeana Douglas) is a steel heiress living in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a local talent contest. She plans to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone," until, backstage, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Jennifer Leigh Warren) who is belting out "The Blues Ain't Nothin' (But a Woman Cryin' for her Man)." Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, so Edna sings "Hey There" instead and wins the contest. She uses some of her own money to record a demo of her first original song, "In Another World". Record producer Joel Milner (John Turturro) likes the demo but says he cannot market a girl singer-songwriter. He becomes her agent, renames her "Denise Waverly" and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner also reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, and the song becomes a hit. Denise (formerly Edna) moves to New York and becomes a professional songwriter in the Brill Building. Over the next several months, she worries that she will not be able to pen a follow-up to "In Another World," but Milner encourages her to look at the world around her. She meets fellow songwriter Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), and after a difficult first encounter she becomes professionally and romantically involved with him. She also meets once again with Doris, who is now an unsuccessful young singer, and persuades Milner to let Doris and her group audition. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and he renames them the Luminaries. The group is a success, and disc jockey John Murray (Bruce Davison) credits Denise with "sparking the craze for girl groups." Denise and Howard write a song about the condition of working class black girls in New York City. Denise then suggests that she and Howard should write a wedding-themed song for the Luminaries. Howard refuses, but when Denise reveals that she is pregnant with Howard's child - and is herself an heiress - they get married and have a daughter. However, Howard starts flirting with Cheryl Steed (Patsy Kensit), a newly hired English songwriter. In 1965, Joel asks Cheryl and her husband Matthew (Chris Isaak) to write a song for the Luminaries. The result becomes a hit. Howard, annoyed, concedes that Denise's instincts were right. Then Joel asks Denise and Cheryl to collaborate on writing a song for closeted lesbian ingenue singer Kelly Porter (Bridget Fonda). Denise agrees, even though she dislikes Cheryl, but when she arrives home unexpectedly and finds Howard in bed with another woman, she takes her child in a cab to the studio and tells Cheryl what has happened. Cheryl holds and comforts Denise, and the two become close friends. Denise learns that she is pregnant with Howard's second baby; Cheryl convinces her to go to an obstetrician, who safely performs an illegal abortion. Over the next few years, Denise throws herself into her work and becomes a highly successful songwriter. Having broken up with Howard, she has a brief but unhappy affair with the married John Murray, which ends when he moves with his family to Chicago. With the British Invasion, the Brill Building songwriting machine has become obsolete. Milner tells Denise she should not be so sad, because she forced him to take chances he would have never had the courage to tackle alone. He finally allows her to become a singer, and introduces her to Jay Phillips (Matt Dillon), the singer, songwriter and producer of a popular surf-rock group. Denise initially hates Jay's music, but agrees to let him produce her. She writes and sings "God Give Me Strength," and she is delighted when he gives the song a skilful orchestral arrangement. However, the record bombs, and Denise blames herself for making the song too personal. Denise and Jay become a couple and re-settle in California at the height of the hippie movement. Denise is soon reunited with her old friend Cheryl who is working as a songwriter in Los Angeles. She and Denise collaborate on songs for a Bubblegum pop TV show called 'Where the Action Is'. Jay is affectionate but also childlike, reclusive and a heavy drug user, and becomes increasingly paranoid. He disapproves of Denise writing songs for the TV show, insisting that it's beneath her. His band mates distance themselves from him, leaving him to work alone in his studio. In a fit of paranoia, he accuses Denise of stealing tapes from him, but when it turns out that he threw the tapes over the studio balcony in a fit of irritation and then forgot that he had done so, Denise is distressed. He also takes his and her children to the museum and forgets to bring them home. While Denise is at a club with Doris, Jay, directionless and in despair at his inability to be more responsible, wanders into the ocean and drowns. Numbed by Jay's death, Denise retires with her two children to a hippie commune in the mountains above Palm Springs and adopts yet another father-figure in the commune's guru. Joel Milner visits Denise in the commune and takes her and her children out to dinner. That night, he confronts her with her constant reliance on men for guidance and her failure to take responsibility for her own talent. Denise's suppressed anger spills out, and she screams at Milner that he is a "fucking leech" who exploited her. He agrees with her, and the more he agrees with her the angrier she becomes, until he deliberately provokes her by throwing his drink into her face. She strikes him and then collapses in tears, grieving for Jay. Milner consoles her and the two are reconciled. In the closing sequence (set in 1973), Denise is seen confidently recording and producing her first solo album 'Grace of My Heart' with her extended family and friends in attendance.

The film begins with Ted the Bellhop (Tim Roth) in a room filled with hotel memorabilia, talking to Sam the Bellhop (Marc Lawrence) about what a bellhop is. It's New Year's Eve. "The Missing Ingredient" begins with a bunch of women (including Madonna and Lili Taylor) converging in the Honeymoon Suite, where there's a huge cauldron in the room's center. The women send Ted to get a bunch of ingredients, mostly from the kitchen. With the ingredients in hand, the women, some of them topless, enact a ritual. They are witches. One says they intend to reverse the spell that turned their goddess Diana into stone in this very room 40 years ago. The witches dance around, then they begin putting ingredients into the huge cauldron. Eva (Ione Skye) was required to get the key ingredient: fresh semen. Alas, instead of keeping the sample, she swallows it. Ted returns to the room. A witch gives him a $50 tip, telling him that he has to make Eva smile. The witches leave Ted alone with Eva, whom Ted tries to entertain by acting silly. Eva says it doesn't matter if she smiles or not, and explains that she and her friends are a coven, as well as the situation with Diana. After Ted resists Eva's advances, she casts a spell on him, causing him to be swept away with her. Ted kisses Eva. Later, we see them kissing some more. Ted leaves the suite as the witches plus one more return. Eva says she's a woman now, telling them that she and Ted did it in the cauldron. The witches continue the ritual. Diana rises from the cauldron in physical form. The second segment is "The Wrong Man." Ted walks into a darkened room 404. The light comes on. A man (David Proval) points a gun in Ted's face. A woman (Jennifer Beals) is tied to a chair and gagged behind the man. The man swallows some pills. He accuses Ted of being the woman's beau. She is the man's wife. Ted says there's a mistake. The man hits Ted in the face with the gun, knocking him down. The man pulls Ted up and says he demands an apology. He puts the gun down and has Ted mouth an apology for saying he f---ed another man. The man tells Ted not to move a nose hair, picking up the gun. The man dances over to the bathroom. The woman mumbles at Ted and he pulls the gag from her mouth. She tells him to untie her. He argues that they're complete strangers, and she says, "it's where we end up that counts." They realize the man is coming back, and Ted puts the gag back into her mouth. The man catches Ted doing this and points the gun at him. He tells Ted to "nibble" on his wife. The man calls Ted "Theodore." Ted corrects him, telling him to call him "Ted." The man says his name is Siegfried. He agrees to call Ted by his chosen name. He then kisses Ted, twitches, says "my heart," and collapses. He tells Ted to get his nitro pills from the bathroom. Ted enters the bathroom and searches the medicine cabinet. He sees the window and worms his body halfway through it. Ted notices a man halfway out of the window above his window. Ted asks the man to call the police. The man twitches and vomits, just missing Ted, who jumps back into the bathroom. Ted exits the bathroom, finding the woman and Siegfried on the floor. He picks the woman up and ungags her. She yells at him to get the nitro pills. Suddenly, Siegfried stands up. He tells them that it was a test, saying he's happy because he knows the woman loves him now. The woman takes a wry attitude, accusing Ted of having sex with her. Ted asks what he ever did to her and Siegfried. The woman mentions that Ted has "a huge cock." Ted denies this. Siegfried tells Ted to show him his cock. The woman does, too. Siegfried tells her to stop talking about Ted's cock. The woman says countless synonyms for the male phallus, driving Siegfried into a fit. Ted sees an opportunity and hurries out of the room. The third segment, "The Misbehavers," starts with Ted answering a call at the front desk. A man (Antonio Banderas) orders a bottle of champagne. His wife (Tamlyn Tomita) combs her and the man's son Juancho's (Danny Verduzco) hair, trying to get the right look. The man takes over combing Juancho's hair, while the wife goes to work on their daughter Sarah's (Lana McKissack) hair. The man and wife finish the kids' hair. The kids go into the other room to watch television. The wife asks the man if they're going to have fun tonight. The man mentions that they could leave the kids in the room with the television set. The man tells the kids that he and his wife are going to leave them alone and to be in bed before midnight. He tells them, "Don't misbehave." Juancho opens a window, saying it stinks in the room. The man comes back in, saying, "Behave." Ted arrives with the champagne. The man gives Ted $500 to check up on the kids every thirty minutes. The man and his wife leave. Ted and Sarah argue a bit as to when the kids should call him. Ted says to call only when necessary, and that if the kids are good, he'll bring them some milk and cookies. He leaves. Sarah tells Juancho that his feet stink. Juancho turns on a station on the TV with a half-naked female dancer (Salma Hayek) dancing. Sarah calls Ted on the phone, telling him to turn "the nudie station" off. The kids keep complaining about the bad smell in the room. Sarah finds a syringe in a drawer and calls Ted to mention it to him. Ted tells her not to bother him again unless it's an emergency. Juancho shakes the champagne bottle until it blows its cork. He drinks some champagne. The kids use a framed picture in the room as a target to throw the syringe at. Ted comes back with milk and saltines, telling the kids that they're going to bed. The kids dislike the saltines. Ted has the kids lie down and tells them to close their eyes. He pulls out some mentholatum ointment. He dabs the ointment over their eyes, telling them not to open them or it will burn. Ted exits the room. Fireworks go off outside the room's window. Sarah walks with her eyes closed to the bathroom and rinses them off. She opens her eyes. She turns on the TV and drinks some champagne. Juancho steps to the bathroom and washes his face off, too. Vexed by the bad smell in the room, the kids get off of the bed. Sarah pulls the bed's top mattress aside and they find a dead woman stuffed in its bottom mattress. Sarah calls Ted, who becomes livid. Sarah tells Ted to get his ass to the room. A discombobulated Ted sees the man walk into the hotel, carrying the passed-out wife. Ted runs to the elevator and goes upstairs. He rushes into the room to find Sarah drinking and Juancho smoking. Ted slaps the cigarette out of Juancho's mouth. Sarah moves the bed's top mattress aside and reveals the dead woman. Ted vomits. He knocks the champagne bottle out of Sarah's hand. Champagne spills from the bottle, and some of it moves toward the lit cigarette on the floor. Ted calls the police, saying there's a "dead whore" in the room. Sarah tells Ted not to call her a dead whore. Ted does it again, so Sarah stabs him in the leg with the syringe. Ted screams, dropping the telephone. He steps on the TV's remote, accidentally changing the TV to the station with the dancing woman. The man gets to the room's door, carrying his wife. Flames erupt around the room due to the champagne catching fire. Ted grabs the dead woman's leg and yanks the syringe out of his thigh. The man walks in to see Ted standing with his hand on the dead woman's leg, along with the syringe in his other hand, Juancho smoking, Sarah holding the champagne bottle, the "nudie station" on the TV, and the room on fire. The man asks, "Did they misbehave?" The last segment is "The Man From Hollywood." Ted knocks on a penthouse door. The formerly tied-up woman from the second segment opens the door and announces that the bellhop is here. Men's voices shout in appreciation and Ted steps into the penthouse. The actor Chester Rush (Quentin Tarantino) struts over to Ted and offers him some Cristal that Ted refuses at first, but later drinks. Chester invites Ted in and introduces him to his friends: the woman whose name is Angela, Norman (Paul Calderon), and Leo (Bruce Willis). Chester notices that a bottle of Cristal has gone flat and goes off on a tirade against his friends for leaving it open. He opens another bottle of the champagne. Chester talks about his movies. Ted shows Chester and Norman the objects he's been asked to bring to the room, which include a block of wood and a sharp hatchet. Leo argues in a bedroom with his wife over the phone, and it ends badly. Leo has a temper tantrum, yelling and cursing. Leo asks Ted if he's seen a TV episode called "The Man From Rio" starring Peter Lorre and Steve McQueen. In the episode, Lorre makes a bet with McQueen that McQueen can't light his cigarette lighter ten times in a row. If McQueen lights his lighter ten times in a row, McQueen gets Lorre's car. If he doesn't, Lorre gets to chop off McQueen's pinky. Leo says Norman has bet his pinky that he can light his cigarette lighter ten times in a row. Either Norman will do it, thus winning Chester's 1964 Chevy Chevelle or not, getting his finger cut off, as in Lorre and McQueen's bet. Ted tells the guys that they're drunk. Norman says they'd probably chicken out if they weren't intoxicated. Chester says in the event that Norman loses his finger, after they put it on ice, it can hopefully be reattached. Chester says the men want Ted to be the finger-cutter, since he's a neutral stranger. Ted says, "I've gotta get out of here" and runs to the door. Chester offers Ted $100 to sit and listen to what he has to say. Ted sits down. Chester stacks a thousand dollars on the counter, and persuasively asks Ted if he'll want to remember for the rest of his life that he refused it for a second's work. Ted agrees to be the finger-cutter. The men get into their positions. Norman gets his thumb on his lighter and flicks it once. It doesn't light, and Ted instantly drives the hatchet through Norman's pinky, severing it. Norman screams in agony. Ted scoops up his money and sashays off, getting onto an elevator. Leo and Chester scramble to get the shrieking Norman and his severed pinky into the elevator.

In the rural desert town of Laramie, New Mexico, 16-year-old "Shade" Evans (Fairuza Balk) spends her free time at the local movie house, obsessed with melodramatic Mexican romances starring her favorite actress, Elvia Rivero. One day after a matinée, Shade meets her 18-year-old sister, Trudi (Ione Skye) , at the diner where their divorced mother, Nora (Brooke Adams), works. Nora sighs as Trudi insults the busboy by calling him a "wetback" after he accidentally spills her drink on their table while serving Trudi and Shade. When the busboy quits in protest, Shade, embarrassed by Trudi's racist behavior, announces that she does not like diner food and storms out. That night, Shade contemplates Nora's numerous failed relationships. Inspired by an Elvia Rivero movie, the adolescent girl decides to play matchmaker. However, as much as Shade would like to "find a man" for her mom, she remains curious about her biological father, John Evans. She telephones him, but hangs up as soon as he answers. Nora returns from a late shift, dismayed to see Trudi's empty bed. At 2:30 a.m., Trudi sneaks back, and Nora chastises her daughter for behaving irresponsibly. Shade covers her ears in an attempt to block out the argument. The next day, Trudi takes a job waitressing at the diner, intent on making enough money to move out. Shade goes to the movie theater to watch another Spanish-language Elvia Rivero picture, but in the middle of the movie, the screen goes blank. Shade wanders to the projection room, surprised to see Javier (Jacob Vargas), the busboy from the diner, now working as projectionist. He makes a biting remark about Trudi's racist behavior at the diner, but Shade retorts that he should focus on his new job, rather than hold a grudge against her sister. Javier laughs, charmed by Shade's fiery spirit. That night, Nora fends off the romantic advances of Raymond (Chris Mulkey), a local man with whom she had an affair years earlier. She returns his passionate kiss, but warns him that she has no intention of getting involved with a married man. Elsewhere in Laramie, Shade hangs out with her moody friend, Darius (Donovan Leitch). Her eyes widen as he interprets the lyrics to an Olivia Newton-John song. Meanwhile, Trudi sits alone in the diner after being rejected by the boy she has been dating. Her sniffling draws the attention of an English geologist named Dank (Robert Knepper), who offers to give her a ride home. En route, she makes scornful remarks about men, unaware that Dank finds her tirade amusing. The next day at the laundromat, Shade borrows change from a man named John (James Brolin), oblivious to his sidelong glances at Nora. Later that evening, Trudi joins Dank as he explores desert caves looking for phosphorescent rocks. After an intimate evening together where Trudi and Dank have sex in the cave, she confides she was gang raped the first time she had sex a few years ago. Afraid to report the crime, she decided to take a carefree attitude toward sex, becoming involved with any boy who showed interest. Trudi confesses that she never had a meaningful sexual experience until she met Dank. Later, the geologist announces that he needs to leave town for a few days. He assures the suspicious Trudi that she is special to him. When Trudi returns home the next morning, she and Nora get into another argument over Trudi staying out all night again. As Nora storms away, Hamlet Humphrey (David Lansbury), the local satellite dish installer, offers to listen to her problems, but she dismisses him. Meanwhile, Shade tells Trudi about her friend Darius, uncertain if she should reciprocate his "crush" on her. When Trudi advises making a bold move, Shade dresses up like Olivia Newton-John and attempts to seduce Darius, but he reveals that he is not attracted to her (implying he might be gay). Feeling foolish, Shade leaves and runs into Javier, who teases her about her appearance. That night, Shade arranges a blind date between Nora and Raymond. The two adults do not let on that they know each other, and struggle to keep from laughing during the awkward dinner. The teenager goes to bed disappointed in her day. A few weeks later, Trudi realizes that Dank is not coming back when he has not called or wrote to her. Then another week later, Trudi learns that learns that she is pregnant from her one-time sexual encounter with Dank at the cave. When Nora advises Trudi to get an abortion, she becomes outraged by her mother's insensitivity. Trudi decides to move to Dallas, Texas, and give the baby up for adoption. Sometime later, in an attempt to cheer up Shade, Nora suggests they get cable television. Hamlet Humphrey comes over to talk about the installation, but Nora changes her mind when she hears what it will cost. He flirts with her, and they make love. Meanwhile, Shade attends a party at her friend Tanya's (Julie Condra) house. A disc jockey musician visiting from Los Angeles, California, pressures Tanya to make out with him. Shade breaks up the tryst, but the boy and his friends refuse to leave. Meanwhile, the man from the laundromat drives past and notices the altercation. He stops and threatens the musicians, before offering to escort Shade home. On the way, he reveals that he is John Evans, her father. Shade is stunned, and in the morning confronts Nora with the news. A few days later, Shade locates her father at his house outside of town, and asks for money. The request provokes an outburst from John's girl friend, and Shade leaves, embarrassed. John follows and presses a roll of cash into her hand. Shade stops by Javier's house, curious to meet his family. Javier welcomes her with a few good-natured jokes, and later whispers passionately in her ear in Spanish. They kiss. In the ensuing weeks, Shade and Javier spend long afternoons together in the desert. As the teenagers fall in love, so do Nora and Hamlet. Shade is unimpressed with her mother's boyfriend until he reveals an admiration for Elvia Rivero. Several months later, Nora, Hamlet, and Shade go to Dallas to support Trudi through the delivery of her baby. Shade wants her sister to return to Laramie, but Trudi says she is looking forward to starting a new life in Dallas. Driving home, Shade notices a roadside business selling phosphorescent rocks. She asks Hamlet to drop her off and leave her while he and Nora drive back to Laramie. Confronting the vendors, Shade learns that they acquired the rocks from Dank, who died in a mine cave-in months earlier while collecting specimens. In the final scene, Shade walks back to Laramie through the desert, reflecting on the relationships between lovers, mothers, and daughters. Shade realizes that Dank always loved Trudi and vows to eventually tell her the truth of what happened to him someday.