Baby It's You

High school in New Jersey, 1966: she's en route for college and WASPdom, he's more concerned with miming to Sinatra and curling his lip the right amount at the teachers. As usual Sayles invests his subject with great care, and breaks with tradition by pursuing the pair into post-school life: the effects of hippy culture on her, of real life (washing up in Miami) on him. There is no easy moralising, nor any patronising of the characters; their reunion is as moving and hopeless as was their first love. Arquette and Spano hit exactly the right note; and having had Return of the Secaucus Seven recycled by The Big Chill, Sayles now outdoes the Chill with his own soundtrack (uniting Sinatra, Springsteen, Shirelles). CPea.