Amoeba Music

In 1966, Trenton New Jersey still seemed stuck in the cross hairs of the ‘50s and ‘60s. The British Invasion was in full effect and white kids were now listing to black music but the era of Frank Sinatra still held sway with some. For high school senior Jill Rosen (Rosanna Arquette) it’s a particularly confusing era; an aspiring actress, she is trying to embrace the times, find her own voice, and gain her independence, but when she is wooed by and then eventually gets in a relationship with an odd, new, rebelliously hunky greaser at school, known as Sheik (Vincent Spano), her place in the world, her values and aspirations, are challenged. Even after Jill goes away to college and her experiences are expanded, he still lingers in her mind as a representation of her past, a life she can’t quite outgrow.

Director John Sayles had been a wonderful screenwriter of campy B-movies (Piranha, Alligator and The Howling), but as a director he made a name for himself with his deeply personal, character-driven independent films Return of the Secaucus Seven (which The Big Chill has been accused of ripping-off) and Lianna. Though Baby It’s You brought the quality of his style up a few notches, it was still a very small-budget flick. The New Jersey connection explains why the film’s soundtrack is loaded with early Bruce Springsteen music, which unfortunately now gives the film a ‘70s vibe; but other than that the 1966 period detail is perfect, not just in the design but the characters’ emotional makeup.

The melding of cultures is at work as Jill comes from a caring upper-class Jewish family, while the Italian-American Sheik is from the rougher blue-collar side of town. She respects school authority and society’s values, while the academically unambitious Sheik is fearless even in his clothes, sporting Rat Pack skinny ties and suits. Jill is college-bound (Sarah Lawrence) to study theater, and Sheik is a petty criminal; though he has a goal of becoming the next Sinatra or Dean Martin, Sheik is more of a talker, while Jill knows that dreams require effort.  When Jill does finally leave for college, she finds new social obstacles: the acting classes are more challenging, the kids are mostly preppy and pot-smoking snobs (she dates a dull frat boy played by Matthew Modine), and her parents seem happy to let her grow up. On a whim she visits Sheik; he’s taken a restaurant job down in Miami, washing dishes and lip-syncing to Sinatra records and it’s humiliating for him. Even finally losing her virginity to him, she realizes that their two lives are on different projections and he will always be just an amusing story form her past.  

Sheik makes a final effort to bring them together again, driving up to visit her in college. He declares his love for her (after smashing up her room in a tantrum) and she tells him she does love him but wants to be friends. In a moving and surprising moment he accepts her offer, finally getting it. She invites him to a college dance; no matter his social status, with his slicked back hair he always looks good in a suit. The two dance to “Strangers in the Night,” the romance is over but maybe another connection will always exist. Like Saturday Night Fever, Baby It’s You could be considered to have a downbeat ending by today’s rom-com standards (were a marriage proposal equals ever-after happiness).  In the end, instead of being lovers, the two young people bond as friends. And like the kids in The Wanderers, Sheik even begins to realize he has no understanding of the cultural change that is taking hold as the ‘60s become the Sixties; he will always be a relic of the past.

Arquette and Spano both give great nuanced and complicated performances that should of made them big stars but didn’t necessarily. Coming off of her powerhouse performance in The Executioner’s Song, Baby it’s You was a solid one-two punch for Arquette. With her quirky, but very attractive looks, she exudes a deerish vulnerability; there's an awkwardness in her work that borders between deep commitment and anxiety. Though she had a big cultural and commercial hit soon after with Desperately Seeking Susan (right at the start of Madonna mania) and has worked steadily for decades, she never again had that role that could take her to the next level (her hit and miss resume does include impressive smaller parts in After Hours, New York Stories and Pulp Fiction). She’s been successful, but never broke out of the pack. Spano didn’t fare as well; though he was part of the gang in Over the Edge and Rumble Fish, Baby It’s You really is his only memorable lead role while films like Alphabet City (a kinda guilty pleasure), Creator and Roger Vadim’s pointless remake of his own And God Created Woman did nothing to establish him or help him make the jump. Like actors Ken Wahl and Steven Bauar of his generation, he had the looks and chops, but never again the perfect role.

Of course, Sayles would become a major (but more often, boring) figure in independent film making Matewan, Brother from Another Planet, and Eight Men Out. All were acclaimed, but Baby It’s You resonated the most with me. As both a teen romance and film about an era I’ve always been attracted to, Baby It’s You offers love and heartbreak; like a New Jersey Romeo &Juliet, the mini-dramas and passions of youth are timeless. Arquette and Spano really do create some magic on the screen and are both totally watchable. Besides being a love letter to a bygone era, Baby It’s You is also a calling card for three talents. Sayles and Arquette were able to use it, to some extent, to speed the growth of their careers, but Spano feels just like poor Sheik stuck back in Trenton wondering why he was left behind. 

Note to Quentin Tarantino: watch Baby It’s You. Vincent Spano is the perfect actor in need of a hip career resurrection role.