Product Description

Sexy Rosanna Arquette sparkles, and Vincent Spano is brilliant in John Sayles' fresh and funny comedy about a pair of opposites who definitely attract! Set in the tumultuous '60s, and featuring a classic rock and roll soundtrack, Baby It's You crafts a vivid portrait of young love in a complex era. Also featuring a star turn by Robert Downey, Jr.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17251 in DVD
• Brand: LEGEND FILMS, INC.
• Released on: 2008-07-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 5.00 pounds
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.com
John Sayles's third feature film was the exception that proved the rule about his need for total independence as a filmmaker. Sayles traded his final cut for studio funding, and the result was a movie that left him unhappy in its ultimate form. Nevertheless, Baby, It's You is full of dramatic elements and character nuances that are distinctively Saylesian (the director's screenplay is adapted from a novel by Amy Robinson), and the early-1960s New Jersey setting is clearly familiar territory for the Garden State's native son. Rosanna Arquette stars as Jill, a sweet, college-bound Jewish girl who develops an unlikely relationship with a macho Italian kid named "Sheik" Capodilupo (Vincent Spano). Sheik woos Jill, a girl from the good side of the tracks, with a certain determination, and while Sayles goes down this familiar path with a certain nostalgic glow, he has a larger story brewing beyond it--a story about relationships that never gel, about class assumptions, and about the painful, universal underpinnings of adolescence. --Tom Keogh

Review
Discovering the films of John Sayles on DVD has been a rewarding experience. The prolific writer-director has averaged a feature about every 1.5 years since 1980, when his highly regarded Return of the Secaucus Seven surprised everyone. Sayles' films play as more heartfelt and 'real' than similarly themed movies made around the same time. Secaucus is less glitzy than The Big Chill and The Howling has a lot more going for it than An American Werewolf in London. And nobody has made films as passionate about their subjects as Lianna, Matewan (where's that DVD?), Lone Star and Casa de los babys.

Sayles' third feature Baby It's You becomes a real winner once one gets beyond the unimaginative title. It's sort of an anti-American Graffiti, the story of one teenager's passage from high school to college in the odd years of the late 1960s. Sayles wrote it from a story by his producer, Amy Robinson (After Hours, From Hell). The inspired casting offers the first film starring roles for Rosanna Arquette and Vincent Spano, and they make an intriguing couple.
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Rosanna Arquette's Jill is a nice, ambitious girl with good social skills and a sharp mind. She knows what she wants, and even her parents give her a wide berth. She nabs the lead in the school play around the same time she attracts the attention of the baddest boy on campus, Sheik. The guy is fashion-themed at all times and has an attitude a mile thick; he wanders the halls and thinks nothing of breaking into classes to talk to Jill. And they aren't even boyfriend and girlfriend yet.

Sayles' script is edgy and unpredictable: crime isn't punished directly and high hopes are sometimes flattened by reality, just as in real life. Sheik appears to hang out with local wiseguys and acts like a hood, but he and his scuzzy friend 'Rat' (Gary McCleery) are rank amateurs at crime. Emotionally erratic to the point of being frightening, Sheik attempts to scare Jill into being his girlfriend, just the kind of immature stunt one might expect. He ends up winning her with the intensity of his attentions, and his flair for romance []

College turns out to be a complete reversal, when Jill realizes that she's no longer a special case, or the smartest girl in school. Her acting dream goes poof and she makes social mistakes, like getting roaring drunk (and then sick) with a group of her friends, leading her date (Matthew Modine) to assume that she's easy. Other women in her dorm prove to be cynics or snobs and one girl goes quietly insane, and nobody seems to care. Jill is disillusioned. She's in danger of losing some of the spark of youth, even though she's barely begun to live.

Like Nicolas Cage in Peggy Sue Got Married, Sheik has unrealistic dreams of a show business career based on image rather than talent. He talks a good line but takes it hard when his hopes vanish. Still a punk, Sheik steals a car and hightails it from Florida to Jill's northern college, just in time to rescue her self-esteem. Sheik is broke, but he's got his tuxedo and can serve as a last-chance prom date. What they missed in high school, they might be able to straighten out in their lives to come.

Sayles has a great cameraman (Michael Ballhaus) helping him to float this very well produced movie -- the locations, actors and direction are exceptional. Sayles also has a good sense for using music. [] Vincent Spano is certainly good but it's Rosanna Arquette's movie. She's heartbreakingly on target as the smart girl who discovers that she's made a commitment to the oddest guy she ever met.

The interpersonal details are what makes Baby It's You work so well. [] Despite the 'R' rating, it's a real movie, not a 'coming of age' sex romp. I'm very glad I caught up with it. --Glenn Erickson of DVDSavant.com

Customer Reviews

Romance, Angst, Fun, Nostalgia, 60's Soundtrack
I have watched this movie several times over the years. It is a sleeper hit in my opinion-- a story of ending high school and heading for college, at least for the female lead, whereas her boyfriend is not college material and tries to make it as a club singer. They try to have a romance, though they have differences, but because they are both scared of their new lives they keep trying to hold on to one another. I can not put my finger on it, but I really like this movie. The soundtrack is great too, with songs of the 60's. This is not a movie with high drama or special effects-- but the script is great in my opinion, for anyone who remembers the struggles and romance of high school, and the fears and struggles of starting out in college or elsewhere after graduation.

A remarkably surpising move!
I flipped on the television and got sucked into this movie half way through. Had no idea what I was watching and thought it was a light hearted cheesy movie from the late 70's/early 80's. Boy was I wrong! This movie absolutely blew me away. I was not at all suprised to learn John Sayles (Passion Fish, The Secret of Roan Inish) had directed it. A fabulous depiction of teenage life and self discovery. I have never seen people of this age portrayed so accurately. I can not get Vincent Spano's performance out of my mind. He reminds me of so many of the dumb, yet loveable (but sometimes "dangerous") boys I dated as a young girl. It almost gives me the creeps - and yet, keeps me rivoted. I do not understand why it is that Vincent Spano has not become a bigger box office draw. He is an amazing actor with great range in everything I've seen him in and also very physically attractive. Boggles the mind why he hasn't been in more movies. And Rosanna Arquette gives an amazing performance as well as a young girl just realizing what she wants out of life but unable to break away completely from her youth. PHENOMENAL!!! I immediately went out and bought this movie on eBay - I have to watch it again and again. Not at all what I expected on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

A superb period piece, yet timeless,
This is one of my all time favorite movies... sometimes the film makers just get it; the dialogue is right, the feel is right... we baby boomers can relate to something here... an age of innocence story, early 60's; where you still didn't have to take life all that seriously (pre-Vietnam); almost another Dinks Stover at Yale / Lawrenceville time in the World. Everything about this movie is on... the language is just right... the early 60's elitism, as per Matthew Modine's role and Tracy Pollen really hit its right. and Rosanna Arquette as the good-hearted girl from Trenton, who can still show affection for the "Sheik" and humility too... this movie is a gem. If only they could get the price down to under $20.