Rating: 4/5
Don (Dennis Hopper) is a truck driver who accidentally drives into a bus full of school children, his 10-year-old daughter Cebe (Linda Manz) in the passenger seat
Five years later, Cebe is mourning the death of The King and living with her mother, Kathy (Sharon Farrell), and Kathy’s new man, Paul (Eric Allen), and Don is due to get out of prison soon
Mom’s got a problem with heroin, and friends like Charlie (Don Gordon) aren’t helping — Cebe knows to stay away when that’s happening, staying out all night if need be
And it’s not like Don returning does anything to help. He has the key to disarm her, but he doesn’t have her best interests in mind
Linda Manz is incredible in this. She balances the rebellious punk kid and the vulnerability that lies just beneath the surface, all the while building out a personality to wear it all — she’s full of jokes and attitude and hurt
On paper, this movie looks depressing as hell — and it is — but the filmmaking is not punishing, wandering through and descending into Cebe’s world and letting her show us the weirdos and monsters in her life — out of the blue and into the black