Dogfight

The night before the assassination of President Kennedy, Eddie Birdlace and his mates roam the streets. Before they are drafted into Vietnam the next day, they want to celebrate properly and organise a dogfight, a particularly nasty game in which the winner is the one who brings the ugliest girl. Because Eddie suddenly realises that he likes his ‘victim’ Rose after all, he does everything he can at the last minute to spare her the humiliation ... River Phoenix at the height of his career, which ended far too early, and Lili Taylor, the self-confident outsider in Hollywood, are like two lost souls who are brought together in this bittersweet, cleverly staged love story that has shed all falseness - if only for one night, perhaps. (Florian Widegger)