This is an early picture by the inimitable John Sayles -- a portrait of Trenton some time in the mid-1960s through the eyes of the Rosanna Arquette, a middle-class aspiring actress who wants to go to Sarah Lawrence and Vincent Spano, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. It looks like it was sold to the suits at Paramount on his writing ability and the rising tide of John-Landis-style teen comedies. Looking back from a third of a century later, I can see the complexity of story-telling, in the banal "bad-boy-good-girl" love story in a world that was about to vanish, as an act of satire... rendered a bit toothless, alas by its separation from the moment and the cluelessness of the characters. It makes them more real. Sayles' targets are too numerous here for accuracy.

Director John Sayles also adapted this script (from Amy Robinson's story) about a youthful romance in the 1960s that takes several wrong turns. Vincent Spano's "Sheik" might have been a fun addition to any other nostalgic comedy-drama...strictly as a supporting character; forced into carrying most of the picture here, he overwhelms the proceedings, and Sayles is no help saturating the film with Spano's dumb-stud posturing and rude mouth. This not only pushes Rosanna Arquette away, but viewers as well. The period atmosphere is captured rather nicely, and Sayles is nimble in his dealings with the grown-ups of the piece (who are not painted in the usual broad strokes). However, "Baby It's You" is eventually too heavy as a comedy, with repetitive scenes and character-clashes awash in a kind of post-teenage sturm and drang that wears everybody down by the finish. *1/2 from ****

One of John Sayles's movies without a political theme -- and one of his only films made for a Hollywood studio -- focuses on the relationship between an honor student and a hoodlum in 1960s New Jersey. Jill Rosen (Rosanna Arquette) is getting primed to attend Sarah Lawrence College, while Albert "Sheik" Capadilupo (Vincent Spano) spends most of his time making trouble. At once a look at this romance and simultaneously a look at the changes in the United States in the late 1960s -- Jill is a totally changed person by the end of the movie -- "Baby It's You" is an almost mystifying movie. Jill and Sheik are opposites in practically every way: she is evolving with the changing times, while he can't stop thinking about Frank Sinatra. But either way, their relationship seems to be the only possible rite of passage for the two of them.

I've never seen a John Sayles movie that I didn't like, and this is certainly a good one. More than just a nostalgia piece, it shows the effect that Sheik has on Jill, and what the two of them are forced to realize about their romance by the end of the movie. Definitely one that I recommend. Also starring Tracy Pollan (Michael J. Fox's wife) and Robert Downey Jr.