Samantha Mathis stars as a singer/songwriter from New York, trying to make it in Nashville, along with her roommate in a cheap hotel (Sandra Bullock). The two meet a couple guys also trying to break through, the rock-star-esque River Phoenix and the more humble Dermot Mulroney. The group spends their nights trying to pass auditions at local venues in the hopes they’ll get seen by someone with power (like Trisha Yearwood, who has a cameo).
The cast is great, of course, and the music is great as well. I guess the most Bogdanovich touch on display here is the way he immerses the film in a specific place and locks in on details, rather than trying to make things seem universal. This is always a strength for any film, and especially helps what otherwise might have been a paint by numbers “I wanna make it” flick.
It’s sad to see Phoenix in his final performance, because he is so good and so young. It’s sad, in a different way, to see Bullock here, because she’s totally immersed in a character and not playing Sandra Bullock: movie star. It makes me wonder what her career had been like if she had been a working character actress instead of a star.
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