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Gas Food Lodging
When Shade's good, she's very good. But when Trudi's bad, she's better.
Nora, a single mother raising two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, waits tables at a truck-stop diner in a small New Mexico town. The beautiful and rebellious Trudi drops out of school and gets a job alongside Nora, while the younger Shade whittles away her time at Spanish movie matinees. Their lives are turned upside down when Trudi becomes pregnant and the girls' absent father returns.
- Original title
- Gas Food Lodging
- Language
- EN
- Country
- US
- Budget
- —
- Revenue
- $1,345,236
Wuchak
Sep 6, 2025 · via TMDB
**_Lost hearts in New Mexico with rooms vacant_** A single mother (Brooke Adams) and her two teenage daughters (Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk) live in a bleak small town in the desert. They each struggle with the boredom of mundane life and pursue romance. "Gas Food Lodging" (1992) is part reverent coming-of-age drama, similar to the future “Dreamland,” and part aging mother looking for love in the remote American West, à la “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” Others that come to mind include: “Desert Bloom,” “What's Eating Gilbert Grape,” “Desert Blue” and “Tumbleweeds.” It’s a quality drama with a barren dust bowl milieu that creatively fleshes out the three protagonists, offering interesting insights on life in general and, especially, the pursuit of love and everything that goes with it. Unfortunately, all three females make the mistake of getting intimate on the first date, but I suppose that kind of folly is one of the real-life issues on which the film zeroes-in. It could also be argued that writer/director Allison Anders only had 1 hour and 41 minutes to tell the story and so had to condense time. Fairuza was 16 during shooting and would turn 17 in a few months. She arguably never looked better. Meanwhile Ione was 20 whereas Brooke turned 42 during the shoot. Blonde Leigh Hamilton has a small but somewhat memorable bit part. Anyway, I like the way the flick often takes the subtle route in detailing things. It’s not necessary to spell everything out when it’s all there for the viewer to discover and understand. It was shot in Deming and Las Cruces, New Mexico, which are located in the southwest side of the state. GRADE: B
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Brooke Adams
Nora
Ione Skye
Trudi
Fairuza Balk
Shade
James Brolin
John Evans
Robert Knepper
Dank
David Lansbury
Hamlet
Jacob Vargas
Javier
Donovan Leitch
Darius
Chris Mulkey
Raymond
Laurie O'Brien
Thelma
Julie Condra
Tanya
Leigh Hamilton
Kim
Diane Behrens
Hostess
J. Mascis
Cecil
Tiffany Anders
Persi
Jeffrey McDonald
Long Haired Boy
Mariah O'Brien
Ivy
Julia Vera
Madre
Carlos Rivas
Padre
Carlos Augusto Cestero
Husband
Vivis Colombetti
Gossip
Marabina Jaimes
Housewife
Yasmin Le Bon
Self - Poster Model (uncredited)
Tim Monich
Dialect Coach
Allison Anders
Director
Debi Manwiller
Casting
Sharon Bialy
Casting
Carl Colpaert
Executive Producer
David Jobe
Foley Recordist
J. Mascis
Original Music Composer
Allison Anders
Screenplay
City of God
Rocco and His Brothers
Amarcord
A Door to the Sky
The Hong Kong Tycoon
Boyz n the Hood
Feng Shui
Sabrina
Suddenly Gina
Nobody's Child
Scarface
Finding Neverland
The Return
Brothers
The Bucket List
American Graffiti
The Tin Drum
Definitely, Maybe
The Watchmaker of St. Paul
A Girl at My Door
Antonia's Line
Fanaa
Sleepless in Seattle
The Bodyguard
She Paradise
K-19: The Widowmaker
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Amour Fou
Girlhood
Our Ladies
When Night Is Falling
Desired Children
Chasing Ghosts
Meet the Fockers
Deep Impact
Fat Girl
Far North
Bird People
Catherine
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Wedding Daze
Dyketactics
This Place
Nothing Special
The Bug Killer
The Season of Men
Blueprint
Nacht vor Augen
Spring
Nadia and Sarra
The Dream Woman
Chasing Grace
Malpaís
Just Like Us
Tough Love
Vera
Bobby Beauty Parlour
Finger Guns
7 Miles Out
Darshan
A Streetcar Named Desire
Love You to Death
The Man in the Moon
Dirty Dancing
Bird
Life Itself
Regretting You
White Oleander
Buried in Barstow
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Charlie St. Cloud
You Can Count on Me
Endless Love
Elena Undone
The Fugitive Kind
Tuesday
Monster's Ball
The Cement Garden
Footloose
Mother and Child
White Palace
A Thousand and One
The Burning Plain
The Tender Bar
Starving in Suburbia
Light of My Life
My Zoe
Duel in the Sun
Eve's Bayou
The Sandpiper
That Night
American Woman
Cassandra's Dream
The Beach House
Not Easily Broken
What We Hide
Compliance
The Yellow Handkerchief
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between
Moll Flanders
Wander Darkly
The Glass House
Winged Creatures
Apr 25, 1992
USA Film Festival
Jul 10, 1992
