To the Stars

Wakita, Oklahoma, in the early 1960s. The wind blows clouds of dust across a plain beneath a vast sky. A handful of scattered houses, a not very impressive center of town, a lone road cutting through a wasteland, and not much else. The scenery is reminiscent of Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show, especially since it is shot in elegant black-and-white, lending it a classic feel. This is the background for a melodrama about growing up and being different. Iris is a shy schoolgirl, the unlucky owner of huge glasses and a weak bladder. Maggie is the new girl in town—seemingly radiating confidence, she is in fact hiding a difficult truth about her life. These different, albeit similarly lost, teenagers develop a friendship. They will no doubt need each other’s support—the surrounding world is no oasis of kindness and tolerance.