keep out the stars, turn out the lights

SYNOPSIS: Four women look back at the girls they used to be in this warm comedy-drama. Author Samantha Albertson, actress Tina Tercell, gynecologist Roberta Martin, and housewife Christina DeWitt are friends from childhood who get together for the first time in years when Christina is about to have a baby. Seeing the old gang sends Samantha down memory lane, as she recalls the summer of 1970, when the girls were 12-years-old and edging into womanhood. Samantha  is struggling with the collapse of her parent's marriage, Roberta must deal with the death of her mother, Tina is upset over her folks' apparent disinterest in her, and Christina is trying to overcome her mother's disinformation campaign about sex. Together, they discuss boys and first kisses, compare notes on the physical and emotional changes they're going through, and have seances where they try to communicate with a boy who died tragically 30 years earlier.

WHY IS IT ON THE LIST: This is by far one of my favourite movies of all time. If I hadn't put this list into a randomiser and gone with whatever came out, I would have put Now and Then in the top five, maybe the top three favourite movies of mine. I just. I can't even put into words how much I love it, and how much it means to me. Like I said at the beginning of this post, my Mamie sat me down one afternoon and said "I'd like you to watch this movie with me". (That was also the year she made me read "Go Ask Alice", another very influential moment in my life). I was in awe of these young girls. They cussed and fought and talked about all the oogly stuff that I was starting to ask questions about myself. My Mamie did me a great service in getting me to watch this, because it opened my mind and got me talking about things that were bothering me - my parents divorce and my own concerns about my changing body. This movie is almost like a security blanket to me - warm and fuzzy and safe-feeling. If you haven't seen it, you have to. Now. No matter how old you are, this movie will still be wonderful. At least, it is to me.