Based on the short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been", by Joyce Carol Oates, this film chronicles 15-year-old Connie's sexual awakening in the Northern California suburbs. Her experimentation gets out of hand when the mysterious Arnold Friend takes an interest in her.
Plays uncomfortably like two movies jammed into one.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
The movie is almost uncanny in its self-assurance, in the way it knows that the first hour, where 'nothing' happens, is necessary if the payoff is to be tragic, instead of merely sensational.