Cavedweller - 2004

Take a little white trash, stir in some rock-n-roll, add a dash of wife abuse and top it all off with the wicked witch from the west - ya got Cavedweller. The name of the movie, I assume, derives from the fact that all the people involved live in mental caves, of their own making for the most part.

Dwelling in a cave…
Delia, a mother of three girls, lives in Los Angeles - not with the father of any of the girls. Seems good old Delia used to live in East Whamboodle [not the real name but I forget it] Georgia, a town with the population of about 200, mostly related. Their fame and glory comes from the fact they have a Texaco station in town. Not a big one by any means, but once the tour bus for a rock band, Pony Up, lead singer Randall, spent a bit a time when it broke down.

Delia, pretty down and out herself, lives with her husband, Clint, an abuser if there ever was one. In fact, good old Clint pulls a .357 on Delia one night and she runs out the door … and into the waiting tour bus, leaving her two young daughters behind. Screw Clint.

Ten long years later, she and her lover, Randall, are no longer together. Their short union produced one darling and precocious daughter, Cissy. Life in the rock world is always a bit - uh - rocky, and Randall has gone on his way with various lovers. Delia is determined to stay in LA so Cissy can be near him though, as they are devoted to each other.

Then one day a fast car, curvy road, and playful girlfriend distract Randall long enough to produce a fatal outlook for him. Delia, in her own pitiful way, decides she must return to Georgia, reunite with her daughters, and start life all over again.

You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille … [1]
Clint, on the other hand, didn’t have a very nice life back in East Whamboodle since Delia left him. In fact he simply couldn’t figure out why that trampy old hag off and left him just a’cause he got out a dang old .357 and shot at her. The easiest solution for Clint was at the bottom of an endless bottle, leaving his mother, the wicked witch of the west, to raise his young daughters.

You can’t go home again … [2]
Delia, down on her luck, returns to East Whamboodle, dragging a reluctant Cissy along. Cissy, who has always lived on the ocean, now finds herself in a broken down shack, living with two teenage sisters she doesn’t know, meeting a dour faced grandfather for the first time, and reading to a wasted figure lying on a sofa.

How the story evolves and how the characters interact with each other, why you young-uns will have to watch it for yerself.

Cavedweller was written by Dorothy Allison [Bastard Out Of Carolina], screenplay by Anne Meredith, and directed by Lisa Cholodenko. It is rated R for language, and mild violence with a runtime of 101 minutes. Ms. Cholodenko won the New American Cinema Award from Seattle International Film Festival and the Award of Ecumenical Jury from Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It was nominated for several other awards. Musically it wasn’t the greatest, songs or parts of songs interspersed throughout the movie. Most singing was done by Lisa Germano & Jill Scott with a few parts by Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon [surprise].

The cast starred Kyra Sedgwick as Delia Byrd, the runaway rockstar wannabe. She gave the part just the right mix of white trash and faded elegance. At times you stood in her corner and at times you thought everyone would be better off if she just got in that broke down car and took off again, leaving all three daughters behind. She did some singing in this release, much to my dismay. Not her brightest hour.

Kevin Bacon played Randall the rock star, passing through town and picking up little Delia on his stopover. Bacon was shown in flashback scenes only because he was killed off in the opening scenes in that fast car on the curvy road … bad girlfriend … I give no credence to his performance in this film, it was obviously just a throw away for him for Kyra. This is another reason why the Kevin Bacon Game is impossible to play when he keeps doing these dang cameo appearances in movies.

Rosemary, a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice, was played by Jill Scott. She was a backup singer in Pony Up and good friend to Delia as time went on. I thoroughly enjoyed her small parts in the movie, including her singing voice.

Sherilyn Fenn dropped in for a small part as M.T. who I figured was Delia’s old friend in town. She worked at the local beauty shop, as Delia had when she lived there, but every time she appeared on screen she was under the hood of a car doing repair work. Sort of the local hairdresser/car repairman all in one.

April Mullen was Dede and Venessa Zima was Amanda, Delia's daughters with Clint. Dede was a bit of a religious zealot, trying to atone for the sins of her parents while Amanda was more like Delia, a bit wild and free. Both girls gave good performances and were quite believable in their parts as moody teenagers thrown in the middle of quite a maelstrom of emotions. This was caused mainly by grandma, the wicked witch of the west, played by Jackie Burroughs. What a cool chick!

Regan Arnold was Cissy, reminding me of Tatum O’Neal a bit. Full of freckled face charm and wisdom, you liked her immediately. While O’Neal used to take you down with a tongue lashing peppered with profanity, Arnold stares you evenly in the face and drops miles of calmly spoken words to make you feel like a worm. Nice job.

However, by far the best performance was by Aidan Quinn, good old Clint. His range of emotions through the film was very decent and you almost grew to like him. Almost, that is, until you remembered that dang .357.

Overall impression …
Family values? Well … that would be a stretch. Then again, it did teach you some things. I wouldn’t be opposed to watching it again; wouldn’t necessarily seek it out but if it was on television, I’d watch it.

Thanks,
Susi

[1] … thanks to Kenny Rogers
[2] … thanks to Thomas Wolfe