Choose Me

After serving as a director for hire on two studio films (Roadie, named one of the best summer comedies of 1980 by Time Magazine, and Endangered Species, a political thriller), and trying his hand at a documentary (Return Engagement, a record of the G. Gordon Liddy-Timothy Leary debate in Los Angeles), Rudolph wrote and directed Choose Me, a film which drew immediate critical and popular acclaim. In tone and atmosphere it evokes his feature debut Welcome to L.A., but as leavened with large doses of offbeat humor. Like that earlier film, it brings together a group of quirky characters in a round robin of heterosexual pairings. The visual influence is the harshly glowing neon of Los Angeles painter Ed Ruscha while the sexy mood is set and sustained by the sensual stylings of Teddy Pendergrass and the swoony camerawork of Jan Kiesser. Keith Carradine plays the enigmatic Mickey, a pathological liar gone A.W.O.L. from a veteran’s hospital, proposing marriage to every woman he kisses. When he wanders into a bar owned by leggy former hooker Eve (Lesley Ann Warren), a character torn between her promiscuous impulses and her need for a lasting love, Mickey catalyzes a romantic crisis among the denizens of Eve’s Lounge and the clientele of "The Love Line,” a call-in radio show for the lovelorn. Geneviève Bujold excels as Dr. Nancy Love, while Rae Dawn Chong, Patrick Bauchau and John Larroquette perfectly contribute to the giddy ambience.