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THE BANGER SISTERS

First-time director Bob Dolman’s predictable but enjoyable traveling-angel comedy has Goldie Hawn as an ex-groupie who sports a Jim Morrison–inspired tattoo, and this spunky, aging hippie is her best role in years. Fired from her LA bartending gig, Suzette heads to Phoenix to find the other half of the legendary Banger Sisters (Frank Zappa bestowed the name, we learn), a variation on the infamous "plaster casters" of the ’60s. Suzie picks up a fussbudget writer (Geoffrey Rush) along the way, sprinkles her pixie dust on him, then reunites with Vinnie (Susan Sarandon), now a Stepford wife with two rebellious daughters of her own. It isn’t long before free spirit Suzie inspires her old comrade to hack off her hair, don snakeskin pants, and riffle through a box of old Polaroids snapped during the pair’s erotic moments with rock legends. Hawn and Sarandon are fun to watch, but the movie offers two somewhat icky views of middle-aged female sexuality: uptight prig and trashy hooker. Without body doubles, most 50-plus women wouldn’t be caught dead in hip-hugging leather pants. (101 minutes)

BY LOREN KING

Issue Date: September 19 - 26, 2002
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