Citizen Ruth (1996)

A homeless indigent (Laura Dern) who gets high on household products (glue, spray paint) finds herself knocked up yet again. All she wants to do is party and get high but she suddenly finds herself at the center of a firestorm between pro-choice and pro-life groups! Directed by Alexander Payne (SIDEWAYS), this dark satire on extremism from both sides of the abortion issue isn't nearly as clever as it thinks it is. It milks its one joke dry and then goes on for a good half hour or so. The best thing about the film is both Laura Dern's performance and her character. Dern's Ruth doesn't give a sh*t about her baby but isn't above coercing both sides to give her money to abort or keep the baby. You can't really like her but you can't help but get a kick out of her playing both sides against each other while she calculates what she can get out of it. It's all amusing for awhile but tediousness seeps in as the movie starts chasing its tail. I don't want to sound like I dislike it, there are some wonderful things about it but fanaticism get tiresome real fast. With Burt Reynolds, Tippi Hedren, Swoosie Kurtz, Mary Kay Place, Kelly Preston, Kenneth Mars and Diane Ladd.