Freeway (1996)
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Amanda Plummer, Brooke Shields, Brittany Murphy, and Alanna Ubach
Written and Directed by Matthew Bright
Produced by Oliver Stone
Genre: Crime Thriller, Exploitation (road movie, women in prison)
Rating: 8.5

This is the first movie directed by Matthew Bright, and the first Freeway movie. The first and second have nothing to do with each other in terms of plot or characters, but have many similar themes and plot points. It's almost like he wanted to redo the first, more slick one for a B movie aesthetic and more shock in the second, and that he did. Right now we're dealing with the first one though-- a high quality black comedy crime thriller with exploitive elements.

Vanessa (Reese) is an innocent, illiterate Southern teen with a prostitute crack whore for a mom (Plummer), and a drug addicted, sexually abusive step father who's on parole. After both of her parent figures are arrested, Vanessa, fearing returning to foster care, handcuffs her social worker to her bed when she comes to collect her, and hits the road on her own in search of a grandmother she's never met, with nothing but the family car and a basket of beer. After saying goodbye to her gang leader boyfriend Chopper, she's cruising down the highway when her beater car breaks down. A friendly man, Bob Wolverton, around 30 years old or so, offers to give her a ride. She gladly accepts. Throughout the night, he gradually convinces her to open up to him and tell him about her troubled life. Things turn deadly, however, when he reveals that he is the well-known "I-5 Killer" and says he is going to murder her. The tables turn when Vanessa draws the gun her boyfriend had given to her as a going away present on him. She orders him to drive off the highway onto a deserted road, and shoots him in the head and body multiple times. After throwing up, she makes her way to a diner and cleans the blood off of herself. After leaving the diner, she is promptly arrested.

Bob has survived the shooting, and is in the hospital undergoing surgery where his socialite wife (Shields) comes to visit. She talks to the police and detectives, and is extremely upset, demanding that Vanessa be charged as an adult and stay in prison for the rest of her life. Vanessa goes to trial, and shows no remorse when she sees that Bob is severely disfigured. She gives her story to the detectives, who do not believe her due to her history of arrests for shoplifting and arson. The judge rules that Vanessa can be charged as an adult, and she goes to prison. Now comes my favorite part of the film (I love women in prison movies!) In jail, Vanessa meets Rhonda, her lesbian bunkmate (Murphy), and Mesquita (Ubach), the super sexy chola gang leader who tries to attack her. Vanessa wins the fight by a large margin, and goes to solitary. Soon Vanessa and Mesquita are being transferred to maximum security with two other girls. In the bathroom of a gas station where the prison van has stopped, they agree to try to escape, and after planning an attack, they kill the two guards. Mesquita meets up with her cholo boyfriend and, saying goodbye to Vanessa, gives her money and a car to help her escape. Vanessa goes into the street and poses as a prostitute, where she rips off her client by threatening to shoot him. She then continues on to her grandmother's house.

In the meantime, one of the detectives has become suspicious, and returns to the sight of Bob's attack to investigate more. He finds Vanessa's cut off braid, and obtains a warrant to search Bob's house. There he finds a shed full of kiddie porn, and Bob's wife, so ashamed and distraught with the discovery, shoots herself in the head. Bob, driving up and seeing the police cars outside, escapes in his car. Having found out Vanessa's grandmother's address when he had her in his car, he heads there now in case Vanessa is there, in order to finish her off. Vanessa enters her grandmother's trailer home, and sees who she assumes is her grandmother lying in her bed. It is actually Bob, who has a gun and has strangled Vanessa's grandma. Vanessa and Bob struggle, with Vanessa being the ultimate victor, and Bob being killed. The detectives arrive at this time, and see Vanessa straggle outside and calmly sit down. They say hello, and Vanessa asks if they have a cigarette. END.