lili taylor

Nancy Savoca’s 1991 coming-of-age drama Dogfight, starring Lili Taylor and the late River Phoenix (1970-1993), will be released on April 30 through The Criterion Collection. Written by Bob Comfort (1940-2010), the film is set in 1963 and stars Phoenix as Eddie, a hotheaded young Marine on his way to fight in the war in Vietnam. On leave for 24 hours in San Francisco before shipping out, he and three of his buddies plan on attending a “dogfight,” a cruelly misogynistic party where Marines compete to bring the ugliest date, unbeknownst to the girls.