The Night Gwen Stacy Died

Sheila Gower is seventeen, more comfortable confiding in a taxidermic coyote at the Natural History Museum than her one high school friend. She practices her French while she works at a small-town Iowa gas station, vaguely dreaming of Paris. Enter a mysterious taxi driver whose license identifies him as someone named Peter Parker. His good looks and oddball manner intrigue Sheila enough that she jumps at the chance when he asks if she wants to get the hell out. They stage their escape as an abduction - gun, robbery, kidnapping - but soon their adventure turns into a surreal love story. He begins to call her Gwen Stacy, after Spider-Man's first love; she begins to go along with it. With otherwordly elements and a wry, observant, off-beat heroine who would be comfortable in a Miranda July movie, "The Night Gwen Stacy Died "is an examination of the way unexpected strangers can get each other out of ruts and a tribute to the people we love, the people we lose, and the people we save.