In the late summer of 1977, American cinema was undergoing a massive tectonic shift. Audiences were standing in lines wrapped around city blocks to escape into space-opera visuals, while the counter-culture grit of the early part of the decade was gradually giving way to slick, neon-drenched escapism. Tucked quietly behind these massive pop-culture milestones was a small, independently financed romantic melodrama that managed to carve out its own strange corner of history. That film was You Light Up My Life, a movie written, directed, produced, and scored by Joseph Brooks. While the film itself has largely faded into a historical footnote, its titular song became a towering behemoth of the late-seventies airwaves. Yet, looking past the shadow of its chart-topping theme song reveals a piece of cinema that is fascinatingly odd, deeply flawed, and uniquely representative of its era. The story centers on Laurie Robinson, played by Didi Conn in her first major leading role just a year befor...