Tassy Morgan's Bluff

Filmmaker Stinson's debut shows divorced artist Anastasia "Tassy" Morgan through the eyes of the men in her life, and by default her own sense of self is lost. Her neighbor Lincoln Ellis, a widower and recent transplant to San Andreas, Calif., is entranced by this "big, vital woman" who goes mano a mano with the town council when they deny her petition to rebuild her decrepit cottage and shore up the sinking bluff it sits upon. Tassy's brazen antics draw the attention of several men, but Linc's endearing support melts her hardened heart and the two begin an affair with some fumbling sex scenes that display Stinson's awkwardness with words as much as the lovers' uncertainty with each other. A thin secondary plot around wheeling and dealing Native Americans does little to support this tale, which%E2%80%94like its namesake%E2%80%94seems in imminent danger of crumbling away. (July)