New Waterford Girl (1999)

Liane Balaban: Mooney Pottie

Photos 

Quotes 

• Lou Benzoa : This is crazy. Wish we had some sorta sign.

  Boy : [the boy in the sweater and skirt walks up to them, smiling shyly]  This was my mother's sweater. She was wearing it when she died, after she ate a grilled-cheese sandwich.

  [he walks off] 

  Lou Benzoa : That's not... really helpful to us in any way, is it?

  Moonie Pottie : I don't think so.

  Lou Benzoa : He looked good, though.

  Moonie Pottie : Yeah, he did.

• Moonie Pottie : Why can't I just be alone?

  Francis Pottie : [angry; points up the stairs]  All right, Mooney, go to your room!

  Moonie Pottie : I don't have a room! I sleep in the hall, remember?

• Moonie Pottie : Ask me anything. I know Lexter Pottie cried with happiness when they named the triplets Rudy, Joy, and Brenda. I know all the street-names. I know how to re-use a tea-bag. I know what they do up number eleven. I know how to beat the crap out of someone. I know all about God's country. Ask me anything.

• [first lines] 

  Moonie Pottie : I wasn't really born here, you know. When I was a tiny infant, my real mother, a famous opera singer, dropped me from a silver jet as she passed over what she saw as a beautiful tropical coastline. God's country.

• Moonie Pottie : Lexter says it's cheaper to have her dad's wake and the wedding all in one go. Cheaper. Jesus Christ on a hotplate.

• Betty-Anne Pottie : Ya know, there's some things you're gonna have to know if you're gonna finally start going out.

  Moonie Pottie : That's okay.

  Betty-Anne Pottie : No, listen to me. Like, if a guys says it's his belt buckle poking you, it isn't. It's something else.

• Moonie Pottie : [Moonie is acting out a story about Cape Breton's pollution using dolls made from lumps of coal]  Filthy Scottish coal, we line your lungs with bits of blackness! But Sydney, coal is our primary industry. When coal is used as fuel, our homes are heated with the cleanest, and efficient - HEY! COAL IS KILLING YOU ALL! And I say unto thee, those who are afraid of the power of igneous fuel will shrivel and

  [starts coughing] 

  Moonie Pottie : die from

  [starts gagging violently] 

  Moonie Pottie : Smoke inhalation!

• Cecil Sweeney : [Mr. Sweeney is drinking alcohol in a bar and Moonie is drinking cola beside him]  You know, I developed alcoholism early-on, actually. How'd you get in here?

  Moonie Pottie : The door guy. I'm a friend of his. How'd you get in?

  Cecil Sweeney : It's recess.

  Moonie Pottie : Hey, listen to me. They're gonna want to send me away, so save my scholarship, buddy-boy.

  Cecil Sweeney : What'll happen to me if you go?

  Moonie Pottie : You'll have to live your own life, I guess.

  Cecil Sweeney : [downs his glass of alcohol]  ... You know that I'm in love with you?

  [Moonie makes an annoyed face at him] 

  Cecil Sweeney : pretty funny, eh?

  Moonie Pottie : [disgusted tone]  Talk to me when you grow up!

  [Mr. Sweeney smokes his cigarette and then walks away] 

• [last lines] 

  Moonie Pottie : Ask me anything. I know Lexter Pottie. Cried with happiness when they named the triplets Rudy, Joy, and Brenda. I know all the street names. I know how to reuse a tea bag. I know what they do up Number Eleven. I know how to beat the crap out of someone. I know all about God's country. Ask me anything.

• Francis Pottie : You can't even be normal in a town THIS size!

  Moonie Pottie : ...I'm normal.

• Cecil Sweeney : [Sounding depressed]  I'm the guy living in a trailer, no one'll listen to me...

  Moonie Pottie : What's the matter with you...?

  Cecil Sweeney : NOTHING!... This is just me when I'm not in school.

• Lisa : You ought to go vacationing in the mainland!

  Sandra : Yeah, ice pellets'll spike ya in the eyes!

  Lou Benzoa : Hey!... She's watching.

  [Lou points to a Virgin Mary figurine in a nearby window and the locals, who are Catholic, leave her alone so they can pray] 

  Moonie Pottie : ...Smart, I'll give her that.

• Moonie Pottie : Come on, you're going home...

  Felix Pottie : I'm not listening to you! You're a slut!

• Moonie Pottie : [as Moonie and Mr. Sweeney walk along the side of the cliff by the ocean, Moonie gets a sad look on her face about her arts scholarship]  I can't go.

  Cecil Sweeney : ...Why not?

  Moonie Pottie : [about her parents]  It's breaking their hearts.

  Cecil Sweeney : That's normal.

  Moonie Pottie : Not for me, it isn't.

• Moonie Pottie : Lexter?... Good luck.

  [Moonie smiles and then after a few seconds starts wandering off in a trance-like state, pushing past the other wedding/funeral guests] 

  Lexter Pottie : Eh, you're not goin' are you?

  Moonie Pottie : I'll be right back.

  [Moonie opens the screen door to the house and wistfully gazes out into the night at the ocean beyond Cape Breton] 

• Lexter Pottie : So, uh, Moonie?

  Lexter Pottie : Lexter?

  Lexter Pottie : You, um, you ever gonna stop it with the 'Mexico' sign?

  Betty-Anne Pottie : [mockingly]  That's a joke, right?

  Moonie Pottie : Who knows? Maybe I'll get a scholarship and go there for real.

  [Moonie's mom looks shocked and disappointed, and her brothers and sisters look doubtful] 

• Lou Benzoa : So, you gonna give me the grand tour...?

  Moonie Pottie : ...Okay...

  [pointing in different directions while still standing there] 

  Moonie Pottie : My house. Your house! The main drag. Church, tavern, church, church, tavern, school, mine, road to Sydney.

  [Moonie makes a bored face at Lou and then goes back inside] 

• Moonie Pottie : [about Lexter's sudden wedding to his pregnant girlfriend]  Since everyone in town realized that Patty wasn't just larding up from French fries, he had no choice.

• Lou Benzoa : Oh, I'm from The Bronx.

  Moonie Pottie : [in shock and disbelief]  New YORK?

  Lou Benzoa : [Lou holds up a plastic figurine of the Virgin Mary and points it at Moonie, pretending to be a news reporter]  So Moonie Pottie, what's you're story?

  Moonie Pottie : [offended]  That's the Virgin Mary!... You're not Catholic?

  Lou Benzoa : [Lou makes an uncomfortable face since she, unlike Moonie, likes New Waterford and wants to fit in with what's normal for the town]  ... No... but I mean, whatever it takes, right? I love it here.

  Moonie Pottie : ...Uh, you do?

• Cecil Sweeney : [sarcastically]  I know you'll make a great nurse someday...

  Moonie Pottie : I WILL.

  Cecil Sweeney : Go on, get outta here and study up on the purpose of the bedpan... you're an ARTIST.

  Moonie Pottie : [annoyed]  I wish you'd stop saying that.

• Moonie Pottie : [to Cecil Sweeney]  That chili is three weeks old! STOP - EATING - IT.

• Cecil Sweeney : It's time everyone knew the truth, eh?

  Moonie Pottie : [confused]  wha...?

  Cecil Sweeney : [Cecil is pretending to be her boyfriend as a scheme to get her sent to Antigonish where she can escape to art school in New York]  You gonna kiss me like a hero or what?

  [Moonie smiles, shrugs and passionately kisses him] 

  Francis Pottie : [looking disgusted]  Mary Mother of God.

• Moonie Pottie : [Moonie sees two locals arguing over scraps of junk on the ground]  Don't stop on my account...

• Moonie Pottie : [about Mr. Sweeney trying to find Moonie an arts scholarship away from Nova Scotia]  He sent my Virgin Mary essay to Montreal - it was embarrassing.

• Moonie Pottie : I brought you Lexter's old boots. He's done with 'em.

  [Moonie hands Mr. Sweeney a brown paper bag with a pear of rubber mining boots inside] 

  Cecil Sweeney : Is he, now?

  [Mr. Sweeney tries on the boots and then takes them off, smiling at Moonie apologetically] 

  Cecil Sweeney : They're too big.

  Moonie Pottie : Tough.

• Moonie Pottie : [about Lou's mambo class posters stapled up all over town]  Dance classes to cultivate the natives.

• Moonie Pottie : [about the whiskey that the man is trying to sell them from his house, which has been sitting beside a coal stove all day]  ... Uh, it's hot, actually.

  Twitchy Guy : Yeah, because it was by the STOVE!

  [Lou tries not to laugh at the embarrassed-looking boy in the skirt and women's sweater sitting in an armchair nearby]