The best Sally Kirkland’s romance movies

Two desperate people have a wonderful romance, but their political views and convictions drive them apart.

Michael ‘Jay’ Cochran has just left the Navy after 12 years and he's not quite sure what he's going to do, except that he knows he wants a holiday. He decides to visit Tiburon Mendez, a powerful but shady Mexican businessman who he once flew to Alaska for a hunting trip. Arriving at the Mendez mansion in Mexico, he is immediately surprised by the beauty and youth of Mendez’s wife, Miryea.

A rich brat fakes her own kidnapping, but in the process ends up locked in the trunk of a car that gets stolen.

Drunken, has-been rock star John Norman Howard falls in love with unknown singer, Esther Hoffman, after seeing her perform at a club. He lets her sing a few songs at one of his shows and she becomes the talk of the music industry. Esther's star begins to rise, while John's continues to fall. She tries desperately to get John to sober up and focus on his music, but it may be too late to save him.

Owen and Isabel's love story simmers with spiteful rage and unfortunately for everyone, Isabel is pregnant with Owen's child. To prove to her that he can become a stable father, Owen agrees to reconnect with his only living relatives at Isabel's request. The couple take a trip to visit his perversely devoted grandmother and his sister Pearl, who was severely burned in a fire, to finally bury the hatchet. But sometimes the ties that bind can cut off all circulation.

After discovering a box of old love letters sent to her mother by a mysterious stranger, Anna, a young radio deejay, begins a torrid affair with a married man. Burning attraction brings them together, but the reality does not come close to the passion expressed in the letters.

Adam and Steve are two gay youths who have a one-night stand that ends embarrassingly. Nearly two decades later, Adam, now a Manhattan tour guide, and Steve, a psychiatrist, meet again -- but neither remembers the other from years before. The two begin dating, even playing matchmaker for their friends Michael and Rhonda, but their promising relationship hits a major snag when Adam and Steve finally recall their past connection.

A lonely Navy sailor falls in love with a hooker and becomes a surrogate father figure for her son during an extended liberty due to his service records being lost.

Todd's life takes a turn when his friendship with a homosexual causes everyone in his life to start questioning his sexuality.

A young man is torn between the woman he loves and his loyalty to his father, the leader of a mexican gang.

John, a gay Illinois small town cop moves to Los Angeles, hoping to fit into a place more welcoming of his sexuality. He soon discovers the "circuit," where he meets an insecure hustler, who draws John into drug abuse and illicit sex.

Lawyer Stephen Blume, specialized in divorces, lives a paradoxical situation when, having his own marriage break up, is still in love with his ex-wife.

Two bad women fight over one man in a back-stabbing, money-grabbing, insurance-hustling, double-dealing, two-timing caper.

When Laurel signs up for swimming lessons, she becomes best friends with her teacher Susan - until they realize Laurel’s boyfriend and Susan’s husband are the same man.

The tale of a young girl fresh off the bus from Iowa, who falls in love with a sexy and promising young actor, though their relationship threatens to complicate her own obsessive goal of becoming a famous actress. The film perfectly captures the delightful and desperate lives of those chasing dreams in Hollywood: One day they are shuffling down a boardwalk with too many suitcases, and the next they are lounging in contemporary hillside homes with a view of the city. Though neither state is permanent the more desirable one fuels the dream. The story's extraordinary execution portrays Hollywood as the fantastic and insane place that it is. Written by Lane Kneedler, American Film Institute Magazine