The overall plot defined in Foxfire (1996) is permeated by cliches. A tall, dark, stranger rides into town as the external social catalyst. The stranger subsequently galvanizes four small-town girls into action against local sexism and injustice. Along the way the girls, each representative of a separate socio-economic class, are bound together as they define their individual identity as women.

Films which seriously explore social issues without slipping into standard cliches are rare. A film which effectively uses these cliches to make a powerful point are even more rare. Annette Haywood-Carter's directorial debut of Foxfire proves that she can skillfully use existing cliches to say something greater. Along with screenwriter Elizabeth White, she has effectively taken core elements out of the novel by Joyce Carol Oates and woven the themes together with the language of film.

Using this rich nomenclature and an audience's ingrained training in film history, the archetypical stranger is masterfully introduced with a string of visual clues. Cinematographer Tom Sigel shoots the arrival of Legs (Angelina Jolie) with the dramatic convention popularized by the Western. The first we see of the antiheroine is her boots as she steps down from a car. This is a timeless shot used repeatedly in Sergio Leone's films to introduce The Man With No Name as he rides into town. The use of this well defined technique obviates the need for any further explanation; the audience has as much information as it needs to understand the character's motivation. Legs enters the town in the role of avenging angel, a dark cloud having obscured her past.