Isn't this movie a little strange?

Okay, to summarize:

--The opening is done with 40's music, a beautiful script for the credits and the childhood scenes are in a deep red color, a la Gone With the Wind. Why?
--Next scene is in a craphole town in New Mexico, an uncommunicative blue-collar couple with a bratty son blasting Mott the Hoople on his record player
--After a fallout with the bratty son in the beginning, a scene with Alice shopping at the Utotem and her car being loaded with groceries. What was the point of that scene?
--Jodie Foster is a 12 year old tomboy offering Tommy to get wasted on ripple and keeps uttering the word "weird"
--And on top of all that, it's a more realistic version of Mel's Diner! In this one, Alice is a simple Southwestern blue-collar housewife, Tommy is a little turd, plain and simple, Flo is a sassy, no-nonsense rig camp type of woman, Vera is a klutzy and relatively dark-natured woman, and Mel is a gruff, but jovial diner owner. In the TV show, Alice is a Jewish former housewife from New Jersey, Tommy is a typical, but likable teen, Flo is a sassy, but comical and very likable clown, Vera is a klutzy, wound up, but sweet and innocent woman, and Mel is a gruff and cranky diner owner that's only jovial when things go well. Customers are all over the place in this one and the TV show there's no more than a dozen at any time