SORDID LIVES opens with a singer at a microphone, a woman with bleached hair that shows black roots, several tattoos, and strategically placed chewing gum as she rehearses a profanity-laced juke joint song. She looked familiar--and when she sang her voice was even more so. Who on earth was she? My jaw dropped with a clatter. Oh My God. It can't be! But yes, it is. That really is Olivia Newton-John! Written by Del Shores, SORDID LIVES was a popular ticket and award-winning comedy on the Los Angeles stage, but when Shores sought a movie deal every studio turned him down flat. Shores persevered nonetheless, and the result was an awkwardly self-directed, extremely low budget movie filmed in high definition that had the look of a cheap 1960s soap opera. Surprisingly, though, these qualities actually suited the material: a torrid, vulgar, trashy, and unexpectedly spiritual tale of a small-town Texas funeral gone to pot in the most disastrous ways imaginable.
The plot is difficult to describe, but it revolves around a "good Christian" grandmother who has died under unsavory circumstances: shacked up with a neighbor's husband in a cheap motel, she tripped over her lover's wooden legs and cracked her head on the bathroom sink! Now her lover G.W. (Beau Bridges) is getting drunk down at the bar while her daughters Latrelle and Lavonda (Bonnie Bedelia and Ann Walker) bicker with each other over the funeral arrangements--and whether or not Brother-Boy (Leslie Jordan) should be allowed to come to the funeral from the mental hospital where he has been locked up for twenty-three years because he thinks he's Tammy Wynette.
The film is a hair slow to get underway, but once it does it goes off like a rocket. There's G.W.'s humiliated wife Noleta (Delta Burke), an aging barfly named Juanita (Sarah Hunley), the psychiatrist from hell (Rosemay Alexander), angst-ridden gay grandson Ty (Kurt Geiger), bar owner Wardell (Newell Alexander) and his half-wit brother Odell (Earl H. Bullock)--and the aforementioned ex-con and juke-joint singer Bitsy Mae (Newton-John.) And it is clear that each and every one of them are having a wonderful time tearing strips off the wickedly funny script, which offers one outrageous line and scene after another.
For all the talent on display--Delta Burke, Kirk Geiger, and Bonnie Bedelia are particularly memorable--the big noise is actress Beth Grant, who is probably best known for her turn in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. Cast here as Sissy, sister to the dead woman, she is everything that is appallingly funny: snapping a rubber band on her wrist because she's trying to quit smoking, fanning herself up the legs of her shorts, and trying to make peace in the family before everybody meets up at the church for funereal hysteria. Her performance is one-of-a-kind and knock-you-flat at the same time.
The DVD comes with several extras, including cut scenes and an enjoyable audio commentary. I'm not all that fond of contemporary comedy--I usually find it both sterile and saccharine--but I tell you here and now: SORDID LIVES, for all its flaws, made me laugh until I cried.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
The plot is difficult to describe, but it revolves around a "good Christian" grandmother who has died under unsavory circumstances: shacked up with a neighbor's husband in a cheap motel, she tripped over her lover's wooden legs and cracked her head on the bathroom sink! Now her lover G.W. (Beau Bridges) is getting drunk down at the bar while her daughters Latrelle and Lavonda (Bonnie Bedelia and Ann Walker) bicker with each other over the funeral arrangements--and whether or not Brother-Boy (Leslie Jordan) should be allowed to come to the funeral from the mental hospital where he has been locked up for twenty-three years because he thinks he's Tammy Wynette.
The film is a hair slow to get underway, but once it does it goes off like a rocket. There's G.W.'s humiliated wife Noleta (Delta Burke), an aging barfly named Juanita (Sarah Hunley), the psychiatrist from hell (Rosemay Alexander), angst-ridden gay grandson Ty (Kurt Geiger), bar owner Wardell (Newell Alexander) and his half-wit brother Odell (Earl H. Bullock)--and the aforementioned ex-con and juke-joint singer Bitsy Mae (Newton-John.) And it is clear that each and every one of them are having a wonderful time tearing strips off the wickedly funny script, which offers one outrageous line and scene after another.
For all the talent on display--Delta Burke, Kirk Geiger, and Bonnie Bedelia are particularly memorable--the big noise is actress Beth Grant, who is probably best known for her turn in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. Cast here as Sissy, sister to the dead woman, she is everything that is appallingly funny: snapping a rubber band on her wrist because she's trying to quit smoking, fanning herself up the legs of her shorts, and trying to make peace in the family before everybody meets up at the church for funereal hysteria. Her performance is one-of-a-kind and knock-you-flat at the same time.
The DVD comes with several extras, including cut scenes and an enjoyable audio commentary. I'm not all that fond of contemporary comedy--I usually find it both sterile and saccharine--but I tell you here and now: SORDID LIVES, for all its flaws, made me laugh until I cried.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer