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Sugar Town
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USA/UK, 1999. Rated R. 92 minutes.
Cast:
Rosanna Arquette, John Taylor, Jade Gordon, Ally Sheedy, Michael Des
Barres, John Doe, Lucinda Jenney, Beverly D'Angelo, Richmond Arquette,
Vincent Berry, Larry Klein, Lumi Cavazos, Martin Kemp, Polly Platt,
Jeffrey McDonald
Writers: Allison Anders & Kurt Voss
Music: Larry Klein
Cinematographer: Kristian Bernier
Producer: Daniel Hassid
Directors: Allison Anders & Kurt Voss
LINKS
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Read
the AboutFilm interview with co-writer and co-director Kurt Voss.
f
ever a movie begged for more, this is it. More what? More everything! More
budget, more running time, more story and character development. What's there
is good, for the most part. But this is a Altman-esque multi-character extravaganza
(think Nashville, but set in Hollywood among rock and film industry
fringe-dwellers) without the time or budget to go to half the places (narratively
and thematically) that it could or should. There are at least a dozen major
characters, some of whom intersect marginally or through common acquaintances,
and the paltry 92 minutes of footage is simply incapable of delving into their
world in a truly satisfying way. Still, it has its heart in the right place.
And to the extent that it shows us this world, it's both watchable and fairly
endearing.
A quick rundown on the characters should suffice as an introduction to the
premise... Rosanna Arquette plays an aging actress who is married to John Taylor,
an aging rock star. Both are trying to jump-start their careers, she by auditioning
for films, and he with a new band that's comprised of other aging rock stars
from now-dissolved acts (Michael Des Barres and Martin Kemp). Ally Sheedy is
Arquette's best friend, a movie production designer who is successful and rich,
but dreadfully lonely. Jade Gordon plays a young woman who is determined to
become a pop star, whatever that might require her to do. She's sort of an "Eve"
(as in All About Eve), and thus, her ambition knows no bounds. John Doe
plays an aging guitarist, living hand-to-mouth on session work and road gigs,
though he has a sizable family to support. Larry Klein plays a former-musician-turned-record-producer
whose career is in decline. Beverly D'Angelo plays a wealthy widow whom he hopes
to snag as an investor in the album he wants to produce with Taylor, 
Des
Barres, and Kemp. And that's just the beginning! There are others: the junkie
composer (Jeffrey McDonald), the loyal-salt-of-the-earth wife of John Doe's
guitarist (Lucinda Jenney), and his just-out-of-rehab brother (Richmond Arquette)...
plus the singer who invites Doe to join her on her tour and in her bed (Lumi
Cavazos), the Health Food Store clerk who dates Sheedy with ulterior motives
(Chris Mulkey), the former groupie (Polly Platt) who arrives at John Taylor's
house one morning to introduce and hand over their (purported) love-child (Vincent
Berry), about whom Taylor knew nothing. And there's that love-child, a hilariously
surly little fellow who knows he's not wanted by "dad", but considers it an
improvement over the crazy cult he's finally escaped.
Is your head spinning yet? Indeed! All of this is fodder for a lot of small
pleasures, but there are so many characters that none of them has a chance at
enough screen time to develop fully. Those who fare best are the women, partly
because their characters are given more to do, and partly because the female
characters are cast with talented actresses. Arquette, Sheedy, and (especially)
Beverly D'Angelo are all marvelous and funny and interesting. Rosanna Arquette
seems to be playing herself in a way... an actress who lost her career because
she fell in love with a musician and followed him during the years she was most
bankable (Peter Gabriel, in real life). Sheedy is neurotic and needy and malleable
in a way that is pathetic, but you still can't help liking her. And D'Angelo
lights up the screen like a firecracker. This woman needs to work much, much
more than she currently does. The male characters are less developed, but are
no less watchable. Still, by casting them almost exclusively with musicians,
they suffer a bit by sharing the screen with such strong actresses. All of them
are pretty good, really (John Taylor is definitely the stand-out among the non-pros),
but there is a difference between accomplished craft and decent screen presence.
And it shows.
Considering that the film is primarily focused on the slimy underbelly of the
music industry, it is remarkably sweet and sunny, showing the ordinary tribulations
of people whose time in the spotlight has passed. For them, the trouble is this:
where do you go from there? Life goes on, even if your career doesn't. So how
do you cope with what's left and make something of that? Scene for scene, the
movie works fine. But when it's over, there's a sense of emptiness... as if
the real stories have been hinted at but left out, and all we've gotten is a
taste. I suppose it's a compliment to the film that I was disappointed to have
so little. That I wished for another 30 or 40 minutes with these people (maybe
even another hour) indicates that there was a good movie to be made with this
premise and this cast. Too bad such a big chunk of it isn't there, because the
sense that Sugar Town is severely truncated is palpable. Still, you could
do worse than to spend 92 minutes with this ragtag bunch. And if you do, it
will be helpful to prepare yourself for some mild-to-moderate dissatisfaction...
a state of Narrativus Interruptus, if you will....
Review
© September 1999 by AboutFilm.Com and the author.
Images © 1999 USA Films. All Rights Reserved.
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