Rosemary Alexander in Sordid Lives (2000)
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The tag line sums it up accurately - "a BLACK comedy about WHITE trash".
The plot, such as it is, centers around the death of the matriarch of a white trash family and the preparations for her funeral. The real reason for the movie is to make fun of dumb-ass Southerners. The jokes are pretty much familiar. Big hair, howling songs, bright polyester clothing, chain smokin', closeted gay guys who can't face their families, high heels at the supermarket.
I did get a kick out of the film in a couple of places. Two drunken women plan to get revenge for the infidelity of one of their husbands, so they hold guns on the husband, and the wife says "now you tell me just why you needed to cheat on me with that slut", whereupon her girlfriend said "hey, thet's my momma yer talkin' about". It turns out that the husband feels doubly guilty. He not only cheated on his wife with her best friend's mamma, but he killed the pool ol' gal at the motel by carelessly leaving his wooden legs lying around. She tripped on them on her way to the bathroom, cracked her head, that's all she wrote.
A couple of other things were kinda funny. For example, at all times there were big buckets of fried food lying around every room, and people were nibbling constantly.
On the other hand, the film was really loud and screechy. Everyone talked too loud and delivered the punch lines as if they were expecting a background drummer to deliver a rim-shot.
The biggest negative is that there are times when this movie takes itself way too seriously. The mood swings really disoriented me. It would get funny, then it would portray one of the gay guys as tragic, and he'd be crying away while talking to his shrink in a completely serious scene. Odd stuff, and I didn't really like it at all when it would turn dead serious in the middle of broad, cynical farce.
By the way, if you are wondering what ever happened to Delta Burke, Bonnie Bedelia, and Olivia Newton-John, and if you love the music of Tammy Wynette, this is your movie. Newton-John sings a lot, and when she isn't singing, the gay transvestite guy is doing his act as a bad Tammy Wynette impersonator.
This film is a C. It's not a great comedy, but it has a few laughs at the expense of white trash. That's not exactly a high difficulty level, is it?
Nudity Report: Rosemary Alexander removed her top and exposed some very large breasts in a failed attempt to seduce a gay guy.
Critics Vote: Rotten Tomatoes summary: 42% positive.
IMDb Summary: IMDb voters score it 6.5/10.
DVD Info: Two Deleted Songs By Olivia Newton-John; Alternate Opening And 9 Deleted Scenes With Commentary; Director/Producer/Cast Audio Commentary & Interviews; Widescreen anamorphic format, 1.85.
Written by: Scoopy …courtesy of Scoopy.net