From 1999, writer/directors Allison Anders and Kurt Voss explore the world of the leftover rock star in Sugar Town. Sadly the duo don’t come close to the creative achievement Anders made with a previous music industry insider look-see, Grace of My Heart, and instead get stuck in a morass cataloging cliches.
Michael Des Barre, John Taylor and Martin Kemp are all actual rock stars–okay, Des Barre less so than the others and more famous for playing rock stars on screen–and the fourth member of the unnamed film band, Larry Klein, is a professional musician and ex-husband of Joni Mitchell; the film also features punker turned actor John Doe as a studio guitarist. The women in their lives are played by Beverly D’Angelo (a rich widow willing to finance their album if Des Barre will satisfy her), Ally Sheedy, Roseanne Arquette (Taylor’s wife, coming to grips with the Hollywood reality that her best film days are in the past), Lucinda Jenney and Jade Gordon.
In a way this reminded me of a lot of Robert Altman’s films, especially the less successful ones like Short Cuts and Ready to Wear, trying to weave a series of short stories around a loosely connected group of people. But at least Altman had the clout to make his films long enough whereas the 92 minutes allotted Sugar Town aren’t enough to create meat on most of these bones. The film would have worked much better if Anders and Voss had focused on Taylor and Arquette with perhaps Gordon’s cutthroat arc as the mirroring subplot. Oh well.
not recommended
BillSaysThis 