# Sugar Town (1999)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    SUGAR TOWN

Reviewed by Harvey Karten USA Films/October Films Directors: Allison Anders, Kurt Voss Writers: Allison Anders, Kurt Voss Cast: Jade Gordon, Michael Des Barres, John Taylor, Martin Kemp, Larry Klein, John Doe, Lucinda Jenney, Ally Sheedy, Rosanna Arquette, Beverly D'Angelo

As Europe wheezes history, so California breathes contemporary. The Coast, even more than the rest of the U.S., is notorious for embracing the new, the trendy, the modish, while tossing the old, the battered, and even the moderately seasoned into the dust bin. In "Sugar Town," written and directed by Allison Anders ("Grace of My Heart," about the New York pop song world of the fifties and sixties), and Kurt Voss ("Border Radio," about the L.A. punk scene), explores the angst-ridden lives of musicians who were big in the eighties, washed up in middle age, and now seeking to restore their lost glory. Save for one pregnant woman, the film's Earth-mother, there isn't a wholesome character in the story--part of the charm and distinction of this eminently enjoyable, delightfully cynical tale. If the folks portrayed here are stereotypical--each representing a generic trait of the coke-and-fast-buck lifestyle of virtuosos and vocalists in the City of Angels--Anders and Voss's pigeonholing does not detract in the slightest from the malevolent movie's merriment.

While the film-makers conspicuously copy the Robert Altman style--spinning a diverse tapestry of separate stories into a loosely-woven cloth--"Sugar Town" is not up to that director's cogent character studies. It lacks the classic poignancy of "Nashville" and at frequently Chris Figler's editing is so abrupt that you get the impression that some scenes are isolated from the others as though parts of different movies. But the fifteen out of sixteen self-absorbed neurotics are sporadically even more amusing than some of "Nashville"'s twenty-four individuals, with Beverly D'Angelo's characterizations of a rich, sardonic widow easily stealing the show.

Essentially "Sugar Town" exhibits a palette of ambitious souls who think nothing of using one another to climb the ladder in Los Angeles' rock-and-roll subculture. Only one of them, the insufferable but physically attractive Gwen (Jade Gordon), will freely and totally without compunction steal other women's influential dates and almost immediately perform the sexual services that so many followers of the Hollywood business believe women must render to get ahead. Gwen is serving as a personal assistant to Liz (Ally Sheedy), who is herself a production designer wholly frustrated in her personal life. After dating Burt (Larry Klein), a record producer working with middle-aged, has-been rock stars Nick (Michael Des Barres) and Clive (John Taylor), Liz is hit on by a health-food worker who thinks he can charm his way into using Liz as a reference for his own acting career.

Being in her late thirties does not do much for Eva (Rosanna Arquette), who in her heyday was a fixture in second-rate horror films, but is now annoyed that her only potential offer is in the role of a mother to 18-year-old Christina Ricci. When Jane (Beverly D'Angelo), a rich widow, consents to putting up the funding for support a comeback try for Burt's musicians only if Burt can arrange to get the attractive glam rocker Nick in the sack with her, Allison and Voss have prepared their viewers for the most hilarious scene in the movie.

Ally Sheedy is instantly recognizable to any young woman who has been told by her dates that they will "give you a call." A sucker for New Age fads, she follows the counsel of a healer who tells her that she is vaginally blocked and who offers to loosen her up, while her reading consists of self-help paperbacks about how to succeed in relationships. Filling in some of the minor roles are former musicians like Carl (John Doe), now a farmer trying to make enough to support his growing family and must deal with the sexual come-ons of Mexican-American singer Rosio (Lumi Cavazos); and a sharply defined scene involving a 12-year-old, mixed-up but intelligent and cocky kid, Nerve (Vincent Berry) who may or may not be the love child of Eva's husband, Clive.

Despite the hang-loose nature of the film, the dialogue is often sharp and focussed, apparently not improvised, and the soundtrack is filled unobtrusively and congenially with goodies like "Gravy Stain Girl," "Puget Sound Sanitation," and "Manic Kraut Rock."

    Rated R.  Running Time: 93 minutes.  (C) 1999
    Harvey Karten

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