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Film - Sordid Lives

Reviews, By steviec10, 25th February, 2009

If the words “Black Comedy about White Trash” appeal to you, then don’t miss Sordid Lives. This hysterically funny romp features plenty of stars and is in the worst possible taste from start to finish – it’s like every Jerry Springer episode all rolled into one camp movie.

Set in a trailer park in a small town in southern Texas it’s the story of Peggy Ingram, well actually it’s the lead-up to her funeral. See, Peggy died when she hit her head on the bathroom floor in a seedy motel room as she stumbled over her illicit lover’s prosthetic leg, which he left in the middle of the floor. As you can tell this is high class all the way… not!

Sissy Hickey is like the “den mother” of the trailer park and she’s hosting the wake, complete with southern fried chicken and coleslaw. First up she has to contend with next-door neighbour Noleta Nethercott (Delta Burke like you’ve never seen her before). Poor old Noleta is devastated because it was her husband who was having the affair with Peggy, and technically he ‘killed’ her. Sissy soon sorts out the hysterical Noleta with valium. “Now I am all for a few Valium every day, but I have never once lost consciousness before noon.”

Next up Sissy gets a visit from Peggy’s two daughters La Vonda and Latrelle. These two are feuding over what to dress Peggy in for the funeral, after all the pink mink stole, complete with the head still attached is just way too hot for a funeral where the temperature is 38 in the shade!

In the mix we have Peggy’s son Earl ( Will & Grace’s own Beverly Lesley, Lesley Jordan in a role of a lifetime) who has spent 23 years in a sanitarium as he tries to fight his “extreme case” of homosexuality. His psychiatrist is sure that as soon as she cures him she can finally release her book. Earl spends his days dressed at Tammy Wynette, justifying it by saying, “since her passing, someone has to carry on the tradition”. For good measure we also have Latrelle’s gorgeous gay son who lives in San Francisco and performs in gay plays featuring loads of male nudity – much to mother’s horror. And last, but not least, we have our own Olivia Newton-John as Bitsy-Mae Harling, a very white trash country and western singer complete with a rose tattoo just above her right tit.

This is laugh-out-loud comedy at its tacky best, the production quality is also trashy with poor camera work, bad editing and cheap sets which just increases the tack quotient.

Sordid Lives screens for one night only this Saturday February 28 at Parramatta Riverside Cinemas as part of the Mardi Gras Film Festival. For you city folk, it is seriously worth the trek!

It’s just been commissioned into a TV series, so go and see the movie before the series starts. And if you can’t make it out to Parramatta don’t worry, Civic Video in Darlinghurst has one copy on DVD!

Check out Same Same’s Mardi Gras section here.