Sordid Lives
Del Shores, director.
USA, 2000, 35mm, 111 min.
Official Web site: www.sordidlives.com

Sissy (Beth Grant from To Wong Foo) picked a bad week to quit smoking. First her sister Peggy, the family matriarch, dies in a sleazy motel room, after she trips over her married boyfriend's wooden legs on her way to the bathroom.

Then Sissy's stuck refereeing between Peggy's daughters, La Vonda and Latrelle, who are feuding over whether or not mama should be buried in her favourite mink stole. Southern belle Latrelle (Bonnie Bedelia from Die Hard and Anywhere But Here) is in deep denial about her mama's death and about her actor son being gay.

Trampy La Vonda (Ann Walker from Father of the Bride II) is hoping to get her and Latrelle's brother out of a mental institution where doctors have been struggling to cure him of his desire to dress like Tammy Wynette. In the meantime, La Vonda's best friend Noleta (Delta Burke from Designing Women) who also happens to be married to Peggy's boyfriend G.W. (Beau Bridges from The Fabulous Baker Boys) is hell bent on exacting a little Thelma and Louise style revenge on her two-timing husband.

And there's also Bitsy Mae Harling (Olivia Newton John), a tattooed ex-con turned barfly/singer, who aside from comforting everyone at Bubba's Beer Joint with her guitar and songs, it turns out that she too had a "deep", meaningful relationship with Peggy. Sounds crazy? It is! And poor Sissy's got to get it all sorted out before Peggy's funeral.

With a terrific cast that also includes Leslie Jordan (Goodbye Lover), Newell Alexander (Fire Down Below), Kirk Geiger (Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion) and Earl H. Bullock (Ready to Rumble), Sordid Lives is a Southern-fried comic tale of unconditional love, acceptance and coming out.

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