Customer Reviews

Sugar Town [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sugar Town is a comedy with a good cast of actors. Ally Sheedy is convincing in her role. John Taylor steals the show as a dysfuntional ex rock star. He adds depth to his role by mixing humor into his acting which actually enhances his on screen presence and interaction with the other actors.
The only criticsm I have regarding Sugar Town is that the movie ends too abrupty leaving the viewer with many unanswered questions about what eventually happens to the characters. One example shows that John Taylor is surpised by a little boy who claims to be his long lost son. J.T. has his doubts. However, the movie ends and never reveals if J.T. is the boy's father.
Despite this shortcoming, I rate Sugar Town with 4 stars.

This is like a low-key version of Robert Altman's Short Cuts but without the ironies of Raymond Carver's writing or the brilliance of Altman's direction. Here writer/directors Allison Anders and Kurt Voss present a mosaic of groupings all associated somehow with the members of a British 80's rock band on the comeback trail. If there is a common theme it's probably that Los Angelonos are all manipulative and celebrity seekers. There is no apparent diivision of tone that would explain having two directors, and since it is the female actors that make the stronger impression, it's hard to know which one to congratulate. As the milieu is the music industry, the soundtrack can be justified, though occasionally it's obtrusive - you tend to look to see if someone has a radio on during their conversation to explain the noise. And in one instance some discordant sounds work against the truth of the confession of a rape. There is the odd funny line - a tight dress is described as a "glove", and a songwriter says how the music has to come from somewhere, it's not just waste (the actual word he uses is profane). The narrative provides one act of callousness which approximates the tragedies of Short Cuts, but there is no wrap-up to connect the scenarios for a satisfying conclusion. Anders/Voss provide an amusing cut from an implied blowjob to a carrot stick in a de-juicer, a laugh when a prodigal child raised by a hippie resembles a gothic alien, and a woman checking her makeup as a deliberate strategy to avoid seeing a couple embrace. A plot point about a man refusing to sleep with Beverly D'Angelo seems silly considering how beautiful she looks, and her cynical rich lady is probably the best performance in the film. This film was made after Ally Sheedy's career reinvention in High Art, and she is funny in her self-consciousness when dating. She can survive being imitated by another character, partly because the imitator is the one who commits the act of callousness, though her first scene on a massage table isn't the best introduction. Rosanna Arquette has some nice moments as a possibly cuckolded wife (her response to the hippie is funny), but her brother Richmond Arquette is all hunky method-shoulders and deep voice.

This film features an excellent cast of known and relatively unkown stars. All give great performances in this movie and is for fans of independent films. If you liked films such as "Pulp Fiction," and "2 Days in the Valley," you'll enjoy this one.

This is a really great film from Alison Anders and I absolutely cannot believe the film is not available on DVD. Fans of Duran Duran should know that this is not a John Taylor only film, the film is supported by an amazing star studded ensemble cast. John Taylor does have a good role in the film, he plays an aging but hot rock star whose group was big once upon a time. His love interest in the film, Roseana Arquette is an actress who has a son that John questions the paternity of, although he and the boy grow close. Michael De Barres steals the show. He did a great job in his role as a well manicured, spoiled, egotistical older rocker. He loves the young girls and they think he is someone from their moms generation. Beverly De Angelo is in this film, as is a very thin Ally Sheedy who appears as a neurotic production designer. Everyone did a great job in this film. There are many characters and many storylines, more than I mentioned in my review. The only thing I didn't like about this film is the rather abrubt ending. I was waiting to see a few things resolved that didn't get tied up enough for me, but I think that the writer/director wanted to leave a few things to the imagination.