Metacritic-Rezensionen

This is a startlingly funny portrait of Gothic Americana.

Plagues & Pleasures is kinda like one of those travel videos, except it's offering you a vacation like you've never had before and it's not loaded with bulls---.

To their credit, directors Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, both of San Francisco, poke gentle fun at the locals without ridiculing them. The film's playful spirit is underscored by catchy steel-guitar melodies (courtesy of the Friends of Dean Martinez) that perfectly suit the bone-dry setting.

Occasionally lighthearted but always affecting cautionary tale.

Narrated with surprising empathy by John Waters, is a historically thorough and thoroughly hysterical examination of the big, smelly desert lake's formation.

Although ill-served by the lack of expert voices or elaboration on viable choices, Plagues and Pleasures is an often-fascinating document of change -- incremental as evaporation, or catastrophic as flooding.

The late U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono and his widow and successor Mary Bono have spent a good deal of time trying to save it. It's a hard task, but the film does suggest there's more to the sea than meets the eye.

Jaunty and fun for a while, with a cast of colorful locals who make the residents of "Vernon, Florida" seem normal, pic ultimately overstays its welcome and overstates its case.