Give Me Pity!

"Give Me Pity!" is a bizarre largely one-woman show about a 90s-era entertainer who is performing her first TV special. It starts with a soliloquy about how she worked to get where she did, followed by a series of dance numbers that get weirder and more confusing as it progresses. Because at one point you just lose track of whether she's really experiencing what's happening, if she's performing it for the canned audience or if she's just lost her marbles. It really kind of lost me, so I just held on for the ride.

The performance of singer Sissy St. Claire is anchored by Sophie von Heselberg who-if she reminds you of a young Bette Midler there's a reason-is because she's Bette Midler's daughter. Her resemblance isn't just based on her looks, but it's Bette's voice and expressions as well. I really struggled with this, because I think Bette is one of the most amazing performers ever, so one can't help but be distracted by wanting to compare the two. I even closed my eyes for a bit to just go by the voice, but that made it worse. This poor girl has been blessed AND cursed.

Sophie does do a nice job, but the material is so weird and disjointed that I just couldn't understand what she was doing. Kind of like watching an extended Lady Gaga video where you're squinting at it all confused but you just can't look away. So is this even good?

Well, I watched this on Shudder, assuming it was a horror movie. It is not. I don't really know what it is, but it's not horror. The best I can describe it is this way: Imagine it is 1990 and you're in your 20s, sitting in front of the TV, stoned. This special comes on and you're not interested but the remote is across the room and you're too lit to move so you just say screw it and keep watching. You keep toking and add liquor to the mix. At the midway mark of the special you start hallucinating a bit, and the more weed you smoke and Jack you drink, the weirder the show gets. By the end you're just staring numbly at the screen as the news comes on. That is the best way I can describe this film.

So if you go it into thinking it's a horror movie because it's on Shudder, you will be gravely disappointed. If you like Bette Midler with a splash of Lady Gaga and a 90s feel, you may find it interesting. I still don't really know how I feel about it.

I can't entirely fault the filmmakers for trying to make something of this sort, or horror streamer Shudder for picking it up for distribution. The concept of some 70s/80s-ish diva's TV special gone wrong sounded like it had potential.

The appropriately dated-looking lighting and color effects gave it a certain authenticity.

It starts feeling overlong rather quickly, however. Dialog drags. Scenes drag. Each subsequent scene is not appreciably different from any that preceded it, other than wonky audio and color intruding more and more, and the star's scenes ending progressively more poorly.

The impression given was increasingly more of a one-woman theater performance crossed with experimental video or a video installation, rather than a vintage TV special. In the end it just frustratingly fizzles out, as though they had no idea where to take their concept. They could have, just as easily, had it end in analog broadcast static or a test pattern and that would have provided as much resolution: none.

An interesting attempt at something, but will be grossly unsatisfying to horror viewers as a whole, and perhaps even to more discerning ones who don't mind or even appreciate the campy, arty or experimental.