A Very Sordid Wedding

Now and then we all could use a feel-good movie. Reality is deeply overrated, especially when shoved down our throats on daily basis. "A Very Sordid Movie" is not so sordid, quite the opposite. It's hilariously funny, smartly paced, poking fun at the homey, down South baloney. It's all fun and games until the script got to the potholes no car should drive on. It got kind of preachy, that works only on previously converted (hence no point to it at all), schmaltzy and frankly cloying. It is a damn shame that a person who wrote all of those funny lines got stuck on the most predictable and trite plot line. Not everything has to have a happy ending to feel good. Sometimes just stirring up trouble does the trick.

A Very Sordid Wedding (2017) was written and directed by Del Shores. In 2000, Shores directed Sordid Lives, and, after that, there was a Sordid Lives series on LOGO. (Everyone in the theater apparently knew all about LOGO, but I had to look it up.)

Before we saw the movie, we read the publicity that told us that there was a backstory to this new movie. However, for us the movie was hilarious, so you can enjoy it without knowing the backstory.

The film is set in Winters, Texas. It's a great example of a conservative, Bible-oriented small town. However, there are some dissenting people among the crowd.

One of them is Latrelle Williamson, played perfectly by Bonnie Bedelia. The other cast members are also very good actors, including Leslie Jordan as Earl 'Brother Boy' Ingram, and Emerson Collins as Billy Joe Dobson.

Whoopi Goldberg has an important cameo role as Rev. Abernatha Coleman.

This is the type of movie that's hard to describe. Something funny happens, and then something funnier happens, and then all hell breaks loose. It will work on the small screen, but it would be better in a theater. This isn't because of the larger image. It's because once an audience starts to laugh during a movie like this, the laughter builds on itself, and everything appears even funnier. (In fact, if you see the movie on the small screen, invite some friends over to watch it with you.)

Del Shores and Emerson Collins attended the screening and participated in a Q&A session afterwards. I didn't have a question, but I had a comment: "My compliments on portraying a serial killer in such a way that you felt sympathy, rather than anger, towards him." That couldn't have been easy.

We saw this film at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre, as part of Image Out, the great Rochester LGBT Film Festival. This is a wonderful movie, and worth seeking out.

A VERY SORDID WEDDING

SORDID LIVES (2000) became a cult classic almost as soon as it was released. Subsequent to that film hit, a one season tv series was launched. Some of the original film cast repeated their roles, others were replaced.

A VERY SORDID WEDDING (2017) is a follow-up to the original, focusing on healing relationships and bringing about some happy endings. This is all in the context of gay marriage and anti-equality faith denominations denying human rights.

The writing is a bit preachy and heavy-handed, considering if you are seeing the film, you are probably not a right-wing anti-gay conservative, who needs educating.

The iconic roles of Latrelle (Bonnie Bedalia), Sissie (Dale Dickey), and LaVonda (Ann Walker) are more than ably filled by these superb actresses. Bedalia is even better than she was in the original, which is almost hard to realize as she stole that film with her barely controlled hysteria.

Leslie Jordan is back as Brother Boy, attempting to win a drag competition with his one-man, three women (Wynette, Lynn, Parton) show, and just as nobly outrageous as before. Producer/Actor Emerson Collins in a small role as a serial killer gives a stunning performance in a few brief scenes. (I've seen him in other Del Shores productions and he is quite a chameleon and a seemingly brilliant actor.)

My only gripe is that 17 years after the original, Kirk Geiger (aged 48 at the time of filming), has aged facially to the point where pairing him with T. Ashanti Mozelle (33 at the time) seems a December/May romance. It would have felt more appropriate for an older actor to be cast opposite Mr. Geiger, who having originated the role or Ty, should have been retained at all costs in the sequel.

Is it as much fun as the original? No, not really. The gay issue in the original was one of many plot and character story lines. Here it is all anyone is talking about and the film suffers from heavy-handedness, leading to boredom, on a number of occasions.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who has not seen and liked the original. Fun for those of us who have, but hardly a mind blowing experience.

This 2nd Sordid movie (third if you count the amazing series) is lacking several things; 1) Olivia Newton-John. Whose character is not even mentioned in the entire movie. 2) The opening song ("Sordid Lives...it's a bitch") was sung by a guy not Olivia Newton-John. 3) The character of Sissy Hickey was played by Dale Dickey NOT Beth Grant as in the first movie and the series. I like Dale as an actress, but Beth made the character funny and unique. Dale looked liked Sissy with flatter hair. She had some of Beth's motions down but still, the character felt incomplete. 4) There were no plates of fried chicken at Sissy's house. 5) Sissy & the girls drank soda not iced tea like in the first movie and series. 6) The living room of Sissy's house was changed-the wall where the picture of Jesus hung was torn down so you could see to the kitchen. The picture of Jesus on the wall above where Sissy sat, smoked and popped Valiums made it ironic and funny. 7) There was only one scene where Valium was used. And only Sissy took some. In the first movie/series they all ate Valium and stole them from each other like candy; Ironic and funny. 8) Dr. Eve was only in the movie in Brother Boy's dreams/visions which lost the effect and dynamic of those two characters. 9) The recycling of one liners that were funny in the first movie/series but not so much in this film; "Let's get this done before anymore shit hits the fan", "I'm not obese, it's a glandular problem", 10) Loss of irony-which made the first movie and the series unique and humorous. 11) Juanita's stories were nowhere near as funny as in the first movie/series. It wasn't a bad film. I think it it could have been a whole lot better and funnier. I would recommend the series followed by the first Sordid Lives movie. All the key elements are in place in these two. And they're hysterically funny and entertaining. Sordid Wedding seems thrown together with very weak dialogue, situations and some important and funny characters and actors missing.

An anti bigotry film is very welcomed, but this film is horrendous. The characters are foul mouthed, talk all the time and just won't stop being nasty to each other. There is constant bickering, and nonstop negative interactions. It is such a pity that an anti bigotry film ends up being nasty and negative.