Sugar Town

People don't get much nastier than in the film/music/entertainment Los Angeles nexus that is the setting of Allison Anders's mordant, funny, humane film. Fading rock star Clive (former Duran Duran heartthrob John Taylor, making an endearing acting debut) is hoping for a comeback CD (of their godawful rap "fusion" music); back home his wife (Rosanna Arquette, matured but still fiery) has just been offered a role playing Christina Ricci's mother, and a woman is leaving a pre-adolescent she claims Clive fathered on their doorstep. Meanwhile, up-and-coming songstress Gwen (Meg Ryan look-alike Jade Gordon) is terrorizing her junkie songwriter into finishing a Fiona Apple-type tune about a girl in a mental hospital and playing All About Eve with neurotic Hollywood production designer Liz (Ally Sheedy, as comically sharp as she was dramatically deep in High Art). Then there's John Doe (he seems the least comfortable and convincing in the cast) as a studio musician who's reluctantly opted for a tour with a salacious Chicana pop star (an unfortunate lapse into stereotype). They're all sordid, yes, but when these benighted heroes and heroines actually do turn their lives around, sort of, it's for real -- not just a sugar coating.

-- Peter Keough