Sugar Town is a
1999The year 1999 in film involved several noteworthy events and has been called "The Year That Changed Movies". Several significant feature films, including Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvar's first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, science fiction The Matrix, Deep...
independent filmAn independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
written and directed by
Allison AndersAllison Anders is an American film and television director. Anders has directed many independent films, on which she frequently collaborates with fellow UCLA film school graduate Kurt Voss.-Biography:...
and
Kurt VossKurt Voss is an American film director, screenwriter and musician/songwriter. He often works with fellow UCLA alumnus Allison Anders...
, concerning a tangled web of characters coping with ambition, fame, and the aftermath of fame. The film was named after the 1966 hit single "
Sugar Town"Sugar Town" is a song written by songwriter-producer Lee Hazlewood and first recorded by American singer Nancy Sinatra in 1966. As a single released under the Reprise label, it peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in November 1966, while reaching number one on the Easy Listening...
" by
Nancy SinatraNancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
.
Anders was eager to make another film about the music industry after her earlier films
Border RadioBorder Radio is a 1987 independent film directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss, in which two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid rob money from a club and one flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind...
and
Grace of My HeartGrace of My Heart is a 1996 film written and directed by Allison Anders, set in the pop music world, starting off in New York's Brill Building early 1960s era, weaving through the California Sound of the mid '60s and culminating with the adult-contemporary scene of the early 1970s.The plot follows...
. After her friend
John TaylorJohn Taylor is an English musician who is best known as the bass guitarist and co-founder of pop rock band Duran Duran....
had left
Duran DuranDuran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
and was beginning to launch an acting career, she and Voss wrote the film fairly quickly, and cast several musical friends of hers in the convoluted plot.
The film premiered at the
Sundance Film FestivalThe Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
on January 26, 1999, where it received a distribution deal with
October FilmsOctober Films was an American independent film production company and distributor founded in 1991 by Bingham Ray and Jeff Lipsky as a means of distributing the 1990 film Life Is Sweet...
and USA Films.
Sugar Town was then shown in limited release in the United States in September of that year, before appearing at several overseas film festivals.
Plot summary
Real rock stars play the roles of Clive (
Duran DuranDuran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
bassist
John TaylorJohn Taylor is an English musician who is best known as the bass guitarist and co-founder of pop rock band Duran Duran....
), Jonesey (former
Spandau BalletSpandau Ballet are a British band formed in London in the late 1970s. Initially inspired by, and an integral part of, the New Romantic fashion, their music has featured a mixture of funk, jazz, soul and synthpop. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s, achieving ten Top Ten singles...
bassist
Martin KempMartin John Kemp is an English actor, musician, and occasional television presenter, best known as the bassist in the New Romantic band Spandau Ballet, as well as for his portrayal as Steve Owen from the BBC soap opera EastEnders...
), and Nick (singer/actor
Michael Des BarresLord Michael Philip Des Barres is a British actor and rock singer. He is known for playing the recurring role of Murdoc on the television show MacGyver and for replacing the late Robert Palmer in the band Power Station, fronting the band at the 1985 Live Aid concert...
), who form an aging
supergroupIn the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
built of refugees from other bands. They and their producer Burt seek backing from Jane (
Beverly D'AngeloBeverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress and singer.-Early life:D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla , a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of part Italian ancestry...
), a rich investor who will only help if the singer will sleep with her.
Liz (
Ally SheedyAlexandra Elizabeth "Ally" Sheedy is an American film and stage actress, as well as the author of two books. She is best known for her roles in the Brat Pack films The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire.-Early life:...
) is a neurotic film production designer who has just hired a conniving young housekeeper and would-be singer named Gwen (Jade Gordon). Liz searches hopelessly for a decent man while Gwen commits acts of shameless cruelty in the service of her ambition.
Best friend to Liz is Clive's wife Eva (
Rosanna ArquetteRosanna Lauren Arquette is an American actress, film director, and producer.-Early life:Arquette was born in New York City, the daughter of Brenda Olivia "Mardi" , an actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher, and therapist, and Lewis Arquette, an actor and director. Her paternal...
), an older actress who is struggling to get good roles. Clive and Eva's life is thrown into upheaval when a cult member shows up on their doorstep to drop off a surly 12-year old "love child" that she claims Clive fathered.
A subplot involves guitarist Carl (singer
John DoeJohn Doe is an American singer, songwriter, actor, poet and bass player. Doe founded the much-praised L.A. punk band X, of which he is still an active member. His musical performances and compositions span the rock, country and folk music genres...
of X), who is hired to travel away from his pregnant wife (
Lucinda Jenney-Career:Jenney began her acting career in 1984 with Hearts and Diamonds. Several roles followed throughout the eighties, appearing in the 1986 comedy The Whoopee Boys, the award-winning Peggy Sue Got Married, with Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage. She appeared as 'Iris' in the Oscar-winning film...
) by a singer with ulterior motives (
Lumi CavazosLumi Cavazos is a Mexican actress who won the Best Actress awards at the Tokyo Film Festival, and Brazil’s Festival de Gramado for her portrayal of "Tita" in the 1993 adaptation of Laura Esquivel’s Mexican novel, Like Water for Chocolate...
), just as his
junkieThe section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
brother emerges from
rehabDrug rehabilitation is a term for the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines...
and comes to stay with the family.
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