A Hoot - Speaking of weird Texans, Jamie and I watched Sordid Lives Saturday night. White trash antics are always amusing, especially when you throw in Delta Burke, Olivia Newton-John and enough gay content to qualify for the WeHo film festival. Ty, one of the story's chief protagonists (hunky Kirk Geiger) is a former fat kid from the trailer park who escaped to LA for a career in soaps and community theater, but who can't quite deal with coming out to his crazy family back home (or it seems anyone in his new home in Hollywood). Complicating the scenario is his uncle the Tammy Wynette impersonator, played by Will & Grace's Leslie Jordan, whom the family had committed to a truly insane asylum for his homosexuality and cross-dressing. Of course everything turns out fine in the end as the raucous relatives find reconciliation at grandma's over-the-top funeral.

The movie definitely has its laugh-out-loud moments, but overall reviews were mixed. I thought it fell into the same traps as too many plays written for gay audiences. (Sordid Lives got its start as a stage production by Del Shores.) Ty's neurotic whining about whether to accept his homosexuality struck me as wholly unbelievable for a long-time inhabitant of Los Angeles, and the plot line following Jordon's "Brother Boy" was particularly contrived. A farce should be a farce, and avoid diluting our fun with "we're all family after all" preachiness. For the laughs that do register, though, I'll give this one a C+.