Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea

Playing through the end of the week at the Laemmle Grande 4-Plex on Figueroa: Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer's documentary Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea (not to be confused with the 2002 fictional crime drama The Salton Sea, which I haven't seen yet either although it's been in my Netflix queue for months). I'm looking forward to this, but I hope the filmmakers' attempt at providing local color and humor doesn't result in over-kitschifying a pretty bleak situation. The warning signs are there: narration by John Waters, score by spaghetti-western-lounge Calexico side-project The Friends of Dean Martinez, jokes about the proximity to Palm Springs, a Hungarian old guy who's the unofficial "mayor," and a nudist old guy whose lifelong dream was to stand in his full, god-given glory before a session of the United Nations. Wacky.

Comments

[Chris Barrus]

I just listened to an interview with the filmmaker (get the mp3 from http://odeo.com/channel/128283/view ) and your kitschification fear seems to be valid. I'm probably going to skip the movie and wait for the next CLUI bus tour ( http://www.clui.org/clui_4_1/lotl/lotlv11/tourprobe.html )