Sparkler (1997) A Lynch-esque Cal-Neva Noir

"A Nice Surprise!!!"

Directed by Darren Stein (Jawbreaker). 

Written by Catherine Eads and Darren Stein. Excellent Cinematography by Rodney Taylor and Music composed by David E. Russo.

This is one of those off the wall surprising sleepers that really hit on all cylinders. 

If you have lived a sheltered life and have never gotten out of your comfort zone you may have have trouble relating to this tale. 

Living in Montana for 24 years and not in any "Yellowstone" fantasy world, I met real people, characters of all types, who live in grey, wind blasted, clapboard, Sears & Roebuck, mail order ranch houses, in double wide mobile homes, in dilapidated trailers that will never move again, and even in converted railroad boxcars. Shift it all South and a little West a thousand miles.

The Mojave, straddling Nevada and California, is a more sun baked, blast furnace hot version of same. 

Most of the locals are either in the mining, tourist and hospitality, or government services industry. Las Vegas and Reno are world class magnets. Sin Cities.

If you live in a Mojave trailer, you'll collect old tires and use them as Nevada Shingles to keep the roof from being blown off. If its located along the two lane you can slap together a roadside stand and sell rocks and cold drinks to the tourists as a side hustle. 

Sparkler stars Park Overall (Biloxi Blues, Mississippi Burning) as Melba May, Veronica Cartwright (The Children's Hour, The Twilight Zone TV Series, The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Right Stuff) as Dottie Delgato. 

Park Overall as Melba May

Veronica Cartwright as Dottie Delgato bringing a Marie Windsor vibe

Jamie Kennedy (Scream) as Trent, Steven Petrarca as Joel, Freddie Prinze Jr. (She's All That) as Brad.

Freddie Prinze Jr. as Brad, Jamie Kennedy as Trent, and Steven Petrarca as Joel

Don Harvey as Flint

Don Harvey (The Deuce TV Series) as Flint, Grace Zabriskie (Norma Rae, The Big Easy, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks TV Series, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Inland Empire) as Sherri, Sandy Martin (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Barfly, China Moon, Lovelace) as Ed.  

Grace Zabriskie as Sherri bringing a Twin Peaks vibe

Sandy Martin as Ed

With Sheila Tousey as Hurricane, Octavia Spencer as Wanda, Glenn Shadix as Award Announcer, Gloria LeRoy (Barfly, Pennies From Heaven) as Maxine, Frances Bay (Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,  ) as Raspy, Jack Wallace (Death Wish, House of Games, Boogie Nights, Twilight, Browns Requiem) as Jesse, and Chris Ellis as Buddy #1. 

Story

We get a low angle shot of a two lane blacktop cutting through the Mojave. A gust of wind blows a swirl of dust and trash. A Country Western turn begins and we segue to a highway map that has the films credits appearing as hand written notes on the paper. 

At the end of the credits we are watching a semi truck pull into a trailer park. The truck grill is decorated with a chrome "Lady Luck" sitting naked lady ornament.  

It's not the Holiday Season. The semi drives towards a turquoise and white trailer park "Queen." It's Mickey-Moused with year-round Christmas lights, a white entrance trellis, a miniature windmill, and a transfer station salvaged, partial  nativity scene sitting on the trailer roof.. Plastic ducks, geese, swans, rabbits, squirrels, are sitting on an AstroTurf patch of fake grass with gold painted rocks for a border. More deer are scattered about, along with a pink pig and a garden owl. 

The trailer has macrame plant hangers suspended from the edge of the roof, fake flowers stuck to the walls, every window has window boxes, a booze bottle "hooch row" and other kitschy doodads line the corrugated skirting, and a wreath in the shape of two hearts festoon the trailer door. A small sign by the Astro Turfed covered stoop reads Flint and Melba's. And, so you don't miss anything "runway lights" broadside the front side of the house trailer. 

The semi driven by Flint, runs over one of the plastic reindeer before coming to a stop. A trailer park neighbor Maxine is just leaving Melba's hen party. She greets Flint with a hug after he steps out of the rig. Flint is basically a shit hawk. 

Gloria LeRoy as Maxine

Flint goes into the trailer. Sitting at a formica table are Melba, her best friend Hurricane and Melba's Mom Sherri. "Hey!", greetings all around as he takes off his jacket and strips off his T-shirt. 

Flint declares to the girls that it smells like a brewery in here. He opens the fridge adorned with magnets and grabs a beer, tells the girls he's gonna take a shower, and heads towards the john. Sherri gives a kiss to Melba and leaves the party. Just Melba and Hurricane are left.  

Hurricane gets up and walks into the kitchen. 

Melba: Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be really rich?

Hurricane: Well I don't see much the point.

Melba: Well I think about it every time I fill out my sweepstakes. 

Melba goes on to tell Hurricane that she'd buy a new house.

Hurricane: What's wrong with your trailer? Its the nicest one in the park.

Melba: Yea I guess you're right.

Hurricane offers to do the dishes, but Melba's out of dish soap. Melba tells her she'll go walk down to the Mohawk Minimart and pick some up. 

 

When she gets back, the trailer has a banging and  creaking sound coming from it. Melba assumes its their swamp cooler acting up again so she heads round back to check the hose connection. 

What she hears through the wall is Hurricane getting banged by Flint. Pissed off, Melba runs back to her car. She hops back in backs it into the side of the trailer before driving the car over to her mother's trailer. 

She hops back in to her car, and backs it into the side of the trailer before driving the car over to her mother's mobile home.

When the car hits the trailer the goldfish bowl above the bed tips over soaking Flint and Hurricane. Flint peers out the louvered window at Melba departing.

Melba now is hanging out at her mother's and the next day she calls her mother Sherri's favorite phone psychic Wanda who shuffles a deck of cards reads her fortune, telling her that she sees her surrounded by three kings. 

Octavia Spencer as Wanda

That night Mable walks over to see her trailer. Flint is batching for himself, drinking and playing poker with buds. Mable peaks in in the widow and watches, and she overhears Flint tell his friends that he sure don't need Melba. 

Melba then goes and sits in her "al fresco" veranda with all her homemade "tinkle tree" windchimes, made out of crushed pop cans, and miniature hooch bottles. 

She lights a tar bar and begins to sob. She then gets some hoots and catcalls from a beamer convertible carrying Trent, Joel and Brad passing by on old US 91, now the service road along the Interstate. She stands up and waves at them.. 

Cut to the Beamer. Trent is sitting on the back of the seat half his body is above the windshield. Brad is driving, bitching about Trent acting queer. 

Joel is depressed, drinking out of a pint booze bottle, and laying down on the back seat. His girlfriend broke their engagement, and hasn't given the ring back.

They are on their way from LA to Vegas to win some quick cash. The right rear tire blows and they pull to the shoulder. 

They hop out and Brad and Trent open the trunk and begin to pull suitcases out until Joel tells them he took out the spare tire to make room for all their stuff. Joel tells them  don't worry they can buy another tire.

Brad pulls out his cellphone and calls AAA, while Joel announces that he needs a refill, and he sets out for a roadside bar called The Backwoods Inn. Trent follows.

Cut to Melba and her mom Sherri. Sherri's solution to Melba's marital problems is making her have a "night on the town." Sherri's rutting around in her jewelry box, and pulls out some fancy tear drop earrings. then finds a fancy dress gown, to do them justice, and finally tells Melba to use the glitter press on nails she has on hand in a draw.  

Cut to Melba, all gussied up pulling into the Backwoods Inn lot. 

Inside Trent, Joel, and Brad are observing the clientele, while waiting for the Beamer's tire to get fixed. Joel remarks that he's never seen more polyester in his life. Trent remarks that its great, that's their life.

"I've never seen more polyester in my life"

At about this time Melba walks in. 

Brad:  Check that out.

Joel: Woah! Somebody actually morphed a human being into a disco ball. 

Trent: I think she's beautiful.

Brad: Don't look now but Little Miss Cherry Bomb is looking our way.  She looks hungry.

Trent: Come on man in her world she's glamorous. She's the sparkler. 

Brad: Sparkler?

Trent: Sparkler-o-rama, Glowworm, Glamborella, 

Joel:  Glitterbug, coachroach.

Melba walks over to their table.

Melba: Would one of you handsome young men care to dance with a lady? Well I'm a little new at this. I, ah, Haven't been out since, you know, fifteen years of marriage.

Trent: I'll dance with you.

Melba: Why Thankyou darling.

While dancing Melba and Trent chitchat. We find out that the boys live in LA, are $3,000 behind on their rent and that two of them don't have jobs. 

The dance ends and Melba comes back to the table and asks who's next. Joel slides down in his seat and says that he doesn't dance. Brad is chosen by Melba. While they dance Brad tells Melba that he's a Hollywood agent, tells her its all who you know. and gives her a card with his car phone number.

About that time the boys learn that the Beamer is ready, and they say their good-byes.

When Melba gets back to Sherri's she tells her all about the three guys, and how they looked at her like she was a star and that one of them was a Hollywood agent. 

Sherri thinks they were bullshitting Melba. Then Sherri notices one of the teardrop earrings is missing. Sherri remarks $29,95 down the drain.

Sherri starts dialing the car phone number and Melba grabs it out of her hand. 

Trent answers the phone and Brad does have the earring caught in his jacket. They tell her that they can mail it to her when they get to Vegas, but Melba tells them that she can just meet them at the State Line Casino.

When she hangs up Melba tells Sherri that she's going to Vegas, She needs a new start, and that she'll hit up her old high school friend Dottie Delgato for a place to crash. Sherri asks who? Melba replies that Dottie was the head cheerleader at Victor Valley High, she went to Vegas and became a showgirl. 

Melba relates that she wrote that she was the hottest act on the strip, and that she is always asking her to come visit. 

The boys are killing time gambling at the casino waiting for Melba. When she finally shows she spots Trent at a blackjack table. Trent gives her the earring and Trent continues playing. 

Melba asks where they are staying in Vegas, and Trent replies the Plaza. When she asks when are they heading out Trent guesses as soon as Joel and Brad are back from the buffet. 

When the boys get back Trent explains to them that he's winning and wants to play a little longer. Brad whispers to Trent to ditch her. 

After a few hands Trent tells Melba that he has to go to the bathroom and asks her to keep playing his hand for him. Four hours later Melba has amassed a huge pile of cash, and the boys are driving down the strip in Vegas.

In the Morning, it starts going Noirsville.

Cut to Melba's trailer door. A voice yells action. 

The door opens a crack, and a V.O. announces "Good morning Sir, are you Mr. May?" Flint, sticks his sleepy head out.

Flint: Yea but I didn't do nothing.

Announcer: Is Melba May here?

Flint: Why, what did she do?

The announcer laughs and replies that they'd like to speak to her. They are the awards committee for the Magazine Club Sweepstakes. Melba has won the their Million Dollar sweepstake. The catch is she only has 72 hrs. to claim it in person. 

Meanwhile Melba is hitting all the Casinos on the strip looking Dottie. She finds a couple of showgirls in the Tropicana.

Melba: Uh, excuse me ladies, I hate to bother you, but I, I was wondering if you could help me, find a friend of mine?

Showgirl: What was her name?

Melba: Well Dottie Delgato, well actually she was a friend of mine in high school. [showgirls laughing]

Showgirl: I'm sorry honey but you know what, I don't think you are going to find her around here. 

Melba: I beg your pardon?

Showgirl: No see, there's no way in hell that you can stay a showgirl on the strip for over what, ten years

Melba: Ah well she was a really good dancer.

Showgirl: Look honey I don't care if she was fucking Baryshnikov, okay, as soon as your tits start sagging you're outta here.

Melba: Do you know where maybe I could find her?

They send her to old Jessie a manager who has been there 20 years. Jessie asks her what's her name. Melba tell him Dottie Delgato.

Jack Wallace as Jesse

Jessie: Delgato, Dottie Delgato, that name sounds familiar.

Melba: Well she would have been here in the late eighties.

Jessie: Hum, what she do?

Melba: Well she was a dancer.

Jessie: Her specialty, what did she do?

Melba: Well I haven't seen her since high school, she was head cheerleader, she twirled a pretty good baton.

Jessie: Baton huh, oh you mean Lady Luck. I remember her, [chuckles] Lady Luck loves to Fuck. Oh yeah I remember her.  She'd get more guys horny with the things she used to do with that baton.

Melba: Do you know where I could find her?

Cut to a Vegas strip joint. Melba is back stage speaking with Raspy, the female floor manager. 

Frances Bay as Raspy

Melba: Dottie Dottie Delgato

Raspy: Dottie Del Taco?

Melba: Delgato.

Raspy: Dottie, oh they all seem to be named Dottie. Dottie, Tammy, Chrystal, Vanna, oh that's a big one now. Did she have a stage name?

Melba: At the Tropicana I believe they called her Lady Luck.

Raspy: That's original, did she play with feathers?

Melba: Not to my knowledge, no.

Raspy: Did she use appliances?

Melba: No, but I think she did things with a baton.

Raspy: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Lady Luck loves to fuck, yeah. No she's been, I haven't seen her around. Wait, wait, wait, some of the boys said they saw her at The Crack.

Melba: The Crack, where could I find that?

Raspy: Oh honey, you don't want to go there.

Cut to the red lit entrance stairway to the subterranean shithole known as The Crack. An industrial RLM Shade with a red bulb illuminates cement walls and a pipe railing for the steps that lead down to a pile of trash. We hear music.

Melba takes a tentative step at a time.

The walls are graffitied. We see the silhouette of Melba at the top of the stair.  One side of her silhouette we can see a spray painted outline of a nude woman, enhanced from the waist down with a fuzzy snatch for a crack. Must be the place.

Appropriately, an outlined erect penis and balls sprouts at her feet. On the right side of Melba's silhouette we can partially read the tags Carrie White above another that is obscured. 

Melba, in silhouette slowly, hesitatingly, continues one step at a time down. Perched above her are the crossed legs of a women. Mable stops and stares up. 

We cut to the interior of the Crack. Its dark and lit by red spots. Its a gritty Neo Burlesque joint, topless but not bottomless. One of the strippers on the stage is licking money as she gyrates around. Others do routines and B-girls perform around on the floor to hoots and hollers. 

Melba walks in and is bewildered by the floor show spectacle.

Melba: Oh this can't be right.

Ed: Can I help you?

Melba: Um, I was looking for a friend of mine. But I think I'm in the wrong place. 

Ed: Hey we're all looking for someone who isn't? 

Melba: Lady Luck.

Ed: You mean Dottie, what are you looking for her for?

Melba: I'm a friend of hers from high school.

Ed: Look I'm very protective about my girls. What do you want with her? 

Melba: I'm in town for a visit. 

Ed: Ok, to take her from here?

Melba: No, no I just hadn't seen her in a very long time.

Ed tells her its all right. She's up next why don't you have a seat?

Melba: Thankyou. [Mable stars to turn away then turns back] Do I have to pay a cover charge?

Ed: You gotta dick? 

Melba turns away again for a table. 

Ed [to a waitress}: Buy this girl a drink.

Ed heads up to the stage and introduces Lady Luck.

Dottie's Strip Routine

We watch as Dottie does her act twirling her baton and tassels, stripping down to what looks like sheer panties to lots of hoots and hollers.

After her performance Melba goes with Ed backstage. Ed goes into the dressing room.

Ed: Are we taking visitors today?

Dottie: Well not unless they have a million bucks, or a cheeseburger.

Melba: Dottie Delgato you can't stop cheering, can you. 

Dottie: Melba May. Lord what are you doing here?

Melba: I decided to come to Vegas and track you down.

Dottie: I bet you did. You find out about me and Flint?

Melba: Flint, what's Flint got to do with it?

Dottie: You know seeing you reminds me of being in the girl room smoking a joint. 

Ed: Ah, you want me to stick around.

Dottie: What for I can handle myself, can't I. Ed, Melba, Melba, Ed, now get out. 

Ed: we'll see you upstairs.

Dottie: Yeah

Melba: Um so what's upstairs, another club, or.

Dottie: Its our apartment.

Melba: Oh, you two live together?

Dottie: Yea, you know its a dump, but she pays the rent.

Melba: She?

She?

Dottie: Melba its the nineties, wake up.

Melba: Is she, is he, is it like a.

Dottie: Melba she's a woman, Ed is short for Edith.

Melba: Does she like looking like a man?

Dottie: She does everything like a man, do you know what I'm saying? So what brings you here? Don't bullshit me, cause it must have taken an awful lot of effort to find me, cause it took a lot of effort for me to get here. 

Melba: Well, Dottie what did you mean about Flint?

Dottie: Are you two still together?

Melba: No

Dottie: Well good, then this won't hurt so much. You see, I've just been waiting for the day that you were gonna show up on my doorstep, cause I figured, sooner or later you'd find out, that Flint and i were seeing each other, if you can call it that. 

Melba: You and Flint are Having an affair?

Dottie: Please, nothing so dramatic. No, you know, once or twice a year he'd blow into town, 

Melba: And.

Dottie: Well lets just say he wasn't the only one getting blown.

Melba: Well it really doesn't surprise me. I've know all along he was scum. 

Dottie: Yea, you got that right. 

Melba: Well why did you keep seeing him?

Dottie: Why the hell not, you know it's always nice to have a man once in a while. I mean I'm no spring chicken. Besides its was kind of fun to see Ed get pissed off.

Melba: Why would Ed get pissed off?

Dottie: Because whenever Flint would show up, she knew she was off limits. Let me tell you she gets mighty pissy, when she ain't getting any.  

Melba: What like you and Ed, you mean you and she.

Dottie: What can I say. I'm a dykes bitch. But you know it's free rent.

Melba: And what Ed would just let you go off with Flint?

Dottie: Look if you're not here about Flint, why are you here?

Melba replies that she left everything and is trying to meet up with some friends she met, and she needs a place to stay. When Dottie finds out that her friends are three boys from L.A. she gets excited, telling her that she would dump Flint too. Melba assures her its not like that. 

Dottie: They are all just friends until you do them, and then they are nothing. 

At this point we are at the 52 minute mark and all the major characters are in place.

Noirsville 

Darren Stein along with Catherine Eads have managed to create a sweet and low down slice of reality of people who barely have a pot to piss in or a window to through it out of. The dialogs all ring true and the stylish cinematography by Rodney Taylor draws you right into that world. 

The film also has boasts a very nice soundtrack.  

Park Overall nails Melba May's naive innocence, Veronica Cartwright is a hoot as Dottie, who in one of her wigs, is a spitting image of Marie Windsor, you have to check it out. Grace Zabriskie is another standout performance, and she brings a lot of "Twin Peaks" cinematic memory to the film along with another Lynch staple Frances Bay. 

Sparkler is also a quasi coming of age & poignant coming out film, with Jamie Kennedy, Steven Petrarca, and Freddie Prinze Jr. as the generation X-er's who are also quite entertaining. Sandy Martin brings a Madame Spivy vibe to the film, and Don Harvey is a perfect shit-hawk. 

From the original posters it looks as if it was marketed wrong, looks as if they were probably shooting for the teenage demographic when its way more quirky and adult and definitely more in the David Lynch, Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino, John Dahl, and solidly in their Black Comedy Noir wheelhouse. Bravo! 8/10