Swan Song (2021)

Jack and I found this quirky movie good fun. It's based on a real person, Pat Pitsenbarger, the flamboyant hairdresser to the glitterati of Sandusky Ohio, where the movie was shot. In the movie, Mr. Pat emerges from his nursing home for one last hairdo, that of a deceased woman of means. Director/writer Todd Stephens, a Sandusky native, credits Pitsenbarger as an influence for coming out. Udo Kier is wonderful as Pitsenbarger, as is Jennifer Coolidge as his hairdressing nemesis Dee Dee, and Linda Evans has a cameo as the dead client.

This is Todd Stephens' fourth feature in 20 years and Kier was last blogged for Bacurau (Nighthawk). After I wrote about Coolidge in Promising Young Woman, she was mesmerizing in the HBO series White Lotus. There are songs, not listed online, and the original score is by Stephens' brother Chris Stephens, in his debut in that capacity.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are singing its praises with an average of 93%, while its audiences are more muted, coming in at 75.

We rented it on iTunes back on September 22 and chose it because it is on a Rotten Tomatoes list of highly rated movies and because of a personal connection to Sandusky (write me at babetteflix at gmail if you want to know).