Sweet and Low (1999)

More studio noodling than polished recording, Sugar Town -- about a group of L.A. film and rock & roll types on the ups and the downs -- coasts on a rough jam-session feeling. And as is traditional in the work of Allison Anders (Grace of My Heart) -- here writing and directing with Kurt Voss -- the interior lives of the women involved come in for particular scrutiny. Rosanna Arquette plays an actress who can't quite accept that her ingenue days are over; Ally Sheedy's a successful production designer with an unsuccessful social life; Jade Gordon makes a cunning Eve Harrington of the music world, wide-eyed and manipulative.

The very sketchiness of the project -- whipped up, the filmmakers have said a little too proudly, in eight days and shot in three weeks -- keeps Sugar Town from achieving any deep insights into the psyches of showbiz Angelenos. But among characters more symbolic than specific, one stands out: That durable, sexy powerhouse Beverly D'Angelo steals every scene she's in, as a rich widow with a shady past who knows exactly what -- and whom -- she wants in a population befuddled by too many options. B- -- LS

[BOX] Sugar Town STARRING Rosanna Arquette Ally Sheedy USA/OCTOBER RATED R 93 MINUTES

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