S**t & Champagne is a dynamite adaptation of D’Darcy Dollinger’s San Francisco drag stage show. It took me back to the end of the 1980s when I saw my first play in the Village, NYC, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. This is how I discovered that on Planet Drag, you could exist in a state that is both sophisticated and crass at the same time. I have seen many drag shows since, chasing that first high. For films about drag, the previous gold standard was the legendary Super 8 Vegas in Space, which I found out about three decades ago in a physical Film Threat magazine.
Dollinger’s directorial debut is the new high watermark on the golden urinal of trash epics. It captures the grease fire energy of drag theater by harnessing its power to fuel some classic cinematic anarchy. Dollinger’s alter ego, Champagne White, barrels through the picture with the same crazed freedom as found in Daffy Duck cartoons and Kembra Pfahler S&M videos.
“Champagne vows revenge and…[uncovers] a dark conspiracy involving anally injected hard drugs…”
Jumping back into the thick pubic thatch of the 1970s, Champagne White shakes her moneymaker at a sleazy strip joint that has suffered a rash of patrons shitting themselves during the show. When she meets her fiancé Rod (Mario Diaz), he is gunned down in front by two thugs. They then try to assault Champagne before she whips them and escapes into the arms of police detective Hammer (Seton Brown), who promptly arrests her for suspected prostitution.
Meanwhile, the henchmen report back to Dixie Stampede (Matthew Martin), a criminal mastermind with the same hair the mom had on Webster. Dixie sends the henchmen after Dixie’s beloved half-sister Brandy (Steve LeMay), who is also the top calf model in the country. She is brutally assaulted on the beach and ends up dying on Champagne’s floor. Champagne vows revenge and starts a journey that will lead her into a dark conspiracy involving anally injected hard drugs and major retail giants.
"…raunch is the currency of the screenplay..."
