“Sort of” based on a chance Sally Kirkland encounter, “Sallywood” (FanForce/Buffalo 8), the feature-length debut by Xaque Gruber, feels like a vintage indie movie. Low budget, quirky, naïve, and unintentionally annoying.
Ever since Zack (Tyler Steelman), a virginal young man from Maine, was a boy and saw the movie “Anna” on VHS, he’s been obsessed with award-winning actor Sally Kirkland. So much so that he decides to leave home, where his very Catholic mother, Joann (Jennifer Tilly), still does his laundry, and his dad, Dave (the late Lenny Von Dohlen), looks after him in his own way. He packs up his grandpa’s vintage car and drives to Hollywood. Once Zack arrives, he finds a “Craigslist” roommate named Tom (Tom Connolly), an aspiring filmmaker who supports himself by driving strippers “from party to party” at night.
In a “Hollywood” way, Zack meets Sally (Kirkland, playing herself) at a gallery opening where her paintings are on display. After pegging him as a Virgo, she offers him a job as her assistant, and his first assignment is to write her obituary, as a way to test both his familiarity with her career and his writing abilities. (This, of course, takes on an added poignancy as Kirkland passed away at 84 on November 11, 2025.)
Sally is in dire financial straits; “running on fumes,” as she puts it. Her paintings aren’t selling. She’s unable to find acting work. She can’t afford to pay for the necessary repairs to her car. It all falls to Zack, who has only just arrived in Hollywood, to help Sally get her life back on track.
It doesn't help that she’s a bit woo-woo in her spiritual practices, not to mention that she doesn’t have the best reputation. Ex-lover George (Keith Carradine), a “major film director,” won’t hire her. George’s ex-wife, Kathryn (Kay Lenz), also a filmmaker, has a “Sally Kirkland” type in her new movie but won’t audition Sally. Clem (Eric Roberts), Sally’s longtime agent, whom she’s fired twice a month for 42 years, is also of no aid.
Desperate for work, Sally agrees to be in Tom’s movie, playing the prison warden’s sexy aunt who saves the planet in “Outer Space Zombie Chicks in Prison,” along with strippers Bibi (Nikki Tuazon) and Poundcake (Angeline-Rose Troy). The results are disastrous for all involved, leading Zack to find work elsewhere, meeting with literary agent Venetia (Maria Conchita Alonzo) and then TV producer Ned (the late Michael Lerner), where he lands a job.
The best parts of “Sallywood” involve the sweet intergenerational friendship between Zack and Sally. When Zack goes home to Maine for Christmas, he seems incomplete without her, and he asks Joann to call Sally and invite her, too. Playing Joann, Tilly illuminates and steals every holiday scene.
Kirkland, who received her first Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe in the Best Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama category, for her performance in the 1987 movie “Anna,” after 25 years in Hollywood, clearly has a sense of humor about herself. Without that, “Sallywood” might have been Sally wouldn’t.
Rating: C+
