I didn’t have to know anything about this movie to give it a chance; all I needed to do was see the words “narrated by John Waters” emblazoned on the front. I’m not really a huge fan of Waters’ films – although I don’t by any means hate them – but I’ve always thought the guy came off as a real hoot when doing interviews, and his appearances on episodes of “The Simpsons” and “My Name Is Earl” have done nothing but cement that impression. (One of these days, I really should check out the Court TV series, “‘Til Death Do Us Part,” if only because he plays a character called the Groom Reaper.)
Waters doesn’t have a hand in “Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea” beyond offering the narration, but you can see what attracted him to contribute to the film; there are some definite eccentrics living ’round California’s Salton Sea, and lWaters is always the first to appreciate a good kook.
You may well be familiar with the name “Salton Sea” from the Val Kilmer film, but this is a completely different entity…to say the least. The Salton Sea is an inland salt lake in Southern California, an area which more or less arose as a result of an ecological disaster in the early years of the 20th century, then evolved into a tourist attractions in the 1920s; now, however, it’s falling apart at the seams, having suffered a steady decline over the last several years due to such fun events as massive fish and bird die-offs.
“Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea” is co-directed by Jeff Springer and Chris Metzler, who an in-depth history of the area and its highs and lows while introducing us to the area’s current residents, some of whom have lived there for years upon years. It’s a motley crue, to be sure, living in a land where palm trees surround trailers, golf carts are the preferred method of transportation, and the whole place could pass for a ghost town if you didn’t know better…and, yet, we meet a bunch of folks who seem quite happy to be living where they do.
Some of my favorites were Harold Gaston, the 90+ year old owner of Gaston’s Cafe, Hunky Daddy, the unofficial mayor of the city (who has leapt to the top of my list of Hungarians I’d Like To Have A Beer With), and the Landman, who’s always trying to sell folks a lot in the area, but the place is filled with low-key, upbeat people who always seem to be ready with a smile and a story: Norm Niver, Les Marty, and Aunt Marney, Bobbie Todhunter, Paul Clement, and…oh, geez, I can’t forget Donald Scheidler, the town’s resident nudist, or mountain artist Leonard Knight!
Most of the folks who live in Bombay Beach don’t come nearly as well, unfortunately; it’s admirable that they want to raise their kids in a safer environment than can be found in the bigger cities of Southern California, but when the parents are seen strutting down the street, tossing back big-ass glasses of beer, you begin to wonder exactly how much better off the kids are going to end up.
There are moments of amusement in the film, as you can tell from the above description, but for the most part, “Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea” is actually pretty serious…and pretty depressing, actually. The residents are amazingly upbeat, given everything their area has suffered through over the years; in fact, while this may be a travelogue about a place you’d probably never want to visit yourself, by the end, you’ll find that you wouldn’t actually mind meeting some of the people who live there.
