Southern Baptist Sissies (2013) User Reviews

Excellent actors, superb script, fantastic message.

[Suradit · 10/10 · 12 July 2014]

Being queer can be quite a burden and trying to be a Christian an even greater burden. Being queer while trying to be a Christian at the same time can often seem impossible.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this movie and at the start of it I almost stopped watching. It seemed it might turn out to be sort of a slapstick lampooning of Christianity with actors hurling Leviticus quotes at one another and mocking the preacher & his small flock of blindly loyal followers.

It was presented as a small stage production in a theater with very limited, unchanging stage props and a spotlight directing our attention. No beautiful scenery. No high tech special effects. Its success relied totally on the script and the actors. It was riveting and they were excellent.

There was comedy, some of it exceedingly funny. There was mockery, but it was aimed at those whose practice of religion perverts what God and Christ are all about and those who misrepresent what Christianity ought to be about.

And there is a lot of pain in this film. Sometimes the pain comes abruptly in the midst of the comedy, but it is the real pain known all too well by young queers trying desperately to understand who they are, what other people think of them and, especially, why it seems that God, "who so loved the world ..." seems to have forsaken them.

And for those of us who have already lived so many years trying to cope with the burden of being queer while trying to be Christian ( or Jewish or Muslim or … ) and sometimes wondering if we got it all wrong, this movie identified so many of the doubts, so much of the hurt and exposed a great deal of the despair & loneliness we have felt and did it with profound accuracy.

Most importantly, after putting us through some great comedy along with some heart-breaking drama, we weren't left in a heap of anguish and hopelessness or with a cynical disregard & dismissal of our beliefs, but with hope and with a realization the Christian message is truly about love even if many of the messengers and practitioners have got it wrong.

I'm sure some people will be offended by it, but for anyone willing to listen and especially for anyone who has or is trying to deal with it all personally, this was a great experience. The actors were superb and the setting was well chosen so as not to distract from the importance of what was being said. I plan to watch several more times. 10/10

Unexpected

[debramking · 10/10 · 21 June 2021]

I was not expecting to ugly cry at a movie with such a silly title and Willam Belli and Leslie Jordan. Well worth the 2+ hour watch. I loved the stage setting and minimal cast. It felt like I really got to know the characters.

Great Movie

[chuckpacecar · 10/10 · 5 October 2015]

Being Southern, Seeing Sordid Lives and all the other great titles by Del Shores, I can't say enough about this film. I am an ordained nondenominational minister with a Doctorate of Divinity. And all of these films hit home. I would not hesitate to recommend this to any and all as would I would the film "Bridegroom" . That film is also an eye opener. Try the film, it has a lot of great laughs and a lot of friendly tears. There is a message there for any and all. I do a lot of counseling in my practice and can tell you of the way too many times I have had to talk a kid down off the ledge so to speak. It is a shame that some will chose death over homosexuality or Bi etc.

Southern Baptist Sissies

[dcarsonhagy · 10/10 · 23 April 2015]

I was simply blown away by this production. Based on a play, what the viewer is treated to here is actually a filmed performance of that play.

Southern Fried Sissies tells a tale of four friends (since early age) who all grew up together and attended the same Baptist church in Texas. The twist in this is Mark, Benny, TJ, and Andrew are all gay. Anyone who has ever attended a Baptist church in the south knows making this announcement or openly living this lifestyle is usually going to get you crucified. The play demonstrates just how difficult each of the lives of these men are. Two other characters introduced in this play are the ones whose performances simply stunned me. Leslie Jordan (Will and Grace) plays Peanut and Dale Dickey (True Blood) plays his drinking buddy Odette. Each one has a monologue toward the end of the play that is like a punch to the gut. I can count on one hand the number of films I've seen that made me cry. After Peanut's monologue, I was just about in hysterics. His words rang so true.

The director (Del Shores) did a tremendous job in letting his characters expose all the "double-speak" in the bible. All of these guys are so tortured--so scared--they show how people can easily be driven crazy simply by asking simple questions.

The music in this film can be heard in just about any church on any Sunday. It sure did bring back a lot of memories for me.

WARNING: This film will offend some people. Some scenes were even uncomfortable for me to watch--and I'm gay. However, given the subject matter, I would recommend this to anyone. If it does nothing, it at least offers hope. And in this world today, we can all use that. The film is unrated but contains graphic language, brief nudity, and sexual situations.

Split Personalities

[drednm · 1 November 2020]

There's an important message in this play, and the performers are all in top form, but there seem to be two plays taking place. The main play is , as the title suggests, about the lives of four young men growing up and the influences of their church on their lives. The second play, which seems to act as both comic relief and something to fill time while costumes changes occur, features two barflies commenting on their lives.

The four boys encompass the range of gay lives. Mark (Emerson Collins) is the defiant one who sees the hypocrisy in bible teachings; Benny (William Belli) embraces his queerness to become a drag queen, Andrew (Matthew Scott Montgomery) becomes a victim of his own personal demons, and TJ (Luke Stratte-McClure) denies his gayness and lives a forced hetero life. These stories are quite moving.

The barflies are an aging queen (Leslie Jordan) and an aging woman (Dale Dickey) who tell their stories and compare their lives while quietly getting drunk, night after night. There's a quiet desperation underlining their stories and only alcohol can brig relief.

Jordan and Dickey are just plain great, perched on their bar stools and trading gossip and quips while they hoist glass after glass. They could center a play all by themselves. Montgomery becomes the dramatic center of the sissies.

The cast also includes Newell Alexander as the clueless preacher, Rosemary Alexander as Andrew's frantic mother, Ann Walker as Benny's grandmother, Bobbi Eakes as Mark's bible thumping mother, and Joe Patrick Ward as the pianist at the bar.

Many of these actors appear in other works by Del Shores and people his sordid universe of eccentrics and zealots.