TIARA TANGO

D: Werner Molinsky; with Jean Smart, Robert Wagner, Emily Procter, Justin William Root, Jorja Fox, Mink Stole.

Mix the tackiness of The Valley of the Dolls and the campiness of The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, and you get a sense of what Tiara Tango is all about. Jean Smart (Designing Women) stars as Lorelei, the former “Miss Texas Gal 1968,” who still manages beauty pageants and has now pinned her hopes on her beauty-contestant daughter. Good dialogue and performances pepper the story, but these are too often marred by a murky storyline and unmotivated actions. Word is that the print that showed at the festival is a work-in-progress, so we can hope that some of these plot hindrances will be rectified in the final edit. Robert Wagner is hilarious in a small role as Lorelei’s live-in boyfriend. He also stars in the short film by Jason Sklaver preceding the feature, “The Kidnapping,” a sardonic comedy about modern art.

This article appears in October 22 • 1999.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.