D’Arcy Drollinger is a perfect name for a drag queen, but it appears for once this is not actually the figment of someone’s imagination, but possibly their actual birth name. Anyway, Drollinger is an actor, writer, musician, director, producer & choreographer and also the larger-than-life owner of SF gay nightclub Oasis.
For the past few years he is been known for his high-camp vaudeville-style stage productions that have given him both fame and notoriety. With titles such as ‘The Cereal Killers’, “Above and Beyond the Valley of the Ultra Showgirls” and “B*tch Slap” he has become quite a master of camp comedy.
Now he has turned one of them into his very first feature film, which as a true renaissance Drag Queen, he wrote , directed and starred in.
“Shit and Champagne” is Drollinger’s celebration of sexploitation flicks of the 1970s. Its fast paced, almost farce like, low-brow comedy, with a whole slew of wicked one-liners (some good and some painfully unfunny) and a great starring part for Drollinger. He plays stripper Champagne Horowitz Jones Dickerson White, (‘so she’s been married a few times, it’s none of your fucking business!’) who gets caught up in a tangled plot or murder and drugs
It starts when her boyfriend Rod gets murdered In front of her in the street just as (she thinks) he is about to propose. After stopping to do a song and dance routine (!) Champagne sets off determined to find the killer. When she eventually tracks down the evil mastermind of all the mayhem (and there is plenty of that) it turns out to be Dixie Stampede (Matthew Martin) ……. Who could actually have passed herself as Champagne’s long lost mother.
Their is a reason why the film is called Sh-t and Champagne but that’s part of the unnecessary crude potty mouth humor that sadly lets the film down
Drollinger however is both a master of slapstick comedy and a true aficionado of fabulous old B Movies. He is the central core of the movie ….. without his outstanding presence it would not have succeeded at all …… but after all he did write the best part for himself.
After a slow slightly awkward start we really got into the movie which although it succeeded so well, would have been so much better as a live stage play.
Sh-t and Champagne is an acquired taste, and if you think it is one you have, check out https://darcydrollinger.com/champagne-the-movie/ to see where its is Streaming next.
Labels: 2020, drag, Drew Drollinger, sexploitation, slapstick comedy
