Mentorship, Mayhem, and Miracles

Read Time:5 Minute, 33 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Sallywood
–

Genre: Comedy, Drama
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 35m
Director(s): Xaque Gruber
Writer(s): Xaque Gruber
Cast: Sally Kirkland, Tyler Steelman, Tom Connolly, Eric Roberts, Lenny Von Dohlen, Kay Lenz, Michael Lerner, Maria Conchita Alonso, Keith Carradine, Jennifer Tilly
Where to Watch: opening on digital platforms on November 14, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: This was a strange one, and when I say strange, I mean it both in the context of the film, but also just the experience. At its best, SALLYWOOD is a story about caretaking—of a career, of a dream, of a person you’ve decided to believe in even when others have moved on. Writer/director Xaque Gruber frames the film from the point of view of Zack (Tyler Steelman), a young writer who grew up haunted—in a good way—by Sally Kirkland’s work in ANNA. He shows up in Los Angeles with hope and little else. Through an amusing encounter that belongs to the city’s mythology, he’s suddenly carrying bags, answering calls, and trying to stage/manage a comeback for his idol. The film treats that arrangement with a mix of sincerity and bemused self-awareness; it knows this is the kind of story people roll their eyes at, then quietly root for anyway.

Sally Kirkland, playing “Sally Kirkland,” is the movie’s trump card (I hate that I can’t say this anymore without thinking about a specific person). She leans into an aging-star persona without making it a pity act. The charisma is still there, as is the volatility, and the film doesn’t gloss over that. Scenes swing from grace to awkwardness in a blink: a tender monologue that hints at old wounds, followed by a boundary-testing overshare or a tone-deaf ask. The performance has a lived-in looseness that helps the movie float past its rough patches. Watching her riff with Steelman gives the film its pulse; their dynamic—odd, affectionate, and genuinely supportive—feels like something that could only exist in Hollywood and yet is recognizably human anywhere.

Around them, recognizable faces such as Eric Roberts, Keith Carradine, Jennifer Tilly, Michael Lerner, Lenny Von Dohlen, Kay Lenz, and Maria Conchita Alonso offer cameos and supporting roles that lend the small production a lived-in history. That nostalgia isn’t just stunt casting; it underlines one of the film’s main ideas: careers are long, messy, and full of people you don’t stop running into. The soundtrack choices (including cuts from Rufus Wainwright, Toni Basil, and Smokey Miles) reinforce that wistful-but-buoyant tone, matching the movie’s fondness for showbiz ephemera with genuine feeling rather than cynicism.

Locations feel like real apartments, real diners, real borrowed offices. The shooting style favors simple coverage, where the value lies. The film’s charm comes from its willingness to let scenes unfold in full, with awkward humor or quiet confession, rather than from flash. This is an indie through and through. That approach keeps the focus where it belongs: on Sally and Zack negotiating what they owe each other and what they owe themselves.

Where SALLYWOOD stumbles is structure and focus, the middle third indulges in episodic detours—errands, meetings, mini-meltdowns—that echo the chaos of assisting a celebrity but don’t always build toward a sharper turning point. You can feel the film stretching to meet feature length when its natural runtime might be closer to something like 80–85 minutes or even a short-form hybrid. Some gags feel redundant. A couple of subplots skim the surface when digging in would have added stakes. And while the film engages with ageism—how an industry idolizes youth while punishing the women it once celebrated—it brushes past the machinery of gatekeeping rather than thoroughly examining it.

Still, the emotions land. The movie’s gentleness is a deliberate choice, and it pays off whenever it allows generosity to be dramatic. Zack isn’t framed as a savior; he’s trying to be useful, then discovers the cost of being needed. Sally isn’t framed as a tragedy; she’s a person who refuses to become a memory while she’s still alive. Their scenes together—sharing takeout, strategizing a pitch, navigating that thin line between friendship and employment—carry a soft ache that the film is smart enough not to over-explain.

Seeing legends we’ve grown up with—some of them in their last screen appearances—creates pressure: rebuilds aren’t just about press and premieres; they’re about preserving the people who built the thing in the first place. The film’s closing notes treat that idea with respect. There’s no manufactured triumph. Wins are small: a meeting that goes well, a door that stays open, the sense that tomorrow might be better because someone bothered to try today.

SALLYWOOD is amiable, occasionally funny, heartfelt, and sincere enough to withstand its clunkier passages. It’s also refreshingly unembarrassed about being a crowd-pleaser. In another filmmaker’s hands, this material could turn snide or condescending. Here, even when a joke leans too far, the perspective remains empathetic. That warmth is what nudges the movie into the “good” column despite the loose stitching.

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[photo courtesy of BUFFALO 8 PRODUCTIONS, SALLYWOOD FILMCO]

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