Down & Out With The Dolls on AllMovie

Cat fights, backstabbing, and lesbian passion are all hallmarks of Down and Out With the Dolls, Kurt Voss' ribald tale of an all-girl band's rise to the top and subsequent tumble to the bottom. The band in question is The Paper Dolls, a Portland quartet formed from a desire to make music collaboratively that quickly falls prey to ambition-fueled rivalry and tension. Comprising the band are Lavender (Melody Moore), a bass guitarist and relative innocent (and the film's narrator); Kali (Nicole Barrett); Fauna (Zoë Poledouris), the beautiful but Machiavellian lead singer; and Reggi (Kinnie Starr) a bisexual drummer whose interest in men is gradually subsumed by the attentions of her comely female fans. The band's music is forced into the back seat by jealousy, drugs, debauchery, and greed, with everyone in separate corners, sharpening their claws. Down and Out With the Dolls screened at the 2002 Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.