More than 25 years after its film festival debut, Sparkler—the first feature from Jawbreaker director Darren Stein—makes its streaming premiere via Strand Releasing. The film, which was released theatrically in 1999 and has been digitally restored in 2K, follows a trailer park princess who decides to radically change her life when she befriends a trio of twentysomethings making their way to Las Vegas.
Stein, who’s currently developing a movie musical remake of the late-’90s cult hit Jawbreaker, talked to Slant about the origins of Sparkler:
The idea was sparked by an encounter with a woman I met in a small-town bar when I was on a road trip to Vegas with two friends in the early ’90s. She was this glittering vision in sequins and we called her ‘the Sparkler.’ As she approached us, this fantastical vision became a grittier reality with her teetering from too many cocktails and revealing that it was her first night out after 15 years of marriage. I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
One part kitschy road-trip flick and one part bittersweet coming-out story, Sparkler is a lost queer gem from the ‘90s, starring a who’s-who of independent cinema from the era, including Park Overall, Veronica Cartwright, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jamie Kennedy, and Grace Zabriskie.
Watch the official trailer:
Sparkler is available to stream now.
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