Pieces of Dolores

A crime has been committed and Detective Nicky Heart is on the case. Or at least he thinks it's a crime. After finding the literal pieces of Dolores in a ditch--a foot, an ear, Tuesday's panties--Heart (Jeff Buhler) and his puppy-like partner, Junior Inspector Donder (Joshua McBride), set off, stumbling, along the trail of the missing girl. But Heart is no match for the array of odd, ill-tempered, or outright grotesque witnesses he encounters. In a string of show-stopping performances including John Fleck (Murder One, Falling Down, Carnivale, and one of the NEA four) as Brad the rabid office manager, Susan Tyrrell (Cry Baby, Andy Warhol's Bad, and Oscar nominated for Fat City) as the neighbor with the bacterial face lift, and Mink Stole (Pink Flamingos, Serial Mom, Female Trouble) as Dolores's icy mother, Heart moves through some the stranger precincts of Los Angeles. He is bullied by a dental receptionist with a fetish for ax murderers, struggles to keep up with Riverwalkers as they march through the bone-dry L.A. River, and just what does the dead goldfish in the bowl mean? In the end he is no closer to the truth than when he started. And Donder has to go on vacation. Based on a short story from his own book, Garth Twa's Pieces of Dolores explores the reverberations of a life that no one thought would be missed. At times bordering on surreality, 'Pieces of Dolores' is intelligent, absurd, and always darkly funny.