I had a young actress friend who once bragged that she could use her acting skills to talk herself out of any ticket a policeman might try to issue to her. I was once in a car she was driving when a patrolman pulled her over. I watched in horror as she refused to believe she couldn’t charm her way out of this one–she got the ticket. I wonder if this challenge is common to all actors because there is a scene in “Sallywood” in which Sally Kirkland (playing herself) uses her own acting skills to convince a traffic cop to not cite her. “I still got it!” she exclaims after he leaves.

Kirkland died this week at age 84, adding poignancy to her last performance in “Sallywood,” a fun comedic portrayal of ageism in the Hollywood casting system. The film begins streaming on Amazon Friday, November 14.

The script is based on the true story of the director, Xaque Gruber, who, while growing up in Maine, became obsessed with the star of the 1988 film “Anna.” (Kirkland won a Golden Globe for it and was nominated for an Oscar.) Kirkland, who also acted in “JFK,” “The Player” and over 250 films and TV productions in a 60-year career, started out in the 1960s as a member of Andy Warhol’s Factory and also acted in avant-garde theater productions.

Zack (a friendlier spelling of the director’s first name) is played by Tyler Steelman. Zack is a super nerdy virgin with very square but supportive parents (Jennifer Tilly and Lenny Von Dohlen; this is also the final film performance of Von Dohlen, who died in 2022. I met him in 1988 when he was filming “Dracula’s Widow” in Wilmington, NC.) Zack drives his vintage car to Los Angeles and serendipitously meets his muse on his first day, running into her at an art show of her paintings. She hires him as her new assistant on the spot. Kirkland is known for being vivacious and very open about her many romances with movie stars. (She even dated Bob Dylan early on.) Steelman gives a fine “fish out of water” comic performance, complete with a high-pitched, sibilant voice that I hope for his own sake is an affectation for the role.

Zack tries everything he can to recharge her career, including confronting her ineffective agent (a great sleazy turn by Eric Roberts). His roommate (Tom Connolly) casts Kirkland in the shlocky no-budget zombie film he is making with his stripper friends. Meanwhile Zack lands a real job as an assistant to a legendary TV producer (Michael Lerner) and Sally tries without luck to get a former lover (Keith Carradine) to get her a role in a film his ex-wife (Kay Lenz) is directing. (The ageism endemic to Hollywood is hinted at by the inclusion of so many veteran actors like Roberts, Carradine, Lenz and add Maria Conchita Alonso to the mix as a scammy literary agent.)

This is a sweet, funny work gives Kirkland a wonderful chance to show off her tremendous acting skill (that spontaneous audition in a nightclub!) and comedic talent. There are also some inspired needle drops. Now this is not a classic May to December rom-com like “Harold and Maude.” Its use of inserted interviews with characters and the scenes with Zack’s roommate and his porn star/stripper friends make it seem at times like an 80s straight-to-cable feature. But for anyone who is a fan of the great Sally Kirkland this film is a must-see and a revelation.