You may know Leslie Jordan from his work on TV sitcoms — a fey, five-foot comic with a Tennessee drawl. But you don't know any­ thing about Leslie Jordan until you've seen this movie, because this is his story, delivered with a degree of honesty and insight that borders on the miraculous.

Back in the 70s, Jordan went searching for "gay Mecca" in Atlanta. What he found instead was the seedy Pershing Point Hotel, where he spent three years living among down-and-out drag queens and hustlers, sharing a room with a fallen debutante, Miss Make-Do (Erin Chandler). A bad drug trip sent Jordan to jail, then onto the street, then into the brawny arms of a drop-dead-gorgeous heroin addict named Tripper (Mark Pellegrino) — embarking on a love story that takes us to places we've never been before.

Based on Jordan's award-winning play, Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel sneaks up on you. The drag-&-drug humor is disarming. The glitter-rock nostalgia is bittersweet. The cameos (Michelle Phillips, Marilu Henner) are kicky. Then a kind of magic happens, as Jordan's tale unfolds into something dark, mysterious, tragic, and beautiful, driven by the 'power of a story that must be told.