“Honesty,” Billy Joel once sang, “is such a lonely word.” And it’s true, especially in matters of the heart. Earlier this summer, The Break-Up mined laughs from the pathos of a genuine romantic split. The low-budget indie Sleeping Dogs Lie, meanwhile, is about the damage we do under the guise of honesty; its informal creed is that it’s trying to live up to the lies we tell about ourselves that ultimately makes us better people. Complete honesty is overrated, and something to be feared and handled with nuclear suitcase-type care. Everyone says they want it from their friends and lovers, but its weight and cost is often too much.

Shot during a two-week hiatus from his job directing Jimmy Kimmel Live, Sleeping Dogs Lie represents the third feature feature film from screechy-voiced stand-up comedian and erstwhile Police Academy stooge Bobcat Goldthwait (who was also at one point somehow married to this), and it takes a gross-out sex humor nugget, places it within the awkward, messy confines of the real world, and extrapolates forward in surprisingly effective if visually threadbare style.

“Once, when I was in college, I blew my dog,” says Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton, injecting her performance with just a touch of Renee Zellweger’s crinkle-nosed angst) in the opening moments of the movie. While we don’t glimpse the deed itself, we watch the lead-up (Amy was bored) and shameful aftermath of said act, then spring forward to Amy’s relationship with fiance John (Bryce Johnson, a sort of budget Paul Walker), who eventually pressures Amy into revealing her dark secret during a trip to meet her parents (Geoff Pierson and Bonita Friedericy). Overhearing her confession, Amy’s meth addict brother Dougie (Jack Plotnick) finally has some payback ammunition against the “perfect little angel” of the family.

Against a backdrop of other family secrets spilling forth, the rest of the film details John and Amy’s halting attempts at reconciliation, and Amy’s burgeoning relationship with coworker Ed (Colby French), a fellow teacher at her school. Will Amy be able to work things out with John, and if not, will she make the same mistake of candor with Ed?

Shot on a shoestring, the movie isn’t necessarily expertly crafted — it’s shot in sometimes jittery, too-close fashion by Ian Takahashi — but it does peddle a kind of sweet message of self-acceptance.Watching the film, I was reminded of the various stupid and petty grudges many friends and family (and myself too, I’m sure) have held against loved ones when we get an answer we don’t like. Saying you want the truth is frequently just asking for a cudgel if you don’t like what you hear. There’s the nougat of shock at the core of Sleeping Dogs Lie, certainly, but the saying that there’s a lot of truth found in jest is applicable to this twisted little tale. Maybe there’s something to that policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” after all. For an exclusive interview with Goldthwait on the film, click here. (Roadside Attractions/Samuel Goldwyn, R, 89 minutes)