"Hollywood Dreams"** 1\2 (out of ****)
There are certain directors whom I admire very much but never speak about and I don't just mean on this blog. I mean there are directors whom I never even mention in conversations, they simply aren't very well known to the public for one reason but mostly my reasons are selfish. I don't want to share them. The director of "Hollywood Dreams" is one of those people, Henry Jaglom.
Henry Jaglom is a name that is going to mean very little to a majority of the movie going public. He is not a mainstream filmmaker. His name will mostly be known to serious film lovers. He makes small independent films very much in the tradition of a John Cassavetes. His style is at once naturalistic and feels slightly improvised. Not at the same level of a Cassavetes films, a little better in fact, but not quite at the caliber of Mike Leigh.
Jaglom got his start in films in 1971 with his debut "A Safe Place" which starred a young Jack Nicholson and Orson Welles. Welles and Jaglom would become very good friends, Welles would also appear in Jaglom's "Someone to Love" (1987). He quickly became a strong voice on the independent scene. Unlike most directors, whom sometimes the public feels as their career progresses they lose their talent, Jaglom has made some fine films in his later years. Some of his work in the 1990s and more recent titles rank among his best. "Last Summer at the Hamptons" (1996), "Deja Vu" (1998), perhaps his most mainstream title to date. This should not be confused with a Denzel Washington movie of the same title. And perhaps my favorite and one "Hollywood Dreams" resembles in some ways, "Festival in Cannes" (2002).
As good as some of Henry Jaglom's films are it saddens me to say his most recent film is not very good. "Hollywood Dreams" on paper sounds like a good idea. A young girl from Iowa, who dreams of becoming a famous actress, heads out to Hollywood when after taking a few tumbles runs into an agent and finds love all at once. Because it is Jaglom you would assume the film would be a satire on the industry and take a few shots at Hollywood. And Jaglom would probably know what he is talking about. But Jaglom has other ideas. "Hollywood Dreams" suddenly becomes two separate movies competing for on-screen time but the story lines don't blend well together at all.
The second part of Mr. Jaglom's film involves sexuality and gender identity. This story line could have worked on its own as a family drama but by taking these very serious ideas and situations which develop in this film and tossing them in with a story about a girl searching for a chance in Hollywood interferes with further plot development for both stories thus weakening them both and the movie as a whole.
The young girl is Margie Chizek (Tanna Frederick, Mr. Jaglom's discovery). She is young and ambitious. Young actors can probably see themselves in her. Having worked with some young actors in college for my own films I was definitely able to recognize certain traits.
When the film starts Margie is being filmed for an audition. She has an emotional breakdown and starts to cry. She says she is nervous. The casting director (voiced by Jaglom) tries to comfort her but when it becomes apparent she is not able to recite her lines they politely try to tell her the interview is over. But Margie won't hear of it. This is her chance. Despite what the casting director says she's going to get through this and deliver those lines. You'll find most people in the acting business have this kind of pushy mentality. Trying to succeed in the movie business one needs to be extremely determine and aggressive, to the point where others will find you annoying. Margie, at the very least, has that going for her.
There is always one problem I have with actors in Jaglom's films and Ms. Frederick displays it perfectly. While it does try to have a naturalistic feel it often feels phony to me. It is a style of acting I call "normal people trying to act normal in a way they perceive others think of as normal". Sound a little confusing? Frederick has moments where she is suppose to express disgust. What does she do. She grunts and moans and screams. Putting yourself in her shoes how many people would honestly react the same way? But Ms. Frederick believes so. You'd have to watch her delivery. But it shows she is still an amateur. She is too melodramatic. A certain amount of that was required in the script but she goes a little bit overboard with it to the point we no longer believe in her as a human being.
The agent she meets is Kaz (Zack Norman, who also appeared in "Festival in Cannes" as an agent). He takes a sudden interest in her and when he informs Margie he is an agent, after she tells him she's an actress, she faints. He takes her to a cafe where they talk and she tells him her fainting was just an act. She wanted some time with him. When he tells her he is impressed, she breaks down again. In a missed comedic moment Jaglom should have had the scene take place in a busy, expensive restaurant instead of a deserted outside cafe. Kaz makes Margie an offer to move in with him until she finds her own place and allow him to represent her.
Here's where the sexuality enters the film. Kaz is gay. He lives with his lover, a producer, Caesar (David Proval). They are preparing to groom one of their other finds, Robin (Justin Kirk of TV's "Weeds"). Robin is also gay and is trying to become the first openly gay leading male star.
SPOILER ALERT
We find out Robin is not gay after all but is pretending to be gay in order to advance his career. Many of the connections he has made have been gay men who find him attractive.
END SPOILER
Margie soon begins to have a crush on Robin and this would not be good for Robin since he is gay and trying to break out in the business.
Margie seems to have some gender issues. She talks about when she was younger she and her brother would dress up in women's clothes and wear make-up. In another scene she is with her aunt and expresses how sometimes she wishes men were more like women and how she would like to be the "male" in a relationship. And yet another scene involves her telling Robin they should hang out and go shopping together and try on lingerie. Margie and her brother had a very unusual childhood and it confused them of their proper gender roles in society.
This idea is actually kind of interesting. On it own I think, if handled correctly, could have made an interesting movie about a young girl, from a troubled family, who has become sexually confused and has issues with her brother. A major secret is revealed in this movie concerning him.
But this is a movie called "Hollywood Dreams". What does this have to do with Hollywood? What this film needed is a more critical look at the way Hollywood works. It has brief moments of this but the sexual gender aspect of the film keeps creeping its head in interrupting the story line's flow. These two ideas don't mix. Jaglom's "Festival in Cannes" dealt with the ugly nature of how movies get made but did so with more humor and focused just on that single story line. That is the movie to see. "Hollywood Dreams" would be nice to watch after you've seen that one so you can compare the two and see where Jaglom goes wrong here.
One wonders why Jaglom's wife Victoria Foyt is absent here. She appeared in "Last Summer at the Hamptons" and Jaglom's previous film "Going Shopping". Maybe she would have been better in the lead. She seems a little more comfortable in front of the camera compared to Tanna Frederick.
Look out for cameos by Eric Roberts and Seymour Cassel, who worked often with Cassavetes.
Even though this particular Henry Jaglom film doesn't always work he is still a director who should not go unnoticed. He doesn't have the reputation of Cassevetes, Scorsese or Altman but his work can be just as entertaining. To be fair to him I'll come back to his work and write a review for a film I appreciate a bit more.
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