Written by Kathy! June 26, 2000 LA Screening! Thanks goes out to Kathy for sharing her review with everyone!
Hi all-
I went to the screening last night. I really enjoyed the movie too. I will try to explain the plot but no matter how many details I give I won't do it justice. So in case you are lucky enough to see it in the future, you'll still enjoy it.
The movie follows a film student, Reynolds, (RLJ) and his cameraman as they do a documentary on Elaine and Drew, two producers of reality based projects (Claudia Christian and Tom Heard). The producers are more like ambulence chasers and we see them do anything and everything to get the rights to the next big true life based drama. Their low level agent (Tony Manziotti - type casting?) hasn't sold any of their projects and they are desperate for one of these stories to be their ticket into the Hollywood big time. After numerous (and humorous) attempts at trying to get the true rights from various characters, they meet Thad Whitney, an actor their agent also represents. Thad Whitney is an old, forgotten, Hollywood film legend whose career had stalled. He is disillusioned with Hollywood and his struggle to find work and becomes suicidal. He agrees to let the group film his suicide and signs over his rights. I won't spoil the finale but we see how Hollywood changes each character in the end.
The movie is definitely a dark comedy and has heavy moments but it was also very funny.
Which brings me to JJ's character, Charlie who heads a wanna-be militia group. At one point in the film, the producers meet him at his "compound" and try to secure the rights to his story. JJ's scenes are all comedy. In one scene, Charlie is busy explaining his group's purpose while eating. He's talking in this hick accent with his mouth full and burps repeatedly. Then later when Elaine tries to get him to sign away his story rights he refuses because he wants to be a producer on the project too. Drew laughs at the idea and at the credibility of the militia. Charlie gets angry and pushes Drew up against a wall for insulting him. Drew is visably shaken and begins to have a meltdown (his second in the film) and Charlie knows he's scared him so he adds insult by saying "I smell piss." Our group finally gives up and leaves without the signature. But as they get in the car, Charlie tries to get back on their good side. He's keeps talking to them through the car window as it pulls away. He tells Elaine that they can work something out and that he felt a real connection with her. He even tries to make it up to Drew by saying something like "Hey, no hard feelings. Soldiers piss too." I guess you had to be there but that line had one of the biggest laughs.
All of the leadswere strong but Claudia Christian was my favorite as the desperate Valley housewife/mother/film producer.
After the screening, the actors present went up in front of the theater with the director and producers. They all said how much they loved working with the director, Meg Thayer, and that we'd be hearing a lot about her in the future. JJ mentioned how he was glad that Meg was flexible with her script and it allowed the actors to be flexible too. Tom Heard mentioned the rich characters she wrote and said that it made it easier for the actors to play them.
Meg Thayer said that it was shot in 18 days. And because filming at night is more expensive she rewrote the scenes to be during the day. Also a lot of the locations were different parts of her house and her husband's office.
I think it was the line producer that talked about the short shoot schedule but that the actors and Meg rehearsed for a month. He said they improvised lines and mentioned JJ's "Soldiers piss too" line as one that made it in the movie.
I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a good portrayal of the Hollywood game and it's less than human players. It showed what people will do to get their break in the business.-Kathy
