“American Dreamz” is the most cynical movie you will see this year.
And the most generous.
It has a big head, and an even bigger heart. There’s not a person to like, yet we love them all.
Political satire is so difficult, hardly anyone tries it anymore. It’s impossible to imagine how “American Dreamz” ever got financed.
Yet here we are, with a bitter and boldly beautiful movie about empty people who somehow make us feel better about ourselves. “American Dreamz” pulls off that rare feat of shooting at dozens of big targets, and hitting so many of them that we want to stand up and cheer because someone even tried.
This film may take in all of $5 million and disappear completely – it’s that touchy. Basing your plot on a George W. Bush lookalike, a Laura Bush lookalike, a Dick Cheney lookalike and a Simon Cowell lookalike, and then asking us to embrace every one of their flaws, is not the usual way to a blockbuster. But go see it and let yourself laugh, and you’ll feel smarter. Kinder and gentler, too.
Paul Weitz, co-writer of “About a Boy” and writer-director of “In Good Company,” has a knack for doing that to people.
In “American Dreamz,” Weitz writes and directs a sprawling story touching on everything from Pakistani terrorist camps to the American obsession with self-improvement. Be all you can be and don’t forget to look into the monitor, would be the universal slogan.
Hugh Grant plays Martin Tweed, the host of a wildly successful “Idol” copy called “American Dreamz.” He dismisses a kindhearted girlfriend with a typical Weitz line hovering precariously between aggrandizement and abasement:
“You make me feel like being a better person. And I’m not a better person. I’m me.”
Prospective contestants include Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore), for whom fame is the goal and talent is a mere utility for achieving it. Kendoo? Yes, she can. There is Omer (Sam Golzari), a bumbling Iraqi terrorist, who lost his mother to a stray American bomb. He consoles himself with show tunes played on a Donny & Marie commemorative turntable.
Can satire ever stay ahead of our insane reality? Contestant No.3 is a Jewish cantor (Adam Busch) turned blinged-out singer. Did Weitz already know Matisyahu would become a Hasidic MC?
Meanwhile, Dennis Quaid plays a clueless, recently re-elected president bearing uncanny resemblance to a certain W. President Staton’s every public utterance is controlled by Cheney-esque Willem Dafoe.
But Staton wants to learn, suddenly asking his butler if it might be possible to get his hands on a copy of The New York Times. His bumbling
syntax is punctuated by the kind of unassailable human insight that periodically helps Bush drive liberal detractors to distraction.
How do these plots merge? Implausibly. Ridiculously. Sublimely. The president will boost his ratings by becoming a guest judge on “Dreamz.” Our sleeper-cell terrorist will make it to the finals and “kill the head of the great serpent” while singing “My Way.” It’s almost as crazy as Americans being more interested in a glorified-karaoke TV show than a presidential election.
Working on this huge canvas, Weitz never neglects the small touches. The tent-camp terrorists tape “Dreamz” on TiVo and call in their votes on bulky sat-phones. The Jewish rapper consoles himself with a glass of Manischewitz instead of Courvoisier. The Iraqi immigrant asks his American cousins, “Didn’t we just go to the mall last weekend?”, and the question hangs briefly in the air. Now that’s subversive.
Weitz makes it all work because he gives every caricature a handful of humane gestures.
In “Crash,” the filmmakers took popular actors and had them say evil things. Weitz takes popular actors and has them say obvious things. Some viewers will find insight even more disturbing than racism.
Four stars? I know, call me deluded. But I have a dream that Americanz are big-hearted and smart enough to appreciate this movie for what it is. “American Dreamz” is about the U.S. in all of uz.
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at 303-820-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com.
**** | “American Dreamz”
PG-13 for profanity|1 hour, 48 minutes|SATIRE|Written and directed by Paul Weitz; starring Hugh Grant, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Sam Golzari and Willem Dafoe|Opens today at area theaters.
