Just how badly does Margie Chizek want to make it in Hollywood? Badly enough that upon seeing her picture in the newspaper, she goes into the bathroom and masturbates to it.
Just how peculiar is show-business sugar daddy Caesar? The man is at peace only when having his face licked by a tiny dog named Moxie.
And how pitiless is this city of broken dreams we know as L.A.? Well, in one of those rare instances in movie history, a would-be starlet’s best course of action is to avoid sleeping with someone in a position of power.
“Hollywood Dreams,” writer-director Henry Jaglom’s take on fame’s steep price, is an odd mix of quirk and creepiness.
We may well be expected to see ourselves reflected in Margie’s champagne dreams, but, golly, who would want to identify with such a damaged soul?
Margie (played by newcomer Tanna Frederick), practically fresh off the bus from Iowa, knows more than a few speeches from classic movies. In no time flat, she burns her roommate bridge, botches an audition and finds herself living out of her broken-down car, chanting to herself, “Margie Chizek is the greatest actress in L.A.”
Salvation comes when she befriends producer-manager Kaz (Zack Norman), who, with partner Caesar (David Proval), gives Margie a room in their Hollywood Hills guest house. Sharing the same space is another Kaz and Caesar project, Robin (Justin Kirk), who is being groomed to be the next great homosexual star. Except – shh! – Robin’s not really gay, and he and Margie kind of like each other. Meaning two careers are now at stake.
All this might play funnier and less off-putting if Frederick’s Margie was not so disquietingly desperate. An aunt from Iowa (Melissa Leo) eventually drops in to shed some light on Margie’s past. Really, this lady needs a shrink more than she needs a break.
Robin is caught too, but he’s played the game longer. Kirk (“Weeds,” “Angels in America”) spends a lot of time sitting around looking gorgeous, but the actor has decent dramatic chops. The majority of the remaining cast members – notably Proval and Karen Black as another image-maker – fall into the mass of Jaglom-ian odd-ballery.
We’re also supposed to understand that, in terms of skills, Margie actually isn’t very good. So if her deranged sense of purpose can be applied to achieve Machiavellian ends, all the better, I suppose. The film’s cleverest scene finds a downtrodden Margie stumbling upon three kids playing with a video camera. Offering to enact the nanny, Margie quickly gets herself dismissed from the picture. “This isn’t working out,” her 9-year-old director says.
“Hollywood Dreams” is the red-haired Frederick’s first film, and the actress, who herself hails from Iowa, will topline Jaglom’s next film as well. A case of life mirroring cinema? Let’s certainly hope not.
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“Hollywood Dreams”
R for language, sexual content|1 hour, 40 minutes|DOCUMENTARY|Directed by Henry Jaglom, starring Tanna Frederick, Justin Kirk, David Proval, Zack Norman, Karen Black|Opens today at Landmark’s Chez Artiste.
