Hollywood Dreams
Continuing to follow his own muse, iconoclastic director Henry Jaglom returns to the big screen with his latest release, Hollywood Dreams. Released by The Rainbow Film Company and featuring Jaglom stalwarts like Zack Norman, Karen Black, Melissa Leo, etc., the film chronicles the journey of one Margie Chizek (Tanna Frederick). Margie is a young wannabe actress, fresh off the bus from small-town Iowa, living in Hollywood while trying to achieve her dreams of movie star fame and glamour. A relatively fragile young woman, we first meet Margie at a taped audition for the play “A Safe Place” (written by Jaglom in real life and adapted into a film version as well). As he has done in the past, Jaglom himself injects himself into the proceedings as the play’s director who talks and coaches Margie through her monologue reading to unfortunately disastrous results.
Both excited and scared, Margie’s nerves get the best of her and she blows the audition; yet the scene is important in illustrating for the audience the myriad of psychological layers lurking within her. At moments lucid and calm, Margie delivers her lines convincingly before becoming overwhelmed and breaking down before both the director’s and our own eyes in a mess of tears and doubt. One can literally see and feel the sheer desire this woman has to succeed in the dream factory; her hunger is palpable but it is a hunger that is driven by desperation. It is only as the story progresses that we come to understand where that desperation comes from.
After being kicked out of her friends’ apartment for blowing up the microwave, Margie is left to roam the streets where she fortuitously runs into a self-proclaimed producer/manager named Kaz (longtime Jaglom cohort Zack Norman) who is taken aback by her down home charm and puts her up in his home, along with his business and life partner Caesar (David Proval) along with rising young actor Robin (Justin Kirk). Enamored with all that is Hollywood and the dream factory, Margie proves to be a fountain of knowledge when it comes to classic films and stars. The ultimate star junkie, she lives her life under the delusion of a wondrous Hollywood that only existed probably in the movies. Desperate to be a movie star herself, she gets a taste of what such fame brings in the form of Robin.
Groomed by Kaz and Caesar to be the next big breakout star, Robin is apprehensive about the personal demands his rising fame forces him to endure, namely the issue of his sexual preference. In a both funny and telling reversal of Hollywood image making, Robin thus far has made his name as being the young, hip gay actor in LA while hiding the fact that he is secretly straight. For years, real-life rumors have circulated about one star or another hiding in the closet in order to protect a career; luckily as society has moved towards being more open towards gay culture certain actors are beginning to come out. Yet it drives right at one of the picture’s recurring themes, that of fantasy superceding reality in order to get ahead, despite the sacrifices that result.
Even when he reveals his true nature, Robin is still advised to ‘play the part’ of being gay because it’s brought him such a great career thus far. While it may be living a lie, it still makes good, pragmatic sense business-wise which makes it all the more disheartening. Further complicating the matters is the love affair that develops between Robin and Margie. The pair exists at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of goals and fulfillment. For Robin, he begins wishing to eschew the hollow emotional trappings of popular success and fame for a deeper, more substantial connection with Margie.
Margie, on the other hand, while she does indeed love Robin is much more concerned with grabbing the brass key and ‘making it’ in Hollywood. It is only when Margie’s aunt Bee (Melissa Leo) arrives to visit her niece that Robin learns the full extent of Margie’s obsession and the tragic circumstances that led her down her particular path. As everyone reaches their own personal crossroads, choices are made and lives are changed while all in the pursuit of the fantasy of Hollywood fame and fortune.
As with his other films, Jaglom focuses Hollywood Dreams around his cast of superb actors. While story is paid attention to, the director’s primary concern is mining the psychological and emotional depths within his characters. Very little explicit action occurs in the film other than people talking, laughing, yelling, simply dealing with one another on a human level in order to achieve some degree of connection. Paralleling the love story between Margie and Robin is the relationship between Caesar and Kaz. Played by consummate character actors Norman and Proval, both men are middle-aged professionals on the eve of their own marriage ceremony and the intimate bond between them as played by both actors never fails to convince the audience of their sincere fondness for one another.
While exploring such heavy themes as the subversion of personal happiness and the hunger for fame, Jaglom also interjects some wonderfully funny scenes that make one chuckle, especially if you’re familiar with the man and his work. One particularly humorous scene involves Margie spontaneously joining a student movie being produced by elementary school kids. As Margie attempts to swing her costar on a swing set and improvise lines with him, she is constantly barraged by her young female director, a small powerhouse full of energy and criticism who eventually feels that Margie isn’t quite right for the part and promptly dismisses her. For anyone who has ever seen footage of Jaglom’s own unique directing style, the gestures and suggestions are eerily familiar and make one chuckle.
In the end though, the film delves into the personally corrosive pursuit of fame and those who choose to sacrifice everything in order to achieve it. Rather than being seen as a force to enrich their lives, Jaglom’s characters view it as a way to fill the emptiness within themselves and when that doesn’t work they struggle even harder to achieve greater success hoping that maybe this time it will fill the void. In an era where everybody not only has their fifteen minutes of fame but does everything possible to extend it, Hollywood Dreams makes one push past considering the surface pleasures of such success and attempts to question why people are so willing to inflict so much potential damage on not only themselves but those they love as well in order to have their moment in the sun.
*Hollywood Dreams arrives in theaters in LA on May 18th and in NY on May 25th, where it will also screen in limited release.