American Dreamz
By: Mark Runyon | Category: On DVD | 05/03/06 | 08:16 PM
 |  |  Grade: B- | Genre: Comedy/Satire
Summary: American Dreamz certainly provides you with a nice satire of American pop culture and our political entanglements around the globe, but it's a little too safe. It needed to go for the jugular more and not apologize for its sharp humor.
Mandy Moore has been a bit of a sleeper on the Hollywood scene. A couple years ago, she was little more than a syrupy sweet pop princess who was looking to milk her fame into a crossover career in fluff films. Suddenly, she veered off course, showing a keen taste in men, hooking up with American tennis sensation Andy Roddick then the quirky humor genius of Scrubs Zach Braff. Next, after narrowly avoiding being tangled up in teen movie hell (How to Deal, Chasing Liberty), she has aligned herself with savvy directors (John Turturro) and sharp roles (Saved) that make you eager to scrap any preconceived notions you're harboring about her. This time she teams up with the brain trust that gave us quality flicks like About a Boy and In Good Company for an American Idol spoof that tries to get at that shred of goodness that keeps this mind numbing television slapping the Nielson families like it was their bitch. |
American Dreamz is four stories that are all wrapped up in the rabid success of an American Idol like reality television production. First, you have Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore) who is a country bumpkin with killer pipes and oodles of street smarts. Sally is ready to filet her competition Tonya Harding style. Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant) is our resident Simon Cowell in Dreamzville. He's unflinchingly honest, loved only half as much as he's detested, and his shallow charm carefully shields a personality that closely resembles dryer lint. Dennis Quaid is the bumbling 'W'-esque President Staton who discovers a nifty invention called a newspaper and becomes all consumed with the goings on of the world. Yeah like any president would actually read the news. His news obsession causes the nation to think he's lost a few chickens from the coop. He is forced to resurrect his flailing approval ratings on the glorified Star Search. Omer (Sam Golzari) is a show tune loving, failed terrorist recruit who has been farmed out by al Qaeda to the O.C. where he will do minimal damage to the cause. Dumb luck pits him in the competition, and the baddies task him with offing the president. Oh the drama!
 | | | American Dreamz | | Starring: Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, Willem Dafoe & Chris Klein | | Director: Paul Weitz |
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Sally is a manipulative wench who knows how to work the system in her ruthless pursuit of fame and fortune. She takes her poor sapling ex-boyfriend William Willams (Chris Klein) back so he can be her cardboard cutout wounded Iraqi veteran. She plugs into the idea of saying she is trailer park trash even though she comes from middle class America. Hey it worked for Britney. You can never be too sure of her motives since she will say or do anything to win. Hugh Grant's Martin Tweed is marvelously lecherous. He's so wonderfully full of himself that you just want to stick a needle in him to watch him pop. In keeping with American Idol's high ideals, they pull in a cross section of the population, all searching for their slice of the American dream. They even give homage to previous Idol winner Clay Aiken, having a look-alike makes an appearance as one of the contestants. One of the finalists is a Jewish rapper who looks like he's Matisyahu's cousin. It is a kooky cast of head cases.
The film works best when it plants the political jabs. Dennis Quaid is great as the president who finally wakes up to realize he's the president of the United States, and his chief of staff has his hand up his ass, moving his lips up and down. Marcia Gay Harding does a perfect Laura Bush, calling her main squeeze 'poopie' and getting him to take his happy pills. The terrorists are perhaps the funniest part. They are dead set on decimating the American way of life as we know it, yet they are glued to the boob tube three times a week, cheering on their favorite contestants on American Dreamz. Three terrorists in a Beverly Hills hot tub, trying to master the fine art of suntan lotion, just writes its own jokes.
In the end, American Dreamz certainly provides you with a nice satire of American pop culture and our political entanglements around the globe, but it's a little too safe. It needed to go for the jugular more and not apologize for its sharp humor. More like Saved in other words. Unfortunately, spoofing American Idol is about as complex as shooting fish in a barrel so its hard to really make a daring stab with this material. Writer/director Paul Weitz had one hand tied behind his back before ever starting the shoot.
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