SXSW2006–Dance Party, USA/American Dreamz

DANCE PARTY, USA It’s pretty sad when an hour long movie is just a bit too long.

(Beware–there will be spoilers here because part of why this was bad was because of the end.)

Jessica and Gus meet at a party. Jessica is there just to hang out with one of her friends and Gus is there to get laid. They’re just teenagers on the make. They don’t immediately like each other, but there’s a connection. And then Gus’ story bonds them forever. (Or at least forever for a teenager.)

The problem here isn’t the story, or even the characters. It’s the fact that there are so many long, drawn out scenes that do nothing. There are seriously montages of Jessica and Gus driving around town where nothing is said. And they last for about 10 minutes. I know I liked it in Elephant, but it really didn’t work here. It just bored me.

What’s really frustrating is that there are a lot of really well written conversations. The kids are drunk and not making a whole lot of sense, but they are making sense. It’s like being sober while talking to drunk people. And it was actually REALLY accurate. Acting and writing was pretty nearly brilliant.

But then there would be those long lulls that killed the momentum.

And the ending was pretty unbelievable. (Stop reading here and skip to American Dreamz if there’s ever a chance that you’ll see this movie. I mean it! Anybody want a peanut?)

Gus tells Jessica the truth about a girl named Kate. She was a hot little 14 year old girl that Gus raped while she was passed out on the floor at a party about a year before. He stopped about a minute in because she woke up and, out of guilt, I guess (because he actually saved her from another guy) he held her until she stopped crying.

He’s never told anyone this, but he tells Jessica. He trusts her for some reason. This is when they go on their long drive together.

The next day they meet up again kind of by chance. She ends up kissing him.

WHAT THE FUCK?!?! He just told her the night before that he raped a girl. Sure, he felt bad about it, but he still raped her! And she was 14! This girl, who seems to have her head on straight, would NOT fall for this kid, no matter how charming he is–which he really isn’t. He’s supposed to be, but he’s not.

So that’s my really big complaint about this movie. It’s believable to a point and then just pushes all credibility out the window at the end.

AMERICAN DREAMZ

What a fucking weird movie. Not a bad one, just weird.

President Stanton (Dennis Quaid) just started reading the paper and realizing how out of touch he is. He’s been controlled by his wife (Marcia Gay Harden) and his Chief of Staff (Willem Dafoe) since he started his first term. Now that he’s starting his second, he thinks it’s time to learn a little bit. But, after three weeks of being depressed about how uninformed he is, he needs to get back out in the public eye.

Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant) is one of the most popular and hated men in America. He’s the host of a show called “American Dreamz” and he makes and breaks people every week.

Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore) is desperate to be famous. She wants to be a singer so bad that she’s willing to break up with her perfectly good boyfriend (Chris Klein) because his life doesn’t fit with her plan. Her mom (Jennifer Coolidge) is just as driven to have her daughter’s name in lights.

On the other side of the world, Omer (Sam Golzari) is a musical loving would-be terrorist. He is sent to America to live with his cousins. He’s sent to get him out of the way, but when he ends up being a contestant on American Dreamz, things go a bit differently for him.

Everyone starts coming together when President Stanton is invited to be a guest judge on the show. And things just get crazier from there.

There are so many American ideals skewered in this movie that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. The biggest ones, of course, are politics and celebrity culture.

Now, I think that American Idol has done more to destroy pop culture and music than any one thing has ever done in the past. Tipper Gore’s got nothing on Simon Cowell. (And I really don’t care how his name is spelled. I don’t know if it’s right or not. Shut up.) So any movie that shows how ridiculous that show is is aces with me.

And I think we all know how I feel about our lovely president, so that’s alright with me, too.

This movie is far from perfect. In fact, it’s probably director/writer Paul Weitz’ (American Pie, About A Boy) weakest besides Down To Earth. But it’s not a bad film, either. It’s actually a lot of fun. The performances are all great. It seems like they had a lot of fun making it. Mandy Moore does her under the radar bitch thing again. (She’s really good at that. Check out Saved if you haven’t yet.) Dennis Quaid is awesome as the weak-minded/willed President. (He almost had me feeling sorry for the idiot.) Hugh Grant is perfect as the egomaniacal host of America’s favorite tv show. Sam Golzari is better than any relative newcomer has a right to be in a pivotal role. Chris Klein has improved quite a bit.

I think the main problem is that, even though it’s pretty biting, it’s not quite biting enough. There are a few missed opportunities that would have made the film a lot better if they had hit them.

But don’t let that stop you from seeing it. It’s not a home run, but it’s at least good enough to get a guy to second base.

So endeth my South By Southwest 2006. It ended a little bit earlier than I really wanted it to because I started getting sick. No Pretenders for me. I hate my immune system!

I do, though, have a suggestion for my bosses at SXSW. (Yes, I still volunteer for them. What? You think I can afford a freakin’ badge on my own?) SLOW DOWN ON SELLING THE BADGES!!! You’ve got thousands of people walking around with badges this year, some of which can’t get into shows that they paid for the badges to get into. Now, I’m not saying that you should only sell as many badges as your smallest venue can hold. That would be dumb.

What I’m saying is that there were so many badges sold this year that people who had wristbands/film passes were completely screwed. That means that next year, they won’t even bother. And most of those are locals! That means that you’re pissing off the people who made you. When you do that, something is wrong.

On Craigslist.com, some one asked if they could just show up in Austin and buy tickets for shows as they go. Someone wrote back to them saying, “Ask the people in LA, ’cause it’s not for us here in Austin anymore.” That was the general grumbling this year. Everything has gotten too corporate.

And it’s not just SXSW, either. It seems like all film festivals are having this problem. Sundance is just the highest profile.

I’m saying this purely out of love, guys. I love SXSW. It’s my festival. I’ve been working for them for 8 or 9 years and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. I just think that things need to change so that we don’t outgrow our own town. Even the Hollywood Reporter said that it was a problem. And THAT’S a problem.

See you kids next year. It was fun, as always.