Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2006 > April > 21 > Entry
What if ‘Simon’ reviewed ‘American Dreamz’?
Since American Dreamz so obviously riffs on American Idol, which I just started watching this season (I am SUCH a late bloomer) I think it’s only appropriate to riff on that brutal Brit judge Simon Cowell for this review.
American Dreamz has three story threads: the rise of a conniving pop princess (Mandy Moore) and her attraction to the self-loathing, acid-tongued host (Hugh Grant) of an Idol-esque show, the plight of a showtune-loving terrorist named Omer (Sam Golzeri), who is ordered to blow himself and the president up on live TV, and the ordeal of a genial but clueless commander-in-chief (Dennis Quaid), who appears on the show to boost his sagging poll numbers.
I will review the movie by channeling the voice of Simon, who will be judging each of these three stories as if they were contestants on American Idol. Also in the glare of the spotlight is writer-director Paul Weitz. The opinions are mine, but written as if they came from the brutally honest one.
To the terrorists: Quite honestly, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at this part of the movie. The idea is nothing if not loopy, and there are some amusing moments, but it’s as believable as Paula Abdul when she judges the male contestants. One minute it’s “Laurel and Hardy meet al Qaeda� and the next it’s some ghastly pageant about a crooning terrorist only marginally more talented than William Hung. It all plays about as broadly as a very large Vegas drag queen.
To the president and chief of staff: I actually quite liked Dennis Quaid’s work as the amiable idiot president. He seemed like he was lost in a thick London fog, but I’m sure that was the point. Willem Dafoe was a natural as the chief of staff and presidential puppetmaster who is kind of an unholy cross between Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. But lampooning on these two is about as easy as predicting Randy Jackson will call a woman “Dude.� It’s the same lame, tired jokes you hear 50 times a day.
To the princess and the host: I feel I have to take some credit here, because since you were lampooning me, this is easily the best part of the film, despite some tired jokes like calling an Ohio town Padookie, which is obviously not far from Podunk. The half-charming, half-smarmy performance is the sort of thing Hugh Grant does exceedingly well. And Mandy Moore, that naughty little minx, was quite brilliant, playing a character who is really very similar: half-charmer, half-backstabber who doesn’t care who she hurts to succeed. Mandy has a very nice voice, but I think her true talent lies in front the camera instead of the microphone. She and Hugh are fantastic together, and they make American Dreamz worth seeing. Shame the rest of the movie isn’t this good.
To Paul Weitz: You have made some very fine films in the past, especially About a Boy and the too-little seen In Good Company, and I only wish this new movie were as sharp as those. I think it could have been, as many good ideas as there were. But you had so many of your past co-workers on this movie – Chris Klein and Jennifer Coolidge from American Pie, Quaid from In Good Company, Grant from About a Boy, and so on — that no one told you your script was about as consistent as Ryan Seacrest’s hair stylings. You’d better thank your lucky stars that Mandy, Hugh and I saved the movie, because it danced perilously close to being a nightmare. You can do better than that. GRADE: B-
